MALAYSIA
PM issues warning
Southeast Asian countries should guard against the involvement of big powers in the region, as such meddling might fuel conflict and lead to an arms race, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said. Drawing on the example of conflict in the Middle East, If major powers were allowed to intervene in the region, countries would face pressure to stock up on weapons and fight each other, Mahathir said. That would destabilize ASEAN, he said. “We are already beginning to see the seeds of confrontation and rivalry in our region,” Mahathir said. “Lines are being drawn. Bases are being built. Armadas are being readied. The pressure is on to take sides.”
UNITED STATES
Trump announces UN pick
President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he has selected Kelly Craft, the ambassador to Canada, as his nominee to serve as the next ambassador to the UN. Trump said in a pair of tweets that Craft “has done an outstanding job representing our Nation” and he has “no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at the highest level.”
UNITED STATES
Mayor celebrates cow win
Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt is celebrating the completion of a mission: ridding the city’s airport of cow-tipping T-shirts. Holt said on Twitter on Thursday that after months of trying to end sales of shirts reading “Nothing tips like a cow” at Will Rogers World Airport, the clothing has sold out and would not be restocked. Airport spokesman Josh Ryan on Friday said that the shirts with the shape of the state and a cow lying on its back were “pretty popular” for more than 10 years, but that “the joke has run its course.” Cow-tipping is a largely debunked legend in which rural youths sneak into a pasture at night and push over a cow that is sleeping standing up. Debunkers say that the practice is unlikely to succeed, largely because cows do not sleep standing up.
UNITED STATES
Family seeks lost tortoise
A New Mexico woman is on a desperate hunt for her disappearing pet that cannot run fast and cannot be missed — a 45kg tortoise. KOB-TV reported that Dusty went missing earlier this month in Roswell, New Mexico, after strong winds knocked open a gate that housed him. Shana Emmert, who was looking after Dusty for her niece, says she believes the turtle strolled away from the backyard and into the desert during the wind storm. According to Emmert’s neighbors, the tortoise was last spotted near Berrendo Creek in Roswell and has not been seen since. The family is offering a US$500 reward for the animal’s safe return.
MEXICO
Alleged kidnappers killed
Residents allegedly killed six men they claimed tried to kidnap local teachers in Veracruz State. The killings occurred in an area where fuel theft and freight train robberies are common. It is not clear whether the dead men were part of those gangs. Four of those killed were detained by residents late on Thursday in the village of Soledad Atzompa, near the border with Puebla state, after they reportedly tried to force teachers into a vehicle. The villagers and some members of a local vigilante group took the men to the village square and beat, stoned and burned them to death. Residents also placed checkpoints on roads around the village. Two other suspects ran into hills to evade capture, but they were caught and killed early on Friday.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
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