miles

For the second time in a week, Japanese fighters scrambled to intercept a suspected Chinese drone flying near the island of Yonaguni. The events come amid growing tensions between the Asian neighbors and highlight the increasing strategic importance of Japan’s southernmost island, which has seen an expanded presence of Japanese and U.S. forces.

Located just 70 miles east of Taiwan, Yonaguni is an increasingly important part of the allied effort to defend the so-called first island chain from Chinese aggression. It is roughly seven miles long and three miles across at its widest point, it has two small ports and an airfield. It’s where Japan wants to set up an air defense system. It’s also where the U.S. Marine Corps recently set up a forward arming and refueling point (FARP), its first that close to the breakaway Chinese nation.

Amid all this tumult, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with leaders of both nations today and Monday to discuss the future of Taiwan, among other issues. We’ll address that more later in this story.

“On November 24…we confirmed that an estimated Chinese unmanned aerial vehicle had passed between Yonaguni Island and Taiwan, and in response,” the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) stated on X. “We scrambled fighter jets from the Air Self-Defense Force’s Southwest Air Defense Force to intercept it.”

Once detected, the suspected drone flew south for about 250 miles, then cut east for about another 100 miles before returning along the same route, according to a map published by the Japanese MoD, which provided no additional details about the incident.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense reported a Chinese drone and a helicopter traveled along a similar route on Monday, but it is unclear if the two incidents are related.

Monday’s interception by Japan followed a similar incident a week earlier.

Chinese drone flights are fairly routine along this path around Taiwan and during major drills, the skies see a heavier presence of Chinese military aviation assets. However, tensions have increased between the two nations with a long history of sometimes violent enmity. In particular, Beijing is enraged by Tokyo’s announcement that it will place surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) on Yonaguni and Japan considers any attack on Taiwan an existential threat. China has made no secret about wanting to subsume Taiwan, by force if necessary, a concern we have frequently addressed.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Yonaguni on Sunday, Japan’s defense minister said his country is moving forward with plans to deploy an unspecified number of air defense systems on the island.

“The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Shinjiro Koizumi explained. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” 

In January, former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, Bloomberg News noted. 

The medium-range Chu-SAM was first introduced in 2003, according to the U.S. Army, and its missiles can hit aerial targets up to roughly 30 miles away.

“The SAM’s vehicle chassis is based on the Kato Works Ltd/Mitsubishi Heavy Industries NK series heavy crane truck,” the Army explained. “It uses a state-of-the-art active electronically scanned array radar.”

The Chu-SAM system includes a command center, radar unit, launcher, and transloader, with each unit equipped with six missiles that travel at Mach 2.5, the Army noted, adding that it “can track up to 100 targets simultaneously and target 12 at the same time, engaging fighter jets, helicopters, and cruise missiles.”

Given its stated range, the Chu-SAM system can engage aerial targets roughly halfway between Yonaguni and Taiwan’s east coast (likely even farther in reality), an area Chinese aviation assets are likely to fly should it plan to invade the island nation.

Once again, this could be just one system, Japan also has the U.S. Patriot system, as well.

Koizumi’s comments about the Chu-SAM raised hackles in Beijing.

“Japan’s deployment of offensive weapons in the southwest Islands close to China’s Taiwan region is a deliberate move that breeds regional tensions and stokes military confrontation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Monday. “Given Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous remarks on Taiwan, this move is extremely dangerous and should put Japan’s neighboring countries and the international community on high alert.”

Mao was referencing another Chinese point of contention.

The newly elected Japanese Prime Minister recently stated that a Chinese military blockade of Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening” situation, thereby enabling “collective defense” alongside U.S. military forces, Newsweek reported.

“It was the first time such an explicit remark had been made by a sitting prime minister of Japan, which like the United States has long been deliberately vague as to whether it would intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan,” NBC News posited.

As this turmoil unfolded, a Chinese company released a video simulating an attack on Japanese ships and other targets using its newly introduced YKJ-1000 hypersonic missile. Although it isn’t clear if the timing is related, it is another indicator of the increasingly bellicose messaging between the two neighbors.

Trump has taken a mixed approach toward Taiwan.

The American president has at times expressed a degree of thinly veiled skepticism about Taiwan’s value to the U.S., The Diplomat noted. He has also implied the U.S. is committed to Taiwan’s freedom. In his latest administration, Trump has signed off on a $700 million deal to sell Taipei National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) medium-range air defense systems, a plan first put forward under the Biden administration. In addition, Trump authorized a $330 million deal to sell Taiwan aircraft parts.

Meanwhile, as we mentioned earlier in this story, the Trump administration has also authorized the temporary deployment of Marines to Yonaguni to set up a FARP to extend the range of helicopter patrols from the island.

