UKRAINE
Air force downs Su-34 jets
Air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said three Russian Su-34 fighter jets were downed in the south of the country at about noon on Friday. He said a message found on a downed Russian drone read “Die, bitches.” “Great idea! Here is our response!” he wrote on Telegram. In his nightly address on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked the soldiers who shot down the Russian fighters in the Kherson region. “It’s the gain of our air force and the direct action of the Odesa Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. Thank you, guys,” he said. “May every Russian pilot be well aware of our response to every Russian killer — none of them will go unpunished.”
UNITED KINGDOM
New Banksy nabbed
Elusive artist Banksy displayed his latest work on a London street corner, but it was taken less than hour after he confirmed its installation on Friday. A red stop sign with three military drones on it was taken in the middle of the day by a man with bolt cutters as witnesses took photographs and filmed the incident in the Peckham section of south London. People commenting on Banksy’s Instagram accurately predicted that it would not be there long after the artist posted a photo of it. A man who only wanted to be known as Alex said he was among the many onlookers who watched in awe as a man in a red and black jacket climbed up on a bike next to the post where the sign was bolted to and began hitting it with his hands. “We said: ‘What are you doing?’ but no one really knew what to do, we sort of just watched it happen,” Alex said. The man then left and returned a few minutes later with bolt cutters to finish the job.
UNITED STATES
Charlie Sheen attacked
Actor Charlie Sheen was attacked in his luxury Malibu home, and the suspect was arrested and charged with assault and burglary, police said on Friday. Officers were called to the Two and a Half Men star’s home for a “battery/disturbance,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Suspect Electra Schrock was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, force likely to create great bodily injury and residential burglary, the sheriff’s office said. Entertainment outlet TMZ said Schrock, 47, is one of Sheen’s neighbors, who had “forced her way into his home and attacked him when he opened the door... We’re told she ripped Charlie’s shirt and attempted to strangle him.” Sheen was seen by paramedics, but not taken to a hospital, it added. TMZ said this was not the first confrontation between the neighbors, reporting that previous incidents had included a sticky liquid being squirted on Sheen’s car.
UNITED STATES
Vin Diesel accused of assault
Action star Vin Diesel has been accused of sexually assaulting his assistant more than a decade ago, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday. Asta Jonasson said her first assignment after being hired by the Fast and Furious star’s company was to travel to Atlanta in September 2010. There, she was tasked with helping Diesel leave a hotel in the early morning hours after entertaining multiple women in a suite. “Alone in the hotel suite with him, Vin Diesel sexually assaulted Ms Jonasson,” the suit said. The following day, Samantha Vincent, the actor’s sister and president of One Race, the firm that employed Jonasson, allegedly called and fired her. Diesel’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said there is evidence which “completely refutes” the allegations, a statement published by Variety said.
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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