Israel
Army: Iranians behind Golan Heights attack
JERUSALEM — Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering an Israeli reprisal and further escalating heightened tensions.
The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Iran’s Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement.
Israel “views this Iranian attack very severely,” Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details.
Saudi Arabia
Yemeni rebels fire missiles at Riyadh
RIYADH — Yemen’s Shiite rebels fired ballistic missiles at the Saudi capital Wednesday, according to the rebels and the Saudi military, which said its air defense forces intercepted missiles in the skies over Riyadh and the southern city of Jizan.
The cross-border attack by the Iran-allied rebels, known as Houthis, came amid mounting regional tensions after U.S. President Trump decided to withdraw from the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran.
Saudi forces have intercepted Houthi missiles several times since March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition launched a war against the rebels and their allies after they captured much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.
Ireland
Google suspends
ads on abortion vote
Google is suspending all advertising connected to Ireland’s abortion referendum as part of moves to protect “election integrity,” the company announced Wednesday.
The move came a day after Facebook banned foreign-backed ads in the Irish campaign, amid global concerns about online election meddling and the role of internet ads in swaying voters.
Google said that starting Thursday, it would no longer display ads related to the May 25 vote on whether to repeal Ireland’s constitutional ban on most abortions.
Malaysia
Opposition win marks historic power shift
KUALA LUMPUR — An alliance of opposition parties led by the country’s 92-year-old former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad won a fiercely contested general election, ending the 60-year rule of the Malay-dominated National Front.
The result is a political earthquake for Muslim-majority Malaysia, sweeping aside the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose reputation was tarnished by a monumental corruption scandal and the imposition of an unpopular sales tax that hurt many of his coalition’s poor rural supporters.
It is also a surprising exception to backsliding on democratic values in Southeast Asia, a region of more than 600 million people where governments of countries including Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines have swung toward harsh authoritarian rule.
Poland
Polanski calls #MeToo ‘collective hysteria’
WARSAW — Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski, who fled the United States 40 years ago as a sex offender awaiting sentencing, says he views the #MeToo movement as “collective hysteria” and “total hypocrisy.”
Polanski made the comment to the Polish edition of Newsweek before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stripped him of his membership, citing his 1977 guilty plea and conviction for unlawful sex with a minor.
In his interview, Polanski said he views #MeToo as a “collective hysteria of the kind that sometimes happens in the society. … Everyone is trying to sign up, chiefly out of fear,” he said.
Wire reports
