Biden urges Israel: Postpone ‘divisive’ judicial reforms

WASHINGTON, DC—President Joe Biden urged Israel in a statement not to rush increasingly “divisive” judicial reforms, given the other challenges facing the US ally.

In a statement first published by news site Axios and later shared with AFP by the White House, Biden said Sunday (Monday in Manila) “It doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus.” al to curb the power of judges to a vote in the Knesset as soon as Monday. The proposal triggered dueling protests over the weekend between supporters of the proposal and those who fear it will undermine Israel’s democracy.

BATTLING A BLAZE. Tourists wait in the airport’s departure hall as evacuations are underway due to wildfires, on the Greek island of Rhodes Sunday. Locals and tourists fled hot spots on Rhodes, as firefighters battled a blaze that had sparked the country’s largest-ever fire evacuation. Firefighters were bracing for high winds that could hamper their efforts. AFP

“From the perspective of Israel’s friends in the United States, it looks like the current judicial reform proposal is becoming more divisive, not less,” he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to bring his controversial propos-

Thousands of tourists flee wildfire on Greece’s Rhodes island

RHODES, Greece—Tens of thousands of people have fled wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes as terrified tourists scrambled to get home.

And there were reports of wildfires breaking out on Corfu, another popular Greek island, with land and sea evacuations underway late Sunday.

On Rhodes, firefighters tackled blazes that erupted in peak tourism season, sparking the country’s largest-ever wildfire evacuation -- and leaving flights and holidays canceled.

Hundreds of holidaymakers milled inside Rhodes international airport, some trying to sleep on their beach towels as they waited for flights off the island.

Kelly Squirrel, a transport administrator on holiday from the UK, told AFP she spotted the fires from the poolside and ran down to the beach after being told to evacuate.

“We were walking for about six hours in the heat” to escape, she said.

Rhodes is one of Greece’s most popular holiday destinations, particularly with British, German and French tourists. In the rush to leave, some visitors had to abandon their belongings.

“We had to lend a woman some of my wife’s clothes because she had nothing to wear,” Kevin Sales, an engineer from England, told AFP. “It was terrible.”

Other Greek islands were reporting similar problems.

A wildfire broke out on Greece’s second-largest island, Evia, according to the fire services, and several residential areas had to be evacuated.

Evia, situated off central Greece’s eastern coast, was devastated last year by some of the worst wildfires in the country’s history.

And several hundred miles to the northwest, the Greek island of Corfu, another favourite with foreign tourists, was struggling with its own wildfires Sunday evening.

Officials on the island, which sits in the Ionian sea off the northwest of Greece, have already issued evacuation alerts for 12 villages there, the Athens News Agency reported.

The coast guard there said a rescue operation was underway at Nissaki beach on the northeast of the island, due to a wild fire. AFP

15 perish, 19 missing after Indonesian wooden boat sinks off Sulawesi coast

KENDARI, Indonesia—At least 15 people were killed and 19 more were missing on Monday after a wooden boat sank off the coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, search and rescue officials said.

The boat sank with 40 people onboard just after midnight local time (1 am Monday in Manila), the local office of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said in a statement. Six people were rescued and taken to hospital for treatment, it said, and the cause of the sinking was being investigated.

“Provisionally, there are 19 people who are still being searched for,” Muhamad Arafah, head of the local search and rescue agency in Kendari city in Southeast Sulawesi, said in the statement.

One search team will dive around the accident site, while another will search the water’s surface using boats, he said.

The agency shared images of rescuers mobilising for the search effort, and several dead bodies covered by sarongs laid on tarpaulin at a local hospital.

The boat the villages of Lanto in Central Buton regency on Muna island in Southeast Sulawesi, the local office’s spokesperson Wahyudin, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP. AFP

The driving force behind the reforms, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, said the bill being put to lawmakers on Monday had undergone changes to accommodate critics, but added that the coalition was still open to “understandings.” Netanyahu faced other challenges over the weekend, not the least of which was a trip to the hospital to have a pacemaker fitted after he was hospitalized for a reported spell of dizziness. AFP

11 Dead After School Gym Roof Collapse

BEIJING—Eleven people died after the roof of a school gym collapsed in northeastern China, state media reported Monday.

The gym at the No. 34 Middle School in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province collapsed just before 3 pm (0700 GMT) on Sunday, state news agency Xinhua said.

“A total of 11 people died in the accident,” state broadcaster CCTV said, adding that an investigation of the accident was in progress.

Nineteen people were at the gym when the accident took place, local newspaper Heilongjiang Daily said. Four escaped and four others survived after being pulled from the rubble. Footage aired by CCTV showed the entire roof collapsed onto the gym and rescue workers picking through the debris.

The search and rescue operation, which had involved nearly 160 firefighters and 39 fire trucks, has now wrapped up, CCTV said.

An initial investigation into the collapse found that construction workers had placed perlite—a form of volcanic glass—on the roof, Xinhua said. Heavy rain then led the perlite to expand, causing the roof to collapse, it added.

“Those in charge of the construction company have been taken into police custody,” the state news agency reported. AFP