An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 has shaken this Wednesday the waters of the north of the Vanuatu archipelago, in the South Pacific, without the authorities having reported victims or material damage or issued a tsunami warning.

The tremor occurred 10 kilometers deep and 81 kilometers southeast of the city of Sola, on the northern island of Vanua Lava and with about 1,200 inhabitants, reported the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which records seismic activity throughout the world.

The quake occurred in the same region as another 6.4-magnitude, 10-kilometer-deep quake occurred Wednesday 104 kilometers southeast of Sola.

Vanuatu is located near the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire and the submarine volcanoes of the Lau Basin, which is why it regularly registers shocks of seismic origin.

The Republic of Vanuatu, with a population of around 250,000, is made up of an archipelago of volcanic origin.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, held a meeting with the Russian Defense Minister, Seguéi Shoigu, in Pyongyang to discuss issues of “mutual interest” on regional and global security, according to the state agency of the Asian country, KCNA.

“The two sides exchanged views and assessments on issues of mutual interest in the fields of national security and defense and the regional and international security environment, while reviewing the history of deep friendship between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( official name of North Korea) and Russia,” KCNA reported.

Kim and Shoigu, who heads a Russian military delegation invited to witness the events for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War (1950-53) in Pyongyang, also visited the “Arsenal Exhibition 2023”, in which they saw the latest North Korean weapons advances, from intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) to drones, according to photos and information published Thursday by the main North Korean newspaper, Rodong.

The Russian delegation, together with a Chinese entourage, are in North Korea to join the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War (1950-53), for which Pyongyang is expected to host a large military parade in the that the North Korean regime will display its latest weapons advances.

Few details of the meeting

KCNA did not reveal many more details of the meeting, in which it is believed that Kim and Shoigu were able to talk about the growing bitterness between blocs made up of autarchies such as Russia, China or North Korea and democracies such as the United States, the European Union (EU) and regional actors such as South Korea, Japan or Australia, especially after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nor is it mentioned whether both parties discussed the current state of Russian arsenals and possible supplies of weapons and ammunition by North Korea, something that would be a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and of which the West has accused. on several occasions to Pyongyang.

The information from the North Korean agency adds that the two parties pledged to “strengthen and develop the long-term and strategic relationship” between the two countries, to strengthen the security and defense relationship, and to “respond to the rapid changes in the regional security environment.” and international”.

In addition to exchanging gifts, Shoigu presented Kim with a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A more open twist

The Russian delegation arrived in Pyongyang last Tuesday, in what marks the first entry of a foreign group into North Korea since the country activated a rigid border policy in early 2020 to prevent the entry of covid-19.

The closure has been so excessive that for the past three years North Korean workers and diplomats abroad have been unable to return home.

The decision to invite these delegations underlines the current closeness of Pyongyang – which has been refusing to dialogue with Seoul and Washington for years – with Beijing and Moscow, and points to a possible more open turn by the regime on border matters.

British billionaire Joe Lewis has pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to illegally providing confidential information from clinical and pharmaceutical companies to partners and friends, charges for which he is accused in the United States.

Lewis turned himself in on Wednesday morning to US authorities in New York and hours later pleaded not guilty to the charges before federal judge Valerie Figueredo in Manhattan federal court.

Prosecutors have accused the 86-year-old businessman and billionaire owner of English soccer club Tottenham Hotspur of giving information to friends, associates, personal assistants and romantic partners from 2019 to 2021.

“(Lewis) used inside information as a way to compensate employees and give gifts to friends and lovers,” Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

According to the indictment, Lewis and his associates were able to collectively make millions of dollars using the “stolen” information.

Information about promising clinical trials

In one case, Lewis learned of promising clinical trial data at the pharmaceutical company Mirati Therapeutics through a hedge fund he controlled.

He then urged a girlfriend, a personal assistant, and two private pilots to buy Mirati shares before the news broke; In the case of the pilots, he lent $500,000 (about 451,456 euros) to each one to allow them to buy more shares.

In addition, according to prosecutors, Lewis told his girlfriend about an upcoming transaction and the results of a clinical trial involving Solid Biosciences, shortly after which she spent $700,000 on company stock.

Prosecutors also charged Lewis with conspiring to make his interest in Mirati appear minor through a series of shell companies, including one allegedly set up for the benefit of his granddaughter; and making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Billionaire's Defense

David Zornow, a lawyer for Lewis who works for the firm Skadden Arps, said in a statement that the government had made “an egregious mistake” in charging Lewis.