“No U.S. Marine CH-53E has ever before landed that far southwest in Japan, nor has a FARP ever been established there,” Maj. Patrick X. Kelly, executive officer of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 462, said in a statement. “This evolution not only validated that MAG’s [Marine Aircraft Group 36] organic heavy-lift assault support helicopters, in support of its adjacent units and our JGSDF [Japan Ground Self-Defense Force] partners, can generate tempo anywhere the commander should choose, but also served as a huge leap forward in our relations between the U.S. Marines and the JGSDF.”

“FARPs significantly extend MAG-36’s operational reach,” said Col. Lee W. Hemming, commanding officer of MAG-36. “Our ability to rapidly establish and disassemble these sites in austere environments enhances our capacity to respond to, and support, disaster relief and other critical operations throughout the region – particularly in conjunction with our Japanese Self-Defense Forces partners. This collaborative FARP capability underscores our commitment to regional security and humanitarian assistance.”

Given its proximity to Taiwan, Yonaguni also makes sense as a forward staging area for standoff weapons to strike Chinese targets, including ships, and advanced radars to track their movement, if Japan decides to go that route. Marine Corps doctrine calls for troops to be staged in China’s weapons engagement zone ahead of any conflict, and more islands in the region will likely become increasingly armed, but none are as close to Taiwan as this one.

The U.S. Army’s Typhon ground-based missile system, which can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6 multi-purpose missiles, was recently deployed to Japan, but some 1,200 miles to the northeast on Honshu Island. Last year, we wrote about reported plans for the U.S. Marine Corps units and their High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to be rushed to the southwestern Japanese islands near Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion. The anonymously sourced Kyodo News report about that move didn’t specifically mention Yonaguni, but it makes sense that it could be a destination for such future efforts.

Another Marine weapons system that might even make more sense for Yonaguni is Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) armed with Naval Strike Missiles (NSMs). In previous reporting, we noted that these highly mobile missile systems have been deployed to Luzon in the Philippines. The NSM is well suited for fighting in the littorals. With the baseline NSM’s range of around 110 nautical miles, placing these systems on Yonaguni would hold Chinese vessels operating near the northern part and the backside of Taiwan at risk. They can also strike fixed targets on land. NMESIS is highly mobile on land, making its launchers very hard to target at distance by adversary forces.

While weapons like NMESIS on Yonaguni could pose a real threat to Chinese forces trying to take the island, getting them there in the case of a Chinese move on Taiwan will likely be a great challenge. The idea would be to have them there permanently or rush them there at the start of a crisis, before the shooting begins. This would work as a deterrent to keep the fighting from starting, as well as tactical capability once the fighting begins.

Still, Beijing has a very large arsenal of missiles, aircraft and ships on hand and in development that could rain fire on Yonaguni. Any U.S. logistic missions having to push materiel forward in a time of crisis to the island would be traveling deep within China’s anti-access bubble, as well, which may be entirely unsurvivable. So, once things light off, if weapons are fired from the island, or even preemptive action by China, could widen the conflict significantly, and any forces on the island could be cutoff and under fire.

As previously mentioned, amid the boiling tensions, Trump spoke with both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Takaichi on Monday.

“Taiwan’s return to China is an important component of the post-war international order,” Xi told Trump, according to an official account of the conversation by China’s state media. For his part, Trump affirmed that the U.S. “understands the importance of the Taiwan issue to China,” Chinese media said.

“Takaichi said Trump briefed her on his overnight phone call with China’s Xi and the current state of U.S.-China relations,” according to The Associated Press. “She said that she and Trump also discussed strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance and ‘development and challenges that the Indo-Pacific region is faced with.’”

“We confirmed the close coordination between Japan and the United States,” the Japanese leader added, declining to give any other details of her talks with Trump, citing diplomatic protocol.

Regardless of diplomatic platitudes, when it comes to Yonaguni Island, moving surface-to-air missiles there is largely a defensive overture. It’s also the first step in providing protection for additional assets, should Japan choose to allow their deployment. But for now, it certainly has gotten Beijing’s attention.

Contact the author: [email protected]

The world’s longest straight road is in Saudi Arabia and is so long that a driver can travel for more than 150 miles without turning their steering wheel. Here’s everything you need to know about the highway

The world’s longest straight road is one which runs for around 150 miles without a single bend. The stretch of tarmac cuts through the Saudi Arabian Rub Al-Khali desert.

The Middle Eastern nation has become a major player in motorsport recently, playing host to the prestigious Dakar Rally, a Formula 1 Grand Prix, and the Extreme E off-road championship. The country’s vast expanses of desert have provided the perfect canvas for creating spectacular racing circuits and roads.

