AUSTRALIA
Caesars mixed up
They came, they saw, and they squandered a year of lessons on Roman history. Schools yesterday were investigating how a curriculum blunder ended with pupils mistakenly studying Augustus instead of Julius Caesar. The high-school students only realized that they had brushed up on the wrong Roman ruler when they crossed the Rubicon to sit down for their final-year exams. Queensland State Minister for Education John-Paul Langbroek said that the mishap was anything but ancient history for at least 140 traumatized students across nine schools. “For all of us, as parents or students who have been through situations like this, it would have been extremely traumatic,” he told reporters. “And I want to reassure those students, and their parents, and the teachers affected, that we’ll be making every investigation into how this happened.” Queensland students last year were taught about Augustus Caesar, the adopted son of Julius and the first emperor of Rome, but the curriculum changed this year to focus on Julius Caesar instead — although it appeared not every school got the memo. Langbroek said that education officials were looking at ways to ensure the fiasco did not ruin the students’ grades.
Photo: AP
JAPAN
Defense spending confirmed
Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi yesterday confirmed plans to achieve the country’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense two years early, after the move was announced by the prime minister last week. “We will take measures to achieve the level of 2 percent of GDP during this fiscal year, earlier than” the original plan, Koizumi told US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Tokyo. “In light of the situation where missile capabilities have been significantly enhanced in the area surrounding Japan, I believe it is important to relentlessly enforce missile defense capabilities,” Koizumi said. Hegseth said that the two nations’ alliance was “critical to deterring Chinese military aggression.” He added: “To respond to regional contingencies and keep our country safe, shoulder to shoulder with Japan, we look forward to continuing to strengthen our alliance.”
Photo: AFP
SOUTH KOREA
Trump given crown
US President Donald Trump might be facing protests at home calling for “no kings” in the US, but in Gyeongju, officials had the perfect gift for him — a replica golden crown. Trump yesterday met with President Lee Jae-myung and capping a lavish welcome ceremony, Trump was presented with a replica of a crown worn by the kings of Silla, the dynasty that ruled most of the Korean Peninsula from 57 BC to 935 AD. The gift was a replica of “the largest and most extravagant of the existing gold crowns” from the Silla period, Trump was told. It represented “the divine connection between heavenly and earthly leadership.” Seoul’s presidential office said the crown symbolizes “peace, coexistence and shared prosperity on the peninsula — values that mirror the Silla Dynasty’s long era of stability.” The US leader was also presented with the Grand Order of Mugunghwa — the country’s highest decoration. The medal had a laurel leaf design that symbolizes prosperity and it was given “in anticipation of the peace and prosperity you will bring to the Korean Peninsula,” Trump was told. “It’s a great honor,” the US president said. “I’d like to wear it right now.”
Photo: AFP
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
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