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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of