The United States on Wednesday announced its first passport with “X” for gender, a landmark step for people outside the binary male or female categories.

The State Department said it had issued the first passport with “X” for gender and would make the option routinely available by early 2022 both for passports and birth certificates of Americans abroad.

“I want to reiterate, on the occasion of this passport issuance, the Department of State’s commitment to promoting the freedom, dignity, and equality of all people — including LGBTQI+ US citizens,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had promised to address the issue in June but said that there were technological hurdles that needed to be addressed.

Under Blinken, the State Department has also allowed US passport holders to select their gender on passports.

Previously, Americans required medical certification if they sought to mark gender on their passports differently than on their birth certificates or other documents.

At least 11 other countries already have an “X” or “other” option for passports, according to the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion, a London-based advocacy group.

The countries include Canada, Germany, and Argentina as well as India, Nepal and Pakistan, a legacy of South Asia’s historic concept of “hijra” intersex or transgender people.

The State Department made the announcement on the week of Intersex Awareness Day as it vowed to support people who face discrimination over their gender identity.

President Joe Biden has promised to make advocacy of LGBTQ rights a top priority of his administration.

It is a major shift from the previous administration of Donald Trump, during which Blinken’s predecessor Mike Pompeo barred US embassies from flying rainbow Pride flags.

India has test-fired a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,000 kilometers from an island off its east coast amid rising border tensions with China.

The successful launch on Wednesday was in line with “India’s policy to have credible minimum deterrence that underpins the commitment to no first use”, said a government statement.

The Agni-5 missile splashed down in the Bay of Bengal with “a very high degree of accuracy”, said the statement issued on Wednesday night.

Beijing’s powerful missile arsenal has driven New Delhi to improve its weapons systems in recent years, with the Agni-5 believed to be able to strike nearly all of China.

India has been developing its medium and long-range nuclear and missile systems since the 1990s amid increasing strategic competition with China in a major boost to the country’s defense capabilities.

The tension between them flared last year over a long-disputed section of their border in the mountainous Ladakh area. India is also increasingly suspicious of Beijing’s efforts to heighten its influence in the Indian Ocean.

Talks between Indian and Chinese army commanders to disengage troops from key areas along their border ended in a stalemate earlier this month, failing to ease a 17-month standoff that has sometimes led to deadly clashes. India and China fought a bloody war in 1962.

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon’s top general said on Wednesday that China’s recent test of an earth-circling hypersonic missile was akin to the Soviet Union’s stunning launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, which sparked the superpowers’ space race.

Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed for the first time the Chinese test of a nuclear-capable missile that would be very difficult to defend against.

“What we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system. And it is very concerning,” Milley told Bloomberg TV.

“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that,” he said.

“It’s a very significant technological event that occurred … and it has all of our attention.” The Pentagon had previously declined to confirm the test, first reported by the Financial Times on October 16.

The newspaper said the August test launch caught the United States by surprise.

The missile circled the Earth at a low altitude and a velocity of more than five times the speed of sound, although it missed its target by more than 30 kilometers (19 miles), according to the Financial Times.

Hypersonics are the new frontier in missile technology because they fly lower and so are harder to detect than ballistic missiles, can reach targets more quickly, and are maneuverable.

That makes them more dangerous, particularly if mounted with nuclear warheads.

The United States, Russia, China, and North Korea have all tested hypersonics and at several others are developing the technology.

China unveiled a hypersonic medium-range missile, the DF-17, in 2019, which can travel around 2,000 kilometres and can carry nuclear warheads.

The missile mentioned in the FT story is a different one, with a longer range. It can be launched into orbit before coming back into the atmosphere to hit its target.