AUSTRALIA
Landmark treaty signed
Canberra and Funafuti are pressing ahead with a landmark treaty offering the Pacific Island’s citizens a climate refuge, quieting speculation about the fate of the pact. The 11-page treaty was presented to the Australian Parliament late on Tuesday — offering Tuvalu residents the right to live in Australia if their homeland is lost to rising sea levels. The pact also commits Australia to defending Tuvalu in the face of natural disasters, health pandemics and “military aggression,” but only upon their request for aid.
TUNISIA
Four sentenced to death
Four people were condemned to death and two sentenced to life in prison yesterday after a decade-long investigation into the 2013 killing of secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid. Belaid’s assassination, which was claimed by militants loyal to the Islamic State group, dealt a heavy blow to the fledgling democracy established after the overthrow Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. The judgement was announced on national television early yesterday after 15 hours of deliberation. Twenty-three people received sentences ranging from two to 120 years, while five defendants were acquitted.
UKRAINE
Russian fleet devastated
The military has sunk or disabled one-third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea in just more than two years of war, a navy spokesman said on Tuesday, a heavy blow to Moscow’s military capability. Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said that the latest strike on Saturday night hit the Russian amphibious landing ship Kostiantyn Olshansky that was resting in dock in Sevastopol in Russia-occupied Crimea, along with two other landing ships and an intelligence ship. With the latest attack, one-third of all warships that Russian had in the Black Sea before the war have been destroyed or disabled, Pletenchuk said.
UNITED STATES
Man dies in subway attack
A man died after being pushed onto subway tracks in New York in an unprovoked attack, authorities reported less than a month after troops were deployed to reduce surging violence in the city’s transportation system. The victim, who has not been identified, was shoved in front of an oncoming No. 4 train on Monday evening in East Harlem, police said. Officers arrested and charged the alleged assailant, a 24-year-old man named Carlton McPherson, who local media reported has a long history of mental illness. In the past few months there have been a number of deadly shootings, as well as incidents involving knives and passengers being pushed onto the tracks.
AUSTRALIA
Man in drain hiding: police
Police yesterday said that a man who spent more than 30 hours stuck in a Brisbane drain was hiding from them, not trying to retrieve a lost mobile phone as he initially claimed. The man’s underground escapades are believed to have begun when he was allegedly involved in a crash with a police vehicle in the early hours of Sunday. After hitting the police vehicle, the man fled before being involved in another crash, at which point he fled on foot, police said. It was then that the 38-year-old man is alleged to have entered the drain looking for a place to hide. The trapped man was initially spotted by a passerby on Sunday and refused an offer of help, saying: “No bro, I’m all good,” adding he was looking for a lost phone.
‘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,”
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
‘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
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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