FRANCE
Heatwaves kill 1,500 people
Two heatwaves that hit the nation this summer claimed more than 1,500 more lives, Minister of Solidarity and Health Agnes Buzyn said on Sunday. However, that toll was significantly lower than the disastrous summer of 2003, when an estimated 15,000 people died during an August heatwave, she said in a radio interview. This year’s heatwaves hit in June and July, with a new high temperature of 46°C recorded in the south on June 28. While the 2003 heatwave lasted 20 days in all, this year’s lasted for 18, in two separate heatwaves, the second covering a large part of the nation, Buzyn added.
SOUTH SUDAN
Kiir, Machar to meet
Former rebel leader Riek Machar was yesterday due to make a rare visit to the capital, Juba, and meet President Salva Kiir, officials said, raising hopes for progress in a stalled peace process. The two men signed a pact a year ago to end a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and wrecked the economy, but the rollout of the accord, which called for a unity government, has been delayed because the government says it does not have enough money to fund disarmament and the integration of all the armed factions. “The meeting aims at discussing the outstanding issues related to the implementation of the R-ARCSS [peace deal] with President Kiir and other head of the parties to the agreement,” said Puok Both Baluang, Machar’s director for information.
BRAZIL
Bolsonaro under knife again
President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday underwent surgery to repair an abdominal hernia, his fourth operation since being stabbed in the stomach a year ago at a campaign rally, his doctors said. The operation at Sao Paulo’s Vila Nova Star hospital lasted more than five hours, the medical center reported in a statement signed by his surgeon, Antonio Luiz Macedo. “The procedure was a success,” it said, adding that the president was recovering and in stable condition. Macedo said a significant part of Bolsonaro’s intestine had to be removed after it had become strongly attached to the abdominal wall.
BRAZIL
LGBT publication ban illegal
The Supreme Court on Sunday made it illegal to ban any LGBT publication, after a lower court allowed a mayor to confiscate comic books at the Rio Book Fair containing content he considered “inappropriate” for minors. Mayor Marcelo Crivella, a Protestant and former bishop in the giant Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, on Saturday ordered the comic book removed from sale because of its “sexual content for minors.” The comic that sparked the mayor’s ire showed the Marvel superhero characters Wiccan and Hulkling exchanging a kiss, fully dressed. However, the top court agreed with prosecutor Dias Toffoli and ruled that Crivella’s actions were illegal, because they targeted only LGBT content, violating the constitutional guarantee of equality for all.
GERMANY
Festival blast injures 14
Authorities yesterday said that 14 people were injured, including five with life-threatening burns, during an explosion at a village festival in Freudenberg on Sunday. Police are still investigating the cause of the explosion, but said it was likely that oil inside a big frying pan caused the explosion at the Backesfest, which was attended by about 100 people. The Backesfest celebrates the annual start of operations of a traditional bakery in the village.
PHILIPPINES
Suicide bomber dies
A suicide bomber dressed in an abaya died after detonating a bomb outside a military camp on Jolo island, but no other casualties were reported, authorities said. The attacker on Sunday was “foreign looking and appeared to be a woman, the military said. No group has yet claimed the attack.
SOUTH KOREA
Justice minister takes office
Law professor Cho Kuk took office as minister of justice yesterday, despite a probe by state prosecutors into alleged misconduct by his wife, Chung Kyung-sim. Cho was appointed by President Moon Jae-in with a mandate to reform the prosecutor’s office, even though officials from the office have carried out multiple raids over the past two weeks linked to the scandals involving his family. Moon yesterday said he had “agonized” over the decision, but decided to stick with Cho because it would leave a “bad precedent” if he had dropped the nomination when it was not confirmed that Cho had broken laws himself.
MALAYSIA
Cloud seeding to start
The government is prepared to seed clouds after air quality in parts of Sarawak reached unhealthy levels due to smog from forest fires in Indonesia, Gary Theseira, special functions officer with the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, said yesterday. The pollutant index in some places has reached “very unhealthy levels,” he said. “It is extremely severe in Kuching.” Boo Siang Voon, a 47 year-old engineer in Kuching, described the skies as “hazy, hot with smoky smell,” adding: “This year the smog is getting worse. Residents are using face masks. We should not pay the price of our health for the open burning. We want a solution.”
AUSTRALIA
Eight Web sites blocked
The government has ordered Internet service providers to block access to eight Web sites still showing footage of attacks on two mosques in New Zealand on March 15 that killed 51 people, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said on Sunday. “We cannot allow this heinous material to be used to promote, incite or instruct in further terrorist acts,” Grant said. It is an offence for companies not to remove any videos or photographs that show murder, torture or rape without delay.
SOUTH AFRICA
Opposition party cuts jobs
The main opposition Democratic Alliance is cutting jobs after it shed support in May elections and lost state and donor funding. “The reality of the situation with regard staff retrenchments and the absence of bonuses this year is that the organization is in a difficult financial position due to this year’s electoral results where we didn’t achieve the objectives and support we needed,” party spokesman Solly Malatsi said yesterday. “We have lost seats in several legislatures as well as the National Assembly, which had an impact on what the party gets in terms for the funding allocated to parties.”
SRI LANKA
Elephants injure 18 people
An elephant taking part in a Buddhist pageant went berserk on Saturday and at least 18 people were injured. Television footage of a pageant in Kotte showed one elephant in a procession running forward, forcing people to scatter, some of whom ran into an elephant walking at the front. That elephant began running, pushing onlookers out of the way, while the man riding on it narrowly escaped being trampled when he fell off.
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
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the