PHILIPPINES Congress on Saturday overwhelmingly approved the president’s appeal for martial law in the south to be extended to the end of the year to help troops quell a two-month siege by Islamic State group-linked militants and stamp out similar extremist plots in the volatile region.
CHINA The meteorological department of east China metropolis Shanghai recorded an air temperature of 40.9 degrees Celsius at around 2 p.m. Friday, the highest on record in the city in 145 years. A red alert for high temperatures was issued by the Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory on Friday.
INDONESIA President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo says police should shoot drug traffickers who resist arrest because of a narcotics crisis facing the country.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has confirmed that his decision to freeze ties with Israel, as a protest against Israeli policies at a major Jerusalem holy site, also includes a suspension of security coordination.
TURKEY’s president waded into the diplomatic crisis gripping Qatar and four other Arab nations yesterday, traveling to Saudi Arabia at the start of a three-country Gulf tour aimed at helping break the impasse.
GERMANY-POLAND Germany’s justice minister is welcoming possible European Union sanctions against Poland because of that country’s controversial judicial reforms. Proposed by the populist ruling party, the law gives the justice minister and the president the power to appoint and assess Supreme Court judges.
ITALY Scarce rain and chronically leaky aqueducts have combined this summer to hurt farmers in much of Italy and put Romans at risk for drastic water rationing as soon as this week. Sky TG24 TV meteorologists noted yesterday that Italy had experienced one of its driest springs in some 60 years.
US Eight people were found dead in a tractor-trailer loaded with at least 30 others outside a Walmart store in Texas’ stifling summer heat in what police are calling a horrific human trafficking case. The driver was arrested.
VENEZUELA The Mercosur trade bloc is asking Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to suspend his plan to rewrite the troubled nation’s constitution. In a statement, they are also offered to help in any talks between Venezuela’s government and the opposition aimed at solving the country’s political and economic crisis.
