UKRAINE
No quid pro quo: Zelenskiy
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in an interview with European publications published yesterday, renewed his denial of a quid pro quo with US President Donald Trump over military aid. “I did not speak with US President Trump in those terms: You give me this, I give you that,” he said, adding that he “did not understand at all” the accusations heard at the US congressional hearings. He also played down expectations ahead of a summit on Tuesday next week in Paris in which he is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time.
FRANCE
Rescuers die in crash
Three emergency workers were killed in a helicopter crash near Marseille, while on a rescue mission in the south where floods have left two dead, officials said yesterday. Their EC145 helicopter lost radio and radar contact while on a rescue and reconnaissance flight in the Var region on Sunday night. The three were found dead at 1:30am near the town of Rove, the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.
POLAND
Auschwitz ornaments decried
A museum on Sunday slammed Amazon.com for selling Christmas ornaments with images of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, calling them inappropriate. The museum at the site of the former camp tweeted screenshots of the items showing train tracks and barracks, and requested that Amazon remove them from their site. “Selling ‘Christmas ornaments’ with images of Auschwitz does not seem appropriate. Auschwitz on a bottle opener is rather disturbing and disrespectful,” it tweeted.
POLAND
Rallies back suspended judge
Thousands of people joined rallies on Sunday in Warsaw and other cities nationwide to show support for Judge Pawel Juszczyszyn, who was suspended on Friday for having questioned the government’s controversial court reforms. Demonstrators in front of the Ministry of Justice in the capital carried EU flags and signs saying: “Honour and glory to unbreakable judges” and “Independent courts are every citizen’s right.” Juszczyszyn, who in the process of examining an appeal in the city of Olsztyn, has questioned the impartiality of the judge who delivered the original verdict.
GERMANY
Stasi Museum burgled
Burglars broke into Berlin’s Stasi Museum, which showcases items of East Germany’s hated secret police, making off with collectible medals and gold jewelery, authorities said on Sunday. The robbers broke in through a window on the first floor, “smashed several showcases, and stole medals and jewelery,” police said in a statement. “These are not huge treasures, but we are a history museum and don’t expect people to break in,” museum director Joerg Drieselmann told the Tagesspiegel daily.
UNITED STATES
Rosa Parks statue dedicated
A new statue of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was dedicated in Alabama’s capital on Sunday, the 64th anniversary of her historic refusal to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey pulled back a cloth to unveil the statue before a crowd of about 400 spectators. The ceremony coincided with the anniversary of Parks’ arrest on Dec. 1, 1955, which sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal part of the civil rights movement.
SRI LANKA
Wrangle with Switzerland
Colombo on Sunday raised doubts about claims by a Swiss embassy staffer that she was abducted on Monday last week and demanded access to the woman, who has said she was forced to hand over sensitive information. The alleged abduction came one day after a top police officer sought asylum in Switzerland. “The employee was detained against their will in the street, forced to get into a car, seriously threatened at length by unidentified men and forced to disclose embassy-related information,” the embassy said on Saturday. The staffer was reportedly forced to unlock her mobile phone and reveal the names of Sri Lankans who had sought asylum in Switzerland. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Swiss Ambassador Hanspeter Mock had been briefed about the abduction inquiry and told that the staff member’s account did not add up. It insisted that the employee be interviewed and undergo a medical examination.
JAPAN
Island bought for drills
The government announced yesterday that it agreed to buy the uninhabited island of Mageshima off its southwest coast for US$146 million, eyeing it for US military drills. Tokyo and Washington agreed in 2011 to relocate a training site for US fighter jets to Mageshima. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said an agreement to purchase Mageshima was reached on Friday “after discussions between the defense ministry and the developer who owns the majority of the island.” A facility would be built on the island for landing practice “at an early date,” Suga said, adding that he could not reveal further details as the acquisition was not complete.
MALAYSIA
Tattoo show prompts probe
The government yesterday ordered an investigation into what it called a half-naked tattoo show in Kuala Lumpur, after pictures of heavily inked men and women circulated on social media. The three-day Tattoo Malaysia Expo, which opened on Friday, drew participants from 35 countries, and had been supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, the organizer said. However, the ministry said this year’s event violated its standards and vowed “firm action” against the organizers if they are found to have violated “set conditions.” The annual expo has been held since 2015.
BURKINA FASO
Churchgoers slain at Mass
At least 14 people, including teenagers, were shot dead in an attack on a Catholic church in during Mass on Sunday morning, a security source and a local official said. The attack took place in the village of Foutouri in the Est region, an area historically known for banditry and that has come under attack over the past year from suspected jihadist groups, but the identity of the attackers was not yet clear, the sources said.
KYRGYZSTAN
Museum director ousted
The director of the state art museum resigned yesterday after a feminist art exhibition that included female nudity riled conservatives in the majority Muslim country. The Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism said Mira Djangaracheva resigned over the exhibition that used the “language of provocation” and disorientated visitors. The exhibition included a nude female body presented as a punching bag and opened with a nude performance by Danish artist Julie Saver, which was intended to highlight the plight of sex workers.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was