INDIA
Heat deaths draw warnings
At least 34 people have died in the past two days as a large swath of the northern state Uttar Pradesh swelters under severe heat, officials said yesterday, prompting doctors to advise people older than 60 to stay indoors during the daytime. The dead were all older than 60 and had pre-existing health conditions that might have been exacerbated by the intense heat. The fatalities occurred in Ballia District. Twenty-three deaths were reported on Thursday and 11 died on Friday, Ballia Chief Medical Officer Jayant Kumar said. Ballia reported a maximum temperature of 42.2°C on Friday, which is 4.7°C above normal, India Meteorological Department data showed.
UGANDA
US imposes curbs over law
Washington on Friday said it is imposing visa restrictions for Ugandans accused of “undermining the democratic process” after the enactment of an anti-gay law. A statement from the US Department of State did not name any targeted individuals, but said the US would consider other possible actions “to promote accountability for Ugandan officials and other individuals responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process in Uganda, abusing human rights, including those of LGBTQI+ persons, or engaging in corrupt practices.” The law adopted last month punishes homosexuality, including with the death penalty in some cases.
UNITED STATES
Trucker guilty of massacre
A truck driver was convicted on Friday of massacring 11 Jewish worshipers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, five years ago in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history. Robert Bowers methodically tracked down his victims at the Tree of Life synagogue, shooting many multiple times from close range as he yelled: “All Jews must die.” The 50-year-old was found guilty of all 63 charges leveled against him, the federal prosecutor’s office said, including hate crimes resulting in murder and attempted murder. A jury is to decide whether Bowers should be executed for the Oct. 27, 2018, mass shooting.
ECUADOR
Pigs confiscated from prison
Security forces have confiscated pigs, fighting cocks and more than two dozen bladed weapons, among other items, from a high-security wing of Bellavista Prison in Santo Domingo, the military said on Friday. Police and operatives of the national prison authority were shown wheeling out two pigs from the prison in images shared by the military in a message posted on Twitter. The authorities also removed 12 fighting cocks, 26 bladed weapons, 16 electrical items and other objects, they said, without saying how the animals ended up there.
UNITED STATES
Biden royally baffles crowd
President Joe Biden on Friday left Americans scratching their heads with an off-the-cuff remark that was, well, royally unusual for a US president: “God save the queen, man.” What he meant, which queen he was referring to, and why he threw in what sounded like the traditional patriotic British cry, no one could immediately tell. Queen Elizabeth II, whom Biden met, died in September last year and was replaced by a king — her son Charles. Biden had just completed an impassioned speech at the National Safer Communities Summit in Connecticut on toughening gun ownership laws when he made the remark from the stage. Later, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton told reporters that Biden had been “commenting to someone in the crowd.”
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
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