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COLOMBO — Sri Lanka closed schools on Monday as heavy rain triggered floods and mudslides in many parts of the island nation, leaving at least 10 people dead and six others missing, officials said.   The education ministry announced that the reopening of schools would depend on how the weather develops.   Heavy downpours have wreaked havoc in many parts of the country since Sunday, flooding homes, fields and roads, and forcing authorities to cut electricity as a precaution.   Six people died after being washed away and drowning in the capital, Colombo, and the remote Rathnapura district on Sunday, according to the disaster management center. Three others died when mounds of earth collapsed on their houses, and one person died when a tree fell on him. Six people have gone missing since Sunday.   By Monday, over 5,000 people had been moved to evacuation centers and more than 400 homes had been damaged, the center said in a statement.   Navy and army troops have been deployed to rescue victims and provide food and other essentials to those affected.   Sri Lanka has been grappling with severe weather conditions since mid-May caused by heavy monsoon rains. Earlier, strong winds downed trees in many areas, killing nine people. 

DEAUVILLE/PARIS — Crowds cheered and applauded as U.S. veterans arrived at French airports ahead of ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when more than 150,000 Allied soldiers landed in Normandy to drive out Nazi Germany forces.   Many of those flying in over the weekend into Monday were older than 100, pushed on wheelchairs by relatives and aides.   "It's unreal. It's unreal. Wow," 107-year-old Reynolds Tomter said at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport as students waved U.S. and French flags and held up photos of the veterans.   "It feels great ... and I'm so thankful that I got the opportunity to be back out here, my son with me," said 101-year-old Bill Wall, as his son, Ray, pushed him through arrivals. "I lost some great friends. All of these people who are out there on their crosses and unmarked graves are the true heroes. It gives me a chance to pay tribute to them which they so need. It will bring back some memories of some great people," he added. After shaking hands with students, 95-year-old Dave Yoho said: "My heart is full. My heart is full."   In Deauville, Normandy, a specially chartered flight landed on Monday.   Across Normandy, where beaches and fields still bear the scars of the fighting that erupted on June 6, 1944 and the weeks that followed, preparations were in full gear for official ceremonies. World leaders from U.S. President Joe Biden to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend.   Already, at the weekend, in Vierville-sur-Mer, a town just above Omaha Beach - one of the sectors where U.S. soldiers landed - a re-enactment camp was set up, giving visitors a chance to see what equipment the soldiers were using.   People took rides in World War Two jeeps and armored vehicles.   "It's always very intense when we meet veterans, because they always have many stories to tell, and you still feel the emotion," said Julie Boisard, who lives in Normandy and took part in the re-enactment.   A handful of serving members of the Virginia National Guard 29th Infantry Division gazed out over the beach their elders stormed 80 years earlier.   "It's historic, it's memorable ... and it's very emotional as well," said U.S. serviceman Esaw Lee. "Those guys were so courageous and so mythical. They were legendary."   With war raging on Europe's borders in 2024, this anniversary's D-Day ceremony will carry special resonance.   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be among the guests. Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, touching off Europe's biggest armed conflict since World War Two, was not invited to the D-Day events.   The commemorations "remind us that we were occupied for four years and were liberated by the Americans," said Marie-Therese Legallois, who was seven at the time of D-Day, and remembers it vividly.   "But I always have a bit of sadness to see that the war continues, in Ukraine or elsewhere."

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New York — The typical compensation package for chief executives who run companies in the S&P 500 jumped nearly 13% last year, easily surpassing the gains for workers at a time when inflation was putting considerable pressure on Americans' budgets. The median pay package for CEOs rose to $16.3 million, up 12.6%, according to data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar. Meanwhile, wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers rose 4.1% through 2023. At half the companies in this year’s pay survey, it would take the worker at the middle of the company’s pay scale almost 200 years to make what their CEO did. CEOs got rewarded as the economy showed remarkable resilience, underpinning strong profits and boosting stock prices. After navigating the pandemic, companies faced challenges from persistent inflation and higher interest rates. About two dozen CEOs in the AP's annual survey received a pay bump of 50% or more. “In this post-pandemic market, the desire is for boards to reward and retain CEOs when they feel like they have a good leader in place,” said Kelly Malafis, founding partner of Compensation Advisory Partners in New York. “That all combined kind of leads to increased compensation.” But Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, believes the gap in earnings between top executives and workers plays into the overall dissatisfaction among Americans about the economy. “Most of the focus here is on inflation, which people are really feeling, but they’re feeling the pain of inflation more because they’re not seeing their wages go up enough," she said. Many companies have heeded calls from shareholders to tie CEO compensation more closely to performance. As a result, a large proportion of pay packages consist of stock awards, which the CEO often can’t cash in for years, if at all, unless the company meets certain targets, typically a higher stock price or market value or improved operating profits. The median stock award rose almost 11% last year compared to a 2.7% increase in bonuses. The AP’s CEO compensation study included pay data for 341 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30. Top earners Hock Tan, the CEO of Broadcom Inc., topped the AP survey with a pay package valued at about $162 million. Broadcom granted Tan stock awards valued at $160.5 million on Oct. 31, 2022, for the company's 2023 fiscal year. Tan was given the opportunity to earn up to 1 million shares starting in fiscal 2025, according to a securities filing, provided that Broadcom’s stock meets certain targets – and he remains CEO for five years. At the time of the award, Broadcom’s stock was trading at $470. Tan would receive portions of the stock awards if the stock hit $825 and $950 and the the full award if the average closing price is at or above $1,125 for 20 consecutive days between October 2025 and October 2027. The targets seemed ambitious when set, but the stock has skyrocketed since, and reached an all-time closing high of $1,436.17 on May 28. Like rival Nvidia Inc., Broadcom is riding the current artificial intelligence frenzy among tech companies. Its chips are used by businesses and public entities ranging from major banks, retailers, telecom operators and government bodies. In granting the stock award, Broadcom noted that under Tan its market value has increased from $3.8 billion in 2009 to $645 billion (as of May 23) and that its total shareholder return during that time easily surpassed that of the S&P 500. It also said Tan will not receive additional stock awards during the remainder of the five-year period. Other CEOs at the top of AP's survey are William Lansing of Fair Isaac Corp, ($66.3 million); Tim Cook of Apple Inc. ($63.2 million); Hamid Moghadam of Prologis Inc. ($50.9 million); and Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix ($49.8 million). At Apple, Cook’s compensation represented a 36% decline from the year prior. Cook requested a pay cut for 2023, in response to the vote at Apple’s 2022 annual meeting, where just 64% of shareholders approved of his pay package. The survey's methodology excluded CEOs such as Nikesh Arora at Palo Alto Networks ($151.4 million) and Christopher Winfrey at Charter Communications ($89 million). Although securities filings show Elon Musk received no compensation as CEO of Tesla Inc., his pay is currently front and center at the electric car company. Musk is asking shareholders to restore a pay package that was struck down by a judge in Delaware, who said the approval process for the package was “deeply flawed.” The compensation, mostly stock awards valued at $2.3 billion when granted in 2018, is now estimated to be worth around $45 billion. CEO pay vs workers Workers across the country have been winning higher pay since the pandemic, with wages and benefits for private-sector employees rising 4.1% in 2023 after a 5.1% increase in 2022, according to the Labor Department. Even with those gains, the gap between the person in the corner office and everyone else keeps getting wider. Half the CEOs in this year’s pay survey made at least 196 times what their median employee earned. That’s up from 185 times in last year’s survey. The gap is particularly wide at companies where employees typically earn lower wages, such as retailers. At Ross Stores, for example, the company says its employee at the very middle of the pay scale was a part-time retail store associate who made $8,618. It would take 2,100 years earning that much to equal CEO Barbara Rentler’s compensation from 2023, valued at $18.1 million. A year earlier, it would have taken the median worker 1,137 years to match the CEO’s pay. Corporate boards often feel pressure to keep upping the pay for well-performing CEOs out of fear that they’ll walk out the door and make more at a rival. They focus on paying compensation that is competitive within their industry or marketplace and not on the pay ratio, Malafis said. The better an executive performs, the more the board is willing to pay. The disparity between what the chief executive makes and the workers earn wasn't always so wide. After World War II and up until the 1980s, CEOs of large publicly traded companies made about 40 to 50 times the average worker’s pay, said Brandon Rees, deputy director of corporations and capital markets for the AFL-CIO, which runs an Executive Paywatch website that tracks CEO pay. “The [current] pay ratio signals a sort of a winner take all culture, that companies are treating their CEOs as, you know, as superstars as opposed to, team players,” Rees said. Say on pay Despite the criticism, shareholders tend to give overwhelming support to pay packages for company leaders. From 2019 to 2023, companies typically received just under 90% of the vote for their executive compensation plans, according to data from Equilar. Shareholders do, however, occasionally reject a compensation plan, although the votes are non-binding. In 2023, shareholders at 13 companies in the S&P 500 gave the executive pay packages less than 50% support. After its investors gave another resounding thumbs down to the pay packages for its top executives, Netflix met with many of its biggest shareholders last year to discuss their concerns. It also talked with major proxy-advisory firms, which are influential because they recommend how investors should vote at companies’ annual meetings. Following the talks, Netflix announced several changes to redesign its pay policies. For one, it eliminated executives’ option to allocate their compensation between cash and options. It will no longer give out stock options, which can give executives a payday as long as the stock price stays above a certain level. Instead, the company will give restricted stock that executives can profit from only after a certain amount of time or after certain performance measures are met. The changes will take effect in 2024. For last year, co-CEO Ted Sarandos received options valued at $28.3 million and a cash bonus of $16.5 million. Co-CEO Greg Peters received options valued at $22.7 million and a cash bonus of $13.9 million. Anderson, of the Institute for Policy Studies, said Say on Pay votes are important because they “shine a spotlight on some of the most egregious cases of executive access, and it can lead to negotiations over pay and other issues that shareholders might want to raise with corporate leadership.” “But I think the impact, certainly on the overall size of CEO packages has not had much effect in some cases,” she said. Female CEOs More women made the AP survey than in previous years, but their numbers in the corner office are still minuscule compared to their male counterparts. Of the 342 CEOs included in Equilar’s data, 25 were women. Lisa Su, CEO and chair of the board of chip maker Advanced Micro Devices, was the highest paid female CEO in the AP survey for the fifth year in a row in fiscal 2023, bringing in compensation valued at $30.3 million — flat with her compensation package in 2022. Her overall rank rose to 21 from 25. The other top paid female CEOs include Mary Barra of automaker General Motors ($27.8 million); Jane Fraser of banking giant Citigroup ($25.5 million); Kathy Warden of aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman Corp. ($23.5 million); and Carol Tome of package deliverer UPS Inc. ($23.4 million). The median pay package for female CEOs rose 21% to $17.6 million. That’s better than the men fared: Their median pay package rose 12.2% to $16.3 million.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Jury selection is to begin Monday in a federal gun case against President Joe Biden's son Hunter after the collapse of a deal with prosecutors that would have avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Hunter Biden, who spent the weekend with his father, has been charged in Delaware with three felonies stemming from a 2018 firearm purchase when he was, according to his memoir, in the throes of a crack addiction. He has been accused of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application used to screen firearms applicants when he said he was not a drug user, and illegally having the gun for 11 days. He has pleaded not guilty and has argued he's being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department, after Republicans decried the now-defunct deal as special treatment for the Democratic president's son.  The trial comes just days after Donald Trump, Republicans' presumptive 2024 presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felonies in New York City. A jury found the former president guilty of a scheme to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor to fend off damage to his 2016 presidential campaign. The two criminal cases are unrelated, but their proximity underscores how the criminal courtroom has taken center stage during the 2024 campaign.  Hunter Biden is also facing a separate trial in California in September on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. Both cases were to have been resolved through a deal with prosecutors last July, the culmination of a yearslong investigation into his business dealings.  But Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned some unusual aspects of the deal, which included a proposed guilty plea to misdemeanor offenses to resolve the tax crimes and a diversion agreement on the gun charge, which meant as long as he stayed out of trouble for two years the case would be dismissed. The lawyers squabbled over the agreement, could not come to a resolution, and the deal fell apart. Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed the top investigator as a special counsel in August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.  This trial isn't about Hunter Biden's foreign business affairs — which Republicans have seized on without evidence to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt. But it will excavate some of Hunter Biden's darkest moments and put them on display.  The president's allies are worried about the toll the trial may take on the elder Biden, who's long been concerned about the well-being and sobriety of his only living son and who must now watch as those painful past mistakes are publicly scrutinized. He's also protective: Hunter Biden was with his father all weekend before the case began, biking with his dad and attending church together.  President Biden, in a last-minute switch in plans, shifted from his Rehoboth Beach home back to his Wilmington compound on Sunday evening. Boarding a helicopter on Sunday was the only time the president was seen publicly without his son all weekend.  Allies are also worried the trial could become a distraction as the president tries to campaign under anemic poll numbers and as he is preparing for an upcoming presidential debate while the proceedings play out.  Prosecutors are hoping to show Hunter Biden was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied on the forms. They have said they're planning to use as evidence his published memoir, and they may also introduce contents from a laptop that he left at a Delaware repair shop and never retrieved. The contents made their way to Republicans in 2020 and were publicly leaked, revealing embarrassing and personal photos in which he's often nude and doing drugs and messages in which he asks dealers about scores.  The judge will ask a group of prospective jurors a series of questions to determine whether they can serve impartially on the jury, including whether they have donated to political campaigns or run for political office. She will ask whether their views about the 2024 presidential campaign prevent them from being impartial.  She's also going to ask whether prospective jurors believe Hunter Biden is being prosecuted because his father is the president. Also, she'll ask about firearms purchasing and addiction issues, including: "Do you believe someone who is addicted to drugs should not be charged with a crime?"  The case against Hunter Biden stems from a period when, by his own public admission, he was addicted to crack. His descent into drugs and alcohol followed the 2015 death of his brother, Beau Biden, from cancer. He bought and owned a gun for 11 days in October 2018 and indicated on the gun purchase form that he was not using drugs.  Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and his attorneys have suggested they may argue he didn't see himself as an addict when prosecutors say he checked "no" to the question on the form. They'll also attack the credibility of the gun store owner.  Prosecutors, meanwhile, are also planning to call as witnesses Hunter Biden's ex-wife and his brother's widow, Hallie, with whom he became romantically involved.  If he were to be convicted, he could face up to 25 years in prison, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum and it's unclear whether the judge would give him time behind bars.

Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian unions began an indefinite strike on Monday, closing schools and public offices, impacting airports and shutting down the national power grid after talks with the government failed to agree a new minimum wage. The worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation in Africa's most populous country has left many Nigerians struggling to afford food. The main Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) urged workers to down tools after the government refused to increase its minimum wage offer beyond 60,000 naira ($45) per month, according to local media. "Nigeria workers stay at home. Yes! To a living wage. No! To a starvation wage!" the unions said in a joint statement. Since coming to office a year ago, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ended a fuel subsidy and currency controls, leading to a tripling of gas prices and a spike in living costs as the naira has slid against the dollar. Tinubu has called for patience to allow the reforms to take effect, saying they will help attract foreign investment, but the measures have hit Nigerians hard. 