CHINA
Two Japanese detained
Two Japanese nationals were detained last month for allegedly violating a smuggling law, Japan’s top government spokesman said yesterday. Japan’s consular offices in China were notified last month that one Japanese citizen was captured in Dalian on suspicion of “smuggling goods subject to a national export and import ban,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a briefing. A week later, Japanese authorities were separately informed that another Japanese national had been detained over the same allegation, Kihara added. “These cases remain under investigation,” he said, adding that the two people appeared to be in good health and that the Japanese government would “take appropriate measures from the standpoint of their protection.”
Photo: AFP / KCNA VIA KNS
CHINA
Replica US ship spotted
The military has built a new US destroyer replica at a remote missile-testing site in a desert, satellite imagery showed, a target analysts say could be used to test anti-ship weapons. Satellite images showed a structure resembling a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang since at least this month. The feature was first identified by Joseph Wen (溫約瑟), cofounder of the Taiwan Defense Studies Initiative. The replica appears to be the latest in a series of mock US Navy warships China has built in the desert over the past five years. Satellite images from 2021 depicted targets in the shape of an aircraft carrier and two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers at a testing range in the Ruoqiang area of the Taklamakan Desert, the US Naval Institute reported. The US 7th Fleet, which patrols the western Pacific and waters around Taiwan, uses both types of vessels.
NORTH KOREA
New warship commissioned
Pyongyang has commissioned a 5,000-tonne destroyer that leader Kim Jong-un touted as a symbol of the country’s growing naval and nuclear capabilities, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said yesterday. Kim told a commissioning ceremony on Tuesday at the western port of Nampo that warships such as the Choe Hyon show that the nuclear armament of his navy is progressing as planned, KCNA reported. The Choe Hyon was formally placed into service with the navy after the ceremony and would be tasked with defending the country’s western coast, it said.
INDIA
Pilot licensing reviewed
A government panel has proposed a new pilot license option that would shift more training into simulators and cut the time cadets spend flying real aircraft as it aims to ease a pilot shortage, a draft report showed. The Multi-Crew Pilot License under discussion was introduced by the International Civil Aviation Organization in 2006 and adopted by many countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East in addition to traditional pilot-training pathways. New Delhi is now considering the license to build a more predictable pipeline of junior pilots trained for individual carriers as airlines expand their fleets, according to an unpublished draft report dated June 3. Under the proposed plan, cadets would complete 100 to 120 hours in training aircraft, including at least 20 hours solo, compared with at least 200 hours under existing rules. Much of the remaining practical training would be conducted in commercial jet simulators under an alternative route the draft said “may shorten timeline for cadets.”
Arsenio Butil Jr fell to his knees and began to pray when last week’s deadly magnitude 7.8 earthquake began shaking his home on the coast of the southern Philippines. When he opened his eyes, he saw a once-familiar shoreline changing in real time, with swathes of previously submerged coral suddenly pushing above the waterline. The June 8 quake, driven by a shifting of the nearby Cotabato Trench, toppled buildings, triggered landslides and killed at least 76 people on the southern island of Mindanao. The tectonic forces at work also thrust chunks of the island’s coastline upward in a phenomenon known as “coastal uplift,”
NATO ALLIES: The Italian PM accused Trump of ‘constant, unprovoked ... senseless’ attacks and said ‘my popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours’ Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday fired back at US President Donald Trump, saying his “constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless” after he escalated a diplomatic row by accusing her of repeatedly seeking a photograph with him. The clash has opened an unusually personal rift between Trump and one of Europe’s most prominent right-wing leaders, who had sought to cast herself as a bridge between Washington and the continent during Trump’s return to power. Trump had initially told Italian broadcaster La7 that Meloni “begged” him for a picture at last week’s G7 summit in France, saying he agreed only because
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian forces were preparing an impending massive attack on Ukraine and warned residents to take special care as Russian strikes in different regions killed at least six people. “Tonight and in the coming hours, it is especially important to pay close attention to air raid warnings,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “The Russians have prepared for a massive attack. Please take care of yourselves.” Russian forces have staged a series of heavy attacks on Kyiv in the past few weeks and in other major cities. Strikes on Monday last week killed
Police in Vietnam rescued more than 400 cats in a major bust of a cat meat crime ring last week in Ho Chi Minh City, and at least 40 of them have been reunited with their owners. However, several of the cats died because of the harsh conditions they were found in, animal welfare groups said. Since the operation, veterinarians and volunteers have flocked to care for the cats at a temporary rescue center set up at a facility run by the Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police Division. “People who lost their cats can come to the police station to identify their
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