ISRAEL
Four killed in attack
Two Palestinian attackers on Tuesday opened fire at a restaurant and gas station near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, killing four Israelis and wounding several other people before they were shot dead, authorities said. The military said it was sending reinforcements to the West Bank and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “settle the score with the murderers.” “I want to tell all those who seek to harm us — all options are open,” he said in a video statement. “We will continue to fight terror with all our might.” Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Palestinian shooters, affiliated with Hamas, drove to the scene from the Palestinian village of Urif in the northern West Bank. A civilian bystander shot one of the assailants repeatedly, killing him. Hamas identified him as 26-year-old Mohannad Faleh. After an hours-long manhunt, security forces caught the second shooter in the West Bank town of Tubas, shooting and killing him when he tried to run out of his car.
AUSTRALIA
Tibet CTA head warns of war
The head of an India-based organization known as Tibet’s government-in-exile yesterday said that a destabilizing economic downturn in China could prompt Beijing to attack Taiwan or India, and this dynamic should be closely watched. Penpa Tsering, known as the Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), was speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, and compared Chinese policies to move Tibetan children into boarding schools, and DNA collection, to Australia’s past disgraced policy of removing indigenous children from families. Tsering said that Beijing kept flash points burning with India, Taiwan and in the South China Sea, but its priority was the economy, which was in a downturn with rising youth unemployment. “China is very insecure today so we have to keep watching the dynamism and see, because right now my analysis is if there is a threat to the survival of the [Chinese] Communist Party then they will definitely attack one of these places,” he said in response to reporters’ questions.
JAPAN
Eugenics report slammed
Campaigners yesterday slammed a government report into the sterilization of thousands under a eugenics law in place until 1996, saying it failed to take responsibility for the procedures. The 1,400-page report submitted to parliament this week details how about 16,500 people — including some as young as nine — were sterilized without their consent under the law in force from 1948. About 8,500 more were sterilized after their consent was obtained, though campaigners have cast doubt on how freely agreement was given. The law allowed doctors to sterilize people with heritable intellectual disabilities, to “prevent ... poor quality descendants.” In 2019, lawmakers passed legislation offering each victim government compensation of ￥3.2 million (US$22,533) — an amount campaigners called insufficient given the damage inflicted. Lawmakers also commissioned the report made public this week, which Koji Niisato, a lawyer who has represented victims of the policy, said fell short. It is “largely a compilation of what has been investigated and reported” which merely confirms “that it was an extremely terrible law,” he told journalists yesterday. However, “it lacks a summary of why this terrible law was enacted and existed for 48 years, and fails to mention why the government didn’t take responsibility even after the law was amended,” he said. “That is extremely regrettable.”
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
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