Japan’s Emperor Emeritus Akihito will be admitted to hospital for heart tests on Tuesday, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing the Imperial Household Agency.

Akihito, 91, who is retired, is the father of Emperor Naruhito. He abdicated from the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019, seven years after he had heart bypass surgery.

The former emperor will undergo tests at the University of Tokyo Hospital after signs of myocardial ischemia were found during a regular checkup last month, NHK reported, citing the Imperial Household Agency. The condition reduces blood flow to the heart muscle.

Akihito, who ascended to the throne after his father, Hirohito, died in 1989, became the first Japanese monarch in 200 years to abdicate his post.

He cited health reasons for standing down, having undergone heart surgery and been treated for prostate cancer in the years preceding his abdication.

A man prepared to break with tradition, Akihito was the first Japanese emperor to marry a commoner, speak to his subjects live on television, and be hands-on in raising his children.

The emperor is a ceremonial but revered figure in Japan’s constitutional monarchy. It is the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world, dating back 14 centuries.

Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow for the second consecutive night as the Russian capital prepares to host a major annual military parade expected to be attended by world leaders including China’s Xi Jinping.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a Telegram post Tuesday that at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed on their approach to the capital overnight, one night after Russian air defenses shot down four drones near the city.

There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties following the overnight drone attack on Moscow, but debris from downed drones fell on a major highway, according to the city’s mayor on Tuesday. Flights were also suspended as a safety precaution at four of the capital’s airports, according to Russian aviation authorities.

The latest Ukrainian attack on Moscow comes ahead of Xi’s expected arrival in the Russian capital on Wednesday for a three-day state visit, in which the Chinese leader will take part in Friday’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations, according to a Kremlin statement Sunday.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Vietnam’s President To Lam and Belarussian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko are among other leaders expected to attend.

Victory Day is the most significant day in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calendar, as he has long used it to rally public support and demonstrate the country’s military prowess.

Thousands of people are expected to line the streets of Moscow’s Red Square on Friday in an exhibition of patriotism marking the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany and commemorating the more than 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians who died during World War II.

Putin last month declared a unilateral three-day ceasefire in Ukraine to coincide with the May 9 celebrations based on what he called “humanitarian considerations.”

The Russian leader’s announcement was met with skepticism in Ukraine and renewed urging from the White House for a “permanent ceasefire” as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a deal to end the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the three-day ceasefire, saying he was only ready to sign up for a longer truce of at least 30 days.

And in a message to dignitaries traveling to Russia for the Victory Day celebrations, the Ukrainian leader warned that Kyiv “cannot be responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” due to the ongoing conflict.

Kyiv won’t be “playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere to allow for Putin’s exit from isolation on 9 May,” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday.

In response, Russia’s foreign ministry said his comments amounted to a threat.

Zelensky has demanded answers from China in recent weeks, after he revealed that two Chinese fighters had been captured by Ukraine in early April and claimed there were “many more” in Russia’s ranks.

Beijing denied any involvement and repeated previous calls for Chinese citizens to “refrain from participating in military actions of any party.”

Kyiv has increasingly turned to drones to level the playing field with Russia, which boasts superior manpower and resources. On Saturday, Ukraine claimed it shot down a Russian Su-30 fighter jet in the Black Sea using a seaborne drone for the first time.

A desperate search for two children missing in a rural part of Canada’s Nova Scotia province has stretched into its fourth day, with dozens of rescuers combing the dense woods in search of the siblings.

Six-year-old Lily Sullivan and her brother Jack, 4, were last seen Friday morning at their home in Pictou County, about 70 miles from the province’s capital city of Halifax, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Police said on Saturday they believe the pair wandered away from their home.

In the days since, more than one hundred searchers as well as helicopters, drones and dogs have been scouring the heavily wooded area near their home for any clues about the siblings’ whereabouts.

The search continued overnight Monday despite challenging rainy conditions. Police said searchers spotted a footprint on Saturday and have expanded their search effort in that area, CBC reported.

Brooks-Murray told CTV Jack and Lily are not the type of kids to go outside alone.

“We always make sure that we’re out there with them, watching them, and they happen to just get out that sliding door, and we can’t hear it when it opens, and they were outside playing, but we weren’t aware of it at the time, and the next thing we knew it was quiet,” Brooks-Murray told CTV.

The children are members of the Sipekne’katik First Nation, according to chief Michelle Glasgow.

“Please help bring Lily and Jack back home,” Glasgow said on social media.

Daniel Martell, the children’s stepfather, told CBC Lily and Jack are “awesome kids.”

“Jack just absolutely loves bugs, dinosaurs,” Martell said. “Lily loves girly things but she also loves doing everything with Jack.”

“They’re like best friends, not just brother and sister,” he added.

Martell said he is pushing for police to monitor the borders and the airports to search for the children. The RCMP are not currently treating the case as a possible kidnapping, according to the CBC.

The RCMP said search and rescue volunteers and officers have “meticulously searched” the area around Jack and Lily’s home and asked the public to avoid the search area in a post to social media Monday.

