ISRAEL
Netanyahus’ woes grow
Police yesterday recommended indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, on bribery and other charges, the third such recommendation against the prime minister in recent months. The attorney general must now decide whether to bring indictments in the case, which centers on regulatory benefits allegedly granted to telecommunications firm Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage from a related media company. Netanyahu immediately rejected the accusations against him and his wife, saying “these recommendations were determined and leaked even before the investigations began.” He said he was confident that “the relevant authorities, after examining the issue, will reach the same conclusion: that there was nothing because there is nothing.” Police said there was evidence to charge him with bribery, fraud, breach of trust and unlawful acceptance, and his wife with of bribery fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of evidence.
UNITED STATES
Admiral dies in Bahrain
Vice Admiral Scott Stearney, who led the US Navy operations in the Middle East, was found dead on Saturday in Bahrain, the navy said, adding that foul play was not suspected. “This is devastating news for the Stearney family, for the team at Fifth Fleet and for the entire navy,” Admiral John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said in a statement. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Bahraini Ministry of the Interior were cooperating on the investigation, he said.
WEST BANK
Bethlehem tree lit
Thousands of Christian faithful and dignitaries on Saturday attended the lighting of a giant Christmas tree outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the West Bank. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and Father Francesco Patton, a top official with the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, were among the officials at the ceremony. A fireworks display and festivities accompanied the annual ceremony at the Manger Square.
LEBANON
Tensions rise over politician
A stand-off between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and a pro-Syrian politician escalated on Saturday when shots were fired as police sought to bring the politician in for questioning over accusations of stirring strife. Tensions have escalated since a video emerged of Druze politician Wiam Wahhab making obscene personal insults that many took to refer to Hariri and his father, Rafik, who was killed in 2005. Hariri’s allies filed a legal complaint accusing Wahhab of “stirring strife and risking civil peace.” Wahhab was quoted by news organization LBC International as saying one person was wounded in what he described as a clash. “I was subjected today to an attempted assassination and the person who was wounded was meters from me. Let Hariri bear the responsibility of this blood,” he said, adding that the police action could lead to civil war.
UNITED STATES
Marriott urged on passports
Senator Charles Schumer yesterday said that Marriott hotel officials should pay for new passports for guests whose passport numbers were hacked as part of a massive data breach that the company disclosed on Friday. Marriott should immediately notify customers who are at greatest risk of identity theft and pay the US$110 cost of a new US passport if the guests request it, he said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion