CHINA
Japan’s Takeshi visits
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya yesterday met with his counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) and other top officials in Beijing, with the two sides agreeing to try to increase cooperation despite acknowledging challenges, reports said. Iwaya met with Wang at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, footage from state broadcaster China Central Television showed. He told Wang that Tokyo would try to “reduce challenges and matters of concern while increasing cooperation and collaboration,” Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
Photo: Reuters
MEXICO
Christmas organizer killed
The promoter of one of the largest Christmas fairs in Guerrero state was shot dead during a street festival on Tuesday along with another man, local authorities said. Martin Ramirez Ruiz, board president of the Christmas fair in the state capital, Chilpancingo, was attacked by armed men while he was participating in a dance, the state prosecutors’ office and government officials said. Witnesses said the attackers opened fire on the dancers, killing the promoter and another man whose identity has not been released by authorities. Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado said on X that Ramirez Ruiz’s murder “is an inadmissible act that will not go unpunished.”
Photo: Reuters
HAITI
Reopened hospital attacked
Two reporters were killed and several were wounded on Tuesday in a gang attack on the reopening of Port-au-Prince’s biggest public hospital, the country’s online media association said. A police officer was also killed in the attack. Gangs forced the closure of the General Hospital early this year and authorities had pledged to reopen the facility in the capital on Christmas Eve, but as journalists gathered to cover the event, suspected gang members opened fire.
Photo: AFP
INDIA
Filmmaker Benegal dies
Shyam Benegal, an Indian filmmaker known for pioneering a cinema movement that tackled social issues in the 1970s, has died after chronic kidney disease. He was 90. His contribution to cinema was recognized as a director, editor and screenwriter. He came into the limelight with films — Ankur (1974), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) — that challenged mainstream Bollywood by dealing with the social realities of a poor nation. He died on Monday at Mumbai’s Wockhardt Hospital, and his cremation was on Tuesday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, citing his daughter Piya. Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt wrote on X that Benegal told stories without pretense. “They were raw and real, about the struggles of ordinary people. His films had craft and conviction,” Bhatt wrote. Benegal is survived by his wife, Nira Benegal.
Photo: AP
UNITED STATES
Richard Perry passes away
Richard Perry, a hitmaking record producer with a flair for standards and contemporary sounds whose many successes included Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain, Rod Stewart’s The Great American Songbook series and a Ringo Starr album featuring all four Beatles, died on Tuesday. He was 82. Perry, a recipient of a Grammys Trustee Award in 2015, died at a Los Angeles hospital after a cardiac arrest, friend Daphna Kastner said. “He maximized his time here,” Kastner said. “He was generous, fun, sweet and made the world a better place. The world is a little less sweeter without him here, but it’s a little bit sweeter in heaven.”
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
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