CHINA
‘Alien signals’ reported
Beijing said its giant Sky Eye telescope might have picked up signs of life beyond Earth, the state-backed Science and Technology Daily said in a report, which it then appeared to have deleted, along with posts about the discovery. The narrow-band electromagnetic signals detected by Sky Eye — the world’s largest radio telescope — differ from previous ones captured and the team is investigating them, the report said, citing Zhang Tongjie (張同傑), chief scientist of an extraterrestrial civilization search team cofounded by Beijing Normal University, the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Berkeley. However, the suspicious signals could also be some kind of radio interference and require further investigation, Zhang added.
IRELAND
Ryanair drops Afrikaans test
Ryanair has dropped a requirement for South Africans to prove their nationality before traveling by completing a test in Afrikaans due to a surge in fake South African passports, chief executive officer Michael O’Leary said. The South African government last week said it was taken aback by the low-cost carrier’s decision to force UK-bound travelers holding the country’s passport to take the test, calling the move a “backward profiling system.” Afrikaans is spoken by just 12 percent of the 58 million people in the country, and is often associated with apartheid and white minority rule. O’Leary described the South African government’s profiling accusation as “rubbish,” but said the test had been dropped. “Our team issued a test in Afrikaans of 12 simple questions like what’s the name of the mountain outside Pretoria? They have no difficulty completing that, but we didn’t think it was appropriate either,” he said.
INDONESIA
President reshuffles Cabinet
President Joko Widodo yesterday announced a Cabinet reshuffle, appointing a new trade minister following controversy over a series of policy flip-flops on palm oil exports. In an official ceremony at the state palace the president inaugurated Zukifli Hasan, chairman of the National Mandate Party and a former forestry minister as the next minister of trade. His predecessor, Muhammad Lutfi, oversaw a flip-flop on policies to contain a surge in domestic cooking oil prices, which included a ban on palm oil shipments from the world’s biggest exporter. The three-week export ban sent shock waves through global markets and led to a series of arrests for alleged corruption before it was lifted on May 23. Widodo also announced changes to the agrarian and spatial planning ministry, appointing former Indonesian National Armed Forces commander Hadi Tjahjanto. He also inaugurated three deputy ministers to the ministries of manpower, spatial planning and home affairs.
SWITZERLAND
Coal walk ends with 25 hurt
Twenty-five people have been treated for burns after walking on hot coals in northern Switzerland, Zurich state police said in a statement. Emergency services were alerted to injuries at a private event on the Au Peninsula on Lake Zurich on Tuesday evening. They said that 25 people were given medical treatment at the scene, and 13 of them were hospitalized with more severe injuries. Investigators secured evidence and started an investigation into the circumstances of the incident. There was no immediate word on why the people walked over hot coals.
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