INDIA
Pride to be preserved
The nation would not let its “pride be hurt” in its latest border flare-ups with China, but is determined to settle the dispute through talks, Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh said in a television interview late on Saturday. “Situations arise with China. It has happened before,” Singh said, adding that the government was striving to make sure “tension does not escalate.” The government has turned down US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate, he said.
IRAN
Speaker says talks futile
Newly elected Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf yesterday said that any negotiations with the US would be “futile.” The nation’s new parliament “considers negotiations with and appeasement of America, as the axis of global arrogance, to be futile and harmful,” he said in a televised address in which he also vowed to avenge the death of a top Iranian general in a US drone attack in January. The former commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ air force was elected speaker on Thursday.
UNITED KINGDOM
Amazon removes images
An Amazon.com spokeswoman yesterday said the firm was removing certain images after messages using extremely strong racist abuse appeared on some listings on its local Web site when users searched for Apple’s AirPods and similar products. The message sparked outrage on Twitter. “We are removing the images in question and have taken action on the bad actor,” the spokeswoman said, without elaborating on the “bad actor.”
BULGARIA
Minister held in trash probe
Deputy Minister of the Environment and Water Krassimir Zhivkov has been arrested and charged for his alleged role in illegally importing harmful waste from Italy and burning it, prosecutors said on Saturday. Zhivkov “pressured his subordinates to authorize the illegal trafficking of waste,” they said, adding that they had asked for him to be held in custody. Authorities in the two nations have been investigating two Bulgarian brothers who own a recycling business and deal with dangerous waste. During a raid on the men’s home in the town of Rousse on Friday, the police found a list of names of media bosses and entrepreneurs who were assassinated in the 1990s, along with sums running into millions of dollars entered against some of the names.
UNITED STATES
‘Forbes’ and Jenner spar
Forbes, which in March last year declared Kylie Jenner a billionaire, says she no longer deserves the title, but Jenner is pushing back. The magazine on Friday said that an examination of financial filings after Jenner sold a majority share in her cosmetics firm to Coty in a deal valued at US$1.2 billion showed that her worth was inflated. “Kylie’s business is significantly smaller, and less profitable, than the family has spent years leading the cosmetics industry and media outlets, including Forbes, to believe,” it said. It was “likely” that the “business was never that big to begin with, and the Jenners have lied about it every year since 2016 — including having their accountant draft tax returns with false numbers — to help juice Forbes’ estimates of Kylie’s earnings and net worth,” the magazine said. Jenner responded in a series of tweets, saying “i thought this was a reputable site.. all i see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. i’ve never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period.”
JAPAN
Entry permits considered
Tokyo is considering easing entry restrictions on people from Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand because of signs that novel coronavirus infections are declining in those countries, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday, citing government officials. The government might relax the limits from as early as summer, the newspaper said. The visitors would be required to carry documentation showing that they had tested negative for the virus before leaving their countries, and would need to be retested when they arrive in Japan, it said.
CHINA
Two new cases confirmed
The government yesterday announced two new confirmed cases of coronavirus and four new asymptomatic cases, including one person without symptoms of COVID-19 on a chartered flight from Germany. The two confirmed cases in Shandong Province on Saturday compared with four cases the day before, National Health Commission data showed. The agency confirmed three new asymptomatic cases on Saturday. Tianjin yesterday confirmed one asymptomatic passenger arriving from Frankfurt on Lufthansa Flight LH342. The flight carried about 200 passengers, mostly German business executives. The number of confirmed cases in the country as of Saturday stood at 83,001, agency data showed.
EGYPT
Hotels reopen amid rules
Hotels operating with a new reduced occupancy rate of 25 percent to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus have almost reached full capacity, a tourism ministry official told reporters yesterday. Although airports remain closed to all but domestic and repatriation flights, hotels were allowed to reopen at one-quarter of their usual capacity if they met strict health and safety protocols. About 78 hotels, mostly along the Red Sea coast, met the rules and are operating with an occupancy rate of 20 to 22 percent, said a government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
LIBERIA
President sings against virus
President George Weah, a former international soccer legend, has released a song to be used by the UN to spread awareness about the novel coronavirus, his office said on Saturday. Weah hopes to appeal to music lovers across the West African nation of about 4.5 million people to ensure COVID-19 does not spread further. It is not the first time Weah has used his singing skills. During the 2014 Ebola crisis, when he was a senator, he released an awareness song.
VATICAN
Pope urges fairer society
“Everything will be different” after the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis said on Saturday, calling for a fairer society and action to “end the pandemic of poverty in the world.” Speaking in Spanish in a video message to mark the feast of Pentecost, the pontiff said there was a duty to build a new reality, particularly for the poorest. “Once we emerge from this pandemic, we will not be able to keep doing what we were doing, and as we were doing it. No, everything will be different,” he said. “From the great trials of humanity — among them this pandemic — one emerges better or worse. You don’t emerge the same. I ask this of you: How do you want to come out of it? Better or worse?” the 83-year-old Argentinian said. The pope led a prayer in the Vatican gardens for all those affected by the pandemic.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion