SINGAPORE
Teen murdered at school
A 13-year-old boy was found dead on Monday at a school, while a fellow student was arrested and an axe seized, police said. It was a rare incident in the city-state, which is known for its zero-tolerance approach to wrongdoing and has one of the world’s lowest crime rates. Police were called to the prestigious state high school, where they found the 13-year-old with many wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A 16-year-old was arrested for suspected involvement, police said in a statement. The teenagers did not know one another, according to preliminary investigations. The suspect was charged in court with murder yesterday and police said they would ask him to undergo a psychiatric assessment. Minister of Education Chan Chun Sing (陳振聲) said he was “shocked to receive news of the tragic incident.” “Our thoughts are with the families of the students concerned,” Chan said.
ISRAEL
Ben & Jerry’s exits Palestine
US ice cream firm Ben & Jerry’s on Monday said that it would stop selling ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying its sale “is inconsistent with our values. We “hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners,” the Unilever subsidiary said in a statement, without elaborating. More than 600,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where tensions often flare up between settlers and the Palestinian population. “We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region,” the company said, adding that its license would not be renewed when it expires at the end of next year. The company said its products would continue to be sold in Israel “through a different arrangement.” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement that “there are lots of ice cream, but we have only one state. Ben & Jerry’s decided to brand itself as an anti-Israel ice cream.”
UNITED KINGDOM
First heat warning issued
The Met Office on Monday issued its first ever amber extreme heat warning, saying unusually high temperatures expected in western areas and continuing high nighttime temperatures created potential risks to health. The alert is the first issued by the Met Office since the national meteorological service launched its extreme heat national severe weather warning system at the start of last month to help better inform people of the risks hot weather can bring. Temperatures are expected to rise to possibly 33°C, the Met Office said. “The impacts of extreme heat can be many and varied. It can have health consequences, especially for those who are particularly vulnerable, and it can impact infrastructure, including transport and energy,” the office said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Austin to visit ASEAN
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is to visit Southeast Asia, the Pentagon said, a trip that would include stops in the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. “Secretary Austin’s visit will demonstrate the importance the ... administration places on Southeast Asia and on ASEAN as an essential part of the Indo-Pacific’s architecture,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. The US embassy in Hanoi yesterday said that Austin’s trip would start on Friday. “This trip will underscore the enduring US commitment to the region, and our interest in upholding the rules-based international order in the region and promoting ASEAN centrality,” the embassy wrote on Facebook.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing