CAMBODIA
Thousands join border rally
Thousands of Cambodians yesterday joined a state-organized march in Phnom Penh to support the government in a border dispute with Thailand, triggered by the death of a Cambodian soldier last month. Marchers shouted slogans, waved the Cambodian flag and held portraits of Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father. “Cambodia’s land! We won’t take others’ land, we keep our land!” some chanted. The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that Thailand had again violated its sovereignty with drone flights and troop deployments along the border, an accusation Bangkok rejected.
GAZA STRIP
Israel kills 30, rescuers say
Gaza’s civil defense agency said 30 people were killed by Israeli fire in the Palestinian territory yesterday, including 11 who were seeking aid. The war sparked by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel has ravaged the Gaza Strip, with severe shortages of food, fuel and clean water. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that 11 people were killed and more than 100 wounded “after the occupation forces opened fire and launched several shells ... at thousands of citizens” who had gathered for food in central Gaza. Another 19 people were killed in three Israeli strikes yesterday, the agency said.
NEW ZEALAND
Psilocybin use approved
The government yesterday approved the medicinal use of psilocybin, a hallucinogenic compound notably found in so-called “magic mushrooms.” Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said rules had been relaxed so psilocybin could be used to treat certain types of depression. Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in some species of mushroom and can cause hallucinations and an altered state of mind. “This is huge for people with depression who’ve tried everything else and are still suffering,” Seymour said. “If a doctor believes psilocybin can help, they should have the tools to try.”
MEXICO
Mayor and husband killed
A mayor and her husband were killed on Tuesday in the western state of Michoacan, less than 48 hours after a mayor in the southern state of Oaxaca was killed. The Michoacan State Prosecutor’s Office confirmed on social media that Tepalcatepec Mayor Martha Laura Mendoza had been killed. Prosecutors offered no additional details. Tepalcatepec is near the border with Jalisco state and is a persistent hot spot for drug cartel violence. Director of the state Institutional Revolutionary Party Guillermo Valencia said Mendoza was killed leaving her home. “We continue demanding justice,” Valencia wrote on social media, adding that six Michoacan mayors have been killed under the current administration that took office in October last year. The latest killing came two days after Lilia Garcia Soto, mayor of San Mateo Pinas, was killed in Oaxaca.
ITALY
Man drives down Spanish Steps
An 80-year-old man early on Tuesday drove a compact luxury Mercedes-Benz A Class sedan down the landmark Spanish Steps in Rome before getting stuck part way down, municipal police said in a statement. The man tested negative for alcohol, and was cited for driving down the monument in Rome’s historic center, police said, adding that the local resident was at a loss to explain how he had wound up driving down the famed steps.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS