ISRAEL
Armenian bill delayed
The government postponed voting on a bill to recognize the “Armenian genocide” over concern its advancement could benefit Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the June 24 elections, an official said yesterday. A ministerial committee was due to hold a preliminary vote on the bill yesterday. “The foreign ministry advised prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] to postpone the discussion on recognizing the Armenian genocide until after the elections in Turkey, since such a discussion is liable to aid Erdogan in the elections,” ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement. “The prime minister accepted the foreign ministry’s recommendation.
CUBA
New constitution planned
Legislators on Saturday took the first step toward drafting a new constitution. President Miguel Diaz-Canel convened a special session of parliament to propose a list of people to undertake a rewrite of the Soviet-era charter. Delegates gave their approval for a commission presided over by former president Raul Castro and about 30 others, including Diaz-Canel. There is no pending draft, but officials have made clear that the constitution will maintain a Communist Party-led system in which freedom of speech, the press and other rights are limited by “the purposes of socialist society.” One change expected to be adapted would limit presidents to two five-year terms and impose an age limit.
VENEZUELA
More activists released
The government on Saturday freed dozens more opposition activists from jail, bringing to almost 80 the number of prisoners whose release authorities hope will unite the nation. Among the 40 people released were two substitute lawmakers, one of whom had been held since 2014 for allegedly inciting violence in protests that year. Authorities said more releases could take place this week. Those freed have been barred from speaking with the press or on social media.
CANADA
Ontario premier concedes
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne on Saturday conceded defeat ahead of Thursday’s election, but called on voters to vote for her party to keep the next government in check. Wynne, who has been premier since 2013 and whose Liberal Party has governed for 15 years, told reporters she will not be premier after the poll. Her decision came as the left-leaning New Democrats have gained ground, according to opinion polls, setting up a two-way race with the right-leaning Progressive Conservatives.
UNITED KINGDOM
Cumberbatch a hero
British actor Benedict Cumberbatch has been hailed as a hero for an incident in November last year in which he chased away four assailants trying to steal a delivery cyclist’s bicycle in London. Cumberbatch, 41, jumped out of his Uber tazi and ran to the aid of the Deliveroo cyclist as he was set upon by the muggers, the Sun reported on Saturday. “The cyclist was lucky, Benedict’s a superhero,” the Uber driver, Manuel Dias, told the paper. “Benedict was courageous, brave and selfless. If he hadn’t stepped in the cyclist could have been seriously injured.” “One of the males attempted to grab the victim’s cycle... He was then punched in the face, struck on the head and hit with his helmet,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement, adding that no arrests have been made.” No explanation has been given as to why the incident was only just reported.
INDIA
Pakistan kills border forces
Two paramilitary soldiers were yesterday killed and eight civilians wounded when Pakistani soldiers attacked dozens of forward posts along the highly militarized frontier in the disputed state of Kashmir, officials said. Border guards said that Pakistan “yet again blatantly” violated the 2003 ceasefire agreement and they were retaliating. They said the Pakistani shelling was “indiscriminate and unprovoked” and was not just targeting paramilitary outposts, but also villages. Local authorities were first trying to evacuate sick and injured villagers living near the frontier in bulletproof vehicles amid intense shelling and automatic gunfire, police officer S.D. Singh said. Singh said police have kept temporary shelters ready to receive frontier residents.
AFGHANISTAN
Half of children not in school
Nearly half of all children in the country are out of school due to conflict, poverty, child marriage and discrimination against girls, with the number rising for the first time since 2002, humanitarian organizations said in a report yesterday. Spreading violence has forced many schools to close, undermining fragile gains in education for girls. About 3.7 million children between the ages of seven and 17, or 44 percent of all children, are out of school, 2.7 million of them girls, Afghan Minister of Education Mirwais Balkhi told a seminar explaining a study conducted by UNICEF, the US Agency for International Development and the independent Samuel Hall think tank. “Education of children is the most important development in all human communities,” he said. “It is the most important tool in fighting war, poverty and unemployment.” In the worst affected provinces, up to 85 percent of girls are not going to school, the aid groups said.
SAUDI ARABIA
Eight rights activists freed
The government temporarily released eight people accused of communicating with organizations opposed to the kingdom as it kept nine others in detention, state news agency SPA said on Saturday. The public prosecutor said they had interrogated people arrested last month identified by human rights groups and campaigners as women’s rights activists. The detainees have admitted to communicating and cooperating with individuals and organizations opposed to the kingdom, recruiting people to get secret information to hurt the country’s interests, and offering material and emotional support to hostile elements abroad, the public prosecutor said. The statement did not identify the detainees. A total of 17 people have been arrested, eight of whom have been temporarily released, including five women and three men, the statement said. Nine people, five men and four women remain in detention “after sufficient evidence was made available and for their confessions of charges attributed to them.”
THAILAND
Whale swallows plastic, dies
A small male pilot whale has died on a southern beach after swallowing more than 80 plastic bags, officials said, ending an attempted rescue that failed to nurse the mammal back to health. It was found barely alive in a canal near the border with Malaysia, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources said on Facebook on Saturday. A veterinary team tried “to help stabilize its illness, but finally the whale died” on Friday afternoon, the post said. An autopsy revealed 80 plastic bags weighing 8kg in the animal’s stomach, the department added. The whale vomited up five bags during the rescue attempt before it died, the department said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion