ICELAND
President wins second term
President Gudni Johannesson won a landslide election, according to partial results from Saturday’s polls, with 90 percent of the votes. “I am honored and proud,” he said at his election night headquarters at Reykjavik’s Grand Hotel. “This result of this election is, to me, proof of the fact that my fellow Icelanders ... have approved of how I have approached this office.” Opinion polls had predicted rightwing challenger Gudmundur Franklin Jonsson had little chance of winning. “I send my congratulations to Gudni and his family,” Jonsson, a former Wall Street broker close to nationalists, told public broadcaster RUV. The post of president is largely symbolic, but they do have the power to veto legislation or submit it to a referendum.
UNITED KINGDOM
Rolling Stones warn Trump
The Rolling Stones are threatening us President Donald Trump with legal action for using their songs at his rallies despite cease-and-desist directives. The Stones yesterday said in a statement that their legal team is working with music rights organization BMI to stop use of their material in Trump’s re-election campaign. “If Donald Trump disregards the exclusion and persists, then he would face a lawsuit for breaking the embargo and playing music that has not been licensed,” they said. The Stones had complained during Trump’s 2016 campaign about the use of their music, when their 1969 classic You Can’t Always Get What You Want was a popular song for his events. It was played again at the close of Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20.
UNITED KINGDOM
Reading suspect charged
Counterterrorism police on Saturday charged a 25-year-old man with three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder for a stabbing attack in a Reading park that killed three men on June 20. Prosecutors authorized the charges against Khairi Saadallah over the attack on three friends: James Furlong, 36; David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39. Three others were wounded in the incident. Saadallah is due to appear in court today. Meanwhile, Glasgow police on Saturday named the man shot dead by officers during a knife attack at a hotel housing asylum seekers that left six people injured as Badreddin Abadlla Adam from Sudan.
FRANCE
Six nabbed for Banksy theft
Six people have been arrested over the theft of an artwork by street artist Banksy commemorating the victims of the 2015 Paris attacks that was stolen from the Bataclan concert hall in January last year, sources said on Saturday. The image of a girl in mourning was found earlier in the month in the attic of an abandoned farmhouse in Italy’s central east Abruzzo region. Two were charged on Friday with theft while the other four were charged with concealing theft, and all six were placed in pre-trial detention, sources said.
UNITED STATES
‘Simpsons’ to change voices
The animated TV comedy The Simpsons is ending the use of white actors to voice characters of color, producers said on Friday. The statement follows years of public pressure about the show’s Indian character Apu, who is voiced by Hank Azaria, who said earlier this year that he would no longer play the character. Azaria has also voiced the characters of black police officer Lou and the Mexican-American Bumblebee Man. Friday’s statement did not say whether Apu or the other characters would remain on the series.
LEBANON
Judge bans envoy’s remarks
A judge on Saturday banned media from reporting remarks by US Ambassador Dorothy Shea after she spoke about the Hezbollah movement, a ruling criticized as non-binding and unenforceable. During an interview with Saudi-owned news channel Al-Hadath aired on Friday, Shea said the US has “grave concerns about the role of Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization.” “The US ambassador discussed in her interview a Lebanese party represented in parliament and Cabinet and that enjoys a wide popular base,” the judge said, referring to Hezbollah. Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad dismissed the judge’s order, saying that “no one has the right to ban the media from covering the news.”
SINGAPORE
Travel arrangement struck
The city-state and Malaysia have agreed to establish reciprocal arrangements for essential business travel and periodic commuting, following a call between their respective prime ministers on Friday. The “Reciprocal Green Lane” would “facilitate cross-border travel for essential business and official purposes,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday. A periodic commuting arrangement would allow residents of the two sides with long-term immigration passes to periodically return to their home countries.
AUSTRALIA
Victoria to test travelers
Victoria State would implement mandatory COVID-19 tests for returning travelers after a sharp spike in infections over the past two weeks, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said yesterday. The country’s second-most populous state had 49 new cases yesterday, its highest in more than two months and the 12th consecutive day of double-digit rises. The rest of the country has seen almost no infections. “Much like a bushfire, putting this out is challenging,” Andrews told a news conference. “Containing it, though, is something that we can do, and test and trace is the most effective thing to do.”
CHINA
Beijing criticizes Canada
The government on Saturday sharply criticized Canada, blaming its leaders for “irresponsible” statements about two Canadians accused of spying in China and calling on Ottawa to end its “megaphone diplomacy.” The evidence against the two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and North Korea consultant Michael Spavor, is “solid and sufficient,” a statement posted on the Web site of the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said. The government has formally indicted the pair on accusations of espionage and providing state secrets.
DR CONGO
Minister briefly arrested
Minister of Justice Celestin Tunda Ya Kasende was briefly arrested on Saturday, the latest twist in a crisis over proposed judicial reforms that have shaken the governing coalition and triggered violent street protests. The action against Tunda Ya Kasende came a day after he clashed with President Felix Tshisekedi over the contested legal changes, a ministerial source said. The reforms, proposed by supporters of the still-influential former president Joseph Kabila, have caused a damaging rift in Tshisekedi’s fragile coalition. Tunda Ya Kasenda, a lawyer by profession who also holds the rank of deputy prime minister, told reporters by telephone shortly before his arrest that about a dozen officers were surrounding his Kinshasa home.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS