IRAN
Headscarf bill advances
The parliament on Wednesday approved a bill to impose heavier penalties on women who refuse to wear Islamic headscarves in public and those who support them. The bill also extends punishments to business owners who serve women not wearing the mandatory headscarf, known as hijab, and people who organize against it. Those convicted face up to 10 years in prison if the offense occurs in an organized way. The bill requires ratification by the Guardian Council, a clerical body.
UNITED STATES
Officer probed over comment
A Columbus police officer summoned to a home on Friday last week by a father concerned that his 11-year-old daughter was being solicited by a man said that the girl could face charges for sending explicit images of herself. Body camera footage showed the father closing the door on two officers after one of the officers told him his daughter could face charges for producing or recording child sexual abuse images. The parent posted to TikTok a security video of the conversation. The officers’ conduct is being investigated, as well as any crime that may have been committed against the girl, Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said in a statement on Tuesday.
UNITED STATES
Moose attacks woman
A woman walking her dog on a wooded trail in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains on Wednesday spooked a cow moose and it charged, headbutting the hiker and stomping on her before she escaped back down the trail, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said. Authorities said the woman was taken to a hospital, but they declined to provide information on her condition. They said the moose had stomped on her “several times” and that the dog had minor injuries. The attack was the third in Boulder County this year, said Kara van Hoose, a spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The animals are often aggressive with dogs, which they perceive as a threat, she said.
UNITED STATES
Woman rescued from toilet
A woman was rescued on Tuesday from an outhouse toilet in northern Michigan after she climbed in to retrieve her Apple Watch and became trapped. The woman, whose name was not released, lowered herself inside the toilet after dropping the watch at the Department of Natural Resources boat launch at Dixon Lake in Otsego County’s Bagley Township, state police said on Wednesday. First responders were called when the woman was heard yelling for help. The toilet was removed and a strap was used to haul the woman out. “If you lose an item in an outhouse toilet, do not attempt to venture inside the containment area. Serious injury may occur,” state police said in the release.
ISRAEL
Tank theft probed
Authorities are investigating how an unarmed tank was stolen from a military training zone after finding it discarded in a junkyard. The Merkava 2 tank disappeared from a training zone near Haifa, the Israeli army said on Wednesday. The training zone is closed to the public when in use, but is otherwise accessible. Police said that the 65-tonne tank was found abandoned in a scrapyard near a military base. In a video from the scene, the tank towers alongside industrial castoffs. The army said that the tank was decommissioned years ago and was unarmed. It said it had been used most recently as a “stationary vehicle for soldiers’ exercises.” Police said they had arrested two suspects in connection with the theft.
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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