“Lewis has come to the US. volunteered to answer these ill-conceived charges and we will vigorously defend him in court,” he added.

Lewis is one of the richest people in Britain, and according to Bloomberg his net worth is more than $6.5 billion.

A group of soldiers appeared on Niger's national television this Wednesday night to announce the removal from power of the Nigerien president, Mohamed Bazoum, and the closure of the country's borders, hours after the Presidential Guard detained the president. .

In three statements read on Nigerien television, the representatives of the coup leaders, organized in a platform calling itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CLSP), reaffirmed their “respect for all the commitments signed by Niger.”

The military indicates in the communiqués that “all the institutions of the Seventh Republic are suspended” and that “the defense and security forces are handling the situation.”

The head of the coup group has reaffirmed to the national and international community respect for the physical integrity of the deposed authorities, as stated in the televised statement.

“All foreign partners are asked not to interfere,” they add to decree the closure of land and air borders “until the situation stabilizes.”

In the communiqués, read by Major Colonel Amadou Abramane on behalf of the “president of the CLSP”, a curfew is decreed from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. “throughout the territory until further notice.”

The coup leaders also commit to the national and international community to respect the “physical and moral integrity of the overthrown authorities in accordance with the principles of human rights.”

With these words, Colonel Abramane put an end to a great confusion that reigned during the day this Wednesday in Niger about the whereabouts of President Bazoum and his political system.

The Niger Presidency indicated during the afternoon that spontaneous demonstrations in defense of democracy had taken place in the country's capital, Naimey, and in front of Niger's diplomatic headquarters abroad.

The seizure of the presidential palace

The attempt began with the closure of the accesses to the Presidential Palace with the president inside and the subsequent announcement by the Presidency of Niger on its Twitter account that elements of the Presidential Guard were carrying out an “anti-republican” action.

On March 31, 2021, the Nigerian authorities aborted an attempted military coup against Bazoum two days before his inauguration, which was limited to a series of shootings near the Presidential Palace in the country's capital.

The parties that make up the Government of Niger asked the coup leaders who took over the Presidential Palace on Wednesday to lay down their arms and the Nigerien people to mobilize massively to defend democracy.

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, spoke this Wednesday with the ousted president and conveyed his support and solidarity in the face of the violation of constitutional legitimacy in his country, which was condemned by several countries and regional blocs.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, spoke on Wednesday by phone with the president of Niger, to convey his support after the attempted coup in the African country.

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, suffering from jihadist violence and also the effects of climate change and the food crisis that affects millions of people.

The Nigerian president, Mohamed Bazoum, was detained this Wednesday by some coup leaders from the Presidential Guard. The Nigerien Army has dispersed a rally of support in Niamey for the Nigerien president, which was taking place in the vicinity of the Presidential Palace.

The military have dispersed the demonstrators with shots and it is not known at the moment if there are any injuries in the clashes.

In one of the videos received by EFE from a witness to the events, a man appears walking with blood on his clothes, assisted by another man who shouts “The people are bigger than the Army!”

An attempted coup

The situation in Niamey has been confused since this morning, when members of the Presidential Guard seized the Presidential Palace building, with Bazoum and his family inside.

It is about the guard dedicated precisely to the defense of the president of the country, commanded by Omar Tchiani, whom the Government was preparing to dismiss precisely today.

Said Guard is a special body made up of troops from various military bodies chosen by the president and who have specific training and advanced equipment.

Around 1:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. in Spain), soldiers from the Malian Army who came from bases outside the capital have established a perimeter around the presidential headquarters.

Within that perimeter is also the headquarters of the prime minister and several ministries, including the Interior, whose officials were sent home this morning. The military also guard the headquarters of public television ORTN.

A first attempt to overthrow Bazoum

At the moment, no authority has spoken about the coup attempt, which is the second that Bazoum has suffered since he came to power in 2021.

The first was on March 31, 2021, two days before his inauguration, when the military tried to depose him and shooting was heard near the Presidential Palace.

Niger is a country in the unstable African zone of the Sahel that currently suffers from great insecurity due to the actions of terrorist groups related to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

It is also the only one in the region that still relies on France to this day, after the coups in Mali and Burkina Faso in the last three years, which have left military juntas in power in those countries close to Russia.

In April 2022, the Nigerian Parliament approved the deployment in its territory of the French Barkhane force and the European Takuba, which operated in Mali against terrorism and which have partially relocated after the break between Paris and Bamako.

UFOs, sightings, alien bodies…. The largest opening of declassified documents in the history of the United States has led a subcommittee of Congress to ask the Government this Wednesday to report the data it has on these objects after hearing the statement of former members of the army who claim to have seen them and who also they say the authorities keep evidence of them.

Specifically, the testimony of David Grusch, a former Air Force intelligence officer who stated that the authorities are in possession of both spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin and the biological remains of their occupants, has drawn attention.

Grusch also pointed out that the United States has a program to study the alleged extraterrestrial technology and try to reproduce it through so-called reverse engineering..

The former intelligence officer, who on numerous occasions refused to provide specific details when asked by congressmen because it was classified information, also stated that some of the people who work with this extraterrestrial technology have been injured in accidents while trying to manipulate the captured equipment. .

He was not the only one to give his testimony, along with him, two other retired soldiers assured that the US authorities have detected a threat to national security over the country's airspace, regardless of its origin. They all testified before a US House of Representatives subcommittee tasked with investigating so-called “unidentified anomalous phenomena (FAI),” or UFOs.

A candy-shaped UFO

Given the abundance of witnesses, in many cases both military and civilian pilots, the members of the subcommittee demanded that the US government establish a “transparent and secure” system so that these incidents can be reported to the authorities without damaging the reputation of the witnesses.

For his part, former Lt. Ryan Graves, a former US Navy F-18 fighter pilot, said in his opening statement that “if UFOs are foreign drones, they are an urgent national security issue.”

Graves added that if UFOs are not of human origin, “it is a matter for science. In any case, unidentified objects are a concern for aviation security.”

Another of the witnesses, former Commander David Gravor, also a retired Navy pilot, testified how he witnessed in 2004 a UFO in the shape of a tic tac, a popular American candy that resembles a pill, with flight capabilities impossible for US technology.

Graves said that if the United States has such technology, it “needs to be overseen” by lawmakers, who have to decide what is in the best interest of Americans.

Two Saudi pilots died on Wednesday when their fighter plane crashed during a training flight at an airbase in Jamis Mushait, in southern Saudi Arabia, near the border with Yemen, according to a statement from the kingdom's Defense Ministry. Arab.

Department spokesman Turki al-Maliki said in the note that the Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 fighter jet crashed as a result of “an accident” during a training flight at the King's Air Base. Khaled of Jamis Mushait.

The accident occurred at 2:28 p.m. local time (11:28 GMT) and caused “the death of the entire crew of the combat plane,” which included two people. Also, Al Maliki said that an investigation committee has been formed to find out the details and reasons for this unusual incident.

The F-15 combat planes, made in the United States, are widely used in Saudi Arabia and two people always travel in them: the pilot and a weapons systems officer.

The British ex-rapper of Egyptian origin Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary has been found dead in his prison cell where he was admitted, without the cause of his death being known at the moment.

Penitentiary sources have confirmed this Wednesday the death of the alleged jihadist, who had recently been tried at the National Court.

The prison has informed the duty court of the death, which will open an investigation to find out the causes, as well as Penitentiary Institutions. Before, the body will be autopsied.

On the 14th of this month, the trial against the former rapper, alias L. Jinny, who in 2020 arrived in Almería by boat from Algeria and was detained by the Police for the “risk to national security” represented by the fact that he was a returnee from Syria, according to the prosecutor in his final conclusions.

Why was he sentenced?

In that last session of the trial, the representative of the Public Ministry maintained his request for 9 years in prison for the former rapper and 7 and 8 years for the other two defendants with whom he was arrested.

He accused the three of them of forming a jihadist cell dedicated to committing banking scams on the internet and trafficking cryptocurrencies to “finance their terrorist activities.”

The prosecutor defended the police action, questioned by the defenses, and stated that the arrest was made urgently on suspicion that Abdel Bary was a fighter for the Islamic State in Syria.

Interpol notified the Police of the entry of these three people into Spain and that led to the arrests, according to the prosecutor.

The defense alleges irregularities in the arrests

For his part, Abdel Bary's lawyer asked that the proceedings for irregularities in the arrests be annulled and that, in any case, he be acquitted because it has not been proven at any time that he led a terrorist cell.

In that session, Abdel Bary used his right to the last word to influence the same ideas as his lawyer and argued that the terrorist cells are led by a religious guide or imam and that he lacked that authority.