Netanyahu seeks to bolster US support with Congress speech
Thomas Mackintosh
Israel's prime minister will address a joint session of the US Congress in a bid to bolster support for his country's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Benjamin Netanyahu was invited by the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, whose Republican Party is trying to show unflinching support for Israel.
But more than 30 Democratic lawmakers have said they will not attend, including influential former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Russian chef arrested in Paris over alleged ‘large scale’ Olympic Games plot
- 40-year-old arrested in central Paris on Sunday
- Espionage suspected as man charged and detained
A Russian chef who has lived in France for 14 years has been arrested on suspicion of plotting with a foreign power to stage “large scale” acts of “destabilisation” during the Olympic Games in Paris.
The 40-year-old man was arrested during a raid of his apartment in central Paris on Sunday where a document linked to an elite Russian special forces unit operating under the command of the FSB, an heir to the KGB, was reportedly found.
Meta removes Instagram accounts running sextortion scams
Scammers operating out of Nigeria have been increasingly targeting US adults and children and engaging in sexual extortion, said the social media platform.
Meta said Wednesday that it had taken down about 63,000 accounts in Nigeria that were engaging in sextortion scams.
Sexual extortion, or sextortion, is blackmail where criminals threaten to release explicit photos of someone — either real or fake — unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors.
The social network said the scams were mostly aimed at people in the United States and that the accounts were from its Instagram platform; an earlier report said Facebook accounts were deleted. Meta owns Instagram, Facebook and the WhatsApp messaging platform.
North Korean trash balloon lands in South Korean presidential compound
Trash from at least one North Korean balloon hit the South Korean presidential compound in Seoul on Wednesday in what is the first time the fortified no-fly zone has been directly struck by a Pyongyang trash balloon, of which thousands have been launched since May. The balloons are part of a long-standing propaganda conflict between the two countries that has escalated in recent months.
Trash-carrying balloons sent by North Korea hit the South Korean presidential compound Wednesday, security officials told AFP, prompting Seoul to mobilise chemical response teams in the escalating tit-for-tat propaganda war.
It is the first time the South Korean leader's office in downtown Seoul, which is protected by scores of soldiers and a no-fly zone, has been directly hit by any of the thousands of trash-carrying balloons launched by Pyongyang since May.
Okinawa-U.S. military forum proposed after assaults escalate
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 24, 2024 at 18:00 JST
In response to a string of recent sexual assaults involving U.S. service members in Okinawa Prefecture, U.S. Forces Japan pledged to establish a “venue for the constructive exchange of ideas” involving the U.S. military, local officials and residents.
“In coordination with the Japanese government, we will create a new forum for cooperation between U.S. Forces Japan leaders, the Okinawan government and community members,” Ricky Rupp, commander of U.S. Forces Japan, said in a statement released on July 22.
In the statement, Rupp also reported that the frequency of sobriety checkpoints around U.S. installations has been increased, and USFJ plans to up U.S. military police patrols in Okinawa.
200,000 Children and Vulnerable Adults Abused in New Zealand, Report Finds
The head of a six-year investigation into mistreatment in orphanages, mental health institutions and elsewhere said it found an “unthinkable national catastrophe” unfolding over decades.
Reporting from Auckland, New Zealand
More than 200,000 people are estimated to have been abused by state and religious organizations in New Zealand that had been entrusted with their care, according to the final report from a landmark independent inquiry released on Wednesday.
The abuse included sexual assault, electric shocks, chemical restraints, medical experimentation, sterilization, starvation and beatings, said the report from the Royal Commission of Inquiry Into Abuse in Care. Many of the victims were children who had been removed from their families and placed in state, religious or foster care.
“For some people this meant years or even decades of frequent abuse and neglect,” the report said. “For some it was a lifetime; for others it led to an unmarked grave.”
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