AUSTRALIA
Nazi to be sentenced
A self-described Nazi is to become the first person in the nation sentenced to prison for performing an outlawed Nazi salute when a magistrate sets his term next month. Magistrate Brett Sonnet yesterday told Jacob Hersant that he would be sentenced to a “relatively modest term of imprisonment” at his next court appearance. The maximum potential sentence is 12 months in prison plus a A$24,000 (US$16,177) fine. Hersant gave the salute and praised Adolf Hitler in front of news media cameras outside the Victoria County Court on Oct. 27 last year, six days after the Victoria state government made the Nazi salute illegal.
KENYA
Impeachment begins
The Senate was meeting yesterday to begin hearing an impeachment motion against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, fast-tracking a process stemming from a fallout with President William Ruto. On Tuesday, the National Assembly voted to impeach the 59-year-old Gachagua. The motion accused him of corruption, insubordination, undermining the government and practicing ethnically divisive politics, among a host of other charges that he has denied. Senate Speaker Amason Jeffah Kingi said the upper house would hear the charges, telling lawmakers “we are expecting a heavy day.” The Senate has 10 days to wrap up the proceedings.
BRAZIL
Nun wins UN award
Nun Rosita Milesi yesterday won the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’s Nansen Award for decades of work championing the rights of migrants and refugees. Milesi, 79, has helped thousands of people to access legal documents, shelter, food, healthcare, language training and the labor market over 40 years, the agency said in a statement. “I decided to dedicate myself to migrants and refugees. I’m inspired by the growing need to help, to welcome, and to integrate refugees,” Milesi said in the statement. “I’m not afraid to act, even if we don’t achieve everything we want to. If I take something on, I will turn the world upside down to make it happen.”
COLOMBIA
Petro probe announced
The electoral authority on Tuesday said that it was investigating President Gustavo Petro for allegedly exceeding spending limits in his 2022 campaign by nearly US$1 million. National Electoral Council President Cesar Lorduy told reporters that Petro and some members of his campaign were suspected of overspending by US$880,000. He would face financial penalties if found to have breached campaign financing rules. “The coup has begun,” Petro wrote on X.
UNITED STATES
Election day plot thwarted
The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an election day attack targeting large crowds, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday. Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest on Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with the Nov. 5 election and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, the charging documents said. The alleged co-conspirator was not identified by the department, which described him only as a juvenile, a fellow Afghan national and the brother of Tawhedi’s wife. Tawhedi was arrested after taking possession of two AK-47 rifles and ammunition he had ordered, officials said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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