Defecting soldier wounded
WikiLeaks link revealed
US President Donald Trump’s eldest son exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks during the election campaign at the same time the website was publishing hacked emails from Democratic officials, according to correspondence made public yesterday. Donald Trump Jr did not respond to many of the notes, but he alerted senior advisers on his father’s campaign, including his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to two people familiar with the exchanges. In the messages, WikiLeaks urged Trump Jr to promote its trove of hacked Democratic emails, and suggested that Donald Trump challenge the election result if he did not win.
LOTR coming to small screen
Amazon has bought the global television rights to
in what may be its biggest and most expensive move yet to draw viewers to its streaming and shopping club Prime. Amazon announced yesterday it will produce a multi-season series that explores new storylines preceding author J R R Tolkien’s
the first instalment in the famed fantasy trilogy. Amazon acquired the rights from the Tolkien Estate and Trust but did not say how much it paid for them. The project underscores a shift in Amazon’s video programming. It is looking for a dramatic show that could be a hit globally, much like HBO’s fantasy series This puts the company in uncharted territory, with higher production costs expected.
A North Korean soldier was shot and wounded by his own side as he fled to South Korea in a rare defection across the tense border. The unidentified man is being treated in a military hospital after being shot in the shoulder and elbow as he made a desperate sprint in Panmunjom, the only part of the border that remains free of barbed wire fences and landmines. In another section of the border, an American man was arrested by South Korean police for apparently preparing to enter North Korea for ‘‘political purposes’’. He was said to be 58 and from Louisiana. North Korean authorities have made no comment on the incidents, but the South’s level of military alert has been raised as a precaution.