NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Cave ordeal movies: Thailand’s military government wants to control how movies portray the ordeal of the young soccer players and their heroic rescue from a flooded cave that drew worldwide interest and the attention of foreign filmmakers. Culture Minister Vira Rojpochanarat said he will propose at next week’s Cabinet meeting that a special committee be established to oversee the production of films, documentaries and videos related to the experiences of the 12 boys and their coach who were trapped in a cave for almost three weeks before being rescued. With the boys returned home, attention has turned to how the media is handling the post-rescue story. There has been criticism of several news outlets, mostly foreign, who are considered to have ignored official advice to leave the boys alone for at least a month to try to avoid psychological stress that recounting their ordeal might trigger.
2 Reunion in doubt: North Korea said Friday that an August reunion of Korean families separated by war may not happen if South Korea doesn’t immediately return some of its citizens who arrived in the South in recent years. The 2016 arrival of a group of 12 female employees from a North Korean-run restaurant in China has been a source of contention between the rival Koreas. North Korea has accused South Korea of kidnapping them, while South Korea says they decided to resettle of their own will. North Korea has often used the women as a reason to rebuff South Korea’s repeated request to allow elderly citizens split during the 1950-53 Korean War to reunite with each other temporarily. But Friday’s statement is the North’s first attempt to link the fate of the women to the August reunion and comes amid worries that a global diplomacy to push the North to give up its nuclear weapons is making little headway after months of detente.
3 African migrants: Yemeni security officials and tribal leaders say a boat carrying more than 160 African migrants has capsized off the southern province of Shabwa. It is not immediately clear if there have been any fatalities or if any migrants have been rescued. The boat departed from the port of Bosaso in Somalia carrying 100 Somalis and 60 Ethiopians, including women and children. Although Yemen is wracked by conflict, African migrants continue to arrive in the war-torn country where there is no central authority to prevent them from traveling onward to oilrich Gulf countries.
4 Pesticide warming: Human Rights Watch urged the Brazilian government Friday to establish buffer zones nationwide when pesticides are sprayed and reduce the use of highly toxic products. The group said in a report that Brazil is one of the largest consumers of pesticides in the world and it often uses products that are not authorized elsewhere. Of the 10 most common pesticides in Brazil, four cannot be used in the European Union. Health Ministry data show that around 4,000 pesticide poisoning cases were reported last year in Brazil.
5 Nerve agent victim: British officials said Friday Charlie Rowley has been released from a Salisbury hospital. Rowley, 45, and partner Dawn Sturgess fell ill June 30 after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok when they handled a container thought to have been used in the March nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy and his daughter. Sturgess, 44, died on July 8. Novichok was produced by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Britain has blamed Russia for poisoning the spy and his daughter, who both recovered.