NORTH KOREA
Kim’s sister vows response
The powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un yesterday slammed South Korean “scum” for launching anti-regime propaganda leaflets across the border using balloons, warning they would pay “a very high price.” Since late May, Pyongyang has floated numerous balloons carrying trash toward South Korea, saying they were a tit-for-tat action against South Korean leaflets. In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo-jong said that “dirty leaflets and things of [the South Korean] scum” were found again yesterday morning. “We have fully introduced our countermeasure in such situation. The [South Korean] clans will be tired from suffering a bitter embarrassment and must be ready for paying a very high price for their dirty play,” she said.
FRANCE
Four killed in shooting
Four people, including the shooter, died late on Saturday after a man opened fire on a birthday party in a village, authorities said. The man approached a neighboring house where a 20-year-old was celebrating his birthday with his family in Espinasse-Vozelle. He fired shots at the party guests, killing three of them, and then himself, the local prefecture said. The young man celebrating his birthday and his father were both killed. Police were still piecing together the “how and the why” of the attack, authorities said. The man appears to have shot at passing motorists before the deadly assault.
UNITED KINGDOM
Man held after remains found
Police on Saturday said they have arrested a man in connection with the deaths of two men whose remains were found in two suitcases in southwest England. The Metropolitan Police said armed officers detained a 34-year-old suspect at a train station in Bristol early on Saturday. Police also said more human remains were found at an address in Shepherd’s Bush the previous day, believed to be connected to those found in the suitcases dumped near the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol on Wednesday.
UNITED STATES
Sex therapist Dr Ruth dies
Ruth Westheimer, the wildly successful sex therapist who became a pop culture phenomenon in the 1980s with her bluntly delivered advice on how to spice up the bedroom, has died, US media reported on Saturday. She was 96. People magazine, quoting her publicist and sometime coauthor Pierre Lehu, said she died on Friday. It gave no cause of death, but other reports said she died at home in New York with family members present. The German-born Westheimer, who lost both of her parents in the Holocaust, reached fame in her 50s when she began hosting a pioneering radio show in New York City called Sexually Speaking. Known simply as Dr Ruth, she capitalized on her late-in-life fame, going on to host a television show, appear in many films and coach millions of fans in dozens of books about how to have a more satisfying sex life.
UNITED STATES
Dolphins freed in stranding
Rescuers who helped free more than 100 dolphins from the Cape Cod shoreline in Massachusetts said they have confirmed that the mass stranding that began on June 28 was the largest involving dolphins in US history. The International Fund for Animal Welfare, which helped lead the rescue, said that a final review of data and aerial imagery this week revealed that a total of 146 dolphins were involved in the stranding. The group estimated that 102 dolphins survived the multiday event.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
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