But it’s not just racing drivers who benefit from Saudi Arabia’s unique geography. Highway 10, which links Haradh to Al Batha, stands as one of the region’s most remarkable routes – open to ordinary motorists.

Originally constructed for King Fahd through the heart of the Rub Al-Khali desert, it holds the Guinness World Record as the planet’s longest corner-free stretch of road. Motorists can cruise for around 240km (149 miles) without needing to turn their steering wheel once.

The record was previously held by Australia‘s Eyre Highway, which measured roughly 146km (91.25 miles) without a turn.

According to Guinness World Records, despite its extraordinary length, the journey doesn’t take as long as you might expect, reports the Express.

They noted: “Built originally as a private road for King Fahd (SAU), the stretch of Highway 10 connecting Highway 75 in the Haradh area to Highway 95 in the west of Saudi Arabia is 240 km (149 mi) long.

“It cuts through the desert with no bends left or right, or any appreciable gradient up or down. The super-straight stretch has an estimated driving time of around 2 hr.”

Officials have warned against speeding or dangerous driving on the road, as the monotonous landscape and absence of turns can leave drivers feeling falsely secure.

It’s not the only instance of Saudi Arabia’s fixation with linear design. The nation has begun construction on a £1trillion “smart city” set to be built in the country’s Tabuk Province.

Neom’s 110-mile-long metropolis – dubbed The Line – consists of two enormously-long parallel structures.

It is the vision of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who aims to liberate the Middle-Eastern nation from its reliance on fossil fuels and establish a fresh economy centred on science and leisure.

However, some who have been involved with the scheme have privately described the proposals as “untethered from reality”.

The metropolis has also been labelled as potentially lethal. The mirrored-glass construction is essentially a “giant greenhouse,” according to prominent design scientist Melissa Sterry.

With global temperatures climbing, June 2024’s 40C heatwave in Saudi Arabia resulted in over 1,000 deaths among those undertaking the traditional Haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Transoceânica bus provides a direct link between Peru’s capital Lima and Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, but despite the luxury destinations, the bus’s journey is far from glam

Taking a long bus journey while travelling the globe may not be too uncommon – a brief watch of BBC’s hit Race Across the World shows that.

But nothing comes close to attempting the longest direct route in the world. The journey spans across the width of an entire continent, with passengers travelling as many as 3,900 miles and passing through 30 different cities.

The Transoceânica bus has been described as “brutal” by those who have braved the entire five-day journey between Lima, Peru and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But while the two nations are famed for their natural beauty and amazing landscapes, the Transoceânica does little to actually show this.

According to testimonies, the journey is a long slog, as passengers battle for comfort while passing through rather dismal looking areas of both Peru and Brazil. However, to reach the final destination, many travellers say, is entirely worth it.

Passing through some of the most well known cities in Brazil, including Rio and São Paulo, the bus stops at 30 different locations where cleaners hop on board to clean the bus while people stretch their legs. There are various amenities passengers can use while on the bus, including Wi-Fi, filtered water, USB ports and toilets, according to Diario do Comercio.

Costing around 1,300 Brazilian reals (£187) one way, the company claims that the bus — known as a “semi-sleeper” — has soft and comfortable seats. But voyagers who have taken on the challenge themselves have had different things to say about their experience.

YouTuber Noel Philips said his experience was subpar, describing his time on the bus as “absolute hell”. He added that on the bus, it appears that personal space is a virtually non-existent concept.

In a video documenting the trip, Noel said: “Nobody has [headphones]; everyone just plays everything on full blast. And when they can’t hear it above everybody else’s, they just turn theirs up so in the end you just have 15 phones playing different things at 55,000 decibels.”

He added that the journey through Peru was filled with interesting landscapes and phenomenal and breathtaking views. But once they cleared border control and entered Brazil, things became rather repetitive, admitting the route does not exactly show the full breadth of either country’s natural beauty.

As well as this, poor Neil was seen complaining about the constant delays the bus faced as they journeyed through the mountains, complaining at the lack of heating on the bus. They were also beset by delays, as roadworks and slow tankers hampered their progress and risked turning a five-day journey into six.

Meanwhile, one Brazilian traveller documented his own experience on the bus as it passed through the Andes mountains and into the Amazon. He explained that with not much to do, many passengers end up chatting about deep and important topics.

While going through the southwest of Brazil, he spoke with the other passengers, after a debate was struck up about which was the best version of ceviche, one of Peru’s national dishes. Many of the passengers joked their own homemade versions of the dish were better, as the morale between those who were travelling seemed high.

But despite the hefty journey that people undertake to get from one side of South America to the other, the bus does not appear to run all year round. Operated by Brazilian bus company Trans Acreana, a timetable for the bus for the rest of the year or into 2026 seems to not exist.

