Antisemitic celebrities stoke fears of normalizing hate
A surge of anti-Jewish vitriol spread by celebrities is stoking fears that public figures are normalizing hate and ramping up the risk of violence. Former President Donald Trump hosted a Holocaust-denying white supremacist at Mar-a-Lago. The rapper Ye expressed love for Adolf Hitler in an interview. Basketball star Kyrie Irving appeared to promote an antisemitic film on social media. Those are just a few recent examples of influential people abusing their platforms to amplify antisemitism in a way that has been taboo for decades in the U.S. Some people say the incidents harken back to a darker time in America when powerful people routinely spread conspiracy theories about Jews with impunity.
A killer on the loose leaves an Idaho college town shaken
The recent flood of calls to the Police Department in Moscow, Idaho, is a sign of how afraid people in this town have become, three weeks after four University of Idaho students were fatally stabbed by an unknown assailant in their bedrooms in the middle of the night. Many students refused to come back to campus after Thanksgiving, and some classrooms at the university now sit half-empty. The fear is unlikely to ease until the killer or killers are caught, but there is little indication police are any closer to making an arrest than they were on the day of the killings.
FedEx driver charged in kidnapping and killing of girl, 7
A search for a missing 7-year-old Texas girl ended with the discovery three days later of her body and a FedEx contract driver being charged in her kidnapping and killing, authorities said Friday. The search for Athena Strand began Wednesday in Paradise, Texas. Her body was found Friday. Authorities identified the FedEx driver as Tanner Lynn Horner, 31, and said he had been charged with aggravated kidnapping and capital murder of a person under 10 years old. The Wise County sheriff, Lane Akin, said Horner confessed to killing the girl and said authorities believed she had been killed within an hour of being abducted.
Defaults loom as poor countries face an economic storm
Developing nations are facing a catastrophic debt crisis in the coming months as rapid inflation, slowing growth, rising interest rates and a strengthening dollar coalesce into a perfect storm that could set off a wave of messy defaults and inflict economic pain on the world’s most vulnerable people. Poor countries owe, by some calculations, as much as $200 billion to wealthy nations, multilateral development banks and private creditors. Rising interest rates have increased the value of the dollar, making it harder for foreign borrowers with debt denominated in U.S. currency to repay their loans.
Landslide tragedy turns Italy’s focus to illegal construction
Torrential rains last weekend sent a landslide plowing through Casamicciola Terme, a port town on the Italian island of Ischia, killing 11 residents, washing away houses and burying streets. This past week, rescue workers and volunteers continued to dig for survivors and unearth the town. But as some evacuees returned, many felt an unwelcome scrutiny from a nation that was asking whether the island’s abundance of illegally constructed houses had increased the vulnerability of a town sitting in a geologically fragile zone. Amnesties over decades may have rendered most of them legal — setting off hand-wringing among politicians and a bitter round of finger-pointing over who was to blame.
Ukraine calls for evacuations from a Russian-controlled area
Less than a month after driving Russian forces from the Ukrainian city of Kherson on the west bank of the Dnieper River, Ukrainian authorities on Saturday issued an urgent call for civilians to evacuate Russian-occupied areas on the eastern bank, suggesting that Ukraine’s military might press its offensive and try to establish a foothold across the waterway. Ukrainian forces are pushing on into the winter after two sweeping counteroffensives in the northeast and south. They are also once again stepping up strikes on Russian supply routes, command centers and ammunition depots from new forward positions.
Turkish strikes on US Kurd allies resonate in Ukraine war
The Biden administration is toughening its language toward NATO ally Turkey. Administration officials hope to talk Turkey out of a ground offensive against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in neighboring Syria. Turkey has blamed the U.S. and its Kurdish militia ally in Syria, without evidence, for a Nov. 13 bombing that killed six people in Istanbul. Turkish airstrikes and artillery have killed scores of Syrian Kurds since then. Kurdish fighters and American troops work together in northern Syria to quell Islamic State fighters. How the U.S. handles the conflict there has implications for the NATO stand against Russia in the Ukraine war and the fight against the Islamic State, as well as for America’s Kurdish allies.
Rogue wave strikes cruise ship, killing a passenger
A cruise ship passenger died and four others were injured after a large, unexpected wave hit the vessel traveling toward a launching point for expeditions to Antarctica, Viking Cruises said. The Viking Polaris was struck by a “rogue wave” Tuesday at 10:40 p.m. while traveling toward Ushuaia, Argentina. Viking Cruises did not say how the passenger was killed or provide the passenger’s name or nationality, though a State Department official said that a U.S. citizen died and that it was offering consular assistance to the person’s family. The four injured passengers were treated by onboard medical staff and had non-life-threatening injuries, Viking Cruises said.
By wire sources