They discover a second spy balloon in Latin America

Other news of the day: A college professor who vandalized his diplomas on live television was jailed in Afghanistan; For its part, the Iranian regime frees filmmaker Jafar Panahi. The Indian state of Assam launched a campaign of arrests against child marriages. Uzbekistan finds an ad referring to the car as a “second wife” offensive.

UNITED STATES-CHINA

While China called on the US government to remain calm and handle mutual diplomatic relations with a “cool head”, the Pentagon located a second spy balloon over Latin America in addition to the one discovered yesterday over Montana. Meanwhile, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, postponed his trip to China, although Beijing declared that it was a weather probe. This version, however, does not convince the US authorities, who have not yet demolished the object for fear of its remains falling.

SINGAPORE – MALAYSIA

An investigation of Channel News Asia has revealed that To get cheap domestic or exotic animals in Singapore, all you have to do is cross the border with Malaysia., although this type of trade -which bypasses the controls required by normal import channels- is illegal. Since 2018, the Singaporean authorities have recorded at least 60 cases of animal smuggling, although after the pandemic the demand for pets began to decline.

AFGHANISTAN

The Taliban detained university professor Ismail Mashal, who had demonstrated in favor of the right to education for Afghan women and handed out books to people on the street. A spokesman for the authorities accused him of working against the Taliban administration. Last month, Mashal had torn up her university degrees live on television in protest against the Taliban’s bans on women.

INDIA

Police in the eastern state of Assam have arrested 1,800 people accused of marrying or giving away underage girls in marriage. The campaign had been announced at the end of January by the prime minister of the state, Himanta Biswa Sarma. Yesterday he reported that more than 4,000 cases of child marriages had been registered, the majority in Muslim areas, but he assured that no particular community would be persecuted.

IRAN

Film director Jafar Panahi has been released on bail from the notorious Evin Prison two days after he started a hunger strike. Since he has already opposed the regime on several occasions, some analysts believe that it is a maneuver to prevent him from becoming a symbol of the protests like other dissidents. Winner of numerous international film awards, he had been arrested in July of last year for protesting against the imprisonment of two other colleagues, arrested in turn for posting on social networks the collapse of a 10-story building in the city of Abadan, in which more than 40 people died.

RUSSIA

Relatives of fallen Russian soldiers in Ukraine are unable to receive complete information about their deceased relatives. For a long time after the notification, the recognition and dispatch of the corpses does not take place. However, they are listed as “presumed dead” in army records and even DNA tests are inconclusive.

UZBEKISTAN

The Committee on Competition and Consumer Rights of Uzbekistan ordered the removal of billboards of the Mobile Retail (Elmakon) company that advertised car accessories. In them, the slogan “Take care of your second wife” was deemed “immoral and inappropriate” as it contradicted the traditional ethical norms of Uzbek society.