'No work now' Government buildings, gas stations and courts in the capital Abuja were closed, AFP journalists saw, while the doors to the city's airport were also shut and long queues formed outside. A source close to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said domestic flights had been cancelled and the airport would be shut to all flights on Tuesday. AFP has contacted FAAN for comment. The unions are also protesting an electricity tariff hike. The labor union at the Transmission Company of Nigeria said it had shut down the national grid overnight. Blackouts were reported across the country. Security was stepped up with an increased presence of soldiers on the streets of Abuja. Outside the Federal Secretariat, which houses several ministries, picketing union members urged workers to return home. "Stay at home and stay safe. We don't want to embarrass you. No work now," they called. In Lagos, an AFP journalist saw the industrial court was padlocked shut and children walked back home after finding their schools were closed. In the northern city of Kano, government offices were shut and public schools closed. Children in one neighborhood chanted: "No school, it's a free day!" The unions said in a statement on Friday: "Nigerian workers, who are the backbone of our nation's economy, deserve fair and decent wages that reflect the current economic realities." AFP has contacted the government for comment. Thousands of Nigerians rallied against soaring living costs in February, though previous strikes have had limited effect.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Airlines will fly almost five billion passengers in 2024 and revenues will near $1 trillion, both record highs, trade body IATA said on Monday as the industry roars back after the pandemic. The International Air Transport Association also said it expected the world's airlines to post $30 billion in net earnings this year, up from its previous estimate of $25.7 billion. However, total expenses are expected to hit a record high this year, climbing 9.4 percent to $936 billion, IATA announced at its annual general meeting in Dubai. Fossil fuel-burning airlines are also under pressure to contribute to the fight against climate change and make progress towards a pledge to reach "net zero" carbon emissions by 2050. This year's expected $30 billion profit "is a great achievement considering the recent deep pandemic losses," IATA director general Willie Walsh told the body's annual general meeting in Dubai. "Without a doubt, aviation is vital to the ambitions and prosperity of individuals and economies. Strengthening airline profitability and growing financial resilience is important," he added. The COVID-19 pandemic plunged the aviation industry into crisis, grounding fleets and costing thousands of jobs. IATA put the losses at $183 billion between 2020 and 2022. But despite the expected bounce-back to record passengers and revenues of $996 billion this year, some clouds remain. As well as the record expenses, the return on invested capital is estimated at 5.7 percent in 2024, about 3.4 percentage points below the average cost of capital. The net profit margin is just 3.1%, amounting to about $6 per passenger — a slight improvement on 2023, which is estimated at $27.4 billion net profit with a 3.0% margin. "Earning just $6.14 per passenger is an indication of just how thin our profits are — barely enough for a coffee in many parts of the world," Walsh said. Flooded runways Airlines are facing a sharp rise in costs due to shortages of parts and labor as well as challenges related to climate change, including flooded runways and forest fires. In April Dubai's airport, the world's busiest for international passengers, was closed by severe flooding that left standing water on the runway and forced the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights. The extreme rainfall in the desert United Arab Emirates was likely exacerbated by manmade global warming, according to an international grouping of scientists that examines extreme weather events. Air transport currently accounts for less than 3% of global CO2 emissions, but is often in the firing line because it serves a minority of the world's population. Production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), taken from renewable sources, will triple this year to 1.9 billion liters, or 1.5 million tons, IATA said on Sunday. But SAF will account for just 0.53% of the industry's fuel needs in 2024, the body added. It is expected to provide 65% of aviation's "net zero" mitigation by 2050, with the balance expected to come from greater efficiencies, new technologies and carbon offsets. After Doha in 2022, Istanbul in 2023 and Dubai this year, IATA's 2025 AGM will be held in New Delhi — the center of an aviation boom, including record-breaking aircraft orders by Indian carriers.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California firefighters made significant progress Sunday to tame a wind-driven wildfire that scorched thousands of acres 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of San Francisco, burned down a home and forced residents to flee the area near the central California city of Tracy.   The fire erupted Saturday afternoon in the grassy hills managed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the country's key centers for nuclear weapons science and technology. The cause was under investigation.   The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the research center was not under immediate threat from the blaze, dubbed the Corral Fire, which had devoured some 22 square miles (52 square kilometers) by Sunday afternoon. The fire was 50% contained as of Sunday evening.   Thousands of people in the area, including parts of the city of Tracy with a population of 100,000, were ordered to leave for evacuation centers Saturday. The evacuation order was lifted to allow residents to return home starting Sunday evening. Tracy is about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of California's capital in Sacramento.    CalFire Battalion Chief Josh Silveira said Sunday afternoon the fire “burned right up to the homes” in the area and destroyed one house. With calmer winds and milder weather Sunday, Silveira said he didn't expect the fire to grow.   Two firefighters suffered minor to moderate burns on Saturday and were expected to make a full recovery, Silveira said.   The wildfire presented no threat to any laboratory facilities or operations and had moved away from the site, Lawrence Livermore spokesperson Paul Rhien said in a statement to The Associated Press early Sunday.   “As a precaution, we have activated our emergency operations center to monitor the situation through the weekend,” Rhien said.   Photos showed a wall of flames moving over the parched landscape as dark smoke billowed into the sky.   The wildfire also forced the closure of two major highways, including an interstate that connects the San Francisco Bay Area to San Joaquin County in central California. But they had reopened by Sunday afternoon.   The San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services on Saturday issued an evacuation order for areas west of the California Aqueduct, south of Corral Hollow Creek, west to Alameda County and south to Stanislaus County. A temporary evacuation point was established at Larch Clover Community Center in Tracy. The county also asked residents to temporarily use boiled tap water or bottled water for drinking and cooking purposes.   Sunday’s high temperature for Tracy was expected to reach 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius), with no rain in the forecast. But hotter conditions are on their way.   The National Weather Service said “dangerously hot conditions” with highs of 103 F to 108 F (39.4 C to 42.2 C) were expected later in the week for the San Joaquin Valley, an area that encompasses Tracy. Wind gusts of up to 45 mph (72 kph) lashed the region Saturday night, according to meteorologist Idamis Shoemaker of the weather service in Sacramento. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Seoul, South Korea — Seoul will fully suspend a 2018 tension-reducing military deal with nuclear-armed North Korea, the South's National Security Council said Monday, after Pyongyang sent hundreds of trash-filled balloons across the border. Seoul partially suspended the agreement last year after the North put a spy satellite into orbit, but the NSC said it would tell the cabinet "to suspend the entire effect of the 'September 19 Military Agreement' until mutual trust between the two Koreas is restored." In the last week, Pyongyang has sent nearly a thousand balloons carrying garbage including cigarette butts and likely manure into the South, in what it says was retaliation for missives bearing anti-regime propaganda organized by activists in the South. South Korea has called the latest provocation from its neighbor "irrational" and "low-class" but, unlike the spate of recent ballistic missile launches, the trash campaign does not violate UN sanctions on Kim Jong Un's isolated government. The North called off the balloon bombardment Sunday, saying it had been an effective countermeasure — but warning that more could come if needed. The 2018 military deal, signed during a period of warmer ties between the two countries which remain technically at war, aims to reduce tensions on the peninsula and avoid an accidental escalation, especially along the heavily fortified border. But after Seoul partially suspended the agreement in November last year to protest Pyongyang's successful spy satellite launch, the North said it would no longer honour the deal at all. As a result, Seoul's NSC said the deal was "virtually null and void due to North Korea's de facto declaration of abandonment", anyway, but that abiding by the remainder of it was disadvantaging the South in terms of their ability to respond to threats like the balloons. Respecting the agreement "is causing significant issues in our military's readiness posture, especially in the context of a series of recent provocations by North Korea that pose real damage and threats to our citizens," it said. The move will allow "military training in the areas around the Military Demarcation Line," it said, and also enable "more sufficient and immediate responses to North Korean provocations," it added. The decision will need to be approved by a cabinet meeting set for Tuesday before it takes effect. Ties between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with diplomacy long-stalled and Kim Jong Un ramping up his weapons testing and development, while the South draws closer to major security ally Washington. Block the balloons? Seoul's decision to jettison the 2018 tension-reducing deal shows "that it will not tolerate trash balloons coming across the border, considering international norms and the terms of the truce," said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. "However, it could further provoke Pyongyang when it is impossible to physically block the balloons drifting southwards in the air," he said. "The safety of the citizens cannot be guaranteed with such actions while it can wait for the situation to cool down and seek ways to resolve it." South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons were not found to contain hazardous materials, but had been landing in northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent area of Gyeonggi, which are collectively home to nearly half of South Korea's population. South Korean officials have also said Seoul would not rule out responding to the balloons by resuming loudspeaker propaganda campaigns along the border with North Korea. In the past, South Korea has broadcast anti-Kim propaganda into the North, which infuriates Pyongyang, with experts warning a resumption could even lead to skirmishes along the border.

