While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 21
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Security and emergency personnel search the rubble of a building destroyed in a reported Israeli strike in Damascus.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
Missile attacks across Middle East raise Gaza escalation risks
Missile attacks in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen on Jan 20 threw into sharp focus the increasing risk of the war in Gaza triggering a wider regional conflict pitting Iran and its allies against Israel and the United States.
Iran said five of its Revolutionary Guards were killed in a missile strike on a house in Damascus which it blamed on Israel, and security sources in Lebanon said an Israeli strike there killed a member of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Later on Jan 20, an American official said a missile or rocket attack had injured US personnel at a base in Iraq, a country where Iran-backed groups have previously battled US forces.
The United States also said it had targeted a missile the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen was aiming into the Red Sea, which it called a threat to shipping.
Anti-Israel protest at Italy jewellery fair turns violent
AFP
Protesters clashed with police in the Italian city of Vicenza on Jan 20 following a demonstration against the presence of Israeli exhibitors at an international jewellery fair.
Police used water cannons against demonstrators who fired smoke bombs and flares, as violence erupted after a planned march by hundreds of people, some holding up banners saying “Free Palestine” and “Stop Bombing Gaza”.
More than 1,300 exhibitors from almost 40 countries are showing at the Vicenzaoro fair, which opened on Jan 19 and runs until Jan 23, according to organisers.
Haley questions Trump’s mental fitness after gaffe
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley turned a spotlight on Donald Trump’s mental fitness on Jan 20, after the former president falsely accused her of failing to stop the violent assault on the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.
Trump, speaking on Jan 19 at a campaign event days ahead of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary election, appeared to confuse Ms Haley with then House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Referring to the Jan 6 insurrection by a mob of his supporters, Trump told a crowd: “Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people – soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want – they turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that.”
Nasa loses contact with its mini-helicopter on Mars
Nasa has lost contact with its tiny helicopter Ingenuity during the hard-working craft’s 72nd flight, the space agency said.
The agency’s engineers are attempting to re-establish communications, which ended abruptly on Jan 18 as the craft was making its descent from a test flight, Nasa said late on Jan 19.
Ingenuity, which resembles a large drone, had arrived on Mars in 2021 with the rover Perseverance and became the first motorised craft to fly autonomously on another planet.
Swiatek at a loss to understand Australian Open exit
The Australian Open had its biggest shock to date when teenager Linda Noskova knocked world number one Iga Swiatek out of the competition in the third round on Jan 20, and the Polish top seed was at a loss to explain how she felt.
Swiatek began strongly, winning the opening set 6-3, but after losing the second by the same score, the decider saw Czech 19-year-old Noskova break serve twice to win 6-4.
When asked to articulate her feelings so people could understand how she felt, Swiatek hit back with a question of her own. “Why do you need to understand?” Swiatek asked .“Sometimes I don’t even understand, so I don’t know if you will. I mean, I really wasn’t expecting a lot. I just tried to do the best kind of work possible.
