UNITED STATES
McCain to miss tax vote
Senator John McCain will miss a key vote on the Republican tax bill because of a viral infection, further narrowing the already-thin margin of support for the controversial plan. The veteran Republican lawmaker, aged 81, will not return to Washington until next month, his office said on Sunday. With McCain absent, the Republicans — who have a 52-48 majority in the Senate — can only afford one defection to pass the tax bill, with a vote expected in the coming days. No Democrats or independents support the legislation in the Senate. It is expected to comfortably pass the House of Representatives. McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, was diagnosed in July with a brain tumor known as a glioblastoma, after doctors found a blood clot over his left eye during a routine checkup. The lawmaker “continues to improve” after receiving treatment for his viral infection, his doctor Mark Gilbert said. “An evaluation of his underlying cancer shows he is responding positively to ongoing treatment,” Gilbert added.
UNITED KINGDOM
Scientists create tiniest card
British scientists have created what they believe is the world’s smallest Christmas card, a seasonal greeting so tiny that more than 200 million of them could fit into a standard postage stamp. The card, created by the National Physical Laboratory, the UK’s national measurement standards laboratory, measures 15 by 20 micrometers It is made from platinum-coated silicon nitride and was illustrated using a focused ion beam. The card’s cover features an etching of a snowman above the words “season’s greetings,” as well as a seasonal message inside.
GABON
Knifing suspects arrested
Police on Sunday arrested dozens of people over a knife attack that wounded two Danish nationals working for National Geographic, apparently in retribution for “US attacks against Muslims,” officials said. The men detained were mostly traders and sellers in the popular market in Libreville where the attack occurred on Saturday and all are from west Africa. An official said they were taken to police headquarters, where they are due to be questioned. “Operations are ongoing,” government spokesman Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze told reporters. “We are not commenting at this stage.” Police said the assailant is a 53-year-old Nigerien man who, according to witnesses, shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”)) during the attack. The man, who has lived in Gabon for 19 years, said in his first statements that he “acted in retaliation for US attacks against Muslims and America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” Minister of Defense Etienne Massard said.
ETHIOPIA
Sixty-one dead in clashes
At least 61 people have been killed in clashes between different ethnic groups in the Oromiya region, officials said, the latest bout of violence to highlight increasing instability in a province racked by bloody protests in 2015 and last year. From Thursday, 29 ethnic Oromos were killed by ethnic Somali attackers in the region’s Hawi Gudina and Daro Lebu districts, regional spokesman Addisu Arega Kitessa said. The violence triggered revenge attacks by ethnic Oromos in another district, resulting in the killing of 32 Somalis who were being sheltered in the area following a previous round of violence. “The region is working to bring the perpetrators to justice,” the spokesman said in a statement.
‘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