ISRAEL
Netanyahu recovering
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still undergoing tests in a hospital yesterday after a dizzy spell, but was expected to be released later in the day, his office said. The 73-year-old leader was rushed to a hospital on Saturday after feeling mild dizziness. His office said test results yesterday were normal and that he was feeling “very good.” He had spent the previous day at the Sea of Galilee, a popular vacation spot where temperatures climbed to about 40°C, his office said. After a series of tests, the initial assessment was that he was dehydrated. After being hospitalized, Netanyahu released a video on social media last night. Smiling, he said that he had been out in the sun on Friday without wearing a hat and without water. “Not a good idea,” he said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Wallace plans to exit
Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace said in an interview published on Saturday that he would step down at the next Cabinet reshuffle and not contest the next general election. Wallace, 53, has been a leading figure in Western allies’ support for Ukraine against Russia and was the UK’s pick to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general. He failed to get crucial US backing to succeed him, and Stoltenberg has extended his term at the head of the alliance. The decision was because his constituency in northwest England was being scrapped under boundary changes, he told the Sunday Times. Wallace, a straight-talking former British army officer, has been in the UK parliament for 18 years, and is the longest-serving Conservative defense secretary since Winston Churchill.
FRANCE
War photographer dies at 75
Marie-Laure de Decker, the model who stepped behind the camera to become an internationally recognized war photographer, has died at the age of 75, her family said on Saturday. She died in a hospital on Saturday following a long illness, her family said. Born in Algeria — when it was still a French colony — she started her career as a model before deciding to branch out into photography. She covered the Vietnam War early in her career and met with success despite her relative lack of experience. She is also known for her photos of celebrities, the money from which helped finance her missions in conflict zones, she had said. “When you take photos of the poor, no one’s interested. You have to take photos of the rich to sell [them].” In 2013, her work in conflict zones was recognized by the Albert Kahn International Planet Prize.
UNITED STATES
Prisoner flees on bed sheets
Looking dirty, wet and “worn out” from living in the wilderness to evade arrest, a homicide suspect who used bed sheets to escape a northern Pennsylvania jail has been captured, authorities said. Michael Burham, 34, fled the Warren County jail in the late evening hours of July 6 by climbing on exercise equipment, going through a window and scaling down a rope fashioned from jail bedding, authorities said. He was found on Saturday after authorities received a tip about a suspicious-looking person, they said. Burham had taught himself survival skills and had military reserve training, authorities said. Before his capture, law enforcement personnel had found “small stockpiles or campsites” believed to be associated with him.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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