CANADA
Quebec requests military aid
Quebec Province on Thursday called on the armed forces for help after a violent storm cut nearly all communication links with a group of islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Only rare satellite telephones were able to connect Iles-de-la-Madeleine and its 13,000 residents with the mainland after two fiber optic sea cables were severed, Quebec emergency services said. There were major power outages and the local airport control tower had broken down, leading to the call for army help. “It’s the type of request that one makes when provincial government capacity is exceeded,” Quebec Minister of Public Security Genevieve Guilbault told reporters. On Twitter she added that a Canadian military plane would be ready to help yesterday morning. Almost 2,000 of 7,000 homes on the islands — located north of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia — lost power in the winds, which reached 130kph, the Hydro-Quebec power company said. Electrical and other specialist repair teams were expected to have arrived with the military yesterday.
UNITED STATES
Girl gets letters of support
A Muslim girl in Massachusetts has received hundreds of letters of support after receiving threatening notes at her elementary school. The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that it had received more than 500 notes from across the country for the 10-year-old. The girl, who officials have not named publicly, is in fifth grade at Hemenway Elementary School in Framingham. School officials said that the girl found two threatening notes in her classroom storage bin earlier this month. The council encouraged people to send letters to the girl to “counteract the hateful message.”
UNITED STATES
Mystery ballot in Alaska
Control of the Alaska state government, at least for the next two years, could hinge on a mystery ballot that an election worker found on a table in a voting precinct on election day. The uncounted ballot could break a tie in an Alaska House of Representatives race. A decision on whether to count it was expected yesterday. The elections office said that the ballot appeared to be marked for Democrat Kathryn Dodge. If Republican Bart LeBon wins, his party would control the state House, Senate and governor’s office. If Dodge wins, it would set off a mad dash between the parties to build a caucus of at least 21 members needed for a majority in the House. Officials were investigating the ballot before deciding whether to count it. A recount was scheduled for yesterday.
UNITED STATES
CNN axes contributor
CNN on Thursday said that it had severed ties with a contributor after he made controversial comments pertaining to Israel and Palestine at a UN event. “Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN,” a spokesperson said in a brief statement published on the TV channel’s Web site. Hill, who is a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, one day earlier called to “free Palestine from the river to the sea” — a proposal that some have linked to the Hamas militant movement. He made the remarks while speaking at a meeting at the UN held for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. “My reference to ‘river to the sea’ was not a call to destroy anything or anyone,” Hill wrote on Twitter. “It was a call for justice, both in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza,” he tweeted. “The speech very clearly and specifically said those things.”
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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