UNITED STATES
National Guards blocked
A federal judge late on Sunday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon at all, after a legal whirlwind that began hours earlier when the president mobilized California troops for Portland after the same judge blocked him from using Oregon’s National Guard the day before. During a hastily called evening telephone hearing, US District Judge Karin Immergut granted a temporary restraining order sought by California and Oregon. Immergut, who was appointed by Trump in his first term, seemed incredulous that the president moved to send National Guard troops to Oregon from neighboring California and then from Texas on Sunday, just hours after she had ruled the first time. “How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” she asked the federal government’s attorney, cutting him off. “Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order?” she said later. “Why is this appropriate?” The White House did not immediately comment on the judge’s decision.
RUSSIA
Drone barrage cuts power
A Ukrainian drone barrage triggered power cuts in a border region, the Russian Ministry of Defense said. Kyiv has vowed to increase its strikes on Russian territory, in particularly on oil infrastructure, in what it sees as a legitimate response to Moscow’s daily barrages of Ukrainian cities and its energy network that have at times cut off heating and power to millions. The ministry said it had downed 251 Ukrainian drones overnight — one of the highest daily tolls since Moscow launched its offensive in February 2022. In the Belgorod border region, 5,400 were left without electricity, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on social media. A refinery in the southern Krasnodar region was also hit, wounding two people, local authorities said.
JAPAN
Tourist attacked by bear
A bear on Sunday attacked a Spanish tourist, a local official said yesterday, days after another mauling left one woman dead and another missing. More wild bears have been spotted in recent years, even in residential areas, due to factors including a declining human population and climate change. The 44-year-old tourist was pounced on from behind, as he was walking to a bus stop in Shirakawa-go, a UN World Heritage site, village official Kazunari Takashima said. The tourist “was injured with a scratch on his right arm, then he walked to a tourist information office nearby and requested an ambulance,” Takashima said, adding that the man was treated in hospital and discharged the same day. The animal was about 1m long and is believed to be a juvenile black bear, he said.
AUSTRALIA
‘Mushroom’ case appealed
Prosecutors yesterday said they had launched an appeal against last month’s “manifestly inadequate” sentence for convicted murderer Erin Patterson, after a trial that drew global attention. Patterson, 51, was handed life in prison with parole last month for serving a sumptuous beef Wellington laced with poisonous fungi to her estranged husband’s parents, aunt and uncle during a lunch at her home in 2023, killing three of them. However, local media, including national broadcaster ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald, quoted Victoria State’s Office of Public Prosecutions as saying it had appealed that sentence. The Victoria Office of Public Prosecutions did not respond to a request for confirmation.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
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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