UNITED STATES
Singer denies cult report
Rhythm and blues singer R. Kelly on Monday denied an article by media outlet BuzzFeed News that he was keeping a household of young women in a “cult” atmosphere. “Mr Robert Kelly is both alarmed and disturbed at the recent revelations attributed to him. Mr Kelly unequivocally denies such allegations and will work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name,” Kelly’s attorney Linda Mensch said in a statement. Kelly has not been charged with any crime. BuzzFeed said in an e-mailed statement: “We stand fully behind the story, which was based on nine months of interviews and old-fashioned investigative reporting.” The article cited interviews with two families and three former associates of Kelly. The article cited one mother saying that the set-up was a “cult.” The article said all of the women were over the age of consent. Some family members cited in the article expressed frustration at limited communications with their daughters.
UNITED STATES
Brady corn maze planned
A Massachusetts farm is honoring Tom Brady with a corn maze designed in his image. Sauchuk’s Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch in the town of Plympton said on Sunday that its 10th corn maze is to feature the New England Patriots’ star quarterback. The maze is to open on Sept. 16. The design has been unveiled on the farm’s Facebook page. Boston.com reported that the crops would not be fashioned into the shape of Brady until closer to the farm’s opening day. Farm owner Scott Sauchuk plants and grows the corn, which he says is a 90 to 100-day process. A company will then spend one day chopping the corn into the desired shape.
BRAZIL
Protests hit plant work
Construction of a power plant on the Teles Pires river was paralyzed by protesting members of the Munduruku people, a leader of the movement told reporters on Monday. The protesters are demanding the formal demarcation of indigenous land they claim and the return of burial urns that they said had disappeared during the construction work, the leader said. “The works have been completely halted... We will remain here until our demands are met,” said Valdenir Munduruku, one of the group’s leaders.
UNITED STATES
Bison attacks hiker
An Alaskan hiker said he was lucky to be alive after a bison gored his thigh in North Dakota on June 30. Michael Turk said that if the giant animal had hit his femoral artery, the largest artery in the body, he would have died. “I know I was lucky to be alive,” Turk told the Minot Daily News. The 51-year-old former army combat medic was camping in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. He said he passed the bison on Buckhorn Trail when he went to photograph the sunset. He encountered the same bison on his return, but did not keep the recommended 23m distance as he walked by. “I was too close, it was my fault. It was getting dark,” Turk said.
ARGENTINA
Cold weather kills two
Officials say cold weather and freezing temperatures from a polar wave have killed two people. Those who died were are a 54-year-old homeless man in the seaside resort city of Mar del Plata and a 41-year-old man living in a shack in Santa Fe Province. Officials on Monday said that both died of hypothermia. The National Meteorological Service said the cold front came all the way from the South Pole, with temperatures as low as minus-7oC.
PHILIPPINES
Duterte asks for extension
President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday asked Congress to extend martial law in the south until the end of the year, saying the rebellion there would not be quelled by Saturday, the end of his 60-day martial law proclamation. Duterte declared martial law on May 23 following a bloody siege of the southern city of Marawi by Islamic State group-aligned militants. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella read a letter to the Senate and the House of Representatives asking for an extension of emergency rule until Dec. 31.
AUSTRALIA
Another senator quits
In less than a week, a second senator has announced she is quitting Parliament after discovering she has dual nationality and had therefore never really been elected. Larissa Waters, co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens party, yesterday said that she is quitting after six years as a senator after the Canadian High Commission in Canberra told her that she is Canadian. On Friday, the Greens’ other co-deputy, Scott Ludlam, revealed that he was a citizen of New Zealand as well as Australia, which made him ineligible for the senate job he has held since July 2008. The Australian constitution states that a “citizen of a foreign power” is not eligible to be elected to Parliament.
AUSTRALIA
US police shooting stuns
Airwaves, newspapers and Web sites have been dominated by the death of a Sydney woman shot by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. News of Justine Damond’s death when she was shot by a Minneapolis police officer late on Saturday has stunned many in her homeland. The shooting has also fed into the nations’ darkest fears about the US’ culture of gun violence. Yesterday’s front-page headline in Damond’s hometown newspaper summarized the reaction in blunt terms: “American nightmare.” The US’ reluctance to strengthen its gun regulations and its seemingly endless stream of shooting deaths have long confused and concerned Australians.
UNITED KINGDOM
May tells MPs to stop spat
Prime Minister Theresa May told Conservative Party lawmakers that they should stop backbiting or risk letting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn into power, Sky News reported. After she lost her majority in a botched election gamble, some senior ministers have resorted to public bickering over Brexit and state spending as they maneuver in expectation she will soon be toppled. At a summer party for Conservative lawmakers, May told them that there should be “no backbiting, no carping,” Sky said. “The choice is me or Jeremy Corbyn — and nobody wants him.” May said, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
JORDAN
Fight to bring aid to Syrians
Obstacles are mounting in the struggle to aid tens of thousands of Syrians stranded near the nation’s border. UN agencies reluctantly agreed last year to hand much of the control over aid shipments to the Jordanian military, a private contractor and a Syrian militia. Since then, the system has broken down repeatedly and only sporadic aid deliveries have reached the two remote desert camps. Rival groups accuse each other of diverting aid supplies and black marketers have flourished. Critics said the struggle to provide aid reflects the international community’s wider failure in responding to the refugee crisis. About 5 million Syrians have fled their homeland since 2011 and countless more are displaced.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia