SPAIN
Madrid backs Palestinians
Madrid is to recognize Palestinian statehood by July, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told journalists during a Middle East tour, according to several local media reports yesterday. State news agency EFE and newspapers El Pais and La Vanguardia cited Sanchez as making the informal remarks to the traveling press corps late on Monday in Amman. Reports quoted Sanchez as saying he expected events to unfold in the conflict ahead of the European Parliament elections in early June and highlighted ongoing debates at the UN. He expected Spain to extend recognition to the Palestinians by July, he said, adding that he believed there would soon be a “critical mass” within the EU to push several member states to adopt the same position, EFE reported.
PHILIPPINES
Schools shut over heat
Dozens of schools in Metro Manila yesterday suspended in-person classes due to dangerous levels of heat, education officials said. The nation’s heat index measures what a temperature feels like, taking into account humidity. The index was expected to reach the “danger” level of 42oC yesterday and 43oC today, the state weather forecaster said. The actual highest temperature forecast for Manila yesterday was 34oC. Primary and secondary schools in Quezon City, the most populous part of the metropolis, were ordered to shut while schools in other areas were given the option by local officials to shift to remote learning. Some schools shortened class hours to avoid the hottest part of the day. A heat index of 42oC to 51oC can cause “heat cramps and heat exhaustion” with heat stroke “probable with continued exposure,” the weather forecaster said in an advisory. Heat cramps and heat exhaustion are also possible at 33oC to 41oC, it said.
SINGAPORE
Money launderer jailed
The first person to plead guilty among 10 people arrested last year in the city-state’s record S$3 billion (US$2.2 billion) money laundering case was sentenced to 13 months in jail. Su Wenqiang (蘇文強), 32, pleaded guilty during a court hearing yesterday. His jail sentence is to be backdated to his arrest in August. Su faced 11 charges, including for forgery and laundering criminal proceeds through activities like buying multiple bottles of prized liquor and paying S$48,000 a month to rent a luxury condominium near the Orchard Road shopping belt. The prosecution proceeded with two charges.
UNITED STATES
Trump’s gag order expanded
The judge in Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal case on Monday expanded the former president’s gag order after Trump assailed the judge’s daughter and made a false claim about her on social media last week. Judge Juan M. Merchan said his original gag order issued last Tuesday did not include members of his family, but Trump’s subsequent actions warranted including them. Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is a Democratic political consultant. Prosecutors had urged Merchan to clarify or expand his gag order after Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Loren Merchan “makes money by working to ‘Get Trump,’” and wrongly accused her of posting a social media photo showing him behind bars. The trial, which involves allegations Trump falsified payment records in a scheme to cover up negative stories during his 2016 presidential campaign, is scheduled to begin on April 15. Trump denies wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant