NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Refugee crisis: As many as 64 migrants, including a mother whose 3-year-old child desperately clung to her, are feared dead after a traffickers’ overcrowded rubber dinghy from Libya started sinking in the Mediterranean Sea, officials said Monday. The Italian coast guard rescued 86 people from the boat hours after it started sinking Saturday due to a puncture. The dinghy had been spotted off the coast of Libya by an aircraft from a European naval mission combatting migrant trafficking. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been rescued at sea and taken to southern Italian ports in the past few years. They include refugees fleeing wars or persecution as well as economic migrants.
_2 China visit: French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday he hopes to forge a partnership with China on climate, security and other issues during a visit to expand European ties with Beijing. The trip comes as Britain’s impending departure from the EU and the more inward-looking policies of U.S. President Trump have raised the prospect of a possible realignment of global influence. China and France have promoted themselves as leaders on global warming after Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement. Xi welcomed Macron in unusually effusive language.
_3 Gay rights: India’s top court on Monday said it will re-examine its earlier decision not to strike down a colonial-era law that makes homosexual acts punishable by up to 10 years in prison. In 2009, a New Delhi High Court declared unconstitutional Section 377 of the law, which says intercourse between members of the same sex is against the order of nature. But the judgment was overturned four years later by the Supreme Court, which said amending or repealing the law should be left to Parliament, not the judiciary. Parliament has yet to act on the matter.
_4 Britain politics: A Cabinet reshuffle intended to demonstrate Prime Minister Theresa May’s newfound authority seemed to do the opposite Monday, as she left all her top ministers in place. The most senior figures in May’s Cabinet, including the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and the chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, kept their jobs in the shakeup, despite calls for them to be moved or dismissed. That underscored May’s lack of room for maneuvering, seven months after a general election in which she lost her parliamentary majority, damaging her authority, and as difficult negotiations loom over Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. May’s reluctance to risk moving any senior colleagues was described by some commentators in the British press as the “day of the blunt knives.”
_5 Turkey crackdown: The government intends to extend by another three months the state of emergency that was declared following a failed military coup. Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told reporters after a Cabinet meeting Monday that Turkey’s National Security Council would discuss prolonging the state of emergency for a sixth time this month before seeking approval in Parliament. The declaration currently is set to expire on Jan. 19. The state of emergency has allowed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to launch a massive crackdown on suspected foes. Nearly 50,000 people have been arrested for alleged links to the July 2016 coup attempt. Critics say the government has used its emergency powers to go after all opponents, including politicians, journalists and activists, and to often bypass lawmakers by ruling through decrees.