DAVOS: The United Nations human rights chief expressed alarm after a speech by US President Donald Trump in Davos on Friday, saying Trump’s call for countries to pursue their own self-interest would take the world back to the eve of World War One.
“It’s the script of the 20th century,” Zeid Raad Al-Hussein said. “He (Trump) urged all countries to pursue their own interest, almost without reference to the fact that if you do all of that, if each country is narrowly pursuing its agenda, it will clash with the agendas of others and we will take the world back to 1913 once again.”
Prince Zeid, a former Jordanian diplomat and member of the deposed royal family of Iraq, has repeatedly criticized Trump in the past in his role as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the global body’s top spokesman on human rights issues.
The Trump administration, for its part, has threatened to quit the UN Human Rights Council, which is separate from Zeid’s office but works closely with it, and which Washington considers structurally hostile to its ally Israel.
Trump became the first sitting US president in 18 years to address the annual summit of the world’s political and business elite in the Swiss ski resort of Davos on Friday. In his speech, he courted foreign investment, saying the United States was “open for business,” while also promising to take action against what he described as unfair trade deals.
Repeating his “America first” slogan, Trump said he would expect all world leaders to put the interests of their own countries first.
Prince Zeid said such a policy would lead to “it all coming apart at some stage, and people suffering grievously.”
“Ethnic nationalisms, chauvinistic nationalisms, a sense that there is a supremacy within communities determined on the basis of color or ethnicity, and that others are somehow lesser people, or that certain countries are somehow morally superior to others. That’s what always seems to get us into trouble.”
Zeid also said he was concerned about a new coalition government in Austria, which includes the far right Freedom Party.
“I have to say I read the document between the two parties, and it’s worrisome, because it has within it — xenophobia is clearly there,” Zeid told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “There is a sense that Austria now may start to tack, following Hungary and Poland, in its anti-European stance.”
UN’s rights chief rejects Trump speech as ‘script of the 20th century’
UN’s rights chief rejects Trump speech as ‘script of the 20th century’
Fans greet K-pop stars Jimin and Jung Kook of BTS discharged from military service
- The pair wore their military uniforms Wednesday, saluted and addressed fans who had assembled to see the pair after their discharge
- The seven singers of the popular K-pop band plan to reunite as a group sometime in 2025 after they finish their service
The pair wore their military uniforms Wednesday, saluted and addressed fans who had assembled to see the pair after their discharge.
Jung Kook thanked the journalists and fans who traveled to see him and Jimin after their discharge and acknowledged how different it was to be back in the spotlight. “Actually, it’s been so long since I’ve been in front of cameras, and I didn’t even put on makeup, so I’m a bit embarrassed,” he said. “I don’t know what to say.”
The pair enlisted in December 2023, one day after RM and V did the same. The latter were discharged on Tuesday.
Supporters traveled from around the world to the public sports ground where the meet-and-greet took place. It was moved from the military base’s gate for safety reasons. Color-wrapped buses bearing BTS members’ faces lined the streets while red and yellow balloons floated above and a decorated food truck provided free coffee and water, adding to the festive atmosphere.
Many supporters wore masks, conscious of potential backlash after the band’s label discouraged attendance citing safety concerns. Despite the challenges, fans like Anaesi from Portugal said the 20-hour journey to Yeoncheon, a town near the tense border with North Korea, was worth it.
“Portugal is a small country, but inside of Portugal, BTS is a king,” she said. Anaesi, who discovered BTS on YouTube, said the group “saved” her from depression. “So for me BTS is my angel,” she said. She displayed a colorful upper arm tattoo featuring a golden shield emblazoned with “ARMY” and an eagle above it, complemented by Korean text listing BTS members’ names and those of her friends.
V thanked fans Tuesday for their patience in waiting for him and RM’s return and teased the band’s reunion. “If you can just wait a little bit longer, we will return with a really amazing performance.”
The seven singers of the popular K-pop band plan to reunite as a group sometime in 2025 after they finish their service.
Six of the group’s seven members served in the army, while Suga is fulfilling his duty as a social service agent, an alternative form of military service. He will be discharged later this month.
Jin, the oldest BTS member, was discharged in June 2024. J-Hope was discharged in October.
In South Korea, all able-bodied men aged 18 to 28 are required by law to perform 18-21 months of military service under a conscription system meant to deter aggression from rival North Korea.
The law gives special exemptions to athletes, classical and traditional musicians, and ballet and other dancers if they have obtained top prizes in certain competitions and are assessed to have enhanced national prestige. K-pop stars and other entertainers aren’t subject to such privileges.
However, in 2020, BTS postponed their service until age 30 after South Korea’s National Assembly revised its Military Service Act, allowing K-pop stars to delay their enlistment until age 30.
There was heated public debate in 2022 over whether to offer special exemptions of mandatory military service for BTS members, until the group’s management agency announced in October 2022 that all seven members would fulfill their duties.
Musk regrets some of his Trump criticisms, says they ‘went too far’
- ‘I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far’
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and Donald Trump’s former adviser, said Wednesday he regretted some of his recent criticisms of the US president, after the pair’s public falling-out last week.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X.
