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.
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
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
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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