Category World News

On Thursday, May 29, 2018, this is how things are going:

Fighting

• In response to a significant overnight drone attack, the Ukrainian military claimed to have struck several Russian weapons-producing sites in Moscow, including the Raduga plant, Kronstadt plant, and Angstrem microchip factories.
• Three Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow by Russia’s air defense units on Thursday morning, according to Russia. No injuries or significant harm were reported when one of the drones reportedly struck a house south of the city.
• According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russian forces have taken control of Zelene Pole and the town of Kostiantynivka in the Sumy region of Ukraine.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, claimed that Russia had gathered more than 50 000 troops near the northeastern Sumy region, but Kyiv has taken steps to stop them from carrying out a massive summer offensive as planned.
• Nearly 175,000 service members have signed contracts with the Russian army since the start of this year, according to the TASS state news agency in Russia.

Diplomacy

• Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, was once more outraged by the intensifying Ukrainian conflict, the day after Trump warned him that he was “playing with fire” by refusing to hold ceasefire talks and mounting drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities.
• Trump claimed that Putin may be intentionally putting off ceasefire negotiations, and that he would “repair a little differently” when he spoke to reporters in the Oval Office.
• Trump also stated to reporters that he did not want a potential peace deal to be scuttled by the fact that he is not yet ready to impose new sanctions on Russia.
• Trump’s comments were echoed by the Kremlin, who stated that the Russian leader’s national interests were top priority.
• When he spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rebuffed Trump’s claim that a “good faith dialogue” between Ukraine and Russia would be the only way to put an end to the conflict.
• According to Lavrov, Russia has suggested that Ukraine’s next direct negotiations be held on June 2 in Istanbul.

• Rustem Umerov, the defense minister of Ukraine, recently sat down with the head of the Russian delegation during previous Istanbul discussions to talk about the memorandum that Moscow is currently working on, which lists the conditions for a peace agreement.
• Russia has already received a copy of the peace memorandum from Ukraine, and it is asking for Moscow to copy it before talks can begin.
• Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkiye, will visit Kyiv for a two-day visit after a meeting with Moscow earlier this week regarding peace efforts.
• Russia’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is occupied by Ukraine, is being linked to its own power grid, according to reports that Moscow is doing so.

Regional security

• According to the Reuters news agency, NATO will request from Germany to provide seven more brigades, or about 40 000, for the alliance’s defense as a result of its dramatic military expansion in response to Russia’s growing threat.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that his country would “intensify cooperation” with Kyiv and would not impose range restrictions on jointly produced missiles between the two nations during a visit of President Zelenskyy in Berlin.
• Germany also announced that it would provide Ukraine with additional military support worth about 5 billion euros ($5.65).
• Germans’ plans to develop long-range missiles with Ukraine, as well as the supply of German tanks to Kyiv, according to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, demonstrated that it was already a participant in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
• A Ukrainian, a Russian, and an Armenian have been charged with foreign agent activity by German authorities after an investigation into a Ukrainian man’s possible spying intentions in Germany.

In the East and Southeast Asia regions, a record 236 tonnes of methamphetamine were seized last year, according to the UNODC, which represented a 24% increase over the previous year’s seized amount.

The UNODC reported that trafficking in Laos and Cambodia from Myanmar’s lawless Shan State is rapidly expanding, despite Thailand being the first country in the region to seize more than 100 tonnes of meth in one year last year, intercepting a total of 130 tonnes.

Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC’s acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, stated in a statement that “the 236 tons only represent the amount seized; much more methamphetamine is actually entering the market.”

While these seizures demonstrate some effective law enforcement initiatives, Hofmann noted that the Golden Triangle’s production and trafficking are clearly at an unprecedented level, particularly in Shan State.

In addition to thwarting attempts by regional law enforcement to combat the booming trade in synthetic drugs, transnational drug gangs operating in East and Southeast Asia are also showing “remarkable agility.”

The grinding civil war that broke out in Myanmar in the middle of the 20th century also provided favorable conditions for the expansion of the drug trade.

According to the report, “Since the military took control of Myanmar in February 2021, flows of drugs from that country have soared across both East and Southeast Asia and increasingly into South Asia, particularly Northeast India.”

Inshik Sim, the UNODC’s lead analyst for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, reported that the nations that border Myanmar are establishing important routes for the production of drugs in the Golden Triangle.

Sim cited the acronym People’s Democratic Republic, which is a part of Laos’s national identity, as saying that “the trafficking route connecting Cambodia and Myanmar has been rapidly expanding.”

According to him, “Sabah in Malaysia serves as a crucial transit hub” while another increasingly significant corridor includes maritime trafficking routes linking Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

In addition to integrating with other organized crime activities, the ever-evolving, cell-based transnational organized crime organizations with roots in East and #Southeast Asia are increasingly adopting technologies across the entire drug supply chain.

More information is available at https://t.co/oL416cuZJ3 pic in our most recent report. twitter.com/pqUfX5FmnF

The UNODC report also points out that while the majority of the countries in the area have reported a general increase in the use of methamphetamine and ketamine, a potent sedative, some countries have reported a rise in drug use in the older age group.

According to the UNODC report, “some nations in the region, such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, have experienced consecutive increases in the number of older drug users while the number of younger drug users has decreased,” adding that the age trend needed to be further investigated.

According to Hofmann of the UNODC, targeted drug use prevention campaigns may be to blame for the decline in the number of younger drug users receiving treatment.

In what Beijing’s efforts to explore interplanetary space, scientists have described the launch of a spacecraft as a “significant step” in its first-ever mission to retrieve clean asteroid samples.

The Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, in southwest China, launched on Thursday at around 1.31 a.m. local time (18:30 GMT). The Tianwen-2 spacecraft, a robotic probe that might make China the third country to retrieve pristine asteroid rocks, was in its vicinity.

Chinese state-run media reported that the spacecraft “delivered a successful launch” and that the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) had “declared the launch a success.”

A small near-Earth asteroid named “469219 Kamoalewa,” also known as 2016HO3, will come close to Tianwen-2 over the course of the next year.

The spacecraft is expected to make its first appearance on July 2026, which is thought to be a remnant of the Moon, according to experts. The capsule will then be shot back to Earth with rock samples for a November 2027 landing.

After Japan first collected samples from a small asteroid in 2010, followed by the United States in 2020, China would become the third nation to carry out a similar mission.

The People’s Daily state-run newspaper called the mission’s goal “an endeavor to bring light to the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system.”

The CNSA’s head, Shan Zhongde, claimed that the mission was a “significant step in China’s new journey of interplanetary exploration.” According to him, the mission was supposed to lead to “groundbreaking discoveries and expanding humanity’s knowledge of the cosmos.”

According to Chinese state media, the “decade-long expedition” has several objectives, including “exploring the main-belt comet 311P” and “collecting samples from near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3”.

Additionally, it will aim to examine the “physical characteristics of the two celestial targets,” including their “orbital dynamics, rotation, size, shape, and thermal properties.”

According to researchers working on the project, the samples will be used to study asteroids’ “physical properties, chemical and mineral composition, and structural characteristics.”

2016HO3 has a diameter ranging from 120 feet (40 metres) to 300 feet (100 metres) as a quasi-satellite of Earth that has followed the Sun in a synchronized path with the Earth for nearly a century.

China has quickly expanded its space programs and begun a number of ground-breaking missions in recent years, including landing robots on the moon’s far side and collecting the first humankind samples there in June of last year.

After the US forbade China from participating in the ISS, it is now operating its own Tiangong space station in orbit, which is the only one that is operational other than the International Space Station (ISS).

Three crew members made their first space trip in six months, spending six months on board&nbsp, Tiangong, in April, making their first ever mission there.

Beijing has also made significant investments in the Moon’s 2030 crewed missions, which are anticipated to have Chinese astronauts on board by 2030.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Elon Musk, a billionaire, announced his departure from Donald Trump’s administration after leading a month-long effort to lower government costs.

On Wednesday evening, he wrote on the social media platform that “I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.”

Musk, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, said that “the @DOGE mission will only grow as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

The Associated Press received a press release from an unnamed White House official.

Musk’s departure comes shortly after he publicly expressed his concerns about Trump’s 1, 000-page “big, beautiful bill,” which includes work requirements for food assistance and Medicaid.

Additionally, the bill provides funding for some of Trump’s signature initiatives, such as funding immigration and customs enforcement, and building a wall between the US and Mexico.

The Senate will then discuss the “big, beautiful bill” that was approved by the House of Representatives last week.

I want to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to cut down on wasteful spending as my time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end.

As the @DOGE mission becomes ingrained in every department of the government, it only grows stronger over time.

“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, which, to be honest, raises the budget deficit rather than just reduces it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk, who spoke on the news program CBS Sunday Morning, referred to as the “Department of Government Efficiency”.

The billionaire signed for the Trump administration in January with the promise to cut at least $1 billion from the US federal budget, despite the DOGE website showing that the agency has only saved about $175 billion, or $1, 088.96 per US taxpayer.

Trump’s spending bill, in its current form, would eliminate DOGE’s work because it is anticipated to increase the US deficit by $3.9 trillion by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Rubio made the shock move in a post on X, and there was a State Department statement titled “New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China.”

The US State Department and the Department of Homeland Security will collaborate under President Trump’s leadership to aggressively revoke Chinese student visas, including those studying in important fields or having connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

We will also update the visa requirements in order to make sure all pending applications to China and Hong Kong’s People’s Republic are examined,” it continued.

China is the second-largest country of origin for foreign students studying in the US, trailing only India. More than 270, 000 Chinese students accounted for a quarter of all foreign students in the US between the years 2023 and 2024.

Following President Donald Trump’s claim that China was a victim of US trade war upon his return to the White House, there is now growing tension between Washington and Beijing.

Establishing ties between US and Chinese academic institutions are also deemed a threat to national security by US House Republicans. Over concerns about the transfer of technology, Michigan congressmen John Moolenaar and Tim Walberg pressed Duke University to end its relationship with Wuhan University earlier this month.

According to Moolenaar and Walberg, the partnership opened a “direct link” between US innovation and Chinese military-industrial complex.

Rubio’s announcement on Wednesday also heightened the level of uncertainty for foreign students studying in the US, who have recently come under increased scrutiny as a result of the administration’s wider assault on higher education institutions.

The White House also temporarily suspended the processing of visas for foreign students on Tuesday, ordering embassies and consulates to hold off on granting any additional student or exchange visas “until further guidance is issued.”

Additionally, the State Department stated that it intends to “issue guidance on expanded social media vetting for all such applications.”

The administration also reversed Harvard University’s consent to enroll international students last week. The White House and Harvard have fought over the school’s handling of pro-Palestine protests and diversity programs, and a federal judge has temporarily halted the move.

This is in addition to Rubio and the State Department’s latest attempt to revoke hundreds of education visas for alleged minor legal offenses, political advocacy, or incendiary speech, in which Rubio and the State Department have sought to do so.

Students who took part in pro-Palestine protests that erupted on campuses across the US to protest Israel’s occupation of Gaza are frequently the targets of visa revocations and arrests.

Others are people who have shown support for the Palestinian cause on social media or have had indirect ties to Palestine.