HAITI
UN urges armed force
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed on Wednesday urged countries to consider Haiti’s request for an international specialized armed force to help restore security in the Caribbean state and alleviate a humanitarian crisis. “It is time to step up and turn the current crisis into an opportunity for Haiti to bounce back stronger,” she told the UN Security Council. Haitian gangs have expanded their territory since the assassination last year of Hatian president Jovenel Moise. The resulting violence has left much of the country off-limits to the government and led to routine gun battles with police. Haitian gangs in September created a humanitarian crisis by blocking a fuel terminal for nearly six weeks, halting most economic activity.
PALESTINE
Six killed in clashes
Medics said Israeli forces shot dead a 23-year-old man and wounded five others early yesterday during clashes in the occupied West Bank. Ahmed Daraghmeh was mortally wounded when Palestinian militants exchanged fire with Israeli troops that entered the city of Nablus to escort Jewish worshipers to a site known as the biblical Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian city. The sound of gunfire was heard in videos Palestinians recorded from their houses. Daraghmeh was from the nearby town of Tubas and was a soccer player for the town’s local team. About 150 Palestinians and 31 Israelis have been killed in fighting in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem this year, official figures showed, making this the deadliest year since 2006.
HUNGARY
EU prejudiced, PM says
Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday accused Brussels of prejudice, rather than graft concerns, when it delayed an agreement with the EU over frozen bloc funds. The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, recommended freezing 13 billion euros (US$13.83 billion) in funds earmarked for Hungary while it presses for anti-corruption reforms. In a compromise this month, the EU reduced the amount of blocked funding. “We were able to agree with the EU, which was an exceptional performance by us as we had to fight against ‘Hungarophobia’ in a world dominated by liberalism,” Orban told reporters at an annual news conference. “What the EU is doing today is a few rule-of-law people trying to impose their will on a few countries,” Orban said.
UNITED STATES
Trump paid no 2020 taxes
Former president Donald Trump paid no income tax during the final full year of his presidency, as he reported a loss from his sprawling business interests, tax figures released by a congressional panel showed. The records, released on Tuesday by the US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee after a years-long fight, show that Trump’s income and his tax liability fluctuated dramatically during his four years in the White House. The records cut against the Republican ex-president’s long-cultivated image as a successful businessman as he mounts another bid for the White House. Trump and his wife, Melania, paid some form of tax during all four years, the documents showed, but they were able to minimize their income taxes in several years as Trump’s business income was more than offset by deductions and losses. The committee questioned the legitimacy of some of those deductions, including one for US$916 million.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on Friday failed to attend in person an initial hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as he faces crimes against humanity charges over his deadly crackdown on narcotics. The 79-year-old, the first ex-Asian head of state charged by the ICC, followed by video during a short hearing to inform him of the crimes he is alleged to have committed, as well as his rights as a defendant. Sounding frail and wearing a blue suit and tie, he spoke briefly to confirm his name and date of birth. Presiding Judge Iulia Motoc allowed him to
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