ISRAEL
Enlistment order protested
Hundreds of men on Thursday blocked a major highway for two hours to protest a recent Supreme Court decision ordering young religious men to enlist for military service. Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel, but some parties have won draft exemptions that allow study in religious seminaries as an alternative. Protesters sat on the highway and lay on the ground as police lifted them up and dragged them away. Many demonstrators held signs and chanted: “To prison, not to the army.” A protester who gave only his first name, Ozer, said: “We all came here for one goal, we reflect the position of all the Orthodox public. All the Orthodox public prefers to go to prison and not to the army.” The Supreme Court this week ordered the government to begin drafting Orthodox men, saying that the system of exemptions is unequal.
UNITED STATES
Oklahoma mandates Bible
Oklahoma on Thursday ordered public schools to teach the Bible. “Every teacher, every classroom in the state, will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible,” state superintendent Ryan Walters told a news conference, adding that a memo would go to all school districts outlining the new rule. “The Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our legal system,” Walters said. The announcement came one week after the governor of Louisiana signed into law a measure requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public school classrooms. The Louisiana law is facing a legal challenge. Walters last week said that he hoped to be able to replicate the Louisiana measure in his state. “We’ve got to bring God back in school and not allow the radical left to turn our schools into atheist centers that only speak about our country without any kind of influence by their faith,” he told Fox News.
UNITED STATES
Kinkajou found in north
Why did the kinkajou cross the road? And what is a kinkajou, anyway? One of the mammals — which look like a cross between a monkey and a tiny bear — was found far from its normal rainforest habitat on Sunday at a highway rest stop amid the rolling sagebrush plains of central Washington state, officials said. Kinkajous have prehensile tails and this one was spotted climbing on a tall wooden post along Interstate 82 southeast of Yakima, the state Department of Transportation wrote on X. “We don’t know if it was dropped off or escaped,” the post said. The animal was rescued by the state Fish and Wildlife Department. Kinkajous are carnivores that live in tropical rainforests from southern Mexico through Brazil, said the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, where the creature was taken to live temporarily. With sandy-yellow fur, round ears and big dark eyes, they are capable of grasping objects and are often mistakenly called primates, the zoo said. “Despite their cuteness, kinkajous do not make good pets,” the zoo said. This particular kinkajou was being quarantined in the zoo’s hospital to help ensure it does not spread any diseases. It would undergo a comprehensive wellness exam this week, officials said. Kinkajous are not endangered, but are hunted for their fur, and the illegal exotic pet trade threatens their population, the zoo 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
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
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
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