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 “The Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our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.
The Pentagon is bolstering its presence in the Middle East with ships, fighter planes and ballistic missile defense vessels as Israel faces threats from Iran to avenge assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. The moves announced on Friday by the US Department of Defense came a day after the White House said that US President Joe Biden promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the US would provide new “defensive US military deployments.” The deployments include sending additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to the US European and Central Command regions, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement on Friday.
The Burmese military withdrew from some positions close to China’s border to prioritize the “safety of people,” the junta chief said, days after an alliance of ethnic armed groups said they had routed state troops in the area. Shan State in eastern Myanmar has been rocked by fighting since late June when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) renewed an offensive against the military along a major trade highway to China. “With regard to the situation of Shan State, security forces withdrew their positions by considering the security of current areas and safety of people,” Min Aung Hlaing said in a
HUGE: The Park Fire, which has destroyed more than 162,200 hectares, was allegedly started by a man who was charged on suspicion of pushing a flaming car down a gully More than 6,000 firefighters in California’s Central Valley on Saturday continued to battle the largest blaze in the US, which burned its way into the history books as the state’s fourth-largest conflagration on record. There was barely a taste of rain on Saturday from thunderstorms that brought wind and rainfall of zero to 2.5mm, forecasters said. Heat of 38°C along with winds up to 40kph or more in some spots, offered little relief to the firefighters trying to contain the Park Fire, scorching the wilderness terrain about 161km north of Sacramento, the state capital. “We had some thunderstorms that just brought us
END OF HONEYMOON? While voter enthusiasm for the US vice president has been high, it is very likely she will come under tougher scrutiny for Biden administration positions US Vice President Kamala Harris, a daughter of immigrants who rose through the California political and law enforcement ranks to become the first female vice president in US history, on Monday formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination — becoming the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket. More than four years after her first attempt at the presidency collapsed, Harris’ coronation as her party’s standard-bearer caps a tumultuous and frenetic period for Democrats prompted by US President Joe Biden’s disastrous June debate performance that shattered his own supporters’ confidence in his re-election prospects.race. Harris’ nomination became official after a