Three US servicemen killed in drone assault

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Good morning. Three US service members have been killed by a drone assault on a navy base carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant teams” in Jordan, the White Home stated yesterday.

The deaths mark the primary time US troops have been killed in an assault within the Center East because the Israel-Hamas struggle started in Gaza in October.

President Joe Biden stated the US would “maintain all these accountable to account at a time and in a fashion of our selecting”.

US defence officers stated an extra 25 service members had been injured within the assault at a navy base in north-eastern Jordan. One official stated the incident occurred on the Tower 22 outpost close to the Syrian border.

The assault is a major escalation that’s possible to attract the US additional into battle at the same time as Washington seeks to keep away from a broader regional conflagration. Right here’s what else we all know.

• US-China talks: US nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan has urged Beijing to make use of its leverage with Tehran to rein in Iranian-backed Houthi assaults on vessels within the Pink Sea in a back-channel assembly with Chinese language international minister Wang Yi.

• Israel-Hamas struggle: UN secretary-general António Guterres appealed to world leaders to proceed funding the company that aids Palestinian refugees, after a number of nations suspended their help following allegations that employees had taken half in Hamas’s October 7 assaults in Israel.

And right here’s what I’m preserving tabs on at present:

• Evergrande winding-up listening to: The Hong Kong Excessive Court docket hears a winding-up petition for the world’s most indebted property developer.

• Iran-Pakistan relations: Iran’s international minister will go to Islamabad at present in an effort to fix ties after the neighbouring nations exchanged missile strikes earlier this month (Reuters).

• Canada international interference inquiry: Canada begins a public inquiry into alleged election interference by China, India, Russia and different international actors.

5 extra high tales

1. China has moved to formally restrict quick promoting after casual efforts didn’t cease a worsening inventory market sell-off. Buyers who purchase shares is not going to be allowed to lend them out for brief promoting inside an agreed lock-up interval, the Shenzhen and Shanghai bourses stated yesterday. The measures, which is able to come into impact at present, are designed to “create a fairer market order”, the China Securities Regulatory Fee stated.

2. Building on the Kremlin’s long-planned mega-pipeline connecting Russia’s western gasfields with China is anticipated to be delayed, the prime minister of Mongolia has warned, in a blow to Moscow’s plans to safe a brand new marketplace for the fuel it beforehand offered to Europe. Mongolia’s Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene advised the FT that Moscow and Beijing are but to agree on crucial particulars of the mammoth infrastructure venture.

3. Canon hopes to start out shipments of latest low-cost chipmaking machines as early as this yr, because the Japanese firm greatest recognized for its cameras and printers tries to undercut longtime business chief ASML in offering the instruments to make modern semiconductors. If profitable, Canon’s “nanoimprint” expertise might give again Japanese producers among the edge they ceded to rivals in South Korea, Taiwan and, more and more, China over the previous three a long time.

4. German rightwing populists have suffered a shock defeat in a extensively watched regional election that has adopted a fortnight of nationwide protests. A burgeoning scandal for the AfD over the celebration’s connections to ethno-nationalist extremists has been dominating the headlines lately. A whole lot of hundreds of Germans have turned out throughout the nation to exhibit in opposition to the AfD and rightwing extremism

• Finland election: A former Finnish prime minister will face the international minister who took the Nordic nation into Nato in a run-off election in two weeks to resolve who turns into president of the navy alliance’s latest member.

5. Elon Musk’s X has blocked searches for Taylor Swift after sexually specific photographs of the pop star created utilizing synthetic intelligence unfold extensively on the platform. X’s use of the blunt moderation mechanism this weekend comes because the social media group and its rivals face mounting stress to sort out abuse of more and more practical and easy-to-access deepfake expertise. Learn the total story.

The Large Learn

Boeing is engulfed in disaster after the dramatic mid-air blowout of a door plug on an Alaska Airways flight earlier this month solid a shadow over its 737 Max collection. At stake isn’t just Boeing’s standing as a frontrunner in aviation. The US group’s mis-steps have prompted some business specialists to ask if there was a decisive shift of energy in direction of its European rival Airbus within the duopoly that governs aerospace — and whether or not new opponents similar to Chinese language state-backed aerospace champion Comac would possibly emerge.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Futures merchants have jumped on the arrival of the primary US spot bitcoin alternate traded funds, ramping up a profitable guess that capitalises on the unstable strikes of crypto-related costs.

Take a break from the information

The haze of jet lag from a 23-hour flight to London from Australia made the FT’s Pilita Clark marvel how lengthy researchers had been learning the tedious scourge, and whether or not they had been any nearer to an honest resolution. The solutions weren’t fairly what she anticipated.