AUSTRALIA
Heat wave prompts fire alerts
Large parts of the country yesterday sweltered under heat wave conditions that prompted the nation’s weather forecaster to issue bush fire warnings in several states. In New South Wales, the most populous state, more than 50 fires were burning yesterday, and a total fire ban was in place for many areas, including Sydney, the state’s rural fire service said. The agency wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that more than 700 firefighters and incident management personnel were working statewide to fight blazes amid “widespread high and extreme fire danger.”
RUSSIA
Ex-Moscow official missing
A former Moscow councilor who was sentenced to seven years in jail for denouncing the conflict in Ukraine has disappeared from prison, his supporters said on Friday. Allies of Alexei Gorinov say he needs medical attention and that they are concerned about the state of his health. His case parallels that of Russia’s most famous political detainee, Alexei Navalny, who has not been seen since early this month. “Alexei Gorinov’s lawyers have been trying all week to get information about his health and whereabouts,” his support group said. “We can say that Alexei is not in penal colony No. 2 in Pokrov.”
CHINA
Race organizers sentenced
Organizers of a 2021 ultramarathon during which 21 runners died in extreme weather conditions have been sentenced to years in prison for their roles, state media reported. Five individuals involved in planning the ill-fated event were issued jail terms ranging from three years to five-and-a-half years by a court in Baiyin in Gansu Province, where the deaths occurred, state-run Xinhua news agency reported late on Friday. In May 2021, the 100km cross-country mountain race turned deadly as freezing rain, high winds and hail hit the competitors. The five defendants were convicted for “organizing a large-scale event that led to a significant safety incident,” Xinhua said.
UNITED STATES
Satanic display destroyed
A Satanic Temple display inside the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines was destroyed, with a former US Navy fighter pilot who was recently defeated in a statehouse election in Mississippi accused of causing the damage. The display, permitted by rules that govern religious installations inside the Capitol, has drawn criticism. The Satanic Temple on Thursday wrote on Facebook that the display, known as a Baphomet statue, “was destroyed beyond repair,” although part of it remains. Michael Cassidy, 35, of Lauderdale, Mississippi, was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, the Iowa Department of Public Safety said on Friday.
UNITED STATES
Ketamine killed ‘Friends’ star
Matthew Perry died from the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine, the results of an autopsy on the 54-year-old Friends actor released on Friday showed. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said in the autopsy report that Perry also drowned in “the heated end of his pool,” but that it was a secondary factor in his Oct. 28 death, deemed an accident. People close to Perry told investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy, an experimental treatment used to treat depression and anxiety. The medical examiner said the levels of ketamine in Perry’s body were in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery, and that his last treatment one-and-a-half weeks earlier would not explain those levels.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home