UNITED STATES
Jimmy Carter hospitalized
Former president Jimmy Carter was on Monday hospitalized for a procedure to relieve brain pressure after recent falls, his organization said. The 95-year-old Nobel laureate spent three days in a hospital last month after sustaining a pelvic fracture. The injury came weeks after he injured his head in a fall at home, recovering quickly to volunteer the next day — with a black eye and a bandage covering 14 stitches — at a Habitat for Humanity International site. He was taken to Emory University Hospital “for a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain,” the Carter Center said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Trump presides over parade
President Donald Trump on Monday launched New York City’s Veterans Day Parade by saying that the nation’s veterans “risked everything for us. Now it is our duty to serve and protect them every single day of our lives.” Trump spoke at the opening of the 100th annual parade organized by the United War Veterans Council in Madison Square Park. He is the first sitting president to accept the group’s invitation to speak at the event. As Trump spoke, more than 100 protesters gathered and could be heard whistling and booing. Some chanted “lock him up” and “shame, shame, shame.” Trump said that the nation’s veterans often came face to face with evil and did not back down. “You returned from war and you never forgot your friends who didn’t return,” Trump said.
SAUDI ARABIA
Three performers stabbed
Two men and a woman were wounded in a knife attack on Monday evening as they performed onstage in a park in Riyadh, marking the first such incident since the kingdom began loosening restrictions on entertainment. Broadcaster al-Ekhbariya reported that police detained a suspect, who was identified only as a 33-year-old male Yemeni resident. Other state-linked media outlets shared footage online that appeared to show the attack. In the video, a man is seen running onstage and apparently attacking the performers from behind as the troupe, dressed in gold ensembles, performs a dance. The wounded performers are in a stable condition, al-Ekhbariya said, but did not identify their nationalities.
UNITED STATES
Patrick eyes presidential bid
Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is considering making a late run for the Democratic presidential nomination, two people with knowledge of his deliberations said. Patrick, a close friend and ally of former president Barack Obama, earlier this year ruled out a presidential bid, but has since been talking with Democratic operatives and donors about launching a campaign. His deliberations come as some Democrats express uncertainty about the party’s current crop of contenders. Patrick has not made a final decision on whether to run and faces fast-approaching deadlines to get on the ballot in key states.
UNITED STATES
Mercury transits across sun
Mercury on Monday skipped across the vast, glaring face of the sun in a rare celestial transit. Stargazers used solar-filtered binoculars and telescopes to spot Mercury as it passed directly between Earth and the sun. The eastern US and Canada got the entirety of the more than five-hour show, along with Central and South America. The rest of the world, except for Asia and Australia, got just a sampling. Mercury’s next transit is in 2032, but North America will not get another viewing until 2049.
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