The United States has approved $2 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, including the first-time delivery to the self-ruled island of an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system, in a move sure to anger China.

Taiwan’s presidential office on Saturday thanked Washington for greenlighting the potential arms sales. Under the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, Taiwan has been stepping up defense measures as China increased its military threats against the territory it claims as its own.

Beijing last week held war games encircling Taiwan for the second time since Lai took office in May.

The U.S. is Taiwan’s strongest unofficial ally and its laws bound it to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.

“Strengthening Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities is the foundation for maintaining regional stability,” Taiwan’s presidential spokesperson Karen Kuo said.

The potential sales package includes three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and related equipment valued at up to $1.16 billion, according to the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.

It also includes radar systems worth an estimated $828 million.

The Chinese government did not immediately comment on the potential arms sales.

The NASAMS system has been battle-tested in Ukraine and will help to strengthen the Taiwanese army’s air defense capabilities, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said.

Toll from Philippines flooding rises

The number of dead and missing in massive flooding and landslides wrought by Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has reached nearly 130 and the president said Saturday that many areas remained isolated with people in need of rescue.

Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 85 people dead and 41 others missing in in one of the Southeast Asian archipelago’s deadliest and most destructive storms so far this year, the government’s disaster-response agency said. The death toll was expected to rise as reports come in from previously isolated areas.

Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, backed by three backhoes and sniffer dogs, dug up one of the last two missing villagers in the lakeside town of Talisay in Batangas province Saturday.

Airline tests tech to prevent line-cutting

American Airlines is testing a new technology at three airports across the country during the boarding process that aims to cut down on passengers who try to cut the line.

The technology, which is being tested at Albuquerque International Sunport Airport in New Mexico, Tucson International Airport in Arizona and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Crystal City, Va., alerts gate agents with an audible sound if a passenger tries to scan a ticket ahead of their assigned group.

American Airlines said that a gate agent politely lets the customer know they’re unable to accept the pass and asks the customer to rejoin the line when their boarding group is called.

Russian night strikes kill 6 in Ukraine

A Russian drone strike killed a teenager in Kyiv during a nighttime barrage on the Ukrainian capital that lasted for hours, officials said, while five people were reportedly killed in a missile attack on central Ukraine that also left at least 21 injured.

According to Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko, the drone slammed into a 25-story apartment block Friday night in the city’s west, killing a 15-year-old girl and injuring five others. Ukraine’s Emergency Service said 100 people were evacuated following the strike, which damaged several apartments on the building’s upper floors.

Serhii Popko, who heads Kyiv’s local military administration, said that Russian forces overnight pummeled the city for 7 1/2 hours.

Also late Friday, a Russian missile hit a residential area in Dnipro, killing a 14-year-old and four others, said regional Gov. Serhii Lysak, adding that at least 21 others were injured including an 8-year-old.

U.S. Navy apologizes for obliterating village

Shells fell on the Alaska Native village as winter approached, and then sailors landed and burned what was left of homes, food caches and canoes. Conditions grew so dire in the following months that elders sacrificed their own lives to spare food for surviving children.

It was Oct. 26, 1882, in Angoon, a Tlingit village of about 420 people in the southeastern Alaska panhandle. Now, 142 years later, the perpetrator of the bombardment — the U.S. Navy —has apologized.

Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, the commander of the Navy’s northwest region, issued the apology during an at-times emotional ceremony Saturday, the anniversary of the atrocity.

“The Navy recognizes the pain and suffering inflicted upon the Tlingit people, and we acknowledge these wrongful actions resulted in the loss of life, the loss of resources, the loss of culture, and created and inflicted intergenerational trauma on these clans,” he said during the ceremony, which was livestreamed from Angoon.

“You can imagine the generations of people that have died since 1882 that have wondered what had happened, why it happened, and wanted an apology of some sort, because in our minds, we didn’t do anything wrong,” said Daniel Johnson Jr., a tribal head in Angoon.

NASA astronaut released from hospital

A NASA astronaut who was briefly hospitalized after returning from space has been released, the space agency said Saturday.

NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin were flown to the hospital for additional medical checks Friday after parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast aboard a SpaceX capsule.

Three were released and returned to Houston. A NASA astronaut — who was not identified — was kept for observation for an unspecified medical issue.

Tons of cheddar stolen in cheese heist

Thieves with a nose for fine cheese have pulled off a massive cheddar ripoff in London.

Neal’s Yard Dairy said a con artist posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer had made off with 22 metric tons (48,488 pounds) of award-winning cheddar worth 300,000 British pounds ($390,000) before the company realized it had been scammed and reported the theft on Monday.

Neal’s Yard Dairy has asked international cheesemongers to be on the lookout for the stolen cheese, particularly in 10-kilogram (22-pound) and 24-kilogram (52-pound) blocks.

Woman found guilty in suitcase death

A woman accused of leaving her boyfriend to die after he was zipped into a suitcase in their home was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in central Florida.

Four years after Sarah Boone was arrested in the death of Jorge Torres, jurors handed down the verdict against her on Friday evening after deliberating for about 90 minutes. Boone had pleaded not guilty.

Boone initially told detectives with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office that she and Torres had been playing hide-and-seek on Feb. 23, 2020, in their Winter Park, Fla., residence.

Detectives charged Boone with murder after they found videos on her cellphone showing Torres yelling from inside the suitcase that he couldn’t breathe.

— From news services