Beijing — China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe looks set to begin its historic journey back to Earth from the moon's far side after collecting samples that scientists expect will help answer key questions about the early evolution of the solar system. Chang'e-6, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, was launched on May 3 from the southern Chinese island province of Hainan. The fully robotic probe landed on Sunday in a previously unexplored location in a gigantic impact crater called the South-Pole Aitken Basin, on the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth. China's previous Chang'e mission collected samples from the moon's near side in December 2020, restarting global lunar material retrieval efforts after a gap of 44 years. The uncrewed Luna 24 mission launched by the former Soviet Union in 1976 collected 170.1 grams of samples from Mare Crisium, or "Sea of Crises," on the near side of the moon. Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo missions, all crewed, collected 2,200 samples weighing a total of 382 kilograms, also from the side of the moon facing Earth. James Carpenter, head of the European Space Agency's lunar science office, said the samples collected by the Apollo missions from the moon's near side suggested the South-Pole Aitken Basin on the far side was caused by an epoch of extremely heavy bombardment of the solar system, Earth and moon. "This is a really core event in the history of the whole solar system, but there is some controversy about whether it happened or not," he said. "To understand that, you need to anchor those events, and that's going to be done with samples from the lunar far side from the South-Pole Aitken Basin."   Small window After landing, Chang'e-6 had a 14-hour window to drill, excavate, and seal 2 kg of material, with the goal of being the first probe to bring back such samples from the moon's far side. This compares to the 21-hour window Chang'e-5 had in 2020. "Once it gets dark, once the sun goes over the horizon, the mission has to end, so there is a limited time window between landing, getting those samples, and getting off the surface again, so it's quite an exciting mission because it has to be done quickly," Carpenter said. While China said it had improved the efficiency of its digging and drilling machines compared with 2020, the mission could still encounter snags at the sampling phase. Chang'e-5 returned 1.73 kg of lunar samples, rather than the planned 2 kg, as the drill was only able to create a hole 1 meter deep, rather than 2 meters, after encountering impenetrable layers beneath the surface. The Chang'e-6 samples will be transferred and sealed on a rocket booster atop the lander, which will launch back into space, dock with another spacecraft in lunar orbit and transfer the samples. A landing in China's Inner Mongolia is expected around June 25. Throughout the probe's journey, payloads from Italian, French, and Pakistani research institutes, as well as the European Space Agency, will collect data on questions pertaining to space and the moon, highlighting the growing international weight of China's space program, which is competing with the United States to build a lunar outpost in the next decade. Carpenter said there was "extremely strong" collaboration between European and Chinese scientists in analyzing the lunar samples brought back by Chang'e-5, and he hoped this would be repeated for Chang'e-6.

JOHANNESBURG — President Cyril Ramaphosa called Sunday for South Africa's political parties to overcome their differences and find “common ground” to form the first national coalition government in its young democracy. His comments came in a speech straight after final election results were announced confirming that no party won a majority in last week's vote. Unprecedented coalition talks were set to start to find a way forward for Africa’s most industrialized economy. Ramaphosa's African National Congress party had already lost its 30-year majority after more than 99% of votes were counted by Saturday and showed it couldn’t surpass 50%.  The ANC received 40% of the votes in last week’s election in the final count, the largest share.  Without a majority it will need to agree on a coalition with another party or parties for the first time to co-govern and re-elect Ramaphosa for a second term. South Africa’s national elections decide how many seats each party gets in Parliament and lawmakers elect the president later. “Our people have spoken,” Ramaphosa said. “Whether we like it or not, they have spoken. We have heard the voices of our people, and we must respect their choices and their wishes. ... The people of South Africa expect their leaders to work together to meet their needs. This is a time for all of us to put South Africa first.” The ANC was the party of Nelson Mandela and freed South Africa from the apartheid system of white minority rule in 1994. It had governed with a comfortable majority since then, but this election saw an unprecedented slump in its support as voters deserted the party due to its failure to solve widespread poverty, extremely high unemployment levels and problems with delivering basic government services to many in a nation of 62 million. The ANC had said earlier Sunday that it was starting its negotiations with all major parties. More than 50 parties took part in the election, and at least eight had significant shares of the vote. At least 26 of them, including the MK Party led by former President Jacob Zuma, have lodged objections and complaints with the electoral body alleging voting irregularities, which it has promised to address.  ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said it was open to all negotiations, even with the main opposition Democratic Alliance, which has led the chorus of criticism of the ANC for years but is viewed by many analysts as the most stable coalition option for South Africa. The DA won the second most votes with 21.8%, and the two parties would hold a majority together and be able to govern. DA leader John Steenhuisen said his party was also initiating talks with parties. The ANC won 159 seats in the 400-seat Parliament, down from the 230 it won in the last election. The DA increased slightly to 87 seats.  