AUSTRALIA
Rapper Yung Filly charged
A British YouTuber and rapper known as Yung Filly has been charged with raping and choking a woman in a hotel room following a performance. The 29-year-old, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, on Thursday was freed on bail after a court appearance in Perth on several charges, with police alleging his crimes were committed on Sept. 28. Barrientos was arrested in Brisbane on Tuesday, a police statement said. The Colombia-born entertainer was accused of assaulting a woman in her 20s in a hotel room after he had performed in a Perth nightclub. He is charged with four counts of rape, three counts of assault causing bodily harm and one count of impeding the woman’s normal breathing or circulation by applying pressure to her neck, police said.
Photo: AP
NEW ZEALAND
Minister defends captain
Minister for Defence Judith Collins on Thursday said that online remarks by “vile ... misogynistic ... armchair admirals” about the captain of a navy ship that ran aground, caught fire and sank off the coast of Samoa were false. “Seriously, it’s 2024,” Collins told reporters. “What the hell’s going on here?” After days of comments on social media directed at the sex of Commander Yvonne Gray, Collins urged the public to “be better.” Female members of the military had also faced verbal abuse in the street in New Zealand since the ship — one of nine in the country’s navy — was lost on Sunday, Collins said. All 75 people on board evacuated to safety after the vessel ran aground on the reef it was surveying off Upolu, Samoa’s most populous island. The cause of the incident is not known. “The one thing that we already know did not cause it is the gender of the ship’s captain, a woman with 30 years’ naval experience who on the night made the call to get her people to safety,” Collins said. One of the posters was a truck driver from Melbourne, Australia, she added. “I think that he should keep his comments to people who drive trucks rather than people who drive ships,” Collins said.
Photo: AP
UNITED STATES
Ethel Kennedy dies
Ethel Kennedy, the wife of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who raised their 11 children after he was assassinated, and remained dedicated to social causes and the family’s legacy for decades thereafter, died on Thursday, her family said. She was 96. “It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother,” Joe Kennedy III wrote on X. “She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week. Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren and 24 great-great-grandchildren, along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly,” the family statement said. President Joe Biden called her “an American icon — a matriarch of optimism and moral courage, an emblem of resilience and service.” The Kennedy matriarch, mother to Kathleen, Joseph II, Robert Jr, David, Courtney, Michael, Kerry, Christopher, Max, Douglas and Rory, was one of the last remaining members of a family generation that included former president John F. Kennedy. She was by Robert F. Kennedy’s side when he was fatally shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, just after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. Her brother-in-law John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas, less than five years earlier.
‘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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