CHINA
Israel embassy man stabbed
A 50-year-old Israeli man who works at the Israeli embassy in Beijing was on Friday stabbed in front of a supermarket, Chinese police and the Israeli government said. Beijing police said they had arrested a suspect, a 53-year-old foreign man. They described the victim as a family member of an Israeli diplomat. No motive was given for the attack. “The employee was transferred to hospital and he is in a stable condition,” the Israeli government said in a statement, without giving more details. A video posted on social media showed a man with a knife grappling with another man on the ground and stabbing him several times, leaving a trail of blood stains on the sidewalk.
SINGAPORE
Man indicted for bomb threat
An Australian man was on Saturday charged for making a false bomb threat on board a Perth-bound plane. Hawkins Kevin Francis, 30, faces up to 10 years in jail, a fine not exceeding S$500,000 (US$364,830) or both on conviction. Flight TR16 operated by budget carrier Scoot was forced to turn back to the city-state an hour into the journey on Thursday after the threat was made. The air force scrambled fighter jets to escort the aircraft back and the plane landed safely. Police said the threat was false. A district court ordered him to be remanded to an institute of mental health for two weeks for psychiatric observation.
RUSSIA
Navalny lawyers detained
Moscow on Friday detained three lawyers of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and raided their homes, aides said. Navalny is the country’s most prominent opposition politician and mobilized huge anti-government rallies before he was jailed in 2021 on fraud charges that his allies at home and abroad say are punitive. Lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexey Liptser, who have all defended Navalny in the past, have been remanded in pretrial detention until at least Dec. 13. Kobzev was due in court on Friday to represent Navalny in a lawsuit he has launched against his prison, but several aides said he was absent. “This is why it’s all being done: so that Alexei is left without legal protection,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said. “And to send a signal to other lawyers: it is dangerous to defend him and other political prisoners.”
UNITED STATES
NK sent Russia arms: Kirby
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday Pyongyang had provided Russia with 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions. “We condemn the DPRK for providing Russia with this military equipment, which will be used to attack Ukrainian cities, kill Ukrainian civilians and further Russia’s illegitimate war,” Kirby said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name. Kirby said the US is also concerned about Russia in turn providing assistance to North Korea.
UNITED STATES
Poet Louise Gluck dies
Poet Louise Gluck, winner of the Nobel prize for her distinctively austere writing that touched on themes of mythology and the universal human experience, has died, a Yale University spokeswoman said on Friday. She was 80. The New York native most recently taught at Yale as a poetry professor. She died of cancer on Friday at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the New York Times reported, citing friend and former Yale colleague Richard Deming. Gluck was the 2020 Nobel laureate in literature, the 16th woman to win the award.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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