There is some time pressure for coalition talks to progress and for the uncertainty to be minimized, given that the new Parliament needs to sit for the first time and elect a president within 14 days of the election results being declared.  Ramaphosa is seeking a second and final term and Mbalula said his position as leader of the ANC was not in question despite the election result. Mbalula said the ANC would not consider the demands by Zuma's MK Party that Ramaphosa step down as a condition for talks. “No political party will dictate terms to us, the ANC. They will not ... You come to us with that demand, forget (it),” Mbalula said. He said the ANC would not be arrogant, though. “The elections have humbled us, they have brought us where we are,” he said. South Africa is a leading voice for its continent and for the developing world on the global stage and is due to take over the presidency of the Group of 20 rich and developing nations late this year. It’s the only African nation in that group. “Everyone is looking to see if South Africa can weather the storm and come out the other side,” political analyst Oscar van Heerden said on the eNCA news network.  Amid many coalition options, the ANC could also join with MK and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, although they have been cast as partners that would make investors uneasy. Both have pledged to nationalize parts of South Africa’s economy, including its gold and platinum mines, among the world’s biggest producers. The DA has long said it will not work with the EFF and MK, calling them a “doomsday coalition” for South Africa. Steenhuisen, the party's leader, repeated that stance Sunday in a speech on national television but said his party was starting talks with others and would approach them “with cool heads and open minds.” Political analyst van Heerden said an ANC-DA coalition would “possibly give stability” but there were some within the ANC who would oppose it. Other smaller parties could be involved to dilute it and make it more palatable for the ANC, some commentators said. “The DA has approached the ANC as the enemy over many, many years,” van Heerden said. “The next few days is going to be a very difficult period. People will have to be mature behind closed doors.”

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New York — The Washington Post said Sunday that its executive editor, Sally Buzbee, has stepped down after three years at the top of one of journalism's most storied brands. She will be replaced by Matt Murray, former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, through this fall's presidential election. Following that, Robert Winnett, deputy editor of the Telegraph Media Group, will take over as editor as the newsroom restructures its operations. No reason was given for Buzbee's departure. She wasn't quoted in the news release announcing that she was leaving and did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The Post also announced that it was launching a new division in its newsroom dedicated to reaching audiences who want to pay for and consume news in a different way. Buzbee, former top editor at The Associated Press, was selected as the Post's top editor in May 2021. She replaced a renowned predecessor, Martin Baron, after the Post exploded in popularity during the Trump administration. Buzbee was the first woman to serve as executive editor of The Washington Post. And like Jill Abramson, the first woman to be top editor at The New York Times, her tenure was short: Abramson had her job from 2011 to 2014. It has been a miserable few years financially for the news industry, including for the Post. It has bled subscribers to the point where new publisher, Will Lewis, told employees last month that the newspaper lost $77 million last year. “To speak candidly, we are in a hole, and have been for some time,” Lewis said, according to the Post. Lewis was named late last year to replace Fred Ryan as Post publisher. He has worked at both The Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph in England, the places he turned to to find the new executives. He's talked about creating a multi-tier subscription plan for The Post, similar to that in place at Politico. In an email to employees late Sunday, Lewis said the new department will focus on more video storytelling, embrace artificial intelligence and flexible payment methods. It will begin this fall, he said. In an earlier meeting, “we highlighted the need to move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approach in the news media industry and focus on creating news for a broader range of readers and customers.” It augurs a change to the traditional structure of the Post. In his memo, Lewis mentioned “three newsrooms.” Winnett will not take on the title of executive editor, but he will be responsible for the “core coverage areas” of politics, investigations, business, technology, sports and features. He has run The Telegraph's news operations since 2013, the Post said. Murray will take over as leader of the newly created department starting Nov. 6, the Post said. No one will have the title of executive editor: Murray, Winnett and David Shipley, the editorial page editor who will lead the “opinions newsroom,” will each report directly to Lewis, the Post said. “By creating three strong journalism functions — core, service/social and opinions — we are taking a definitive step away from the ‘one size fits all’ approach and moving towards meeting our audiences where they are,” Lewis said. The Post won three Pulitzer Prizes last month, including one in national reporting for a vivid series on the impact of the AR-15 rifle.