RUSSIA
Drones downed in Crimea
The Ministry of Defense yesterday said that it downed 42 Ukrainian drones near Crimea, in the largest recent air attack on the peninsula and a day after Kyiv claimed a special forces raid on the territory. Nine drones were “destroyed ... over the territory of the Republic of Crimea,” the ministry wrote on Telegram. Thirty-three others “were suppressed by electronic warfare and crashed without reaching the target,” it said, without specifying whether there had been any damage or casualties. Earlier, a local Russian-installed official said that several drones had been destroyed over the sea off Crimea’s Cape Khersones in the southwest of the peninsula near Sevastopol. Emergency services reported no damage to civilian infrastructure from those drones, Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram. It was not clear whether they were included in the 42 reported by the ministry. “All forces and services are in a state of combat readiness,” Razvozhayev said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Prigozhin fate unclear
There is not yet definitive proof that Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was onboard a plane that crashed with no survivors earlier this week, but it is “highly likely” he is dead, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday. Russian authorities have said that Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on the plane, which fell from the sky northwest of Moscow on Wednesday evening, two months after he led an abortive mutiny against the army top brass. Russian investigators have opened a probe into what happened, but have not officially confirmed the identities of the 10 bodies recovered from the wreckage. “There is not yet definitive proof that Prigozhin was onboard and he is known to exercise exceptional security measures. However, it is highly likely that he is indeed dead,” the ministry said in a defense intelligence update posted on X. “The demise of Prigozhin would almost certainly have a deeply destabilizing effect on the Wagner Group. His personal attributes of hyperactivity, exceptional audacity, a drive for results and extreme brutality permeated Wagner and are unlikely to be matched by any successor,” it said. “Wagner’s leadership vacuum would be compounded by the reports that founder and field commander Dimitry Utkin and logistics chief Valery Chekalov also died.”
SOUTH AFRICA
Xi and Modi meet
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, asking officials to work at resolving a border dispute. Xi and Modi have largely avoided direct talks since the border conflict began in May 2020, despite having crossed paths at international gatherings. Both leaders touched on the dispute, which sparked the worst armed clashes in four decades, with thousands of troops and weaponry rushed to the border. Several rounds of talks involving military officials and diplomats have made little progress in resolving the standoff. “Modi raised the border dispute with President Xi,” Indian Secretary of Foreign Affairs Vinay Kwatra said at a briefing in Johannesburg on Thursday. “The two leaders directed officials to resolve the border dispute expeditiously.” The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Xi told Modi that improving ties would be conducive to regional peace and economic development. “Both sides should properly handle the border issue and jointly maintain peace in the area,” it said.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
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
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