While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Dec 10, 2024
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Germany has taken in almost one million Syrians, with the bulk arriving in 2015-16 under ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
European countries suspend Syrian asylum decisions after Assad’s fall
Germany, France, Austria and several Nordic countries said Dec 9 they would freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians, a day after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.
While Berlin and other governments said they were watching the fast-moving developments in the war-ravaged nation, Vienna signalled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria.
Far-right politicians elsewhere made similar demands, including in Germany, home to Europe’s largest Syrian community, at a time when immigration has become a hot-button issue across the continent.
US police arrest man in connection with UnitedHealthcare exec killing
PHOTO: REUTERS
A 26-year-old Maryland native has been arrested on gun charges and for questioning in connection with last week’s killing of a health insurance executive in midtown Manhattan that prompted a search up and down the East Coast, the New York Police Department said.
The man being questioned was identified as Luigi Mangione, the police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said at a news briefing on Dec 9. He was arrested in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an employee recognised him and called authorities about 9.15am. Police had shared a steady stream of multiple photos of the man believed to be the gunman since the shooting.
“He was sitting there eating,” Mr Joseph Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, said at the briefing.
TikTok hires ex-Trump administration lawyer ahead of Supreme Court appeal
REUTERS
TikTok and its Chinese owner ByteDance have turned to a veteran US Supreme Court lawyer as they prepare to ask the justices to block a law that could ban the popular short video platform in the United States.
Noel Francisco, who served as US solicitor general during Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration, will represent TikTok along with his partner Hashim Mooppan at law firm Jones Day, court papers show.
As the Justice Department’s top Supreme Court advocate from 2017 to 2020, Francisco defended Trump’s ban on people from six predominantly Muslim countries entering the United States. He has argued more than 20 cases before the high court.
US Supreme Court rejects Boston case over race in school admissions
REUTERS
The US Supreme Court declined on Dec 9 a chance to further restrict efforts to promote racial diversity in education, turning away a case over whether criteria that had been used to decide admissions to elite public high schools in Boston discriminated against white and Asian students.
The justices decided not to hear an appeal by a coalition of parents and students, represented by a libertarian legal group, of a lower court’s ruling upholding the legality of the policy, which was used for just one year during the Covid-19 pandemic. The plaintiffs had argued that the policy violated the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment promise of equal protection.
Two of the Supreme Court’s conservative members, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, dissented from the court’s decision to decline to hear the appeal.
Premier League referee Coote sacked by PGMOL
Action Images via Reuters
Premier League referee David Coote has been sacked by English soccer referees’ body PGMOL on Dec 9, after their investigation found his actions to be in serious breach of his contract.
Coote had been suspended last month after a video circulated on social media showing the official allegedly abusing Liverpool and former manager Juergen Klopp and after a full investigation, his position has been deemed untenable.
“Following the conclusion of a thorough investigation into David Coote’s conduct, his employment with PGMOL has been terminated today with immediate effect,” the PGMOL statement said.
