ISRAEL
One dead, 14 hurt in blasts
Two blasts yesterday went off near bus stops in Jerusalem, killing one person and injuring at least 14, in what police said were suspected attacks by Palestinians. The first explosion occurred near a bus stop on the edge of the city, where commuters usually crowd. The second went off in Ramot, a neighborhood in the city’s north. Police said one person died from their injuries and rescue service Magen David Adom said four people were seriously wounded. Police said their initial findings showed that explosive devices were placed at the two sites. The twin blasts occurred amid the buzz of rush-hour traffic and police closed part of a main highway leading out of the city where the fist explosion went off. Video footage from shortly after the first blast showed debris strewn along the sidewalk as the wail of ambulance sirens blared. “It was a crazy explosion. There is damage everywhere here,” Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the scene when the first blast went off, told Israeli Army Radio. “I saw people with wounds bleeding all over the place.” Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, praised the perpetrators, calling it a heroic operation, but stopped short of claiming responsibility. “The occupation is reaping the price of its crimes and aggression against our people,” Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanua said.
TURKEY
Earthquake sparks panic
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit a town in the northwest of the country early yesterday, causing damage to some buildings and widespread panic. About 35 people were injured, mostly while trying to flee homes. The earthquake was centered in the town of Golkaya in Duzce Province, about 200km east of Istanbul, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said. It struck at 04:08am and was felt in Istanbul, in the capital, Ankara, and other parts of the region. Dozens of aftershocks were reported, including one magnitude 4.3 aftershock. The quake woke people from their sleep and many rushed out of buildings in panic. At least 35 people were treated in hospitals for injuries, mostly sustained during the panic, including from jumping from balconies or windows. One of them was in a serious condition, Minister of the Interior Suleyman Soylu told NTV television. Power was cut in the region as a safety measure, the minister said. The quake demolished the exterior cladding and parts of the roof of a courthouse in Duzce, HaberTurk television reported. Among other damage, a two-story shop collapsed on a narrow street, it said.
CHINA
‘Avatar’ release allowed
The long-awaited sequel to director James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar is to be released in Chinese cinemas on Dec. 16, 20th Century Studios said yesterday. Avatar: The Way of Water would be released on the same day as its global release, the studio wrote on social media. It is one of the few foreign films to gain access to the market in the past few months, with others including the latest film in the Minions franchise and Sony Pictures’ Where the Crawdads Sing. Foreign movies have long struggled to gain release dates in the country due to strict quotas on the number of international films allowed to show, while many are blocked due to content regulators deem unseemly. Hollywood blockbusters have recently had a particularly hard time getting clearance. The six latest Marvel movies did not make an appearance earlier this year, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was also denied a release.
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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