AUSTRIA
Wrong leg amputated
A court has fined a surgeon for amputating the wrong leg of an 82-year-old patient, a spokesperson for the tribunal in the city of Linz said on Wednesday. While the 43-year-old defendant said her actions were due to “human error,” the judge found her guilty of gross negligence and fined her 2,700 euros (US$3,057), with half the amount suspended, the spokesperson said. The surgeon had marked the wrong leg of the patient for amputation ahead of the operation in May in the town of Freistadt, only noticing the mistake two days after the surgery. The court awarded 5,000 euros in damages to the widow of the patient, who died before the case came to court.
FRANCE
Johnson a ‘clown’: Macron
President Emmanuel Macron referred to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a private conversation as a “clown,” the political magazine Le Canard enchaine reported. It came as Macron complained about Johnson’s behavior after the leaders spoke by telephone after the sinking of a refugee boat in the English Channel on Wednesday last week. Macron was angered after Johnson posted a letter on Twitter outlining a five-point plan to tackle the issue of channel crossings. Macron told a news conference on Friday: “We do not communicate from one leader to another on these issues by tweets and letters that we make public.”
UNITED STATES
US is No. 1 plastic polluter
The country is by far the biggest contributor to global plastic waste in the world, according to a new report submitted to the government on Wednesday. Overall, the country contributed about 42 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2016 — more than twice as much as China and more than the countries of the EU combined, the analysis showed. On average, every American generates 130kg of plastic waste per year, with South Korea next on the list at 88kg per year. The report, titled Reckoning With the US Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste, was mandated by Congress as part of the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, which became law in December last year.
UNITED STATES
‘I didn’t pull the trigger’
Alec Baldwin has said he did not pull the trigger of the gun he was holding that killed a cinematographer on the movie set of Rust. In his first major interview since the tragedy in October, the actor also said he has “no idea” how a live round had gotten onto the set of the low-budget western in New Mexico. “The trigger wasn’t pulled — I didn’t pull the trigger,” he said in an excerpt of an interview with ABC News released on Wednesday. “No, no, no, I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them — never,” he added.
MEXICO
Gang rams jail, springs pals
A gang on Wednesday rammed several vehicles into a prison in the state of Hidalgo, just north of Mexico City, and escaped with nine inmates. State police said soldiers, police and National Guard troops had fanned out looking for the inmates. Police did not identify the armed gang involved in the prison break. “An armed group burst into the prison aboard several vehicles, and it is worth noting that near the prison, two vehicles were burned as part of the criminal group’s operation, as a distraction,” Hidalgo Secretary of the Interior Simon Vargas said. Media reports said the burned-out vehicles found in the city of Tula after the attack were car bombs.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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