“Searchers are diligently keeping track of which specific sections of the ground have been covered and are applying their specialized skills to allow the searchers on scene to stay safe,” the RCMP said.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said people “across Nova Scotia are praying for a positive outcome” for Jack and Lily in a post to social media Saturday.

A ship that US and Philippine forces planned to sink beat them to it.

A former US World War II-era warship, which survived two of the Pacific War’s most important battles, was supposed to go down in a blaze of glory in a live-fire exercise off the western coast of the Philippines as part of annually held joint military drills.

Instead, before the bombs and missiles could fly, it slipped slowly beneath the South China Sea Monday morning, age and the ocean catching up to it before modern weaponry could decimate it.

The ex-USS Brattleboro was to be the main target for the maritime strike (MARSTRIKE) portion of the annual US-Philippine “Balikatan” exercise, which began April 21 and runs to May 9.

“The vessel was selected because it exceeded its service life and was no longer suitable for normal operations,” according to a statement from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

A US Navy spokesperson told USNI News last month that the 81-year-old ship was to be the target for US Marine Corps F/A-18 fighter jets during the exercise. A report from the official Philippine News Agency (PNA) said it was to be hit by US and Philippine forces with a combination of anti-ship missiles, bombs and automatic cannon fire.

But as the 184-foot-long vessel was being towed to its station for the exercise, 35 miles west of Zambales province on the northern Philippine island of Luzon, it took on water, the Philippine military statement said.

“Due to rough sea conditions that we are currently experiencing in the exercise box and with its long service life, as is expected, she took on a significant amount of water and eventually sank,” Philippine Navy spokesperson Capt. John Percie Alcos said, according to PNA. He said the vessel was not damaged while being towed.

The ship sank quietly at 7:20 a.m. local time near the spot where it was to be obliterated later in the day, according to the Philippine military.

Other elements of the MARSTRKE exercise would go on, the military statement said.

The Philippine and US joint task forces “will rehearse virtual and constructive fire missions,” the statement said, without detailing what elements were still scheduled as part of the drill. “The combined force will still achieve its training objectives,” it added.

The Philippine military said there was no environmental danger from the sinking as the vessel had been cleaned before being towed out for the exercise.

A distinguished history

The sinking of the ex-USS Brattleboro was a quiet end for a ship that distinguished itself across decades.

In World War II, it participated in the battles of Leyte Gulf and Okinawa, two key US defeats of Imperial Japanese forces in 1944 and 1945 respectively.

The ship, designated as a submarine chaser, served in a key rescue and air defense role in the Battle of Leyte during the US invasion of the Philippines, according to the US Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).

Over the course of a month, it helped get more than 400 wounded soldiers from shore to larger hospital ships and shot down a Japanese aircraft, according to the NHHC.

After further combat around the island of Palau and later again in the Philippines, Brattleboro got orders to head to Okinawa to support the US invasion there in the spring of 1945.

The invasion of Okinawa commenced on April 1, and “over the next 91 days, the subchaser treated over 200 badly wounded men and rescued in excess of 1,000 survivors of ships that sank,” the NHC history says.

After being retired from US service in the mid-1960s, the ship was transferred to the South Vietnamese military in 1966.

With the fall of Saigon in 1975, the then-South Vietnamese ship was transferred to the Philippines, where it was recommissioned as the Miguel Malvar – a hero of the Philippine revolution – in the Philippine Navy in 1977.

It was decommissioned in 2021.

Heightened tensions

Monday’s ship-sinking exercise was planned in an offshore area facing the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal, which has been closely guarded by the Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships, according to the Associated Press. The Philippines also claims the fishing atoll, which lies about 137 miles west of Zambales.

This year’s Balikatan, called “shoulder-to-shoulder” in Tagalag, involves more than 14,000 Filipino and US troops in exercises designed to be a “full battle test” between the two defense treaty allies in response to regional security concerns.

China and the Philippines have faced increasing clashes in the waters near Scarborough Shoal in recent years, as China exerts its disputed sovereignty over the entirety of the vast South China Sea. And tensions between Beijing and Manila are their worst in years amid concerns of military conflict.

China has vehemently opposed such exercises involving US forces in or near the South China Sea.

German conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed to garner the parliamentary majority needed to become chancellor on Tuesday in a first round of voting in an unexpected setback for his new coalition with the center-left Social Democrats.

Merz, 69, who led his CDU/CSU conservatives to win a federal election in February and since secured a coalition deal with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), won just 310 votes in the lower house of parliament, Bundestag President Julia Kloeckner said. He needed 316 to secure a majority.

Kloeckner said she was interrupting the parliamentary session so that the parliamentary groups could consult on how to proceed.

The lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, now has 14 days to elect Merz or another candidate chancellor with an outright majority – and could attempt another vote already on Tuesday.

Merz’s conservatives won national elections in February with 28.5% of the vote but need at least one partner to form a majority government.

On Monday they signed a coalition deal with the center-left Social Democrats, who won just 16.4%, their worst result in German post-war history.

This is a developing story and will be updated.