NORTH KOREA
Citizens allowed to return
Pyongyang yesterday said it would allow citizens staying abroad to return home in line with easing COVID-19 pandemic situations worldwide, as the country slowly eases restrictions. In a brief statement carried by state media, the State Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters said those returning would be put in quarantine for a week for “proper medical observation.” The statement did not elaborate, but analysts said the announcement would lead to the return of students, workers and other people who have had to stay abroad, mostly in China and Russia, because of the pandemic. The workers are a key source of foreign income for the country.
UNITED KINGDOM
Police supplier hacked
London’s Metropolitan Police force yesterday said it was taking security measures after “unauthorized access to the IT system of one of its suppliers,” following data breaches at other forces. The company in question had access to the names, ranks, photographs, vetting levels and pay numbers for officers and staff, but not addresses, phone numbers or financial details, it said. The Sun on Sunday reported that “cyber crooks penetrated the IT systems” of the firm, which reportedly prints identity cards and staff passes for police. The incident follows an admission this month by the Police Service of Northern Ireland that personal data on all serving members was mistakenly published in response to a Freedom of Information request.
ZIMBABWE
President re-elected
President Emmerson Mnangagwa was re-elected for a second and final five-year term late on Saturday in results announced much earlier than expected following another troubled vote in the country with a history of violent and disputed elections. An opposition party spokesperson said within minutes of Mnangagwa being declared the winner that they would reject the results as “hastily assembled without proper verification.” The 80-year-old Mnangagwa, who has the nickname “The Crocodile” from his days as a guerrilla fighter, won 52.6 percent of the votes in the midweek election, the Electoral Commission said in a late-night announcement in the capital, Harare. The 45-year-old main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, received 44 percent, it said. International election observers raised questions over the environment in the buildup to the vote and pointed to an atmosphere of intimidation against Chamisa’s supporters. “It’s done. It never changes,” said Gerald Chosawa, a security guard at a grocery store. “I had some hope. Now it’s better to prepare to join the others who have left the country. That’s the best option.”
UKRAINE
Pilots die in collision
Three military pilots, including a “mega talent” who yearned to fly F-16s, were killed on Friday when two L-39 combat training aircraft collided over a region west of Kyiv, the air force said on Saturday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address that the three men included Andriy Pilshchykov, call sign Juice, “a Ukrainian officer, one of those who greatly helped our state.” Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat described Pilshchykov, who was 29, as a “mega talent” and leader of reforms. “You can’t even imagine how much he wanted to fly an F-16,” Ihnat wrote on Facebook. “But now that American planes are actually on the horizon, he will not fly them.”
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS