World News at a Glance
Tribe’s Lone Survivor Glimpsed in Amazon Jungle, Healthy and at Work
The lone survivor of an isolated tribe in the Brazilian Amazon, monitored and assisted from afar by the government for decades, looks healthy in a rare new video released this week, which shows him swinging an ax at a tree. Anthropologists say the man, who is believed to be in his 50s, has lived on his own in the jungle in Rondônia state since other members of his tribe died in the 1990s, probably killed by ranchers. The government has chosen to help the mysterious man from afar, leaving tools and seeds for him to grow crops, and seeking to keep invaders from his habitat, which is a protected indigenous territory.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Among 1.5 Million Affected by Cyberattack
A cyberattack on Singapore’s public health system has compromised data from 1.5 million people, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, a cancer survivor, authorities announced Friday. “This was a deliberate, targeted and well-planned cyberattack,” Singapore’s Health Ministry and Ministry of Communications and Information said in a statement. The target of the attack was SingHealth, which runs four public hospitals and other facilities. The data purloined includes basic personal information: names, addresses, birthdates. In addition, information about what drugs were dispensed in outpatient clinics to 160,000 people was exposed and copied during the hack.
Israel Launches Broad Air Assault in Gaza Following Border Violence
Israeli warplanes launched a large-scale attack across the Gaza Strip on Friday, one of the fiercest in years, after a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier along the border fence during a day of escalating hostilities. Successive explosions rocked Gaza City at nightfall, and the streets emptied as warplanes struck dozens of sites that Israel said belonged to the military wing of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. At least four Palestinians were killed by initial Israeli artillery and tank fire and in the subsequent airstrikes. Hamas said that three of the four were members of its military wing.
Israel Cements Right-Wing Agenda in a Furious Week of Lawmaking
Wrapping up its business before a summer recess, the right-wing, religious coalition that rules Israel’s parliament moved aggressively this week to push through its polarizing agenda. On Monday, it empowered the education minister to bar some groups that criticize the Israeli occupation of the West Bank from speaking in public schools. On Tuesday, it accelerated what critics call the creeping annexation of the West Bank by cutting off Palestinians’ access to the Supreme Court in land disputes. On Wednesday, it blocked single men and gay couples from having children through surrogacy. On Thursday, it passed a law granting the Jewish people an exclusive right to national self-determination.
A Family of 14 Dies in an Airstrike. U.S. Officials Deny They Were Civilians.
Fourteen members of a family, including three small children, were killed in northern Afghanistan when a U.S. airstrike destroyed their home, several Afghan officials confirmed Friday. In what has become a familiar litany, particularly in Taliban-dominated Kunduz province, Afghan and U.S. officials had initially denied that any civilians had been killed in the strike Thursday, claiming the victims were Taliban fighters. Then 11 bodies belonging to women and children appeared at the hospital in Kunduz City, about 4 miles from the site of the attack. The Taliban do not have female fighters and the children were very young. The United Nations said it is investigating.
Macron to Fire Aide Who Hit Protester, but Pressure Mounts
After a day of intense pressure, the office of President Emmanuel Macron of France said Friday that it was firing the aide identified this week in a video that shows him hitting a protester during a demonstration in May. But the announcement did little to quash a barrage of criticism directed at Macron. The aide, Alexandre Benalla, 26, was identified Wednesday by the newspaper Le Monde in a video that shows him wearing a police helmet as he grabs, drags and hits a man during a labor protest. The presidency’s fumbling response has provided ammunition for Macron’s critics.
Insider Attack in Afghanistan Exposes Risks for Advisers at Center of Trump Strategy
A Pentagon investigation into the death of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan is looking at whether an Army brigade at the center of the Trump administration’s new war strategy had followed proper security procedures designed to protect U.S. troops from insider attacks by Afghan forces they train. Cpl. Joseph Maciel, who was killed July 7, was part of a group of soldiers assigned to protect U.S. military advisers with the 1st Security Forces Assistance Brigade. He was with a team of roughly 25 trainers and soldiers that was attacked in Tarinkot, a town in the Taliban heartland, by what a local councilman described as an Afghan soldier who fired on the Americans.
