UNITED KINGDOM
Hundreds charged in raid
More than 450 people were charged and hundreds of thousands of cannabis plants worth millions of US dollars seized in a massive operation throughout last month, police said yesterday. Cannabis production is a cash cow for organized crime, fueling gang violence as groups compete for territory, police said. Operation Mille saw searches and arrests carried out across England and Wales “at a scale and pace not seen before,” said Steve Jupp, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for serious organized crime. “Nearly 200,000 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of between ￡115 [million] to ￡130 million [US$147 million to US$166 million] were seized,” police added in a statement. About 1,000 people were arrested and of those, “more than 450 were later charged,” it said.
PHILIPPINES
Marcos pardons farmer debt
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday wrote off US$1.04 billion in land-related debt owed by more than half a million farmers, a move aimed at boosting food production. The “New Agrarian Emancipation Act” he signed into law waived all property-related debt owed by farmers who had been given land on 30-year payment terms under a 1988 land reform program, but had been unable to pay. “We know these farmers do not have the means to pay this huge debt, so putting it under the government’s tab is the right thing to do,” Marcos said at a signing ceremony at the presidential palace. The writing off of the loans, which were issued by government banks, meant “we are doing everything in order to feed our people,” he added.
ITALY
Fire kills six, injures 80
A fire that broke out in a Milan nursing home early yesterday killed six of the residents and injured about 80 others, firefighters said. The blaze began at about 1:30am, apparently in the room of two female residents, who were among the dead, they said, adding that three other women and a man died in the fire. Among the injured, two were in critical condition, while most of the others were being treated for smoke inhalation, they told Italian state radio. Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the national firefighters corps, said firefighters were investigating the cause of the blaze, which was contained by early morning. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who came to the scene, told reporters that the 100 or so residents of the nursing home who were not injured were being transferred to other facilities in the city.
UNITED STATES
Teen gets life for murder
The first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high-school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat was on Thursday sentenced to life with a possibility of parole after 35 years in prison. District Court Judge Shawn Showers sentenced Willard Miller after a sentencing hearing that lasted more than seven hours. Miller and another teen, Jeremy Goodale, had pleaded guilty in April to the 2021 attack on Nohema Graber. Showers acknowledged Miller’s young age, but added that he had “cut Nohema Graber’s precious life short,” devastating her family and the community. “I find that your intent and actions were sinister and evil. Those acts resulted in the intentional loss of human life in a brutal fashion,” Showers said. “There is no excuse.” Before being sentenced, Miller said in court that he accepted responsibility for the killing and apologized to the Graber family. Goodale is to be sentenced later.
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
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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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