01/08/2025

FRIDAY | AUG 1, 2025

8

Millions return home as tsunami warnings lifted

Ex-NBA star held over illegal poker games LOS ANGELES: Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas, 43, was arrested on Wednesday along with five others on charges of running illegal “high-stakes” poker games at his mansion in the Los Angeles suburbs, US prosecutors said. Arenas, who starred for the Washington Wizards, rented out the luxury home that he owned in Encino “for the purposes of hosting high-stakes illegal poker games” between September 2021 and July 2022, according to an indictment unsealed in Los Angeles. The indictment alleges that the gatherings included young women who received tips to “serve drinks, provide massages and offer companionship” to players. Arenas is charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, one count of operating an illegal gambling business and one count of making false statements to federal investigators. At his arraignment at a Federal Court in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, he pleaded not guilty and was released on a US$50,000 (RM212,624) bond. US magistrate judge Jacqueline Chooljian set a trial date of Sept 23. Those arrested on Wednesday also included 49-year-old Yevgeni Gershman, described as a suspected organised crime figure from Israel. According to the indictment, an associate of Arenas, Arthur Kats, staged the house for the poker games at his direction, recruited co-conspirators and collected rent on Arenas’s behalf. Gershman and the three other defendants allegedly ran the illegal “Pot Limit Omaha” poker games in which players were charged a “rake“, either a cut of each pot or a fee per hand. The indictment includes alleged texts between Arenas and Kats in which the games were set up. If convicted, the defendants face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count. – AFP 120 flights disrupted in UK by tech glitch LONDON: Scores of flights to and from United Kingdom (UK) airports were cancelled on Wednesday due to a technical glitch, according to air traffic control service NATS. The number of aircraft in London’s air space was limited by the service as a result of a technical issue that was quickly resolved. There were 67 departures and 55 arrivals cancelled as of 7.30pm (1830 GMT) while a number of flights were also diverted, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. In 2023, NATS suffered the country’s worst systems failure in almost 10 years, stranding thousands of passengers. Airline chiefs reacted angrily to the cancellations, which came at the peak of the UK summer holiday travel season. Ryanair COO Neal McMahon called for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign. “It is outrageous that passengers are once again being hit with delays and disruption. “It is clear that no lessons have been learned since the August 2023 NATS system outage.” EasyJet COO David Morgan said it was “extremely disappointing” to again see a failure “causing disruption to our customers at this busy and important time of year for travel”. “While our priority today is supporting our customers, we will want to understand from NATS what steps they are taking to ensure issues do not continue,“ he added. A Transport Department spokesperson said it was “working closely” with NATS to understand the cause of the glitch and the “implications for the resilience systems in place”. The “technical issue” responsible for the disruption was at the service’s control centre in Swanwick, southwest England, it said. – AFP

PUERTO AYORA: Countries across the Pacific Rim lifted tsunami warnings on Wednesday, allowing millions of temporary evacuees to return home. After one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded rattled Russia’s sparsely populated Far East, more than a dozen nations warned citizens to stay away from coastal regions. Storm surges of up to four metres were predicted for some parts of the Pacific after the 8.8-magnitude quake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula. The tsunami warnings caused widespread disruption. Peru closed 65 of its 121 Pacific ports and authorities on Maui cancelled flights to and from the Hawaiian island. But fears of a catastrophe were not realised, with country after country lifting or downgrading warnings and telling coastal residents that they could return. o One reported fatality in Japan, no damage in Chile, Galapagos Islands

warnings and tourists were spirited off sightseeing boats and onto the safety of land. The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged the local fishing plant, officials said. Russian state television footage showed buildings and debris swept into the sea. The surge of water reached as far as the town’s World War II monument about 400m from the shoreline, said Mayor Alexander Ovsyannikov. The initial quake caused limited damage and light injuries, despite being the strongest since 2011, when 15,000 people were killed in Japan. Russian scientists reported that the Klyuchevskoy volcano erupted shortly after the earthquake. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake was one of the 10 strongest tremors recorded since 1900. It was followed by dozens of aftershocks that further shook the Russian Far East, including one of 6.9 magnitude. The USGS said there is a 59% chance of an aftershock of more than seven magnitude in the next week. – AFP

In Japan, almost two million people had been ordered to higher ground, before the warnings were downgraded to an advisory for large stretches of its Pacific coast, with waves up to 0.7m still being observed yesterday. The only reported fatality was a woman who was killed when her car fell off a cliff in Japan as she tried to escape on Wednesday, local media reported. In Chile, authorities conducted what the Interior Ministry said was “perhaps the most massive evacuation ever carried out in our country”, with 1.4 million people ordered to high ground. Chilean authorities reported no damage or victims and registered waves of just 60cm on the country’s north coast. In the Galapagos Islands, where waves of up to three meters were expected, there was relief as the Ecuadoran navy’s oceanographic institute said the danger had passed. Locals reported the sea level falling and rising suddenly, a phenomenon that is commonly seen with the arrival of a tsunami. But only a surge of over a meter was reported, causing no damage. Earlier, national parks were closed, schools were shuttered, loudspeakers blared

SIGNS OF DISSENT ... A protest being held against the US tariff policy near the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea. – REUTERSPIC

Mass shooting sparks calls for stricter gun laws NEW YORK: New York City detectives investigating this week’s mass shooting were interviewing the attacker’s associates in his home state of Nevada on Wednesday, as gun safety advocates expressed dismay that he was able to buy a gun there legally last month despite two reported mental health hospitalisations. gun store even though, according to multiple news reports, he was hospitalised under an emergency “mental health crisis hold” in 2022 and 2024. The details of those episodes are not known. shows a need for tougher regulations, especially for those with mental health issues. “It is horrifying that a man with documented mental health struggles was able to purchase a weapon, let alone a weapon of such devastating capability,“ said New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, urging a national ban on assault rifles.

Tamura, who shot himself in the chest on Monday, bought the rifle he used in the attack from a supervisor at the casino where he worked, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing law enforcement sources. Nevada law requires private gun sales to go through a licensed firearms dealer and include a background check. Whether he obtained the rifle legally or not, advocates for stricter gun laws said the case

New York is one of 10 states that bans such weapons, according to advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. “What this shooting in New York highlights more than anything else is that we are only as safe as the laws of the weakest state,“ said Everytown law and policy senior vice-president Nick Suplina. – Reuters

Authorities said Shane Tamura, 27, drove from his Las Vegas home to Manhattan, marched into an office skyscraper on Monday and fatally shot four people, including an off-duty police officer, with an assault-style rifle before taking his own life. New York police said Tamura legally purchased a revolver in Nevada in June at a