Comment on Sri Lanka mudslide, flood deaths rise to 126; 97 missing

Four American teachers were stabbed in broad daylight by an unknown assailant in China on Monday, according to their employer, U. S. government officials, as well as media reports and social media posts. The educators—who are affiliated with Iowa’s Cornell College, a small liberal arts college about two hours east of Des Moines, and were in China as part of a partnership with Beihua University in Jilin, a northeastern province—were “injured in a serious incident” while they were visiting a public park accompanied by a Beihua faculty member, school president Jonathan Bard announced in an email to the Cornell community.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Singapore Airlines said Tuesday it has offered compensation to passengers of a flight that hit extreme turbulence last month, in a rare case that killed one passenger and injured dozens. The Being 777 jet, carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew from London to Singapore, ran into sudden turbulence over the Irrawaddy basin on May 20, hurling people and items around the cabin.

BLANTYRE, Malawi — Soldiers are searching mountainous forests near a city in northern Malawi after a military plane carrying the country’s vice president and a former first lady went missing in the area Monday, President Lazarus Chakwera said. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The plane carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima, former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri and eight others left the southern African nation’s capital, Lilongwe, at 9:17 a.m.

SEOUL — South Korean soldiers fired warning shots after North Korean troops briefly violated the tense border earlier this week, South Korea’s military said Tuesday, as the rivals are embroiled in Cold War-style campaigns like balloon launches and propaganda broadcasts. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Bloodshed and violent confrontations have occasionally occurred at the Koreas’ heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarized Zone.

Over the weekend, a number of tributes to public intellectual Noam Chomsky were posted on social media, remarking on his life and career. But the 95-year-old linguist, by all public accounts, is not dead yet. What’s been said about Noam Chomsky’s health status? The outpouring came after U. K.-based outlet Media Lens posted on Facebook on June 7: “No doubt like many other people around the world, we have been surprised and profoundly concerned that Noam Chomsky has not commented publicly on current events; in particular, the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.” Media Lens followed with a series of purported updates on Chomsky’s condition, sourced to Reddit posts by Chomsky’s former assistant Bev Stohl, and concluding that “it is very unlikely he will return to the public eye.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Chomsky—who in one of his last media appearances said in April last year that he “first started talking publicly about the criminal nature of Israel’s actions in 1969” but that he regretted not speaking out earlier about the “repression” of Palestinians—has been noticeably absent from public eye over the past year.

JERUSALEM — Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s three-man war Cabinet, announced his resignation Sunday, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of mismanaging the war effort and putting his own “political survival” over the country’s security needs. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The move does not immediately pose a threat to Netanyahu, who still controls a majority coalition in parliament.