UNITED KINGDOM
Virus protesters arrested
Police have made 32 arrests during a demonstration in central London against COVID-19 restrictions and mass vaccinations. More than 1,000 people are estimated to have joined the rally in Trafalgar Square, among them 5G conspiracy theorists, coronavirus skeptics and “anti-vaxxers.” Sections got into scuffles with police — some officers, with their batons drawn, were pushed back by crowds on the margins of the demo. By early evening on Saturday, the Metropolitan police said the area had been cleared. The police force said it attended the Resist and Act for Freedom rally, which began at about midday, and attempted to encourage protesters to leave throughout the day. “Despite this, protesters remained, putting themselves and others at risk,” it said. “It is important to remember that we are still in the middle of a global pandemic, and the changes have been introduced to help control the spread of the virus, keep everybody safe and save lives.” Among the crowds were people selling T-shirts bearing 5G conspiracy theories and advocating the legalization of cannabis, with banners calling for government scientific advisers to be sacked and declaring COVID-19 a “hoax.”
SPAIN
Homes sought for 110 cats
Animal charities in the country’s south were on Saturday urgently seeking homes for 110 cats after they and their owner were evicted from an apartment in the Valencia region. SPAMA Safor, an animal shelter in the southeastern town of Gandia, had initially thought there were 96 cats in the apartment. However, by Saturday evening, the charity said it had removed 110 cats and urgently needed help to shelter them “at least until they are vaccinated or sterilized.” “Apparently the owner took in a pair of cats three years ago and they have been procreating ever since,” Salvadora Tormas, who works with the shelter, told reporters. The shelter said that it did not have enough space to take them all in, as it was already housing about 200 cats. Tormas said they had collected 48 of the cats on Friday and were going to get the rest later on Saturday with the help of the owner, whom she described as a young man. “It’s a disaster. Someone should have helped this guy,” she said. They had been tipped off by the local authority, but had received no help to recover all the animals, she added.
CANADA
Former PM dies at 91
John Turner, a Liberal Party politician who served stints as justice and finance ministers before a very brief turn as the country’s 17th prime minister, has died at age 91, his family reported on Saturday. Marc Kealey, a former aide speaking on behalf of Turner’s relatives as a family friend, said that Turner died peacefully in his sleep at home in Toronto on Friday night. Turner failed to live up to the great expectations of his early career, serving as prime minister for just 79 days in 1984 after a difficult, decades-long climb to the top job. A track star, Turner graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1949, winning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University. After studying law, he went to Paris to work on a doctorate at the Sorbonne. The young lawyer caused a stir when he danced with Princess Margaret at a party in 1959, giving rise to speculation that the two would become a couple. The two remained friends for life. As justice minister in then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s Cabinet from 1968 to 1972, Turner proposed a national legal aid system and created the Federal Court, among other reforms.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not