AUSTRALIA
Wolf reignites Xmas row
Naomi Wolf has reignited her row with Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor, publishing a recording of a heated telephone call with his office. The US author yesterday said that she called Taylor’s parliamentary office requesting a “formal correction” to the record of his maiden speech, asking that Taylor “tell parliament please that I was not campaigning against Christmas in any way.” She published the 29-minute recording in full. “He used my name twice in ways that are completely inappropriate, totally unjustified, inaccurate,” Wolf told a staffer. “I don’t need to advocate to him about that. He has done a wrong thing and he needs to take responsibility for that.” Taylor in 2013 referred to Wolf in his maiden speech to parliament while recounting an anecdote about “political correctness,” and a dispute about a Christmas tree at the University of Oxford in 1991. When Wolf was alerted to the speech on Monday she said that she was not at Oxford in 1991 and accused the minister of “antisemitic dog whistling.” In the call with Taylor’s staffer, Wolf repeatedly requested that his office issue a public correction to say that she was not at Oxford at the same time as Taylor, and that she was not part of a group of people campaigning against Christmas.
RUSSIA
‘Fake’ smuggler detained
The authorities have detained a man who built a fake frontier post in the woods near the border with Finland and promised to smuggle four South Asian migrant workers into the EU. The man erected mock border posts and charged the four men more than US$10,000 to take them to Finland, the Border Guard Service was quoted as saying on Wednesday. Authorities did not specify the nationalities of the would-be migrants involved in the incident which took place last week. “The man never planned to carry out his promises,” Interfax news agency reported. He installed sham fence posts purportedly marking the border, and took the group on a circuitous route by vehicle and on foot before all five were detained. Video footage showed the men bundled up in parkas and hats standing in the darkness among fir trees, their hands up in the air. A St Petersburg court on Wednesday fined the hapless four men and ordered their deportation. The man behind the smuggling scheme hailed from Central Asia and could be charged with fraud, local media reported.
FRANCE
Santa dives in on climate
In a change of scene, Santa Claus is donning flippers and a diving mask along with his traditional red-and-white outfit to scuba dive in at the Aquarium de Paris, as he teaches children about global warming and climate issues during the festive season. The aquatic Santa, a professional diver and biologist, can be found swimming among fish and a zebra shark every day over the holiday. The show is part of the aquarium’s activities aimed at educating children about environmental issues, including global warming, loss of biodiversity and extreme weather as a result of climate change. “Children are the future,” said Alexandre Dalloni, the aquarium’s education manager. “The planet is also here for children to inherit, so it’s those of a very young age which we can teach ... to tell them that everyone is responsible for preserving the planet for the future.” Dalloni said that swimming with the shark was safe for Santa. “The shark is an animal which isn’t going to attack a human for no reason. There are attacks, but they’re accidental,” he said. Scuba-diving Santa is to remain in residence until Jan. 5.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not