UNITED KINGDOM
Yulia Skripal disharged
Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, has been discharged from hospital, reports said. Just more than a month after the pair were found collapsed on a park bench in Salisbury, England, after being poisoned with a nerve agent, the BBC yesterday said that Yulia Skripal, 33, had left Salisbury district hospital. The BBC said she had been taken to a secure location, though a hospital spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
BRAZIL
Jailed Lula to join election
Jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will register his candidacy to return to the nation’s highest office at the deadline for October’s election. The Workers’ Party announced after an eight-hour meeting on Monday that Lula remains its candidate and will have his bid registered on the final filing day, Aug. 15. Current legislation allows the electoral court to reject Lula’s candidacy due to his conviction. Despite being convicted of corruption and money laundering, Lula leads polls on the race for the presidency, an office he held in 2003 to 2010. He can still appeal his conviction.
UNITED STATES
Think tank on Korea closes
The US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies said that the South Korean government has terminated its funding, forcing it to close after it rejected demands to change its leadership. Institute chairman Robert Gallucci said the think tank would close next month after rejecting what he called “utterly inappropriate meddling” in its academic affairs. The institute conducts graduate studies on Korean affairs, but is best known for the Web site 38 North, a well-respected source of information on North Korea. The funding cut has been met with surprise in Washington.
AUSTRALIA
Melon farm cleared for sales
A New South Wales farm has recommenced selling cantaloupes, despite being blamed for an outbreak of the deadly listeria bacteria that the WHO said killed seven people and caused a miscarriage in the nation. The UN agency on Monday said that the Australian cantaloupes, known as rockmelons, were exported to Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and may also have been sent to the Seychelles. The agency said that between January and this month, the nation reported 19 confirmed cases and one probable case of listeria poisoning, including seven fatal. Authorities tracked the contamination to Rombola Family Farms. The New South Wales Food Authority last week said that Rombola had recommenced supplying rockmelons after testing cleared the property of contamination.
UNITED STATES
Naked jogger braves cold
With Baltimore temperatures hovering at about 4°C, a naked jogger may have pruned, but he certainly proved to be no prude. The Baltimore Sun reported that the sight of the naked man jogging through downtown Baltimore jolted commuters during Monday’s morning rush hour. In addition to clothes, the man eschewed shoes as he slowly trotted past a hospital and a courthouse. Witnesses reported the man did not seem lost or confused. Attorney Nicholas Panteleakis said he stopped at a traffic light 1.5m to 3m from the cardio enthusiast. Baltimore police spokeswoman Detective Nicole Monroe said that officers drove up the street in response to several 911 calls, but the man had disappeared, evading an indecent exposure charge.
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
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
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