MALAYSIA
Haze-hit state sent masks
The government has sent half-a-million masks to the eastern state of Sarawak, where air pollution levels have spiked amid worsening forest fires in Indonesia, the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) said yesterday. The smoldering fires that Indonesian farmers often use to clear land produce a choking haze that drifts over the region. “NADMA has acquired 500,000 face masks and sent them to the agency’s branch in Sarawak,” it said in a statement. The air pollution index in Sarawak reached unhealthy levels yesterday, with one district recording a reading of 201, a “very unhealthy” level.
SYRIA
War damaged 120 churches
More than 120 Christian places of worship have been damaged or destroyed by all sides in the country’s eight-year conflict, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said on Monday. Some of the attacks were deliberate, such as the Islamic State group using bulldozers to destroy the ancient Saint Elian Monastery in Homs Province in 2015, but most were caused by frontline combat, shelling or rockets, the monitoring group said. “Targeting Christian places of worship is a form of intimidation against and displacement of the Christian minority,” group chairman Fadel Abdul Ghany said.
THE NETHERLANDS
Family drama kills three
At least three people were killed in an apparent family shooting at a home in the southern city of Dordrecht on Monday, police and news reports said. “The shooter is believed to have been a police officer who also shot himself,” the tabloid newspaper De Telegraaf said, adding that a fourth family member was seriously wounded and taken to the hospital. “Three people have been killed and another was seriously wounded,” Rotterdam police tweeted, without further details. Dordrecht Mayor Wouter Kolff tweeted that he was “very touched and sympathized with everyone involved.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Terrorists thwarted 22 times
Authorities have foiled 22 attacks since March 2017, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu told a conference on international terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, on Monday. Seven related to “suspected right-wing terrorism,” Basu said, according to the text distributed by Scotland Yard. Attacks are becoming easier to carry out and harder to detect, he added. He promoted the merits of “Prevent,” a counter-terrorism program that is designed to spot and deter people who might be vulnerable to recruitment by violent radicals. “Prevent is designed to break the cycle of extremist violence by empowering communities and individuals,” Basu said.
UNITED STATES
NRA sues city over label
The National Rifle Association (NRA) on Monday sued San Francisco after the city’s Board of Supervisors made a declaration stating that the NRA is a terrorist organization, the San Francisco Chronicle and other media reported. The NRA, a gun club and gun rights lobbying group with deep political influence, alleged in the suit that the city was violating its free speech rights for political reasons, the reports said. However, San Francisco Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who introduced the measure, said that she believed their action would stand up in court, according to the New York Times. “It’s a resolution. It’s not an ordinance. It’s non-binding,” she told the newspaper.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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