UNITED KINGDOM
Hundreds charged in raid
More than 450 people were charged and hundreds of thousands of cannabis plants worth millions of US dollars seized in a massive operation throughout last month, police said yesterday. Cannabis production is a cash cow for organized crime, fueling gang violence as groups compete for territory, police said. Operation Mille saw searches and arrests carried out across England and Wales “at a scale and pace not seen before,” said Steve Jupp, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for serious organized crime. “Nearly 200,000 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of between ￡115 [million] to ￡130 million [US$147 million to US$166 million] were seized,” police added in a statement. About 1,000 people were arrested and of those, “more than 450 were later charged,” it said.
PHILIPPINES
Marcos pardons farmer debt
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday wrote off US$1.04 billion in land-related debt owed by more than half a million farmers, a move aimed at boosting food production. The “New Agrarian Emancipation Act” he signed into law waived all property-related debt owed by farmers who had been given land on 30-year payment terms under a 1988 land reform program, but had been unable to pay. “We know these farmers do not have the means to pay this huge debt, so putting it under the government’s tab is the right thing to do,” Marcos said at a signing ceremony at the presidential palace. The writing off of the loans, which were issued by government banks, meant “we are doing everything in order to feed our people,” he added.
ITALY
Fire kills six, injures 80
A fire that broke out in a Milan nursing home early yesterday killed six of the residents and injured about 80 others, firefighters said. The blaze began at about 1:30am, apparently in the room of two female residents, who were among the dead, they said, adding that three other women and a man died in the fire. Among the injured, two were in critical condition, while most of the others were being treated for smoke inhalation, they told Italian state radio. Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the national firefighters corps, said firefighters were investigating the cause of the blaze, which was contained by early morning. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who came to the scene, told reporters that the 100 or so residents of the nursing home who were not injured were being transferred to other facilities in the city.
UNITED STATES
Teen gets life for murder
The first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high-school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat was on Thursday sentenced to life with a possibility of parole after 35 years in prison. District Court Judge Shawn Showers sentenced Willard Miller after a sentencing hearing that lasted more than seven hours. Miller and another teen, Jeremy Goodale, had pleaded guilty in April to the 2021 attack on Nohema Graber. Showers acknowledged Miller’s young age, but added that he had “cut Nohema Graber’s precious life short,” devastating her family and the community. “I find that your intent and actions were sinister and evil. Those acts resulted in the intentional loss of human life in a brutal fashion,” Showers said. “There is no excuse.” Before being sentenced, Miller said in court that he accepted responsibility for the killing and apologized to the Graber family. Goodale is to be sentenced later.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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