JAPAN
First wood satellite built
The world’s first wooden satellite has been completed by researchers who said their tiny cuboid craft would be sent to the International Space Station on a Space Exploration Technologies rocket in September. The experimental satellite developed by scientists at Kyoto University and logging company Sumitomo Forestry is named LignoSat. It is made from magnolia wood and each side measures just 10cm. The creators expect the material to burn up completely when the device re-enters the atmosphere — potentially providing a way to avoid the generation of metal particles when a retired satellite returns to Earth. These metal particles could have a negative impact on the environment and telecommunications, the developers said as they announced the satellite’s completion on Tuesday.
PHILIPPINES
China rules worry Marcos
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday said new rules outlined by the China Coast Guard that could result in the detention of foreigners in the South China Sea were an escalation and “worrisome.” China has issued new rules effective June 15 that would enforce a 2021 coast guard law and allow detention of foreigners suspected of trespassing. China routinely accuses vessels of trespassing in areas of the South China Sea that fall inside the exclusive economic zones of its neighbors. “The new policy of threatening to detain our own citizens, that is different. That is an escalation of the situation,” Marcos told reporters while on a state visit in Brunei. Manila “will use any point of contact with China to stop aggressive actions” and allow Filipino fishers to fish in the South China Sea, Marcos said.
THAILAND
Former PM charged
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is to be prosecuted for insulting the monarchy, the attorney general’s office said yesterday, over comments he made almost a decade ago. Prayuth Pecharakun, spokesman for the attorney general, said that Thaksin would be summoned to court on June 18 to answer charges under the kingdom’s strict lese-majeste laws. Thaksin’s lawyer, Winyat Chatmontree, said he would fight the charges. “He is ready to prove his innocence in the justice system,” Winyat told reporters.
INDIA
Delhi records record heat
The India Meteorological Department yesterday issued a red alert for several parts of the country’s northwest, warning of a severe heat wave as parts of the capital, Delhi, recorded their highest temperature ever at 50.5°C. A red alert implies a “very high likelihood” of people developing “heat illness and heat stroke,” and calls for “extreme care” for vulnerable people, the department said.
? UNITED STATES
Jurors mull Trump’s fate
Jurors in former US president Donald Trump’s hush money trial were yesterday to begin deliberating on whether to return the first criminal conviction of a former president. After weeks of testimony from more than 20 witnesses, the piercing glare of the legal spotlight now shifts firmly to the anonymous 12-member panel that holds Trump’s fate in its hands. In a full day of closing arguments on Tuesday, his defense team insisted the evidence for a conviction simply did not exist, while the prosecution countered that it was voluminous and inescapable. To return a guilty or not guilty verdict requires the jury to be unanimous — one holdout means a mistrial.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
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