CHINA
Landslide leaves 30 missing
A landslide in southwestern Sichuan Province triggered by heavy rain has killed at least one person, with nearly 30 more missing, state media said yesterday. The landslide hit Jinping village in the city of Yibin at about 11:50am on Saturday. As of yesterday morning, “one person has been killed and 28 people are missing,” Xinhua news agency said. Two people were rescued on Saturday, while more than 900 rescuers were attempting to find the rest of the missing people, Xinhua said. “A preliminary study shows this disaster occurred due to the influence of recent prolonged rainfall and geological factors,” China Central Television said, citing local authorities.
Photo: Xinhua news agency via AP
BANGLADESH
Hasina-linked gangs targeted
The government yesterday launched a major security operation after protesters were attacked by gangs allegedly connected to the ousted regime of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. A government statement said the operation began after gangs “linked to the fallen autocratic regime attacked a group of students, leaving them severely injured.” Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury called it “Operation Devil Hunt,” telling reporters that it would “continue until we uproot the devils.” The sweeping security operations came after days of unrest, following protests triggered by reports that 77-year-old Hasina — who has defied an arrest warrant to face trial crimes against humanity — would appear in a Facebook broadcast from exile in neighboring India.
Photo: EPA-EFE
INDIA
Dalai Lama’s brother dies
The elder brother of the Dalai Lama and former chairman of the exiled Tibetan government in India, Gyalo Thondup, who led several rounds of talks with China and worked with foreign governments for the Tibetan cause, has died. He was 97. Thondup died at his home in Kalimpong, a hill town in the Himalayan foothills of eastern West Bengal state, on Saturday evening, media reports said. No other details were immediately released about his death. Tibetan media outlets credited Thondup for networking with foreign governments and praised his role in facilitating US support for the Tibetan struggle. The Dalai Lama yesterday led a prayer session for Thondup at a monastery in Bylakuppe in the southern state of Karnataka where he prayed for Thondup’s “swift rebirth” and said “his efforts towards the Tibetan struggle were immense and we are grateful for his contribution.”
Photo: AP
UNITED KINGDOM
Starmer sacks junior minister
A Labour Party lawmaker on Saturday said he regretted “badly misjudged” comments after Prime Minister Keir Starmer sacked him as a minister. Starmer dismissed Andrew Gwynne as a junior health minister as soon as he became aware of the WhatsApp comments, the domestic PA news agency said. He has also been suspended from the Labour Party, with a report alleging that Gwynne made anti-Semitic, racist and sexist remarks. “I deeply regret my badly misjudged comments and apologise for any offence I’ve caused,” Gwynne said on X. Gwynne posted messages in a WhatsApp group that he shares with more than a dozen Labour councilors, party officials and at least one other lawmaker, the Mail on Sunday reported. He also joked about a constituent being “mown down” by a truck, the newspaper said. In another comment, he said he hoped a 72-year-old woman who asked a colleague about trash collection would soon be dead.
Photo: Bloomberg
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For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
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