PHILIPPINES
Protest ordered via tweet
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr has urgently ordered, via Twitter, the filing of a diplomatic protest against China after its coast guard ships reportedly strayed near the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the South China Sea. Locsin, who is accompanying President Rodrigo Duterte on a visit to Russia, issued the usually confidential order to his officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs after the nation’s military chief reported the new Chinese activity. Locsin tweeted: “Do I have to fly home to file the goddamned diplomatic protest myself? That’s the military speaking. Not some friggin’ civilian media outlet. File now!!!”
AUSTRALIA
Morrison denies pressure
Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday denied being pressured by US President Donald Trump to help probe the origins of the US Department of Justice’s investigation of Russian interference in the US’ 2016 election. Morrison said he had a brief telephone conversation with Trump a couple of weeks ago, in which Trump asked for a point of contact within the Canberra government to help US Attorney General William Barr with the inquiry. In an interview with Sky Television, Morrison said he was happy to provide that, given the fact his ambassador in Washington had made a written offer of help to Barr in May. It would have been “quite extraordinary” to deny such cooperation, he said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Prince slams media
Prince Harry’s wife Meghan has started legal proceedings against the Mail on Sunday over the publication of a private letter to her father that her lawyers said was “unlawful.” In a lengthy statement on Tuesday, the prince said the couple had taken legal action in response to what he called “bullying” by some sections of the nation’s press. “Though this action may not be the safe one, it is the right one,” he said. “My deepest fear is history repeating itself. I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditized to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”
SOUTH KOREA
Two more pig flu cases
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday confirmed two additional cases of African swine fever near the border with North Korea despite heightened efforts to contain the epidemic. It said that lab tests confirmed the country’s 10th and 11th cases of the disease at two farms in Paju, a border town where the first infection was confirmed on Sept. 17.
UNITED STATES
Family feud over body
The missing corpse of Mexican troubadour Jose Jose has become the central plot of a bizarre soap opera that has seen his family feuding over the whereabouts of his remains. The Mexican government said the “Prince of Song” died on Saturday last week at age 71 outside Miami, Florida. His two oldest children have accused their half-sister and her mother of hiding his body. “The only thing the family wants is to say goodbye to Jose Jose,” Jose Joel told reporters on Tuesday outside a funeral home in Miami where he thought the body might be, accompanied by his sister, Marysol Sosa. They said that their half-sister, Sarita Sosa, has concealed the whereabouts of the body and was “after the money.” “We do not know if there is a will... That will be another sewer that we will open when the time comes,” Jose Joel said.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
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