UNITED STATES
Thurman hits at Weinstein
Uma Thurman has wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving — everyone except disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein. In a cryptic Instagram post on Thursday, the actress wished her followers a happy Thanksgiving, but added: “Except you Harvey, and all your wicked conspirators.” She said she was “glad it’s going slowly — you don’t deserve a bullet.” Dozens of actresses have alleged that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them, including Rose McGowan and Asia Argento. However, Thurman has said she is waiting to speak when she is less angry. She played in the Weinstein-produced movies Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.
MEXICO
Two mayors killed in a week
A municipal mayor in the violent eastern state of Veracruz was killed on Friday, local authorities said, just four days after a mayor-elect was murdered in the same state. Ixhuatlan de Madero Mayor Victor Manuel Espinoza, whose city is located about 270km northeast of Mexico City “was killed with four others, including his wife” in the attack, the state prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Authorities did not provide details concerning a possible motive for the attack, which occurred on Friday night on a dirt road in a neighboring municipality near the state capital of Xalapa.
JAPAN
N Korean washes ashore
The coast guard on Saturday found the body of a man and parts of a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea on the coast of one of Japan’s outlying islands, an official said. The coast guard made the discovery at about 6:30am on Sado island, a coast guard official said, declining to give his name. The guard also found a pack of cigarettes with Korean writing on it and other personal belongings with Korean written on them near the body, the official said. The cause of death is still unknown, the official said.
TURKEY
Istanbul bans LGBT event
A district governorship in Istanbul on Friday banned a film screening event related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, the day before it was due to start, citing risks to public safety. “The LGBT+ themed meeting, march, film screening and interview events that will take place on Nov. 25 in Beyoglu district will not be allowed in order to secure public order and safety, to protect the rights and freedom of other people and to prevent crime,” the Beyoglu Governor’s Office said. It said in a statement that applications for the events had not been submitted. Following the announcement, a statement from the venue where the film and interviews were due to take place said they had been postponed.
UNITED STATES
Would-be assassin charged
A Texas woman is accused of last year sending homemade bombs to then-US president Barack Obama and Texas Governor Greg Abbott that could have killed or maimed the men, prosecutors said. Julia Poff, 46, mailed the devices in October last year, along with a third package that she sent to the Social Security Administration, according to an indictment. Of the three packages, only Abbott opened his. It did not detonate because “he did not open it as designed,” court documents said. Investigators traced Poff to the package sent to Obama because of cat hair found under an address label, according to a court document from a Nov. 17 detention hearing.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but