CHINA
School issues attire guide
A university sparked outrage at the start of the academic year this week as female students discovered that they were not supposed to wear anything deemed overly revealing on grounds that it could arouse “temptation.” On Aug. 1, Guangxi University published a 50-point safety guide for incoming first-year female students, including a dress code that suggested women were responsible for sexual harassment or even assault. “Don’t wear overly revealing tops or skirts. Don’t wear low-cut dresses or expose your waist or back, to avoid creating temptation,” the guide said.
AUSTRALIA
Snakes fall through ceiling
A man returned home and was surprised to discover that his kitchen ceiling had collapsed under the weight of two large pythons apparently fighting over a mate. David Tait entered his home in Laceys Creek in Queensland state on Monday and found a large chunk of his ceiling lying on his kitchen table. “I knew we hadn’t had rain, so I looked around to find what had caused it,” Tait told Nine Network television on Tuesday. He soon found two culprits — non-venomous carpet pythons 2.8m and 2.5m long — that had slithered into a bedroom and living room. The snakes have an estimated combined weight of 45kg. Snake catcher Steven Brown was called to remove the two snakes. “I would assume that it was two males fighting over a female that was nearby in the roof,” Brown said. He said the female could still be in the ceiling or nearby. The males were returned to the wild, but the suspected third snake has not been found.
UNITED STATES
Pelosi salon visit slammed
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi is facing criticism over a solo hair salon visit in San Francisco at a time when California businesses are limited amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “This business offered for the speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement. “The speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment.” Footage aired by Fox News showed Pelosi, her mask around her neck rather than on her face, walking through the establishment. A stylist follows her, wearing a mask. The owner said she considered the service “a slap in the face” to business owners who have been forced to close.
UNITED STATES
Jet pack incident probed
The FBI on Tuesday said that it had launched a probe after pilots landing at Los Angeles International Airport over the weekend reported seeing a person in a jet pack flying right next to them. “The FBI is aware of the reports by pilots on Sunday and is working to determine what may have occurred,” FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller said in a statement. At least two airline crews approaching the airport on Sunday evening reported seeing the jet pack flying in the path of incoming jets. “Tower, American 1997. We just passed a guy in a jet pack,” an American Airlines pilot on his final approach to the airport said in a radio transmission broadcast on local television. “We just saw the guy passing by us in the jet pack,” a second pilot from a different airline is heard saying. “Only in LA,” an air traffic controller said.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
RSS