GERMANY
Lawmaker brutally attacked
A lawmaker of the populist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been seriously injured in a “politically motivated” gang attack, police said yesterday. Frank Magnitz was assaulted in Bremen’s city center on Monday afternoon, police said. “Given the victim’s work, we believe that this is a politically motivated act,” police said. AfD published a photograph of Magnitz unconscious on a hospital bed, his face bleeding and swollen with a gash on his forehead. Three people with their faces covered had carried out the attack, it said. “They hit him with a piece of wood until he was unconscious and then kicked him on the ground,” a statement from the party said, adding that a construction worker had intervened to stop the assault.
INDIA
Top court reinstates Verma
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the reinstatement of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s head, in a blow to the government that has been accused of undermining it. In October, the bureau was paralyzed after Director Alok Verma and his second-in-command, Rakesh Asthana, accused each other of bribery and interference in police investigations. The government placed both men on leave, ordering a probe into the allegations. However, the court yesterday said that Verma would be reinstated, although he would not be able to make major policy decisions until the government completes its investigation. “I do not see it solely as a victory for Alok Verma,” Verma’s lawyer, Sanjay Hegde, told reporters. “I see it as a victory for the independence of investigative agencies in this country.”
JAPAN
Tabloid apologizes for story
A tabloid magazine yesterday apologized for an article ranking women’s universities by how easy it is to convince students to have sex at drinking parties. The list appeared in the Dec. 25 issue of the Spa! weekly and prompted outrage, particularly online, where one woman launched a campaign seeking an apology and suspension of sales of the offending issue. “We would like to apologize for using sensational language to appeal to readers about how they can become intimate with women and for creating a ranking ... with real university names ... that resulted in a feature that may have offended readers,” the magazine’s editorial department said in a statement. The article was about a practice described as gyaranomi, or drinking parties that male participants pay women to attend. It said that the parties are popular among female college students and interviewed the developer of an app intended to help men and women find potential attendees. The list was based on information from the developer, the magazine said.
UNITED STATES
Trump to address the nation
With no breakthrough in sight, President Donald Trump is set to argue in a prime-time address that a “crisis” at the border with Mexico requires a wall that he has demanded before ending a partial government shutdown. Trump’s speech yesterday evening is to be followed by a visit tomorrow to the border. He is to use the visit to “meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Twitter. The administration has also talked about declaring a national emergency to allow Trump to move forward on the wall without Congress approving the US$5.6 billion he wants. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face missed paychecks on Friday as the shutdown drags through a third week.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the