PAKISTAN
Avalanche kills 11 nomads
At least 11 people died after an avalanche hit members of a nomadic tribe as they crossed a mountainous area in the country’s north, the National Disaster Management Authority said on Saturday. Another 13 people were injured in the avalanche, which struck a group of families at Shounter Top Pass late on Friday. The pass, which is 4,420m above sea level, connects Astore District in the Gilgit-Baltistan region to the bordering Kashmir valley. The bodies of the victims have been recovered, the agency said, adding that the injured, including a child, have been taken to a hospital where they are in a critical condition.
ISRAEL
Protesters standing firm
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday gathered for the relentless weekly protests against their government’s plans to overhaul the legal system. The mass protests entered their 21st week. The main protest took place in Tel Aviv, drawing thousands of flag-waving protesters.
STANDING HEAD
VP warns cadets of autocrats
Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman to deliver a commencement speech at West Point, on Saturday lauded the military academy’s graduating cadets for serving their country, but said they were entering an “unsettled world” because of Russian aggression and rising threats from China. “The world has drastically changed,” Harris told the roughly 950 graduating cadets. “Autocrats have become bolder, the threat of terrorism persists, and an accelerating climate crisis continues to disrupt lives and livelihoods,” she said. Harris advised cadets to be wary of China, as it rapidly modernizes its military and muscles for control over parts of the high seas.
Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday urged so-called middle powers to become a “poisonous shrimp” to carve out strategic economic leverage in a more turbulent global environment. Sunak drew from a metaphor by former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀): A big fish will eat a smaller fish, and the smaller fish will eat the shrimp. Lee made the point a year after the Asian nation’s independence in 1966 that the city-state needed to build up its defense mechanisms — like a shrimp that stings — so it would be left alone by predators. “He was thinking about what Singapore’s
POLL POSITION: Democrats criticized the timing of the raid, saying that the US justice department historically avoids public investigations within 60 days of an election Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed focus to the frequent target of White House derision in the final weeks of her re-election bid. The search of the Minnesota congresswoman’s home so close to next month’s midterm contests that would determine control of the US House and the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress, who raised questions about the timing given longstanding US Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an
A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the record by nearly 136kg. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin on Saturday at a contest in New England and is waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England. Wallace said he has been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified. “It’s truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow,” Wallace said on Monday. Guinness World Records lists
BUILDUP: The report comes as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi boosts defense spending in the face of China’s military expansion and the North Korean threat French defence contractor Thales will establish a maintenance and operational support base in Japan in what is seen as the first such move by a foreign firm in the country, a report said yesterday. Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine told the Nikkei business daily that the base “will mark a milestone toward Thales’ long-term engagement in Japan.” It is believed to be the first time a foreign defense company has established a dedicated base in Japan for the maintenance and operation of Japanese defense equipment, the Nikkei said. It added that Thales might also expand its Japan-based business to
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