JAPAN
Fuji gets first snow of winter
The peak of Mount Fuji was yesterday capped with snow for the first time this winter, reaching the milestone 21 days later than the average since records began in 1894, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. This year’s snowfall came two weeks earlier than last year, when snow settled on the 3,776m mountain on Nov. 7, the latest since records began. Japan recorded its highest-ever temperature in August when it reached 41.8°C in Isesaki, northwest of Tokyo.
Photo: Kyodo News via Reuters
CHINA
Central Committee replaces 11
The elite Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party replaced 11 members at a key meeting, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, marking its highest personnel turnover since 2017 amid an ongoing military anti-corruption purge. The statement was released on the last day of a key closed-door meeting of the 300-plus member body in Beijing known as the Fourth Plenum, which also discussed a forthcoming five-year economic development plan. Veteran General Zhang Shengmin (張升民), 67, was promoted to second-ranked vice chair of the powerful Central Military Commission, the statement said. He replaces He Weidong (何衛東), the former second-ranked vice chair who was expelled from the party on Friday on corruption charges.
FRANCE
Firefighters probed over party
The Paris Fire Brigade has opened an internal investigation into accusations that several firefighters attended a party where revelers dressed in blackface and Ku Klux Klan outfits, the force said on Wednesday. Two of its number are suspected of blacking up while off duty at the fancy dress evening on Saturday, which was organized by a parachuting club at the aerodrome of Brienne-le-Chateau, it added. Images on social media showed five attendees, dressed in the white robes and pointy hoods of the infamous US white supremacists, pretending to strangle three others, who had their faces painted black. French Parachuting Federation president Yves-Marie Guillaud called the images “vile,” adding that the federation would press charges against the eight people involved, as well as the person behind the camera.
UNITED STATES
National debt soars
The government’s gross national debt on Wednesday surpassed US$38 trillion amid a federal government shutdown, a record number that highlights the accelerating accumulation of debt on the US’ balance sheet. It is also the fastest accumulation of US$1 trillion in debt outside of the COVID-19 pandemic — the US hit US$37 trillion in gross national debt in August. A growing debt load over time ultimately leads to higher inflation, eroding Americans’ purchasing power, said University of Pennsylvania economics professor Kent Smetters, who served in the Department of the Treasury under former president George W. Bush.
IRELAND
23 protesters arrested
Twenty-three people were on Wednesday arrested as hundreds of protesters and police clashed for the second consecutive night outside an asylum-seeker hotel near Dublin, authorities said. The arrests came after bottles, bricks and fireworks were launched at police officers at the protest outside the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, police said in a statement. It followed at least six arrests after tensions flared at a protest at the hotel on Tuesday night — when a police van was also set on fire — and the first protest, which passed off peacefully on Monday.
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
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
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