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.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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