AUSTRALIA
Synagogue vandalized
Authorities yesterday denounced “hate-filled” vandals who daubed swastikas and other graffiti on a Sydney synagogue in the early morning. The vandalism on the Southern Sydney Synagogue was “a hate-filled attack by individuals that have got hate in their hearts,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told journalists. “I think the painting of a swastika on a Jewish building shows you everything you need to know about how appalling these particular individuals are and what their ultimate aim is.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
AUSTRALIA
Bumbling arsonists sought
Police on Thursday released CCTV video of an apparent arsonist who set their own pants alight and had to run from the scene without them. Footage of the incident on a fast-food outlet in Melbourne showed two people in dark hoodies and trousers with a container of what police described as “flammable liquid.” One of them tried to set the fluid alight at the front of the outlet, just out of the view of a camera. In an instant, the person is seen again engulfed in flames and then hurriedly removing the burning trousers before running off bare-cheeked with an apparently unharmed accomplice. Victoria state police, who distributed the footage, asked for witnesses to the attack, which happened in the early hours of Dec. 25. “Investigators have released CCTV and images of two people they believe may be able to assist with their inquires,” they said in a statement.
Photo: AFP / Victoria Police
JAPAN
Russian sanctions approved
Tokyo yesterday approved additional sanctions against Russia over its war on Ukraine, including freezing the assets of dozens of individuals and groups and banning exports to dozens of organizations in Russia and several other countries that have allegedly helped it evade sanctions. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said that the additional sanctions shows its commitment to the G7’s effort to bolster action against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. “It is Japan’s contribution as part of the international effort toward achieving global peace and resolving the problems surrounding Ukraine because of Russian invasion,” Hayashi said.
Photo: AP
VENEZUELA
Maduro to take oath
President Nicolas Maduro was due to take the oath of office for a third term yesterday despite a global outcry that brought thousands out in protest on the ceremony’s eve. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who came out of hiding to lead a demonstration in Caracas on Thursday, was briefly detained after the rally, according to her team, reigniting international condemnation of Maduro’s alleged vote steal and cowing of critics. The government denied arresting her.
Photo: Reuters
YEMEN
Tanker salvage completed
An oil tanker that burned for weeks in the Red Sea after being attacked by Houthi rebels and threatening a massive oil spill has been salvaged, a security firm said yesterday. The Sounion had 1 million barrels of crude oil aboard when it was struck and later sabotaged with explosives by the Houthis. It took months to tow the vessel away, extinguish the fires and offload the remaining crude oil. “Over three challenging weeks, the fires were extinguished, cargo tanks patched and pressurized with inert gas and the vessel declared safe,” said private security firm Ambrey, which helped lead the response alongside a European naval force and salvagers.
‘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
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
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,
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
RSS