North Korean defectors and Ukraine, Chinese celebrity transformation: SCMP’s 7 highlights

A group of nearly 200 North Korean defectors living in South Korea is pushing to deploy to Ukraine so they can launch a psychological warfare campaign against their former comrades, now reportedly assembling in Russia.

“It is not going to be a good outcome for the Chinese-American scholars if Donald Trump gets elected,” said experimental economist Yan Chen, who works at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. “If Kamala Harris is elected, there will be a lot of unknowns, but at least we know she’s half Asian and the child of an immigrant scientist”

A Chinese company says it has conducted a test flight of a prototype commercial transport plane that can travel at Mach 4 – or twice the speed of a Concorde. It aims to have a full-sized supersonic passenger jet ready for its maiden flight in 2027