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 “The Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the history of this country, to have a complete understanding of Western civilization, to have an understanding of the basis of our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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS