FRANCE
No change on IS policy
The government is maintaining its policy of dealing with Islamic State (IS) group returnees on a “case by case” basis and “won’t respond to injunctions” from US President Donald Trump, Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet said yesterday. Trump said in a post on Twitter over the weekend that European countries should take back IS fighters being held by US-backed Kurdish forces or else they may be set free. “We are ready in case anything changes, but at this stage we are keeping the case-by-case policy we have always had,” Belloubet said.
UNITED STATES
Shooting vigil draws crowd
About 1,700 people on Sunday braved snow and freezing drizzle to attend a prayer vigil for five slain coworkers, two days after they were fatally shot at a suburban Chicago manufacturing plant by a longtime employee who was fired moments earlier. The Reverend Dan Haas told those who gathered near five white crosses erected for the shooting victims outside Henry Pratt Co in the Illinois city that Friday’s “senseless killings” left their families brokenhearted. “All of these were relatively young people — many of them were very young people. We will never know their gifts and talents. Their lives were snuffed out way too short,” he said. Several other ministers and a rabbi also spoke, calling for healing.
VATICAN CITY
Survivors to meet officials
Organizers of Pope Francis’ summit on preventing clergy sex abuse are to meet tomorrow with a dozen survivor-activists who have come to Rome to protest the Catholic Church’s response to date and demand an end to decades of cover-ups by church leaders. They will meet with the four-member organizing committee to convey their complaints, one day before 180 presidents of bishops conferences from around the world begin meeting. Chilean Juan Carlos Cruz, who is coordinating the survivor meeting, said that he hopes for a “constructive and open dialogue” and for summit committee members to convey the survivors’ demand that bishops stop pleading ignorance about abuse. “This has to stop,” Cruz said. “Raping a child or a vulnerable person and abusing them has been wrong since the 1st century, the Middle Ages and now.”
UNITED STATES
Weiner out of prison
Former representative Anthony Weiner has been released from federal prison in Massachusetts after being convicted of having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl in 2017. The Federal Bureau of Prisons Web site shows the 54-year-old is currently in the custody of its Residential Re-entry Management office in Brooklyn, New York. The Web site shows Weiner is slated to complete his sentence May 14, a few months earlier than scheduled because of good conduct in prison. It was not immediately clear when Weiner was transferred and where he is staying, but he will have to register as a sex-offender and spend three years on supervised release under the terms of his sentence.
MOZAMBIQUE
Ex-president’s son arrested
Ndambi Guebuza, the eldest of former president Armando Guebuza’s four children, was arrested on Saturday in a legal crackdown on suspects linked to a US$2 billion government debt scandal, media and judiciary sources said. He was picked up from his home in the capital, Maputo. “He is one of the eight arrested by order of the attorney general,” a judiciary source said. The others were arrested earlier last week.
CHINA
Disease found in dumpllings
A major Chinese food producer yesterday said that traces of the African swine fever virus had been found in its frozen dumplings. The nation, the world’s biggest consumer and producer of pork, has struggled to contain an outbreak of the virus since the first cases were detected in August last year. Henan Province-based Sanquan Food issued a public statement confirming media reports published in recent days that contaminated pork dumplings were detected in two provinces that do not share a border. The company said suspect batches of dumplings had reached grocery stores, but that it was sealing affected products and cooperating with authorities. The statement did not mention a broader recall. Unconfirmed Chinese media reports have said that products manufactured by several other companies also contained traces of the virus.
JAPAN
Abe mum on Trump’s claims
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his chief spokesman yesterday declined to say if he had nominated US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, though they praised Trump for dealings with North Korea. Asked if he had done so, Abe told parliament: “In light of the Nobel Committee’s policy of not disclosing recommenders and nominees for 50 years, I decline to comment.” Neither the prime minister nor his spokesman denied Trump’s comment to reporters on Friday that Abe had nominated him. Trump said Abe had sent him a “beautiful copy” of a letter sent to the Nobel committee. Trump’s claim could not be immediately verified. Abe yesterday praised Trump in a lower house budget committee meeting. “President Trump has been decisively responding toward resolving North Korea’s nuclear and missile problems, and last year he held historic US-North Korea summit talks,” he said.
INDONESIA
Unicorns are real?
When President Joko Widodo, who is seeking a second term, asked challenger Prabowo Subianto about his policies for supporting unicorns — tech start-ups worth at least US$1 billion — a look of bafflement passed across the former general’s face. Wondering aloud, he replied: “What are unicorns? You mean those online things?” Widodo nodded in the affirmative before Subianto explained he supports online businesses. Subianto was probably not alone in his ignorance, but Widodo supporters on social media gleefully seized on Sunday night’s exchange as proof of Subianto’s lack of qualification to be president. In one, juxtaposed photos of Widodo and Subianto with thought bubbles above their heads showed Widodo projecting tech start-up logos and Subianto imagining the magical horned horse creature.
UNITED KINGDOM
Navy, Spanish ship face off
A Spanish warship tried to order commercial shipping to leave anchorages in British waters near Gibraltar, but was challenged by the British navy and sailed away, Gibraltar said. The Spanish ship tried to order ships to leave their anchorages on the eastern side of the Rock, but the ships stayed in position, Gibraltar’s authorities said. After being challenged by the British navy, the Spanish ship then sailed slowly along the coast with its weapons uncovered and manned. Spanish authorities did not immediately comment. Tensions over territorial waters around the peninsula in southern Spain often erupt between Spanish and British vessels. Gibraltar, overlooking the strait between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, has been ruled by Britain since 1713.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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