AUSTRALIA
Kangaroo killers hunted
Three men accused of torturing and killing kangaroos are being hunted by police in Australia, just days after a man was arrested for intentionally mowing down emus in another high-profile animal cruelty case. Police in Western Australia yesterday released images of the men wanted for questioning over separate incidents in May and June during which “two kangaroos were tortured and killed.” A man was seen brandishing knuckle-dusters in one of the pictures, alongside another suspect with his face pixelated and wearing a similar weapon on his hand.
UNITED NATIONS
Macron-Trump bromance ends
When French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump met in New York on Monday, they shook hands lightly and got down to the tasks at hand. They agreed to disagree on the Iranian nuclear accord and Trump’s protectionist policies and one-sided support for Israel, according to two French presidential advisers. Hours after their meeting, the two men laid out starkly different worldviews in speeches at the UN General Assembly. “Nationalism always leads to defeat,” said the progressive, multilateralist Macron. “We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism,” said Trump, trumpeting his America first, zero-sum vision.
UNITED STATES
Owner of 3D gun firm resigns
An activist who garnered international attention for running a Texas company that sells blueprints for making untraceable 3D-printed guns has resigned from the firm that he founded after being arrested on charges of having sex with an underage girl. Cody Wilson on Friday evening tendered his resignation to tend to “personal matters,” Defense Distributed director of development Paloma Heindorff told a news conference on Tuesday. The company is at the center of a federal case in which several states sued to block it from posting plans to build 3D-printed guns online. Investigators allege the 30-year-old Wilson paid a 16-year-old girl US$500 after they had sex. Wilson was arrested in Taiwan and taken back to the US over the weekend. The Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said of Wilson: “We doubt that his movement will die with his resignation.”
MEXICO
Acapulco police disarmed
Authorities in southern Mexico on Tuesday disarmed and placed under investigation the entire police force in the once-glittering resort of Acapulco, claiming the local cops were infiltrated by drug gangs. Officials in Guerrero state issued arrest warrants for two top Acapulco police commanders, accusing them of homicide. The state government said it took the step “because of suspicion that the force had probably been infiltrated by criminal groups” and “the complete inaction of the municipal police in fighting the crime wave.”
PERU
Bus falls into river, killing 21
Authorities have said a bus collided with a car on a mountain road in the Andes, then crashed down into a river at the foot of a canyon, killing at least 21 people. At least 15 injured people had been found, Police Captain Marco Llanos said on Tuesday, adding that authorities were still searching the scene of the crash, which happened on Monday. Chumbivilcas Mayor David Vera said the bus was traveling from Cuzco to Santo Tomas. In January, the nation recorded its deadliest crash in four decades when 52 people were killed as a bus plunged down a steep slope near the capital of Lima.
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
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
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not