FRANCE
Truckers block off Calais
Farmers and truckers launched a joint operation yesterday to block off main routes in and out of Calais to call for the closure of the vast “Jungle” migrant camp there. Under light rain, about 70 trucks began a “go-slow” on the main A16 motorway — the main artery for freight and passengers heading for Britain either via the Channel Tunnel or the port of Calais. Farmers were expected to join the demonstration later on their tractors and organizers hoped for up to 500 people to join a “human chain” protest in the main stadium later on Monday. “We’ve had no answers, so we’re blocking things up,” said Frederic Van Gansbeke, who represents businesses in Calais.
AUSTRALIA
Teen gets 10 years in jail
A teenager who plotted to run over and behead a police officer as part of an Islamic State group-inspired attack on Veterans’ Day has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Sevdet Besim pleaded guilty in the Victoria State Supreme Court in June to one count of planning for a terrorist act and had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison. Yesterday, the court instead ordered Besim to serve a 10-year prison term, with the possibility of parole after seven-and-a-half years. Prosecutors said Besim was involved in a plot to attack last year’s services in Melbourne or the neighboring city of Dandenong marking the annual commemoration of the 1915 Gallipoli landings.
UNITED STATES
Agency posts sarcastic tweet
A tarmac tiff between US and Chinese officials as US President Barack Obama arrived in Hangzhou prompted the posting — and prompt deleting — of an uncharacteristically sarcastic tweet by a US spy agency. “Classy as always China,” said the US Defense Intelligence Agency tweet, which was linked to a New York Times article about the incident. The post was quickly deleted, but not before the Wall Street Journal noticed it. The agency later tweeted its apology: “Earlier today, a tweet regarding a news article was mistakenly posted from this account & does not represent the views of the DIA. We apologize.”
UNITED STATES
Facebook ranter arrested
A Florida man who posted a Facebook rant threatening to kill gay people on Labor Day in a style he compared to the massacre at an Orlando nightclub and the killing of African-Americans by police officers has been arrested and charged with a federal crime, the FBI said in a statement. According to a criminal complaint released on Sunday by the FBI, Craig Allen Jungwirth, 50, a party promoter in Wilton Manors, Florida, wrote in a Facebook post early last week that his events were “selling out” because gay people were “total patsies.” “None of you deserve to live,” he wrote, according to the complaint. “If you losers thought the Pulse nightclub shooting was bad, wait till you see what I’m planning for Labor Day.”
UNITED STATES
Cop injured in shootout
A police officer remained in critical condition, but was showing signs of improvement, and a suspect was dead after two officers saw a robbery being committed outside an Atlantic City casino garage and exchanged gunfire. The shooting happened at about 2:30am on Saturday after the officers saw three men trying to rob three others, Acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Diane Ruberton said. The wounded officer was shot and injured as he exited his vehicle. The second officer returned fire and struck one of the suspects, who was found dead.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the