SYRIA
Israeli missiles shot down
Air defense units shot down three Israeli missiles overnight on Monday that were targeting a military post near Damascus, state media reported yesterday. There was no Israeli comment on the incident. There was no word if the missiles hit their target or if there were any casualties. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack was an Israeli airstrike on the Damascus suburb of Jamraya, which is home to a government research center. In other news, television reports said a bomb blast yesterday killed eight people and injured 15 on a bus in Homs.
TURKEY
Academics go on trial
About 150 academics from universities in Istanbul went on trial yesterday on charges of engaging in “terrorist propaganda” for signing a declaration in January last year calling for an end to hostilities against Kurdish rebels in the southeast. Individual trials opened in various courts in Istanbul and were expected to last several months. They are accused of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party. Human Rights Watch says the trials violate free speech and academic freedom.
UNITED STATES
Trump attacked over parks
Environmental groups hit President Donald Trump with a lawsuit just hours after he announced he would shrink two national monuments in Utah. The Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and seven other groups alleged that Trump overstepped his authority in scaling back the 566,560 hectare Bears Ears to about 89,031 hectares, and the 768,903 hectare Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument to about 404,686 hectares. They said the Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes presidents to create national monuments, according to the complaint filed on Monday in federal court in Washington. “It does not authorize presidents to abolish them either in whole or in part, as President Trump’s action attempts to do.”
BELGIUM
Centeno to head eurozone
Portuguese Minister of Finance Mario Centeno has won the race to be the next voice of the 19-nation Eurozone. He came out on top after two rounds of voting and will succeed Dutchman Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Jan. 13. His term as president will last for two-and-a-half years. Centeno said he hoped to promote “inclusive” growth policies that would help “put an end to a period that was very difficult for Europe.”
UNITED STATES
‘House’ to focus on Wright
Production is scheduled to resume next year on the sixth and final season of House of Cards. Taping of the political drama was halted in October amid sexual misconduct allegations against star Kevin Spacey. Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told a conference on Monday of the decision, Variety reported. Netflix last month said it would not be involved with the series if Spacey remained. The next eight-episode season will focus on co-star Robin Wright. No release date has been announced.
GERMANY
Wild boar attacks hunter
A hunter has died after being attacked by a wild boar he was trying to shoot, police said. The 50-year-old man was hunting on Sunday with a dozen others near the town of Greifswald when he was attacked by the male boar. Police say the man suffered serious injuries to his left thigh and fell into nearby water. Police say the boar’s whereabouts were unknown.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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