FRANCE
Macron returns poem in kind
French President Emmanuel Macron has given a rare birthday present to a 13-year-old British girl: He wrote her a poem. The French embassy in Britain on Thursday tweeted to wish a happy birthday to Sophie, who wrote a poem to Macron about the Eiffel Tower inspired by a trip to Paris in April. “He wrote her one in return!” the tweet said. The embassy posted Macron’s poem both in French and in English. Writing in the voice of the Eiffel Tower, he wrote: “How you flatter me! So few poets these days / Ever sing the praises of my Parisian soul.” Macron often highlights his fondness for literature and the arts. On Tuesday, during a visit to Strasbourg, he sang with an amateur chorus at the opera house.
UNITED KINGDOM
Bomber’s brother sought
Police are seeking the extradition from Libya of the brother of Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi on murder charges stemming from the attack. Hashem Abedi, the brother, is in custody in Libya. Sky News on Thursday said that the armed group holding him indicated it would cooperate with the request if the Libyan attorney general approved it. Police on Wednesday night said that an extradition request was given to Libyan authorities earlier that day. Salman Abedi set off a bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22 that left 22 dead and hundreds wounded, blowing himself up in the attack. Police say the warrant for Hashem Abedi relates to the murder of 22 people and the attempted murder of others. Investigators have said they did not believe that a large group was involved in the attack, but that they believed others were involved in the planning. They named Hashem Abedi as a suspect. The warrant for his arrest was issued by a Westminster Magistrates’ Court judge and approved by British Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
UNITED KINGDOM
‘Fake news’ enters dictionary
After a US presidential campaign dominated by charges of fake news, Collins Dictionary has designated the term this year’s Collins Word of the Year. The word — two words actually — is to be added to the next print edition of the English dictionary. Collins on Thursday said the use of the term rose 365 percent last year. It is defined as “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting.” The term has been picked up by US President Donald Trump, who routinely characterizes critical reports as “fake news” in his tweets. Collins’ head of language content Helen Newstead said the term “fake news” has been inescapable this year. She said it has contributed to “the undermining of society’s trust in news reporting.”
UNITED STATES
Snoop ‘kills’ Trump, again
An album cover image posted to Snoop Dogg’s Instagram account showing the rapper looking down on what appears to be the dead body of US President Donald Trump has been removed from the platform. The cover of the Make America Crip Again EP shows the rapper looking on as a body covered with a US flag lies on a gurney with a toe tag reading “TRUMP.” The image is a play on the cover for Ice Cube’s 1991 album Death Certificate. The photo was on Tuesday shared by Snoop Dogg and later removed. Snoop Dogg drew a rebuke from Trump on Twitter in March after releasing a music video in which he pointed a toy gun at a clown dressed like the president and pulled the trigger.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in