As we mentioned last time when Sabrina Carpenter hosted “Saturday Night Live,” there’s no substitute for a host who fully throws themselves into “SNL.”

He may not have done double duty as host and musical guest the way Carpenter did, but Miles Teller appeared to fully embrace the challenge of returning to host for a second time (the first was in 2022). The “Top Gun 2: Maverick” star, who’ll next be appearing in the movie “Eternity,” gave a solid performance, appearing in nearly every sketch, including the cold open and two pre-recorded videos.

He first appeared as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for New York mayor, in the cold open with help from Ramy Youssef and Shane Gillis as opponents Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa.

After that, Teller played a hungover game show contestant recovering from Halloween, a hockey player shooting a public service announcement for the unfortunately named Nashville Predators and both twin Property Brothers in a video sketch about the current White House renovation.

Teller was also in a sketch about a TV newsroom that decides to show viewers what its background employees are doing, a Netflix promo for a true crime story about husbands who don’t know where their wives went, one about a police press conference that takes a turn and a show closer about a silly Italian restaurant in Nebraska.

Teller handled it all well; he’s good with accents and earned strong laughs, especially playing two characters at the same time in the “Property Brothers” sketch and as Cuomo in the cold open.

Musical guest Brandi Carlile performed “Church & State” and “Human.”

This week’s cold open was one of the stronger (or at least funnier) political sketches of the season so far, tackling the New York mayoral race. As hosted by Errol Louis (Kenan Thompson), “the least famous person to be impersonated on ‘SNL,’ ” the debate sketch portrayed Cuomo (Teller) as a sexually harassing (“Yadda yadda yadda, honk honk, squeeze squeeze) panderer to Jewish voters; Mamdani (Youssef) as a force-smiling, TikTok-flirting candidate who’s pretty sure he won’t be able to implement his promises; and long-shot candidate Sliwa (Gillis) as an “old-fashioned New York nut” with one traumatic story after another to recount. The biggest surprise may have been Gillis, who as Sliwa recounted stories about being hung by his testicles and getting assaulted by a Times Square Spider-Man. Where was this energy when Gillis hosted “SNL”? As has been the habit on many a cold open, President Trump (James Austin Johnson) interrupts the proceedings to mock the candidates and insert his own commentary. This time, that included singing a song from “Phantom of the Opera” to conclude the sketch.

Teller’s monologue was short and simple, relaying how as a kid who moved around most of his childhood, “SNL” was a constant. He shared a photo of himself and his sisters dressed up as the “Night at the Roxbury” characters from the show and then made up a list of memories from the show, like having his first beer in the audience and falling over after having a few beers. Teller mentioned that he and his wife lost their Palisades home in January’s Los Angeles fires. As such, he made sure to point out the fire exits for the audience.

Best sketch of the night: An extreme White House makeover

The Property Brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott (Teller times two) meet their toughest clients yet: Trump and First Lady Melania Trump (Chloe Fineman) who need help with their current renovation of the White House to make room for a new ballroom. Melania shared her skeleton and withered tree decorations (“They are for Christmas,” she said), and the couple complained that 55,000 square feet and 132 rooms just isn’t enough space. With a budget of “$350 million to infinity” the brothers get to work with the help of park rangers and astronauts working through the government shutdown. But when it comes to getting paid for their work, there’s a problem. “Aren’t you guys from Canada?” the president asks. Then he calls ICE on them.

Also good: Nobody asked for this much transparency in news

On a show called Newspoint, the host (Fineman) and her guest (Thompson) are trying to have a serious news discussion, but because the show has opened up its full newsroom to viewers, all the workers in the background draw attention. Among them are Mikey Day, who awkwardly notices the cameras are on him before spilling a carrier of drinks, Bowen Yang as a worker who gets electrocuted by a copy machine and Teller, who has manga erotica up on his work screen. It’s nice to see some physical comedy from Day in particular and the sketch’s visual gags work nicely.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: George Santos is back, untruthful as ever!

Andrew Dismukes and Ashley Padilla (who should be a full cast member at this point instead of a featured player) played a couple who just made out but are trying to discuss the government shutdown. But it was Yang as chronic liar George Santos who stole “Update” (and some jewels) after Yang missed an opportunity on the last “SNL” episode to play the former representative, whose prison term was commuted by Trump. Santos claimed he finished the New York marathon, which hadn’t happened yet, and kept interrupting his chat with “Update” co-host Colin Jost to take calls with prisoners with a jail window and phone he brought with him. He purported to speak with Ghislaine Maxwell, Luigi Mangione and Sean “Diddy” Combs before revealing that the key to making prison rice pudding is preheating the toilet to 350 degrees. Santos ended the segment by revealing the necklace he stole from the Louvre and insisting that he’d just won the World Series.