While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Dec 17, 2024
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition fell apart last month after the pro-market Free Democrats quit in a row over debt.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Germany set for snap elections
The German parliament accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s invitation to withdraw its confidence in him and his government on Dec 16, clearing the way for an early election on Feb 23 necessitated by the collapse of his government.
Scholz’s three-party coalition fell apart last month after the pro-market Free Democrats quit in a row over debt, leaving his Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens without a parliamentary majority just as Germany faces a deepening economic crisis.
Under rules designed to prevent the instability that facilitated the rise of fascism in the 1930s, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can only dissolve parliament and call an election if the chancellor calls, and loses, a confidence vote.
The debate preceding the vote also opened serious campaigning for the election, with party leaders trading ill-tempered barbs.
Three killed in Wisconsin school shooting, including shooter
A juvenile student killed two people at a Wisconsin school before police found the suspect dead at the scene of the latest shooting to devastate a US campus, authorities said on Dec 16.
At least six other people were wounded, according to police, who said children were among the dead and wounded in the shooting, which took place in the state capital of Madison.
The shooting took place at Abundant Life Christian School, a private institution that teaches some 400 students from kindergarten through twelfth grade, the Madison Police Department said.
Alleged Chinese spy linked to UK’s Prince Andrew denies any wrongdoing
A Chinese national with close links to Prince Andrew said he had done nothing wrong and was not a spy, after the businessman was named in court as being a suspected Chinese agent by the British authorities.
Yang Tengbo, described in a ruling last week by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) as a “close confidant” of Andrew, waived his right to anonymity on Monday so he could respond to the accusation.
“I have done nothing wrong or unlawful, and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded,” he said in a statement released by his lawyer, referring to Britain’s interior ministry.
Ex-FBI informant accused of lying about Bidens pleads guilty
A former FBI informant accused of lying about US President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s interactions with a Ukrainian energy company pleaded guilty on Dec 16 to causing the creation of a false record.
Alexander Smirnov entered the plea in federal court in Los Angeles, according to a spokesperson for Special Counsel David Weiss, the prosecutor who brought the case.
He also admitted to tax evasion, court documents showed.
North Korea involvement in Ukraine a ‘dangerous expansion’
Ten countries and the European Union called North Korea’s growing involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine a “dangerous expansion” on Dec 16, in a joint statement released by the United States.
Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s war effort, including to the Kursk border region, where both Ukraine and the United States say North Korean forces have suffered casualties.
“Direct DPRK support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine marks a dangerous expansion of the conflict, with serious consequences for European and Indo-Pacific security,” the statement said, referring to North Korea by an abbreviation for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
