UNITED STATES
Kentucky abortion law holds
The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before abortions. The justices did not comment in refusing to review an appeals court ruling that upheld the law. The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law on behalf of Kentucky’s lone remaining abortion clinic, saying that “display and describe” ultrasound laws infringed on physicians’ speech rights under the First Amendment. In Kentucky, doctors must describe the ultrasound in detail while the pregnant woman listens to the fetal heartbeat. Women may avert their eyes and cover their ears to avoid hearing the description or the fetal heartbeat.
VENEZUELA
Executives get house arrest
Six US oil executives held in an overcrowded Venezuelan prison for two years on corruption charges were on Monday granted house arrest. The partial release of the six employees of Houston, Texas-based Citgo was confirmed by two people familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case. The six were hauled away by masked security agents while at a meeting in Caracas just before Thanksgiving in 2017. They were in the country to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Citgo’s parent, state-run oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela. The two people said that lawyers for the six men had made the request to be granted house arrest due to health concerns.
UNITED STATES
Coinventor of barcode dies
Engineer George J. Laurer, who coinvented the barcode and helped to transform the retail world in the 1970s, has died at age 94. The former IBM employee’s funeral was on Monday held in his hometown of Wendell, North Carolina, a family obituary showed. He died at home last week. Laurer is recognized as the coinventor of the Universal Product Code, which can be found on millions of products, services and other items for identification. Fellow IBM employee Norman Woodland, who died in 2012, is considered the pioneer of the barcode idea. He patented the concept in 1952, but was unable to develop it.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Venezuelans to need visas
Entry visas are to be required for Venezuelans, who have moved to the country by the thousands amid an economic and humanitarian crisis, officials said on Monday. The measure goes into effect on Monday next week. Until then, Venezuelans would be able to enter the nation using only tourist cards that can be purchased in airports. There have been waves of legal and illegal immigrants from Venezuela in the past several years, with an estimated 30,000 living in the Dominican Republic, virtually all illegally after overstaying their tourist permits.
MEXICO
Group alleges illegal fishing
A conservation group trying to protect the world’s most endangered marine mammal on Monday said that hundreds of fishermen massed in dozens of boats to fish illegally in the Gulf of California. Activists with the Sea Shepherd group said that they witnessed about 80 small fishing boats pulling nets full of endangered totoaba fish from the water near the port of San Felipe on Sunday. Those same nets catch vaquitas. As few as 10 of the small, elusive porpoises remain in the gulf, their only habitat. The group said that the mass fishing was a new tactic to ensure that totoabas could not escape the nets.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS