RUSSIA
Fires threaten Arctic
Gigantic forest fires have regularly raged through Siberia’s vast expanse, but the magnitude of this year’s blazes has reached an exceptional level with fears of long-term effects on the environment. The fires, triggered by dry thunderstorms in temperatures higher than 30°C, were spread by strong winds, the Federal Forestry Agency said. Smoke has affected not only small settlements, but also major cities in Western Siberia and the Altai region, and disrupted air travel.
CYPRUS
Israelis to sue rape accuser
Israeli tourists released from custody after having been cleared of gang rape charges plan to sue the British woman who accused them, their lawyer said on Monday. Twelve young Israelis were arrested on July 12 after a 19-year-old British tourist said she was raped in a hotel in the resort town of Ayia Napa. Five of the accused were released on Thursday last week and the other seven on Sunday, as a police source said that the Briton was “facing charges of giving a false statement over an imaginary offense.” Cyprus-based Israeli lawyer Yaniv Habari said his clients would “pursue legal action against the person behind the false accusations that led to [their] being unjustly detained” for a week.
UNITED KINGDOM
Clown sparks cruise brawl
Media reported that six people were assaulted on board a cruise ship after a passenger dressed as a clown sparked a brawl. Richard Gaisford, an ITV journalist who was on board the cruise ship traveling from Bergen, Norway, to Southampton, said that security staff rushed to a buffet restaurant after the late-night melee. The brawl apparently started when a “passenger dressed as a clown” upset a group of other passengers, he said. A P&O Cruises spokesman said that all passengers had disembarked and police are investigating.
UNITED KINGDOM
Record temperature reached
The nation recorded its highest-ever temperature of 38.7°C in Cambridge on Thursday last week, the Met Office said on Monday, confirming an earlier provisional reading. The temperature was recorded at the University of Cambridge Botanic Garden, beating a previous record high of 38.5°C from August 2003. The office announced the result on Friday and on Monday said that it had been officially validated.
UNITED STATES
‘Souvenir’ launcher found
Security officers on Monday confiscated a missile launcher from a checked bag at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, with a Texas man saying it was a souvenir from Kuwait. “Fortunately the item was not a live device. It was confiscated and handed over to the state fire marshal for safe disposal. The man was permitted to catch his flight,” the Transportation Security Administration said.
BRAZIL
Arrests over gold theft
Police on Monday said that three people have been arrested over the theft of an estimated US$30 million of gold from Sao Paulo International Airport last week. Armed men impersonating federal police entered a warehouse at the airport on Friday afternoon, making off with more than 700kg of the precious metal. One of those detained worked at the airport and said that he had cooperated with the robbers after his family was kidnapped, local media reported. The gold, which had been en route to New York and Zurich, is still missing.
SINGAPORE
Robot whips up noodles
An engineering company has built a robot that can serve up a piping hot bowl of laksa, one of the city-state’s most well-known dishes, in just 45 seconds. The electric sous-chef, dubbed Sophie by its creators, can blanch noodles, add pre-cooked prawns and ladle spicy coconut soup at the rate of about 80 bowls per hour. “It’s excellent — I would say that there’s no difference between the one created by the robot and the one by the human,” said Paul Yong, a guest at Friday’s launch event catered by Orange Clove, which developed the machine with a local engineering company. Sophie would cut staffing for laksa stations from two chefs to one, with the human’s main role being to replenish the ingredients and keep the station clean.
HONG KONG
False PLA videos spike
Videos falsely claiming to show a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crackdown against pro-democracy protesters have flooded social media over the past week, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) investigation that has debunked multiple posts showed. The videos, viewed millions of times, have compounded fears about China’s potential intervention. Some false posts appeared shortly after a Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman last week highlighted in a news conference a law that allows PLA troops to be deployed at the request of the Hong Kong Legislative Council. One false video showed footage of PLA troops walking through a train station alongside a claim that they were “entering Hong Kong.” By yesterday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than 1.4 millions times. AFP found that the video was actually filmed in China.
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