GAZA STRIP
New evacuations ordered
The Israeli military yesterday issued new evacuation orders for residents of Khan Yunis, after retrieving the bodies of five Israelis and warning of new operations. The UN said that more than 180,000 Palestinians have already fled fierce fighting in Khan Yunis since the military began an operation in the area last week. The evacuation orders and “intensified hostilities” have “significantly destabilized aid operations,” the UN said, reporting “dire water, hygiene and sanitation conditions” in the Palestinian territory. Israel ordered residents “to temporarily evacuate to the adjusted humanitarian area in al-Mawasi” — the second such adjustment made to the safe zone within a week.
CHINA
Gaemi brings heavy rains
More than 27,000 people in the northeast were evacuated and hundreds of factories were ordered to suspend production as Typhoon Gaemi brought heavy rains, the official Xinhua news agency reported on yesterday. Gaemi on Friday lashed towns in Fujian Province with heavy rains and strong winds as the most powerful storm to hit the country this year began its widely watched trek from the southeastern coast into the populous interior. Heavy rains caused water levels to rise in 40 reservoirs across Liaoning Province. The area is expected to experience torrential rain from early on today to Tuesday, the report said. Hundreds of chemical and mining companies across the province have suspended operations and nearby residents have been relocated to avoid flood risks, Xinhua said.
UNITED STATES
FBI confirms Trump shot
Nearly two weeks after former president Donald Trump’s near assassination, the FBI on Friday confirmed that it was indeed a bullet that struck the presidential candidate’s ear, moving to clear up conflicting accounts about what caused the former president’s injuries after a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally. “What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement. The one-sentence statement from the FBI marked the most definitive law enforcement account of Trump’s injuries and followed ambiguous comments earlier in the week from FBI Director Christopher Wray that appeared to cast doubt on whether Trump had actually been hit by a bullet. The comment drew fury from Trump and his allies and further stoked conspiracy theories that have flourished on both sides of the political aisle amid a dearth of information following the July 13 attack.
POLAND
Divers find Champagne haul
A team of Polish divers has discovered the wreckage of an old sailing ship loaded “to the brim” with luxury goods including porcelain items and about 100 bottles of Champagne and mineral water about 58m deep off the Swedish coast. They believe the precious goods could have been on the way to the royal table in Stockholm or the Russian tsar’s residence in St Petersburg when the ship sank some time in the second half of the 19th century, team leader Tomasz Stachura said. The private Baltictech group of divers, who searches for shipwrecks on the Baltic seabed, made the discovery on July 11 while checking spots of interest about 37km south of the isle of Oland. “I have been diving for 40 years, and it often happens that we find a bottle or two in a wreck, but to discover so much cargo, it’s a first for me,” Stachura said. He said he believes the contents are still in good condition.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home