AUSTRALIA
Indigenous heads lament loss
Indigenous leaders yesterday called for a week of silence and reflection after a referendum to recognize First Peoples in the constitution was decisively rejected. More than 60 percent on Saturday voted “no” in the landmark referendum that asked whether to alter the constitution to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people with an indigenous advisory body that would have advised parliament on matters concerning the community. “This is a bitter irony,” indigenous leaders said in a statement. “That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason.” They said they would lower the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flag to half-mast for the week and urged others to do the same.
UNITED KINGDOM
Michael Caine retires at 90
Veteran British actor Michael Caine, a Hollywood icon with a decades-spanning career littered with awards and acclaim, on Saturday said that he has retired from acting at the age of 90. The Oscar-winner bowed out following another widely praised performance in his final film, The Great Escaper, which was released on Oct. 6. “I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well I am now,” Caine told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “The only parts I’m liable to get now are 90-year-old men. Or maybe 85. They’re not going to be the lead. You don’t have leading men at 90, you’re going to have young handsome boys and girls. So I thought, I might as well leave with all this.” A prolific actor known for his amiable Cockney persona and deadpan acting style, Caine has appeared in more than 160 films during his seven-decade career.
FRANCE
Louvre, Versailles evacuated
The Louvre Museum in Paris and Versailles Palace on Saturday evacuated visitors and staff after receiving bomb threats, police said. The evacuations of two of the world’s most-visited tourist sites came amid heightened vigilance around the country following a fatal school stabbing by a suspected Islamic extremist. Alarms rang out through the Louvre when the evacuation was announced, and in the underground shopping center beneath its signature pyramid. Paris police said officers searched the museum after it received written bomb threats. The Louvre communication service said no one was hurt and no bomb was found. The former royal palace at Versailles also received bomb threats, and the palace and its gardens were evacuated while police examined the area.
UNITED STATES
Piper Laurie dies aged 91
Piper Laurie, the strong-willed, Oscar-nominated actor who performed in acclaimed roles despite at one point abandoning acting altogether in search of a “more meaningful” life, died early on Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91. Laurie died of old age, her manager, Marion Rosenberg, said via e-mail, adding that she was “a superb talent and a wonderful human being.” Laurie arrived in Hollywood in 1949 as Rosetta Jacobs and was quickly given a contract with Universal-International, a new name that she hated and a string of starring roles with Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, among others. She went on to receive Academy Award nominations for three distinct films: The 1961 poolroom drama The Hustler, the 1976 film version of Stephen King’s horror classic Carrie and the 1986 romantic drama Children of a Lesser God.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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