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 “The Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our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.
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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