PAKISTAN
Chinese engineers attacked
Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) militants yesterday attacked a convoy carrying Chinese engineers to the Beijing-financed Gwadar Port in the southwest, the group said. “BLA Majeed Brigade today targeted a convoy of Chinese engineers in Gwadar. The attack is still ongoing,” the separatist group said in a statement. Security sources confirmed an attack on a convoy carrying Chinese engineers, but there was no immediate official response. No injuries were reported within the convoy, China’s Global Times said, citing unidentified “Chinese personnel” in Gwadar. One militant was killed and three were wounded in a gunfight with security forces, Aaj News reported.
INDONESIA
Miss Universe cuts ties
The Miss Universe Organization said it was cutting ties with its Indonesian franchisee and canceling this year’s Malaysia pageant after contestants accused local organizers of sexual harassment. The US-based organization said in an e-mailed statement late on Saturday that it had severed its contract with PT Capella Swastika Karya and its national director Poppy Capella, who also holds the license for Miss Universe Malaysia. Six Miss Universe Indonesia contestants filed complaints with police accusing organizers of sexual harassment, saying they were subjected to topless “body checks,” their lawyer said on Tuesday last week. “It has become clear that this franchise has not lived up to our brand standards, ethics, or expectations as outlined in our franchise handbook and code of conduct,” the Miss Universe Organization said.
COLOMBIA
Survivor abused: prosecutors
Prosecutors on Saturday announced sexual abuse charges against the father of two of the four indigenous children who survived a May plane crash in the Amazon. The children went missing after the small plane they were traveling in went down, killing their mother and two other adults. In a statement, prosecutors accused Manuel Ranoque of sexually abusing his 13-year-old stepdaughter, who was widely credited with ensuring that she and her younger siblings survived the more than five-week-long ordeal in the Amazon that garnered headlines across the globe. Ranoque, who was arrested on Friday, stands accused of abusing his stepfedaughter since she was 10 years old, the statement said.
UNITED STATES
Child influencer law passed
Illinois is the first state to ensure that child social media influencers are compensated for their work, said Illinois Senator David Koehler, who sponsored a bill that was signed into law on Friday and goes into effect on July 1 next year. “The rise of social media has given children new opportunities to earn a profit,” Koehler said in an e-mailed press release after the bill was signed Friday afternoon. “Many parents have taken this opportunity to pocket the money, while making their children continue to work in these digital environments.” The idea for the law, which covers children under the age of 16 featured in monetized online platforms, including video blogs, was brought to Koehler by a 15-year-old in his district, the Democratic senator said. Besides coordinated dances and funny toddler comments, family vlogs might share intimate details of their children’s lives — grades, potty training, illnesses, misbehaviors and first periods — for countless strangers to view. Brand deals featuring children can reap tens of thousands of dollars per video, but so far there are minimal regulations for the “sharenthood” industry.
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
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