AUSTRALIA
Melbourne acts to curb virus
Police yesterday set up suburban checkpoints in new COVID-19 hotspots in Melbourne as authorities struggled to contain new outbreaks in the nation’s second-largest city, even as travel restrictions eased elsewhere. Victoria state reported 77 new cases yesterday, up slightly from the previous day and in line with two weeks of double-digit daily increases, while new infections in most other states stayed at zero or low single digits.
UNITED KINGDOM
Music stars call for support
The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Ed Sheeran were among about 1,500 musicians and producers who yesterday urged the government to help the live music business survive the COVID-19 pandemic. In an open letter to Secretary of Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden, the musicians called for a clear time line on when music venues could reopen, as well as support for businesses and jobs.
BRAZIL
Soldiers hand out masks
Soldiers on Wednesday handed out masks to barefooted Yanomami people, including body-painted warriors carrying spears and bows and arrows, on the second day of a military operation to protect isolated tribes from COVID-19. The Yanomami are the last major isolated people in the Amazon rainforest where dozens of indigenous communities have been infected with the latest disease to come from the outside to threaten their existence. Indigenous leaders on Wednesday appealed to the Supreme Court to order the federal government to protect isolated tribes by barring outsiders from reservation lands, and expelling poachers, illegal loggers and wildcat miners said to bring fatal diseases.
IRAN
Incident at nuclear site
An “incident” yesterday damaged a building under construction near the underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, though it did not affect its centrifuge operations or cause any release of radiation, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying there was “no need for concern” over the incident. However, there was no previously announced construction work at Natanz, a uranium enrichment center about 250km south of Tehran.
JAPAN
Plastic bag charge imposed
Retailers on Wednesday began charging for plastic bags as part of the government’s efforts to end consumers’ love for packaging. Shops can decide how much to charge customers for the bags, with a common price being ￥3 (about US$0.03). Introducing a nationwide fee “is aimed at prompting people to think twice if a bag is really necessary and helping people to review their lifestyles,” the government said.
IVORY COAST
Bank probe panel named
Former Irish president Mary Robinson is to head a panel investigating African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina, accused by whistle-blowers of corruption, the bank said. Adesina, 60, is the first Nigerian to helm the bank, but a 15-page report earlier this year claimed that under his watch the bank had been tarred by poor governance, impunity, personal enrichment and favoritism. He was cleared by the bank’s ethics committee, but international pressure has mounted for an independent investigation. Robinson is to serve alongside Gambian Chief Justice Hassan Jallow and the World Bank’s integrity vice president.
INDIA
Modi deletes Weibo account
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has deleted his account on Sina Weibo as tensions with Beijing continue to simmer over a Himalayan border skirmish that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. Sina Weibo announced the closure of the account late on Wednesday, and the removal comes a few days after New Delhi banned dozens of Chinese apps, including Sina Weibo. “For VIP accounts, Weibo has a more complex procedure to quit, which is why the official process was initiated. For reasons best known to the Chinese, there was great delay in granting this basic permission,” an Indian government source said yesterday. All of Modi’s posts had been deleted except for two showing pictures of him with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “On Weibo, it is difficult to remove posts with the photo of their president,” the source said.
SOUTH KOREA
Pop star’s ex sent to jail
The ex-boyfriend of K-pop star Goo Hara yesterday was jailed by an appeal court for blackmailing her over sex videos that played a part in her apparent suicide. In 2018, Goo told media that her ex had threatened “to end her entertainment career” by leaking their sex videos. Goo was found dead at her home on Nov. 24 last year, and is believed to have taken her own life after being targeted by abusive online comments following the reports about the videos. Hair stylist Choi Jong-bum was last year convicted of multiple crimes, including blackmail and inflicting injuries, and was given a suspended jail term. He and the prosecution appealed, and the Seoul Central District Court yesterday ordered a heavier sentence, jailing him for a year.
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
ICE DISPUTE: The Trump administration has sought to paint Good as a ‘domestic terrorist,’ insisting that the agent who fatally shot her was acting in self-defense Thousands of demonstrators chanting the name of the woman killed by a US federal agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, took to the city’s streets on Saturday, amid widespread anger at use of force in the immigration crackdown of US President Donald Trump. Organizers said more than 1,000 events were planned across the US under the slogan “ICE, Out for Good” — referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is drawing growing opposition over its execution of Trump’s effort at mass deportations. The slogan is also a reference to Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother shot dead on Wednesday in her
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