UNITED STATES
Russia frees US Marine
Russia on Tuesday freed a former US Marine jailed there since 2022, President Donald Trump said, as the man returned to the US to be greeted with hamburgers and milkshakes. Russia agreed to release Robert Gilman, 32, to receive medical care in the US after discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump wrote on social media. A Department of State plane carrying Gilman arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport late on Tuesday. Putin approved a pardon for him, US officials said.
Photo: Reuters
ZIMBABWE
Ferry capsizing kills 15
At least 15 people were killed and 27 remain missing when an overcrowed ferry on Lake Kariba capsized, authorities yesterday. The boat, which provides transport between the northern town of Kariba and several islands and fishing camps, overturned on Tuesday after hitting strong waves. It was carrying 114 adult passengers, five crew members and some children, despite a capacity of 90 people, the Department of Civil Protection said in a statement as the search for the missing continued. “So far, 77 passengers have been rescued by Matusadonha rescue teams and others,” it said, adding that “15 bodies have also been retrieved.”
GERMANY
Spies to gain new powers
Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Cabinet yesterday approved a set of measures that would expand the ability of the nation’s foreign and domestic intelligence agencies to more actively respond to security threats. The draft legislation provides legal backing and enhanced tools for the Federal Intelligence Service and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which oversees counterintelligence at home. The new measures, which require parliamentary approval, would allow authorities to intervene in certain circumstances to disrupt a threat from a foreign power.
HONG KONG
Teen sentenced for graffiti
A judge yesterday sentenced a 19-year-old to 18 months of probation for writing “seditious” words on a toilet wall, including a slogan used during democracy protests in 2019. Leung Kai-lok (梁佳樂), who has autism spectrum disorder, was last month found guilty of acting with “seditious intention” and admitted to destroying property. Charged under the National Security Law, he had faced up to seven years in prison. Leung admitted to writing phrases on the wall of a toilet in an office building using a marker, including “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” a slogan used during the 2019 protests.
UNITED STATES
Teen finds snake in helmet
A high-school football player in Maumelle, Arkansas, had every right to be rattled after finding a venomous snake inside his helmet during practice. He felt unusual movement inside his headgear following warmups last week and brought his helmet to an assistant coach for inspection. A 61cm cottonmouth was found behind some padding. Police officers poured water into the helmet to force the snake out and into a bag. Animal services technicians identified the snake as a deadly cottonmouth and took it to a wooded area far from the school. Cottonmouths are the second-most venomous snakes found in Arkansas. Maumelle Animal Services Director Chris Davis said the player wore the helmet for nearly an hour and was fortunate he was not bitten. “It was unreal,” Davis said. “You had to kind of be there and take pictures to say this was real.”
A Chinese rocket carrying a communications satellite failed in its launch, state media said, attributing the failure to a “flight anomaly” as reports and videos suggested the spacecraft had exploded in mid-air. Beijing has plowed billions of dollars into its space program in the past few years to achieve what Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) calls the country’s “space dream.” Monday’s rare launch failure involved a Long March 7A carrier rocket, which lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China’s southernmost province of Hainan at 8:02pm, state news agency Xinhua said. An “anomaly” occurred when the rocket, which was carrying the
Beijing has quietly confirmed the deaths of two Chinese sailors in a collision in the contested South China Sea, according to government statements nearly a year after the incident. In August last year, a China Coast Guard ship collided bow first with a Chinese naval destroyer while chasing a Philippine patrol boat near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), video footage released by Manila showed. A China Coast Guard spokesperson confirmed at the time that there had been a confrontation, but did not mention the collision, nor injuries or deaths. The Chinese People’s Armed Police Force said on social media on Wednesday
‘COCKROACH’ PARTY: The youth-led movement said it plans to travel across the nation to gather ideas for reforms directly from the public, but will not join elections The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which spearheaded one of India’s biggest student protests, yesterday accused authorities of violating an agreement by pursuing participants and reiterated that it would remain a pressure group rather than enter electoral politics. Police continue to investigate cases against some students who took part in the New Delhi protests last month, despite a government agreement to withdraw legal action, CJP spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka told Bloomberg Television’s Menaka Doshi. The group had called off the protests after the agreement was reached. “There were clear instances where this agreement was reneged,” Ranka said, citing cases that remained active in several
Artificial intelligence (AI) users are shopping around as US giants face fierce competition from Chinese rivals — and in Beijing’s tech district, drinkers at an AI-themed bar can even plug in to DeepSeek for free. A new generation of cost-efficient, high-performance Chinese AI is putting pressure on Silicon Valley’s leading labs to lower prices to grab market share as they try and find ways to turn a profit. ChatGPT maker OpenAI has slashed fees by 80 percent for its latest lightweight model “Luna” and Anthropic has unveiled a model approaching its most powerful system’s performance at half the price. Meanwhile, some of China’s
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