STATUS UPDATES
A week in which MDs fight back, anti-racism is punished and the Second World War is finally explained
PROTECTED Doctors at a top Delhi hospital, who will be given taekwondo training. About 1,500 doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences will participate, the U.K. Guardian reports. It’s a response to a rise in violence against medical staff in the country. A 2016 study found 40 per cent of resident doctors at a Delhi hospital had been exposed to workplace violence in the previous year.
LOST (1) Custody of two children, by a father and stepmother who filmed pranks on them in YouTube videos. Mike and Heather Martin of Maryland say the videos were mostly fake. In one video, the couple poured ink onto their youngest son’s bedroom floor before swearing at him about the mess. The boy was seen crying hysterically. Two of their five children are back with their biological mother.
READMITTED Guests at a Tunisian hotel where British tourists and others were gunned down two years ago. The owner of the former Imperial Marhaba hotel in Sousse said the facility has been remodelled and renamed Kantaoui Bay to erase “the painful memory of the drama” of June 26, 2015. That day, a Daeshlinked extremist killed 38 people at the beach and hotel.
CONDEMNED An extremist who hid incriminating information in USBequipped cufflinks. Samata Ullah, 34, of Wales was sentenced to eight years in jail for possession of articles for terrorist purposes and other charges. In March he’d admitted Daesh membership. A London court revealed he had numerous cufflinks that contained Linux operating systems loaded with extremist data.
EXPOSED A soccer player who complained of fans’ racial abuse during a game in Italy’s top league. Sulley Muntari of visiting Pescara complained to the ref about the Cagliari home fans but got a yellow card — then another when he walked off the pitch. He got support on social media and from the professional soccer players’ union but still received a ban for an additional game.
LOST (2) The Second World War, by the Germans. Yes, we know, but why? Because of “spectacular” inefficiency. So says a new book by historian James Holland. Holland aims to shatter the myth of the wellrun Nazi machine, saying the U.K. and U.S. were able to build tanks and planes much faster and the equipment was more reliable.
REFUSED An ad by President Donald Trump in which he labels major TV networks “fake news.” CNN refused to sell airtime for the commercial, which includes a graphic showing journalists, including Wolf Blitzer — of CNN. “It is absolutely shameful to see the media blocking the positive message that President Trump is trying to share,” sniffed Michael Glassner from the Trump campaign.
LIBERATED Uruguayan pot purchasers. The country is starting to register people who want to legally buy marijuana at pharmacies. It will be the world’s first government-regulated national marketplace for marijuana. The law allows the growing of pot by licensed individuals, the creation of growers and users clubs and the sale by pharmacies. Registered users will be able to buy 40 grams a month.