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.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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