UNITED STATES
Troops to move to Poland
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Washington plans to move some troops from Germany to Poland, speaking as he hosted Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House. “We are going to be reducing our forces in Germany” from 52,000 to 25,000 troops, Trump said after an Oval Office meeting with Duda. “Some will be coming home and some will be going to other places. Poland would be one of those other places.” Duda called it a “very reasonable decision” and said he had asked Trump not to withdraw US troops from Europe “because the security of Europe is very important to me.” Asked what kind of a message the redeployment sends to Russia, Trump said: “I think it sends a very strong signal.”
TANZANIA
Gems fetch US$3.3m
A hand-miner became an instant millionaire after selling the two of the largest tanzanite gems ever discovered to the government. The central bank paid Saniniu Laizer 7.7 billion shillings (US$3.3 million) for the stones, which weighed 9.2kg and 5.8kg. Laizer, clad in the traditional red and white checkered robes of the Maasai community, received the payment at a ceremony in the northeastern Manyara region and broadcast on national television on Wednesday. President John Magufuli said that the purchase from Laizer was vindication of reforms to the mining industry that the government has implemented since he came to power in 2015. The changes include the introduction of centers where small-scale miners can trade their finds.
SWEDEN
Groups worry for democracy
More than 500 political and civil society leaders, Nobel laureates and rights groups, yesterday warned that some governments were using the COVID-19 pandemic to “tighten their grip on power,” undermining democracy and civil liberties. In an open letter signed by former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi, Lech Walesa and Jose Ramos-Horta, and actor Richard Gere, among others, the authors called the ongoing pandemic a “formidable global challenge to democracy.” They wrote: “Democracy is under threat, and people who care about it must summon the will, the discipline, and the solidarity to defend it.”
SOUTH KOREA
Fishing boat boarded
Pirates allegedly kidnapped five citizens and a Ghanaian after boarding their fishing vessel off the coast of Benin, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Maritime Bureau said yesterday. The Ghanaian-flagged Panofi Frontier with 30 crew onboard was attacked on Wednesday about 60 nautical miles (111km) south of Benin’s capital, Cotonou, they said.
CHINA
Detentions formalized
Authorities have formally arrested two detained activists, relatives and fellow campaigners said yesterday. Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) and Xu Zhiyong (許志永) attended a meeting involving lawyers and human rights advocates in December last year, many of whose attendees have since been detained. Ding, a disbarred Beijing-based lawyer previously jailed for protesting against official corruption, is accused of “inciting subversion of state power,” said his wife, Luo Shengchun (羅勝春). “My greatest hope now is that Jiaxi can meet his lawyer and to see that he is well.”
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
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