NORTH KOREA
Delegation departs for Iran
A high-level economic delegation was on its way to Iran, state media reported yesterday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since August 2019. The delegation, led by Minster of External Economic Relations Yun Jung-ho, flew out on Tuesday for the trip to Iran, the Korean Central News Agency said.
RUSSIA
Navalny priest suspended
A priest who presided over the memorial service last month for late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been suspended from clerical duties for three years, the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church said in a statement published on its Web site on Tuesday. The diocese did not say what the reason was for the punishment, which forbids the priest, Dmitry Safronov, from giving blessings, wearing the frock and bearing the church’s priestly cross until 2027. Safronov was also to be moved to another church in Moscow to perform the duties of a psalm-reader, it said. “At the end of the period of penance, based on feedback from the place of obedience, a decision will be made on the possibility of his further priestly service,” the statement said. On March 26, Safronov held a memorial service for Navalny, a critic of President Vladimir Putin. Navalny died in a penal colony in February.
JAPAN
Moon lander wakens again
A Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) moon lander woke up for a third time after its main functions survived another frigid two-week lunar night, the agency said yesterday. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its landing precision, touched down in January, but landed at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way. However, the probe was revived in late February once the lunar night, which lasts about 14 Earth days, came to an end. Despite facing temperatures as low as minus-130°C, it repeated the feat late last month and transmitted new images back to Earth. JAXA said it had succeeded again in communicating with the probe after it woke up for the third time. It posted on X a new image of the moon’s surface that it had received from the lander.
JAPAN
Fukushima release paused
The release of treated wastewater into the ocean from Japan’s wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was suspended yesterday as a partial power outage affected the site, Tokyo Electric Power Co said. The system to cool reactors remained operational and “no meaningful change” had been detected at plant facilities that monitor radioactivity, it added.
UNITED STATES
Virus fragments detected
Health authorities on Tuesday said that they had discovered fragments of bird flu virus in the nation’s pasteurized cow milk supply during the course of a large study, but the samples likely posed no health risk to humans. An outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has spread among dairy cattle herds throughout the country and infected one human, who had mild symptoms. The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that it had discovered viral particles in “milk from affected animals, in the processing system, and on the shelves.” However, it said that the samples were run through a highly sensitive test, which is able to detect remnants of the pathogen’s genetic material even if the virus itself was inactivated by the pasteurization process.
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
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
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
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other