GERMANY
Saxony police conduct raids
Police yesterday searched several locations in the eastern state of Saxony as part of an investigation into what they said was a plot to murder state Premier Michael Kretschmer by anti-vaccine advocates. The searches in the city of Dresden targeted individual members of a group on the messaging program Telegram, where plans for the killing were discussed in connection with the state government’s COVID-19 curbs, police said. The group “Dresden Offlinevernetzung” came to the attention of authorities after an investigation published last week by broadcaster ZDF. Special forces took part in the raids launched after statements by members of the Telegram group suggested that they might be in possession of sharp weapons and crossbows, Saxony police wrote on Twitter.
UNITED STATES
Woman to head NYC police
New York City appointed the first-ever female police chief to head the largest force in the nation, local media reported on Tuesday. Keechant Sewell, who would also be only the third black person in the post, would have to restore community trust in a police department that has faced accusations of harboring violent, racist and corrupt officers in its ranks. Former police officer and New York mayor-elect Eric Adams, who would be the city’s second black mayor, announced the key appointment two weeks before formally taking office on Jan. 1, with security one of the main issues during his campaign. “Sewell is a proven crime fighter with the experience and emotional intelligence to deliver both the safety New Yorkers need and the justice they deserve,” Adams told the New York Post. Commanding approximately 36,000 police officers, Sewell, 49, would shoulder the tough task of maintaining security in New York at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a surge in crime.
MALAYSIA
Boat sinking kills 11
At least 11 Indonesian migrants died and 27 are believed to be missing after a boat yesterday sank in stormy weather off the southern state of Johor, authorities said. The vessel, believed to be carrying 60 migrants, went down in the morning, the coast guard said. Soldiers discovered the bodies of seven men and four women on the shore, Maritime Enforcement Agency Director-General Admiral Mohamad Zubil Mat Som said. Another 20 men and two women were found alive following the voyage from a nearby Indonesian island, and have been taken into custody, he said. Those missing are believed to have fled into hiding or drowned, and authorities have deployed boats and an aircraft to hunt for them. “We deeply regret this deadly tragedy,” Mohamad Zubil said. “I urge migrants not to enter Malaysia illegally.”
PHILIPPINES
Omicron cases detected
The nation is retaining its second-most lenient movement restrictions through the Christmas holidays amid easing COVID-19 cases, even as it detected its first cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. The entire nation is to be placed under alert level 2 from today until Dec. 31, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said yesterday in a televised briefing. Indoor restaurants, gyms, cinemas can operate at half capacity, while outdoor businesses can open at 70 percent capacity. The Department of Health also announced that it had detected the Omicron variant from a returning Filipino from Japan, and a Nigerian national from his home country. They are isolating, and their close contacts are being tracked, authorities said.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
‘PLAINLY ERRONEOUS’: The justice department appealed a Trump-appointed judge’s blocking of the release of a report into election interference by the incoming president US Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the federal cases against US president-elect Donald Trump on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and mishandling of classified documents, has resigned after submitting his investigative report on Trump, an expected move that came amid legal wrangling over how much of that document can be made public in the days ahead. The US Department of Justice disclosed Smith’s departure in a footnote of a court filing on Saturday, saying he had resigned one day earlier. The resignation, 10 days before Trump is inaugurated, follows the conclusion of two unsuccessful criminal prosecutions
RSS