NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
Trump-Putin meeting: President Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin this weekend after all, the Kremlin said Wednesday, but they will make it an abbreviated discussion in deference to their French hosts and hold off more detailed talks until another meeting later in the month. The on-again, off-again, on-again meeting will come just days after Democrats seized control of the House in midterm elections and vowed to reopen the chamber’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and any ties with Trump’s campaign. The French had asked the Americans and Russians not to hold the meeting this weekend for fear that it would overshadow an event to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
Students freed: The 79 school children kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from a school in Cameroon have been released, but two of the three staff members abducted are still being held, said a church official. Cameroon’s northwest and southwest areas are beset by instability caused by armed separatists. Fighting between the military and separatists increased after the government clamped down on peaceful demonstrations by English-speaking teachers and lawyers protesting what they said was their marginalization by Cameroon’s French-speaking majority. Hundreds have been killed in the past year and the separatists have vowed to destabilize the regions as part of the strategy for creating a breakaway state, which they say will be called Ambazonia.
“Aggressive nationalism”: The mayor of Warsaw banned a march that radical Polish nationalists planned on the centennial of Polish independence, saying Wednesday she made the decision due to security concerns and to curb “aggressive nationalism.” Mayor Hanna GronkiewiczWaltz said she wanted to put a stop to the extremist displays that have appeared at marches organized by far-right groups that have drawn tens of thousands to the streets of the capital on Poland’s Nov. 11 Independence Day holiday. Lawmakers in the European Parliament called the participants “fascists” — a label that infuriated the conservative, populist Polish government, who leaders said most people marched with the national flag and without the racist banners.
Crash probe: A crucial sensor that is the subject of a Boeing Co. safety bulletin was replaced on a Lion Air jet the day before it plunged into the Java Sea and possibly worsened other problems with the plane, Indonesian investigators said Wednesday. In Jakarta, Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee said it had agreed with Boeing on procedures that the airplane manufacturer should distribute globally on how flight crews can deal with “angle of attack” sensor problems following the Oct. 29 crash that killed all 189 people on board.
Military parade: Thousands of troops in World War II uniform marched across Moscow’s Red Square on Wednesday in a re-enactment of a historic wartime parade. On Nov. 7, 1941, Red Army soldiers marched directly to the front line during the Battle of Moscow to repel the invading Nazi forces closing in on the Soviet capital. The Battle of Moscow marked the first time since the start of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union when the Red Army managed to stop the advancing Nazi forces and drive them back. It was the first major Nazi defeat since the start of World War II
Chronicle News Services