South Korea halts loudspeaker broadcasts along border with rival North Korea
- The South resumed the loudspeaker broadcasts in June last year following a years-long pause
SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea’s military has shut down loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda along the inter-Korean border, in a move aimed at easing tensions.
The South resumed the loudspeaker broadcasts in June last year following a years-long pause in retaliation for North Korea flying trash-laden balloons toward the South in a psychological warfare campaign.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday the move was part of efforts to “to restore trust in inter-Korean relations and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
Chinese aircraft carriers in Pacific show country’s ‘expansionist’ aims, Taiwan says
- China has been flexing its muscles by sending an unusually large number of naval and coast guard vessels through a swathe of East Asian waters
TAIPEI: The two Chinese aircraft carriers spotted conducting simultaneous operations in the Pacific for the first time send a political message about the country’s “expansionist” aims, Taiwan Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Wednesday.
Japan’s defense minister said the previous day that the appearance of the Chinese aircraft carriers signified Beijing’s intention to further widen its capabilities beyond its borders.
Koo said the armed forces had a “full grasp” of the carriers’ movements.
“Crossing from the first island chain into the second island chain sends a definite political message and their expansionist nature can be seen,” he told reporters in Taipei.
The first island chain refers to an area that runs from Japan down to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo, while the second island chain spreads further out into the Pacific to include places like the US territory of Guam.
China’s navy, which has been honing its abilities to operate farther and farther from the country’s coast, said on Tuesday the carrier operations were a “routine training” exercise that did not target specific countries or regions. China operates two carriers, with a third undergoing sea trials.
Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, keeps a close watch on Chinese military movements given the regular drills and war games Beijing stages around the island, and has been modernizing its weapons to better face the People’s Liberation Army.
Taiwan Air Force Chief of Staff Lee Ching-jan, speaking to lawmakers later on Wednesday, said a dozen or so of 66 Lockheed Martin F-16V fighter jets ordered from the United States should arrive this year, with the rest in 2026.
“The US side was optimistic about next year’s scheduled delivery at last month’s meeting on the project, and was very optimistic about the delivery of more than 10 aircraft this year,” he said.
Taiwan has complained about delivery delays for the jets, which have advanced avionics, weapons and radar systems to better face down the Chinese air force, including its J-20 stealth fighter.
Since May, China has been flexing its muscles by sending an unusually large number of naval and coast guard vessels through a swathe of East Asian waters, according to security documents and officials, in moves that have unnerved regional capitals.
Japan’s defense ministry confirmed the two carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, were operating in separate areas of the Pacific on Saturday, both near remote southern islands belonging to Japan.
Earlier, Japan said the Liaoning sailed within its exclusive economic zone near Minamitorishima, a remote island east of Iwo Jima.
Australian murder suspect denies drying deadly mushrooms
- Erin Patterson denies all charges in the trial, which has made headlines worldwide
- She says the beef-and-pastry dish, which she cooked in individually sized portions, was poisoned by accident
SYDNEY: An Australian woman accused of murdering three people with death cap mushrooms denied Wednesday that she turned the fungi into dry powder for the fatal meal.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering her estranged husband’s parents and aunt in July 2023 by spiking a beef Wellington lunch with the mushrooms.
She is also accused of attempting to murder a fourth lunch guest – her husband’s uncle – who survived the dish after a long stay in hospital.
Patterson denies all charges in the trial, which has made headlines worldwide.
She says the beef-and-pastry dish, which she cooked in individually sized portions, was poisoned by accident.
Three months before the lunch, phone records placed Patterson in the Victoria state township of Loch, where a sighting of death cap mushrooms had been posted online, the court heard.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers alleged that within two hours of finding death cap mushrooms in Loch, Patterson bought a dehydrator to use on the fungi.
Patterson admitted to buying the dehydrator.
But she denied purchasing it to dry the death cap mushrooms or that she went to Loch to find the dangerous fungi.
A month later, phone records placed Patterson in a second town in the area, Outtrim, just days after a sighting of death cap mushrooms had been posted online, the court heard.
Patterson denied she went to the area to find the fungi, but said she may have driven by the area.
Rogers suggested Patterson “blitzed” the death cap mushrooms into a powder in order to hide them in the meal.
“Disagree,” Patterson said.
The court heard Patterson had told people that she served the beef Wellington leftovers to her children a day after the lunch, as her sickened guests lay in hospital.
The accused said she scraped off the mushroom and pastry from the dish because her children were fussy eaters.
The prosecutor asked Patterson why she would feed leftovers to her children, while knowing or suspecting that the same meal had put her guests in hospital.
“I didn’t know or suspect that,” Patterson replied.
The prosecutor accused her of telling a “lie about feeding the leftovers” because it gave her “some distance from a deliberate poisoning.”
Patterson replied: “I don’t see how it could, but I disagree.”
The home cook had also invited her estranged husband Simon to join the family lunch at her secluded home in the Victoria state farm village of Leongatha.
But Simon turned down the invitation saying he felt uncomfortable going, the court heard previously. The pair were long estranged but still legally married.
Simon’s parents Don and Gail, and his aunt Heather Wilkinson, attended the lunch. All three were dead within days.
Heather’s husband Ian fell gravely ill but recovered.
The trial in Morwell, southeast of Melbourne, is expected to last another two weeks.
