Cape Canaveral (AFP) – South Korea’s first-ever lunar orbiter is launched from the US on a year-long mission to observe the Moon, with a payload including a new disruption-tolerant network for sending data from space. Danuri — a portmanteau of the Korean words for “Moon” and “enjoy” — is carried on a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida by Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX. It aims to reach the Moon by mid-December.
Tokyo (AFP) – US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in Tokyo on Friday that the United States will “not allow” China to isolate Taiwan, after her visit to the self-ruled island infuriated Beijing. “They may try to keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there. We had high-level visits, senators in the spring, the bi-partisan way, continuing visits, and we will not allow them to isolate Taiwan,” she said. She added that her visit to Taiwan was “not about changing the status quo” in the region. “It is about the Taiwan Relations Act, US-China policy, all of the pieces of legislation and agreements that have established what our relationship is. To have peace in the Taiwan Strait and have the status quo prevail.”
Van Horn (United States) (AFP) – Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches six people to space, including the first from Egypt and Portugal, on the company’s sixth crewed flight. Both the New Shepard suborbital rocket and crew capsule separately returned to the base in the west Texas desert, completing the “N-22” mission around 11 minutes after lift-off.
Dhaka (AFP) – An out-of-tune Bangladeshi singer with a huge internet following has been hauled in by police at dawn and told to cease his renditions of classical songs, sparking a furore on social media. “Hero” Alom, as he styles himself, has amassed nearly two million Facebook followers and almost 1.5 million on YouTube with his unique crooning style and arresting videos.
Hanga Roa (Chile) (AFP) – With traditional dances and flower necklaces, Easter Island, a Chilean island territory in the middle of the Pacific, receives its first flight of tourists followin two years of closure due to the pandemic.
Phnom Penh (AFP) – Russia says it is ready to discuss a prisoner swap with Washington at the presidential level, a day after the conviction of US basketball star Brittney Griner on drug smuggling charges.
Istanbul (AFP) – Istanbul, a historic megalopolis of 17 million residents between two seas and two continents, is not normally thought of as a seaside resort. But like New York, Beirut and a handful of other global cities, you can swim there all summer long and return home on the metro with salty skin and sand stuck to your sandals.
Taipei (AFP) – Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen calls China’s live-fire military drills around the island a “continued, deliberately heightened military threat”.
Pingtan (China) (AFP) – Helicopters are seen flying over the sea in China’s Pingtan, facing the Taiwan strait, ahead of Beijing’s largest-ever military exercises encircling Taiwan due to kick off Thursday after a visit to the island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. IMAGES
Yreka (United States) (AFP) – The McKinney fire leaves a trail of burnt buildings after it tore through swathes of northern California, forcing over 3,000 residents to flee. At least four have died in the blaze which has consumed over 56,000 acres so far.
