INDIA
Military tests new missile
The military has tested its first hypersonic missile, Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh said yesterday. The test flight comes days after rival and neighbor China showcased its expanding aviation capabilities at an airshow, with the J-35A stealth fighter jet and attack drones displayed. China’s state media said the event included the debut of the HQ-19 surface-to-air missile system, designed to intercept ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles. India’s missile blasted off from Abdul Kalam Island off the east coast on Saturday.
BANGLADESH
Dengue deaths rise to 407
Rising temperatures and a longer monsoon season are driving a surge in dengue infections, with more than 400 deaths this year, leaving hospitals struggling to cope, particularly in urban areas. At least 407 people have died from related complications this year, with 78,595 people admitted to hospitals nationwide, the latest official figures showed. By the middle of this month, 4,173 patients were being treated, with 1,835 of them in Dhaka, the capital, and 2,338 elsewhere.
BRAZIL
First lady insults Musk
First lady Rosangela “Janja” da Silva on Saturday insulted Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, at an event ahead of the G20 summit in which she advocated tougher regulations of social media. Speaking on a panel about disinformation, she appeared to be startled by a loud noise. “I think it’s Elon Musk,” she said, adding: “I’m not afraid of you, fuck you, Elon Musk.” A video of the episode quickly spread on X, drawing a response from its outspoken owner. “They are going to lose the next election,” Musk wrote, adding a pair of laughing emojis. The Supreme Federal Court suspended X for 40 days this year as part of a legal tussle over disinformation.
FRANCE
Dinosaur bones fetch US$6m
The skeleton of a 22m-long dinosaur fetched 6 million euros (US$6.33 million) on Saturday, auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa said. An anonymous collector snapped up the vegetarian Apatosaurus, which was dug up in the US, for 4.7 million euros rising to 6 million including costs. The buyer pledged to allow it to be displayed in a museum. “We are happy that the buyer intends to lend it to an institution,” Olivier Collin du Bocage said. The skeleton of the giant herbivore is made up of 75 to 80 percent of the original bones and is about 150 million years old.
UNITED STATES
Betty White unites nation
The US Postal Service might have found a way to unite a nation bitterly divided after this month’s election: It is releasing a Betty White stamp. The beloved actor known for roles in The Golden Girls, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Boston Legal would be on a 2025 Forever stamp, the postal service announced on Friday. White died in late December 2021, less than three weeks before her 100th birthday. Boston-based artist Dale Stephanos created a digital illustration of White for the stamp. “I’d love to send a letter back to my 18-year-old self with this stamp on it and tell him that everything is going to be OK,” Stephanos wrote on Facebook. “Betty White was my hero, all of my life! I actually had a doll when I was a little girl I named Betty White,” a self-proclaimed supporter of president-elect Donald Trump wrote on X. “Something to make this awful week a little better: We’re getting a Betty White stamp,” a pro-Vice President Kamala Harris account posted on X.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
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