ISRAEL
Soldier killed in truck attack
A Palestinian truck driver yesterday killed an Israeli soldier in a ramming attack on a checkpoint on the boundary with the occupied West Bank, and was shot dead during an ensuing pursuit, Israeli police and medical officials said. The military said only that three of its troops were injured in the incident on the Israeli side of Maccabim checkpoint. Medical officials said one of them had died. Police initially said the driver, who had a permit to work in Israel, was shot and wounded outside the Palestinian village of Nilin. He was later pronounced dead, police said, describing the incident as a terrorist attack.
UNITED STATES
McConnell ‘freezes’ again
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday appeared to freeze again while taking questions from reporters at an event in Kentucky, raising fresh questions about the 81-year-old’s health. McConnell abruptly stopped and stared ahead for more than 30 seconds after a reporter asked his thoughts on running for re-election in 2026. An NBC reporter posted a video of the exchange on social media platform X. Eventually, a woman standing next to him stepped forward to ask if he had heard the question. When he did not move, she said to the group: “I’m sorry we’re going to be a minute.” Then she and another person went to him. Seconds later he said: “Okay,” but did not respond to the question. In July, McConnell briefly froze during a news conference on Capitol Hill. He was led away for a few minutes, but then returned to the microphones and said he was “fine” and able to do his job.
PHILIPPINES
Factory fire kills 15 people
A fire yesterday killed 15 people in a small apparel factory in Quezon City, where firefighters were delayed by flooding, traffic and a wrong address, a fire protection official said. Most of the victims appeared to be factory workers and carpenters who were sleeping in rooms when the fire broke out yesterday morning. Some were found dead on an aisle outside the rooms, and the factory owner and his child were among the dead, Bureau of Fire Protection Chief Superintendent Nahum Tarroza said. Three people survived with injuries by jumping off the second floor of the two-story factory in panic, and were taken to a hospital, Tarroza said. The firefighters’ arrival was delayed by about 14 minutes after a monsoon-season downpour and wind caused flooding and traffic jams, and a wrong address was given to firefighters, he said, adding that he would order an investigation into the firefighters’ delayed response.
ITALY
PM’s partner draws fire
The partner of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been accused of victim blaming after comments he made about rape on his television talk show. Andrea Giambruno, who hosts the Diario del giorno (Daily Diary) program on the Rete 4 commercial station, was commenting after a gang rape of a young woman in Palermo hit the headlines. “If you go dancing, you have every right to get drunk — there shouldn’t be any kind of misunderstanding and any kind of problem — but if you avoid getting drunk and losing your senses, you might also avoid running into certain problems and coming across a wolf,” he said on Monday night. Opposition politicians condemned the comments. “I say to Giambruno that boys should be educated to show respect, rather than girls taught to be careful. Teach them [males] the value of consent, rather than girls to be wary,” Partito Democratico Senator Cecilia D’Elia said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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