NKorea hails success of its new hypersonic missile after flight test
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday that it successfully tested a new hypersonic missile it implied was being developed as nuclear capable, as it continues to expand its military capabilities and pressure Washington and Seoul over long-stalled negotiations over its nuclear weapons.
The missile test early Tuesday was North Korea’s third round of launches this month and took place shortly before North Korea’s U.N. envoy accused the United States of hostility and demanded the Biden administration permanently end joint military exercises with South Korea and the deployment of strategic assets in the region.
A photo published in North Korea’s state media showed a missile mounted with a finned, cone-shaped payload soaring into the air amid bright orange flames.
The official Korean Central News Agency said the missile during its first flight test met key technical requirements — including launch stability and the maneuverability and flight characteristics of the “detached hypersonic gliding warhead.”
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff assessed the missile to be at an early stage of development and said North Korea would need “considerable time” to be able to deploy it operationally.
The North’s announcement came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said they detected North Korea firing a missile into its eastern sea. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch highlighted “the destabilizing impact of (North Korea’s) illicit weapons program.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane
Dujarric called the reports “very disturbing” and said: “We remain convinced that the only way forward for the Korean Peninsula is for diplomatic engagement by the parties.”
Britney Spears case: A judge Wednesday suspended Britney Spears’ father from the conservatorship that has controlled the singer’s life and money for 13 years, saying the arrangement “reflects a toxic environment.”
Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny agreed with a petition from Spears and her attorney, Mathew Rosengart, that James Spears needs to give up his role as conservator.
The move is a victory for the singer, who pleaded in dramatic hearings in June and July that her father needed to be out.
“The current situation is untenable,” Penny said after hearing arguments from both sides.
James Spears sought the conservatorship in 2008 and had been its primary controller and biggest champion. He reversed course in recent weeks, asking the judge to end the conservatorship.
Spears’ attorney has been pushing for the ouster of her father since moments after the judge allowed her to hire Rosengart in July.
Rosengart said in another filing this week that James Spears “crossed unfathomable lines” by engaging in illegal surveillance of her, including communications with her lawyer, as reported in “Controlling Britney Spears,” a documentary from The New York Times and the FX network, one of two documentaries released on the eve of the hearing in Los Angeles.
James Spears in 2019 stepped aside as the so-called conservator of his daughter’s person, with control over her life decisions, maintaining only his role as conservator of her estate, with control over her finances.
James Spears has denied acting in anything but his daughter’s best interest.
Ecuador prison battle: The death toll in a gang battle in a penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil has risen to more than 100 as authorities find more bodies, Ecuador’s prison service said Wednesday.
At least five of the bodies were beheaded.
The country’s prisons bureau said in a tweet that “as of the moment more than 100 dead and 52 injured have been confirmed” in Tuesday’s clash the Guayas prison.
The violence involved gunfire, knives and explosions and was caused by a dispute between the “Los Lobos” and “Los Choneros” prison gangs, officials said.
In July, President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency in Ecuador’s prison system following several violent episodes that resulted in more than 100 inmates being killed.
S. Carolina masks: School districts in South Carolina now have the authority to require masks and should check with their lawyers on what kind of accommodations they need to make for medically vulnerable students, the state’s education chief said Wednesday.
The memo from Education Superintendent Molly Spearman came a day after a federal judge ruled with the parents of disabled students who said a state ban on mask mandates discriminated against them because they didn’t feel safe sending them to public schools without required face coverings as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
The temporary restraining order went into effect immediately.
Gov. Henry McMaster and state Attorney General Alan Wilson promised to appeal, while state Rep. Stewart Jones, the lawmaker who introduced the ban, again threatened to take money from districts that require masks.
About 75,000 students, teachers and school staff have been infected with COVID-19 this school year and nearly 200,000 have had to quarantine because of close exposure, according to state health data.
A London police officer handcuffed a woman on the pretext that she broke COVID-19 lockdown rules before he kidnapped and killed her, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Wayne Couzens, 48, appeared at London’s Central Criminal Court charged with the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, 33, who disappeared while walking home from visiting a friend March
British murder case:
3 in south London.
The case has sparked national outrage and triggered large-scale protests denouncing violence against women.
Couzens has pleaded guilty to the charges.
Former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the governing party’s leadership election on Wednesday and is set to become the next prime minister, facing the tasks of reviving a pandemic-hit economy and ensuring a strong alliance with Washington to counter growing regional security risks.
Kishida replaces outgoing party leader Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year.
As new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida is certain to be elected the next prime minister on Monday in parliament, where his party and its coalition partner control both houses.
Japanese politics: