UNITED STATES
Apology for Nazi comparison
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday apologized for affronting people with comments comparing the required wearing of masks in the House of Representatives to the horrors of the Holocaust. “I’m truly sorry for offending people with remarks about the Holocaust,” the Georgia Republican told reporters outside the Capitol, saying that she had visited Washington’s US Holocaust Memorial Museum earlier in the day. “There’s no comparison and there never ever will be.” Her apology came more than three weeks after appearing on a conservative podcast and comparing COVID-19 safety requirements adopted by Democrats controlling the House to “a time and history where people were told to wear a gold star.”
CANADA
Army boss out due to golf
The country’s No. 2 military official, Lieutenant General Mike Rouleau, on Monday announced his resignation after playing golf with a retired former chief of staff being investigated for alleged sexual misconduct. The not-so-simple round of golf drew scrutiny amid concerns about potential for a perceived conflict of interest by Rouleau — he was in the chain of command of the military police investigating retired general Jonathan Vance. Vance, who retired in January, denies any wrongdoing. In a letter, Rouleau acknowledges having played golf on June 2 with the former chief of staff and the commander of the navy, but assures that he did not discuss the ongoing investigation.
UNITED STATES
Cashier shot over mask
A man on Monday shopping at a supermarket in Georgia shot and killed the cashier serving him over an argument about his mask, before wounding an off-duty sheriff’s deputy working at the store, local authorities said. Victor Lee Tucker Jr, 30, shot the supermarket cashier with a handgun and was later involved in a shootout with the off-duty deputy, in which both were injured, a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said. Officers of the DeKalb County Police Department arrested Tucker as he was trying to crawl out the supermarket’s front door, the GBI said. Both Tucker and the wounded deputy are in a stable condition, it said, adding that a second cashier who was grazed by a bullet was treated for her injury at the scene.
UAE
Twitter adds feminine forms
Twitter yesterday introduced an “Arabic (feminine)” language setting enabling site instructions to users to contain the feminine forms in Arabic grammar. “We want our service to reflect the voices that shape the conversations that take place on our service,” said Rasha Fawakhiri, Twitter communications head for the Middle East and North Africa. In Arabic, verbs agree with the gender of their subject. Masculine forms are used to address mixed or unknown audiences, and are the default in most texts. Twitter did not introduce a non-binary gender language option in Arabic, but Fawakhiri said that the company has other gender-neutral projects in the works for the site. It has plans to add a designated gender pronoun field to Twitter profiles, so people can display how they prefer to be addressed. Until now, instructions to users tweeting in Arabic had appeared only in the masculine form gharrid. With a change of settings, this command can now appear on Twitter as gharridi, the feminine form.
PHILIPPINES
Military deal extended
The government is to maintain a key military deal with the US that President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to terminate. Duterte is extending for another six months the suspension of the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement “while he studies and both sides further address his concerns regarding particular aspects of the agreement,” Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin said in a video. Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana issued a statement in support of the move, adding that the additional review period would help Duterte “arrive at an informed decision on the matter.” “Our bilateral cooperation with the US is geared towards upholding our national interest and to the extent necessary to enhance the Philippines’ defense capability,” Lorenzana said. The government in February last year notified the US that it would terminate the pact, but Duterte extended the stay order in November last year.
INDIA
Man with 39 wives dies
A polygamist and sect leader who had 39 wives, and at least 127 children and grandchildren, has died aged 76, officials said. Zionnghaka Chana, who lived in the remote state of Mizoram as the patriarch of what is believed to be one of the world’s largest families, suffered from diabetes and hypertension, and died in hospital on Sunday, the Press Trust of India reported. Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Sunday wrote on Twitter that the state had bid farewell to Chana with a “heavy heart.” “Mizoram and his village at Baktawng Tlangnuam has become a major tourist attraction in the state because of the family,” Zoramthanga added. The sect, founded by Chana’s grandfather in the 1930s, has about 1,700 members, including four generations of the Chana family.
JAPAN
Vietnam to get 1m doses
Tokyo is sending 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Vietnam, Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday, as Hanoi seeks to accelerate its vaccine procurement drive to tackle a more stubborn wave of infections. The shipment of Japan-made AstraZeneca vaccines are due to arrive in Vietnam today, Motegi told reporters. The nation is considering additional vaccine donations to Taiwan and Vietnam, and it is planning similar shipments to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand from early next month, he added.
AFGHANISTAN
Gunmen kill polio workers
Four polio vaccination workers were killed and three injured in separate attacks in the city of Jalalabad, a provincial health department official said yesterday, the latest in a series of attacks against health workers. A wave of assassinations have hit urban centers since peace talks began between the Taliban and the Afghan government last year in Doha, many of them targeting government employees, health workers, media and civil society members. Jan Mohammad, head of the polio immunization drive in Nangarhar of which Jalalabad is the main city, said gunmen targeted polio workers in three locations in the city. “Today was the second day of our operations after three months, but we have to suspend it once again,” Mohammad said. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Taliban had denied involvement in previous attacks.
NORWAY
Activists sue over oil drills
Norwegian climate campaigners yesterday said they have asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to rule against government plans for more oil drilling in the Arctic, arguing that such exploration deprives young people of their future. The lawsuit, by six individuals aged 20 to 27, as well as Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth, is part of an emerging branch of law worldwide where plaintiffs go to court to make the case for curbing emissions that cause climate change. “The environmentalists argue that, by allowing new oil drilling in the midst of a climate crisis, Norway is in breach of fundamental human rights,” the campaigners said in a statement announcing their appeal to the ECHR. Three Norwegian courts have previously ruled in favor of the government, including in a verdict by the Supreme Court in December, thus exhausting domestic legal options.
BELGIUM
Serbia, Kosovo resume talks
The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo were yesterday in Brussels to resume EU-mediated talks aimed at finding a solution to one of Europe’s most intractable territorial disputes. The Balkan neighbors last met a year ago as part of decade-long negotiations to resolve disputes still poisoning relations more than 20 years after they separated in war. Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence after the province broke away in the bloody 1998-1999 conflict that was ended only by a NATO bombing campaign against Serb troops. Yesterday’s meeting was the first since Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti claimed a landmark win in parliamentary elections in February, pledging to take a new tack in the talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. “This dialogue is not going to be easy,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said before the start of the meeting.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter US-led threats in comments reported yesterday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since US president-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory on Oct. 6. At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the US for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region. Kim also criticized the US over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion.
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