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 “The Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our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.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
IT’S A DEAL? Including the phrase ‘overlapping claims’ in a Chinese-Indonesian joint statement over the weekend puts Jakarta’s national interests at risk, critics say Indonesia yesterday said it does not recognize China’s claims over the South China Sea, despite signing a maritime development deal with Beijing, as some analysts warned the pact risked compromising its sovereign rights. Beijing has long clashed with Southeast Asian neighbors over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety, based on a “nine-dash line” on its maps that cuts into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of several countries. Joint agreements with China in the strategic waterway have been sensitive for years, with some nations wary of deals they fear could be interpreted as legitimizing Beijing’s vast claims. In 2016,
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