While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, July 19
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People watch a news broadcast in Seoul, showing file footage of a North Korean missile test.
PHOTO: AFP
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North Korea fires two ballistic missiles into sea
North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday, hours after an American nuclear-armed submarine made its first South Korean port call in decades.
The launch was reported by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), according to Yonhap, who said they were fired early on Wednesday from the Sunan area in Pyongyang, and flew some 550km before splashing into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
The JCS condemned the launches as “acts of significant provocation” and a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Japan’s defence ministry also recorded the launches.
One dead, hundreds injured in Bangladesh clashes
AFP
At least one opposition activist died and hundreds were injured in clashes across Bangladesh on Tuesday as tens of thousands demanded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, the first fatality ahead of elections expected in January.
Ms Hasina’s Awami League has ruled the world’s eighth most populous country since 2009 and has been accused of human rights abuses and corruption.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and dozens of smaller allies have called protests throughout the country to demand Ms Hasina step down and the polls take place under a neutral caretaker government.
Ukraine counter-offensive is far from failure, says US general
REUTERS
Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russia is far from a failure, but the fight ahead will be long and bloody, the top US general said on Tuesday, even as casualties on both sides mount and the front lines have moved only incrementally.
The United States and other allies have spent months building Ukraine a “mountain of steel” of weaponry and training Ukrainian forces in combined arms techniques to help Kyiv pierce formidable Russian defences during its counter-offensive.
Asked whether the counter-offensive was a failure, at least so far, General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said: “It is far from a failure. I think that it’s way too early to make that kind of call.”
Lionel Messi starts his new job in the Florida heat
Lionel Messi got down to business with his new Inter Miami team-mates on Tuesday, taking part in his first full training session with the Major League Soccer club.
The Argentine World Cup winner took to the club’s training field at 9am local time with temperatures already above 30 deg C.
Along with his former Barcelona team-mate, Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets, who signed for Miami on Sunday, Messi was given a ‘tunnel’ welcome from his new team.
Ricciardo out to replace Perez for 2025, says Horner
Daniel Ricciardo hopes to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull once the Mexican’s contract ends, team boss Christian Horner said on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old Australian will be starting his Formula One comeback with Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri in Hungary this weekend after leaving McLaren last season and serving as Red Bull reserve. Ricciardo raced for Red Bull Racing from 2014-18, taking seven of his eight wins with the British-based team. Perez, who joined in 2021, has a contract to the end of 2024.
“He (Ricciardo) firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull seat. That’s his goal and objective. By going to AlphaTauri I think he sees that as his best route for stating his case for 2025,” Horner told Formula One’s F1 Nation podcast.
