BELARUS
Lukashenko rumored unwell
President Alexander Lukashenko, who has not been seen in public since Tuesday last week, did not appear on Sunday at a ceremony in Minsk, triggering speculation that he is seriously ill. The BelTA state news agency reported that Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko read a message from Lukashenko during an annual ceremony at which young people swear allegiance to the former Soviet state’s flag. The agency gave no reason for Lukashenko’s absence five days after he appeared unwell and skipped parts of commemorations in Moscow marking the Soviet Union’s World War II victory over Germany. Lukashenko also did not speak at an event in Minsk marking the anniversary for the first time in his long presidency. Lukashenko’s office has declined to comment. Opposition news outlet Euroradio said that he was taken to an elite Minsk clinic on Saturday.
UNITED STATES
Cyberattack hits newspaper
The Philadelphia Inquirer experienced the most significant disruption to its operations in 27 years due to what the newspaper has called a cyberattack. The company was working to restore print operations after a cyberincursion that prevented the printing of the newspaper’s Sunday print edition, the Inquirer reported on its Web site. The Inquirer “discovered anomalous activity on select computer systems and immediately took those systems off-line,” Inquirer publisher Lisa Hughes said. The cyberattack has caused the largest disruption to publication of Pennsylvania’s largest news organization since a massive blizzard in January 1996, the Inquirer reported. The cyberattack precedes a mayoral primary election scheduled for today. Hughes said the operational disruption would not affect news coverage of the election, but journalists would be unable to use the newsroom on election night.
CHAD
Pardon for coup suspects
Eleven men accused of planning a “coup d’etat” have been sentenced to 20 years in prison, the attorney general in N’Djamena said on Sunday, but the presidency said they would be pardoned. In early January, the government announced that 10 army officers and prominent rights campaigner Baradine Berdei Targuio had been arrested, accused of “attempting to destabilise ... the constitutional order” and the country’s institutions. On April 21, President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno vowed to free the men. “The president will keep his promise,” presidency spokesman Brah Mahamat said, adding that the sentence must be announced before a pardon can be given.
UNITED STATES
Kelly Clarkson on allegations
Kelly Clarkson has responded to a Rolling Stone report accusing her daytime talk show of being a toxic workplace. Eleven current and former employees complained about being overworked and underpaid on The Kelly Clarkson Show and called their work “traumatizing to their mental health” in the report on Friday. The anonymous employees said Clarkson was “fantastic,” but the show producers were “monsters” who made their lives “hell.” “To find out that anyone is feeling unheard and or disrespected on this show is unacceptable,” Clarkson said. “As we prepare for a move to the East Coast, I am more committed than ever to ensuring that not only our team is moving, but also our new team in NY is comprised of the best and kindest in the business,” she said. “Part of that build will include leadership training for all of the senior staff, including myself.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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