UKRAINE
US defense head arrives
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin yesterday made an unannounced visit to Kyiv to reassure Ukraine that Washington would continue supporting its fight against invading Russian forces. The US has provided tens of billions of dollars in security aid for Ukraine and repeatedly pledged to back Kyiv for “as long as it takes,” but opposition from hardline Republican lawmakers has raised doubts about more US assistance. Austin “traveled to Ukraine today to meet with Ukrainian leaders and reinforce the staunch support of the United States for Ukraine’s fight for freedom,” the Pentagon said in a statement on the trip, which was not previously announced due to security concerns. “He will also underscore the continued US commitment to providing Ukraine with the security assistance it needs to defend itself from Russian aggression,” it said.
PHILIPPINES
Quake death toll rises
The number of people killed in a magnitude 6.7 earthquake that struck the Mindanao region on Friday has risen to nine, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said yesterday, warning the toll could increase. At least 15 people were injured and more than 800 houses damaged or destroyed in the quake, the agency said in its latest update. The death toll steadily rose over the weekend as searchers found more bodies buried under rubble or soil. “I’m hoping to God that our death toll won’t go up anymore, but we’re still waiting for the information coming from the regions,” council spokesman Mark Timbal said.
FRANCE
Napoleon hat sold for US$2m
A faded and cracked felt bicorne hat worn by Napoleon Bonaparte sold for US$2.1 million at an auction on Sunday of the French emperor’s belongings. The signature broad, black hat — one of a handful still in existence that Napoleon wore when he ruled 19th-century France and waged war in Europe — was initially valued at 600,000 to 800,000 euros (US$655,956 to US$874,608). It was the centerpiece of Sunday’s auction in Fontainebleau of memorabilia collected by a French industrialist who died last year. The bidding quickly rose until a buyer was declared at 1.5 million euros, Osenat auction house said. The buyer, whose identity was not released, must pay a 28.8 percent commission, bringing the overall cost to 1.9 million euros, Osenat said.
BRAZIL
Bolsonaro probed over whale
Federal police are investigating former president Jair Bolsonaro after a man who resembled him was filmed “harassing” a humpback whale while riding a personal watercraft near Sao Sebastiao. Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental policies earned him the nickname “Captain Chainsaw” during a four-year administration characterized by soaring destruction of the Amazon. In June a man fitting Bolsonaro’s description was filmed about 15m from a humpback whale that had surfaced. “The man, thought to be Bolsonaro, was shooting a video with a mobile phone as the whale performed aerial behaviors suggesting distress or discomfort,” the news Web site iG reported. The “deliberate harassment of any species of cetacean” is illegal in Brazil. The ex-president on Saturday dismissed the inquiry as political persecution. “Every day they accuse me of some kind of mischief. Yesterday it was hounding whales,” Bolsonaro told supporters, before making a disparaging remark about Minister of Justice Flavio Dino, whom he likened to a whale.
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
A deluge of disinformation about a virus called hMPV is stoking anti-China sentiment across Asia and spurring unfounded concerns of renewed lockdowns, despite experts dismissing comparisons with the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago. Agence France-Presse’s fact-checkers have debunked a slew of social media posts about the usually non-fatal respiratory disease human metapneumovirus after cases rose in China. Many of these posts claimed that people were dying and that a national emergency had been declared. Garnering tens of thousands of views, some posts recycled old footage from China’s draconian lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in the country in late
French police on Monday arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of murder after an 11-year-old girl was found dead in a wood south of Paris over the weekend in a killing that sparked shock and a massive search for clues. The girl, named as Louise, was found stabbed to death in the Essonne region south of Paris in the night of Friday to Saturday, police said. She had been missing since leaving school on Friday afternoon and was found just a few hundred meters from her school. A police source, who asked not to be named, said that she had been
BACK TO BATTLE: North Korean soldiers have returned to the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region after earlier reports that Moscow had withdrawn them following heavy losses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals as part of a push to appeal to US President Donald Trump’s penchant for a deal. The US president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine’s war with Russia, on Monday said he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort. “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskiy said, emphasizing Ukraine’s need for security guarantees