UNITED STATES
Trump flips on Epstein files
President Donald Trump on Sunday said he backed lawmakers’ efforts to release more files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite his previous opposition to the measure. “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “And it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown.’” Trump has accused Democrats of pushing an “Epstein hoax” after e-mails emerged in which the disgraced financier suggested Trump “knew about the girls.”
Photo: Bloomberg
UNITED STATES
Flight restrictions limited
US flights were expected to return to normal schedules from 6am Washington time yesterday after reductions imposed during a government shutdown were lifted, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Sunday evening. Thousands of flights were canceled due to understaffing during the shutdown, which stretched into a record 43 days. Ten percent of domestic flights were cut at 40 of the busiest US airports due to a shortage of control tower staff, who were asked to work without pay as the budget stalemate dragged on. The aviation industry was further strained after President Donald Trump threatened to dock pay for air traffic controllers who called in sick during the shutdown, accusing them of being unpatriotic. “Now we can refocus our efforts on surging controller hiring and building the brand new, state of the art air traffic control system,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a statement.
LEBANON
Israeli wall a breach
President Joseph Aoun’s office said it had asked the foreign minister on Saturday to work on filing a complaint against Israel for building a wall inside Lebanese territory. On Friday, the UN Interim Force on Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in statement that the Israeli army erected a wall southwest of the Lebanese village of Yaroun. The wall crossed the border line, rendering more than 4,000m2 of Lebanese territory “inaccessible to the Lebanese people,” it said, adding that it had informed the Israeli army of its findings and requested that they remove the wall. The construction of the wall violates the UN Security Council resolution that ended that 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war with a US-brokered ceasefire in November year. The Israeli military said the wall, whose construction began in 2022, is part of a broader plan for reinforcements along the border.
SOUTH KOREA
K-pop star subdues intruder
K-pop star Nana helped overpower a home intruder and is recovering in hospital after suffering injuries during the tussle, police said on Sunday. The intruder, a man in his 30s, broke into the star’s home early on Saturday, before being taken down by Nana with the help of her mother and arrested. The 34-year-old celebrity and her mother, who suffered serious injuries and lost consciousness, are being treated in hospital, Yonhap news agency reported. The intruder broke into Nana’s residence in the suburbs of Seoul to steal valuables, a detective at the Guri Police Station said. The suspect is in custody on charges of aggravated robbery, he added. “The mother has regained consciousness,” Yonhap reported. Nana and her mother “are currently in need of treatment and complete rest,” it said. Nana’s agency has not responded to requests for comments.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
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