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.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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