NEW ZEALAND
Coalition-forming talks held
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters met separately yesterday with Prime Minister Bill English and opposition Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern as both try to form a coalition government. Peters was tightlipped after the talks, but has said he would only make a decision on which party to back after the results of the Sept. 23 election become official on Thursday. “I can say that we’ve had an excellent, productive meeting,” Ardern told reporters after coming out of the two-hour meeting. “Negotiations will continue for Labour with the parties that we are looking to form a stable, durable, coalition government with.”
SYRIA
Turkish troops trade fire
Turkish forces yesterday exchanged fire with militants from al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate on the border of Idlib Province, a monitor and eyewitnesses said, a day after Ankara announced an imminent operation there. Yesterday morning Hayat Tahrir al-Sham coalition fighters opened fire on Turkish forces removing part of a wall along the border. While there were heavy exchanges of gunfire, the incident did not appear to mark the start of the operation Turkey mentioned on Saturday. Meanwhile, a final assault on Islamic State group’s last line of defense in its former capital of al-Raqqah was set to begin last night, a field commander for the US-backed forces operating there said.
CHINA
Million officials punished
The Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection yesterday announced that about 1.34 million lower-ranking officials have been punished since 2013 under President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) anti-corruption drive. Those punished include 648,000 village-level officials and most crimes were related to small scale corruption, the agency said. It said 155,000 country-level party bureaus have set up corruption policing mechanisms as of August, representing 94.8 percent of total bureaus.
INDONESIA
Dozens of gay men arrested
Dozens of men, including several foreigners, were arrested in a raid of a gay sauna in Jakarta, police said yesterday. Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said Friday’s raid in would lead to seven people being charged under the nation’s pornography law, including the sauna’s owner and staffers. They face penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines. The other 51 men will be released if they are found to not be criminals or carrying drugs, he said. “We treated them well,” he said. “They came out from the scene with proper clothes and their faces were covered.” He said police were still working to identify all of the men.
UNITED STATES
Only one vote to win
There is one person running for mayor of Manhattan, Montana, and he only needs to vote for himself to win. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports Glen Clements was the only person to apply to be a write-in candidate for the position on next month’s ballot. Under Montana law, any other write-in votes will not be counted because he is the only registered write-in candidate. If he had applied to be a formal candidate, all write-in votes would be counted. The navy veteran and geological engineer has lived in the town of about 1,500 people for six years. Clements said his neighbors — the city’s secretary and a police officer — told him no one was running and encouraged him to. He says he is excited to fill the position that no one else wanted.
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
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number