UNITED STATES
Vessel strikes kill eight
Strikes on three alleged narco-trafficking vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday killed eight people, the US military said. “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking,” US Southern Command wrote on X, adding that “a total of eight male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions-three in the first vessel, two in the second and three in the third.” Since early September, the US military under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has targeted alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, destroying at least 26 vessels and killing at least 95 people.
UNITED STATES
UK tech deal halted: ‘FT’
Washington has suspended a technology deal it struck with Britain earlier this year, which was intended to boost ties in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and civil nuclear energy, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Monday. British officials confirmed the US suspended the deal last week, the FT said, adding that President Donald Trump’s administration was pushing for Britain’s concessions in areas of trade outside the tech partnership. US officials were becoming increasingly frustrated with Britain’s lack of willingness to address so-called non-tariff barriers, including rules and regulations governing food and industrial goods, the FT said. “Our special relationship with the US remains strong and the UK is firmly committed to ensuring the Tech Prosperity Deal delivers opportunity for hardworking people in both countries,” a spokesperson for the British government said. The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
MEXICO
Lawmakers trade blows
A group of female legislators in the Congress of Mexico City got into a physical fight on Monday, with cameras broadcasting the brawl live as they pulled each other’s hair and traded blows. The fight broke out after a group of women from the right-wing National Action Party (PAN) approached the legislature’s main podium in protest of a rule allegedly broken by the leftist Morena party, which has a majority in the legislature. The debate involved reforming the city government’s transparency oversight agency, local media reports said. Video from the incident shows at least five lawmakers from both parties arguing intensely, with members elbowing, slapping and pulling each other’s hair in an attempt by Morena lawmakers to physically remove the PAN members from the podium. After the fight, PAN lawmakers left the chamber and the Morena majority resumed the debate without the opposition party present, reports posted on Congress’ social media said.
UNITED STATES
Reiner’s son arrested
The 32-year-old son of Hollywood icon Rob Reiner was on Monday arrested on suspicion of murder and held without bail in the stabbing deaths of his parents in their Los Angeles home, authorities said. The case was to be forwarded yesterday to prosecutors as they consider formal charges against Nick Reiner, who was taken into custody hours after Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were found dead. Nick Reiner has spoken publicly of his struggles with addiction and homelessness. He and his father collaborated on a semi-autobiographical 2016 film, Being Charlie, that included elements of their relationship and experience.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
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