IRAN
Filmmakers arrested
Authorities arrested award-winning filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof and his colleague Mostafa Aleahmad for “inciting unrest” following protests related to the deadly collapse of a building in May, state media reported on Friday. “In the midst of the heart-breaking incident in Abadan’s Metropol, [the filmmakers] were involved in inciting unrest and disrupting the psychological security of society,” IRNA said. The 10-story Metropol building, which was under construction in southwestern Khuzestan Province, collapsed on May 23, killing 43 people and sparking angry protests in solidarity with victims’ families. A group of filmmakers led by Rasoulof published an open letter calling on the security forces to “lay down their arms” in the face of outrage over the “corruption, theft, inefficiency and repression” surrounding the Abadan collapse.
FRANCE
Blaze burns 600 hectares
More than 900 firefighters backed by aircraft were on Friday deployed to battle a massive blaze in the southern Gard region that burned 600 hectares overnight. “This fire is far from being done. There are fronts in hard-to-reach areas that we haven’t tackled and that are advancing freely,” said Eric Agrinier, a member of the fire service. “It’s going to be a feat of endurance,” he added later, warning that the blaze might not be brought under control until today due to unfavorable weather. Working into the night after the blaze began late Thursday, firefighters set backfires to protect inhabited areas. “We burn some parts [of the forest] so when the fire spreads it reaches an already burned zone and slows down,” another firefighter said.
UNITED STATES
California gun law challenged
The publisher of a youth shooting magazine and several gun-rights groups on Friday filed a lawsuit challenging a newly enacted California law banning the marketing of guns to minors by manufacturers and others in the firearms industry. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the publisher of Junior Shooters and groups including the Second Amendment Foundation argued that the law contravened their freedom of speech guaranteed in the US constitution’s First Amendment. California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a statement that it would “take any and all action under the law to defend California’s commonsense gun laws.” California Governor Gavin Newsom last week signed the measure into law, citing the need for new laws “as the [US] Supreme Court rolls back important gun safety protections.”
SPAIN
Two injured in bull run
The third bull run of Pamplona’s San Fermin Festival ended yesterday with the event’s first gorings of the year. Two men were injured in the leg by bull horns, said Estrella Petrina, a local hospital spokeswoman. Seven people needed to be treated at the hospital following yesterday’s running of the bulls. Thousands of runners, most wearing traditional white shirts, scampered to avoid the charging animals. Many ended up piled on top of each other in the narrow cobblestone streets of the course. The increasingly criticized yet popular festival, which was made known to the English-speaking world through Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, draws tens of thousands of visitors from around the world each year. Yesterday’s bull run was the third of eight scheduled this year. The six bulls that run each morning are killed in bullfights by professional bullfighters later in the day.
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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