18/12/2025

THURSDAY | DEC 18, 2025

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Shooting suspect charged with murder, terrorism

Seoul livestreams presidential briefings SEOUL: South Korea’s leader has said that new livestreamed briefings in which he has dressed down officials might be “more entertaining than Netflix”as he seeks to boost transparency in contrast to his more autocratic predecessor. Regular presidential policy briefings were long held behind closed doors, but Seoul has begun streaming them online as part of a push for more “direct democracy”. The move is a stark departure from the previous conservative government under disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who introduced daily doorstep media briefings but scrapped them after just six months when they became too combative. Yoon was ousted in April and is in prison following a brief but disastrous imposition of martial law. Lee, who was elected in June, said during a session this week that some viewers may find the livestreamed briefings “more entertaining than Netflix”. Some of the exchanges caused public amusement when they showed Lee scolding officials over their answers. In one, Lee told a Cabinet meeting: “If you don’t know something, say you don’t know.” “Trying to get out of a difficult situation by submitting false or distorted reports is the real problem,” he said. Lee said yesterday that South Koreans were “the most democratically minded people in the entire world”. “That’s why we should disclose as much information as possible,” he said. However, the new arrangements have drawn some backlash, with one conservative newspaper describing the public tongue lashing as akin to workplace “gapjil” – a Korean term for abusive or authoritarian behaviour by those in positions of power. – AFP Reiner’s son faces life in prison LOS ANGELES: The son of famed Hollywood director Rob Reiner was charged with two counts of first-degree murder over the brutal slaying of his parents, the chief prosecutor of Los Angeles said on Tuesday. Nick Reiner, 32, who has a history of substance abuse stretching back to his teenage years, could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty if convicted over the killings that shocked Hollywood. District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s office said Nick Reiner had been charged “with two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders”. “He also faces a special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a knife,” it said. Reiner is expected to be arraigned as soon as he is able to appear at a Los Angeles courthouse. His lawyer, Alan Jackson, told reporters he had so far not been medically cleared to appear, a process he described as “procedural”. “The bailiff has indicated that the sheriff’s department will take it on a day-by-day basis, and so hopefully he’ll be cleared tomorrow, and we can get him here.” Reiner was arrested on Sunday after the bodies of his 78-year-old father and his mother, Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were discovered at their home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Prosecutors said Rob Reiner and his wife were stabbed to death. According to US media reports, Nick Reiner had argued with his parents at a glitzy Hollywood party the previous evening. – AFP

o State, national leaders agree to toughen gun laws

Questions are mounting over whether authorities could have acted earlier to foil the gunmen. Naveed Akram, reportedly an unemployed bricklayer, came to the attention of Australia’s intelligence agency in 2019. But he was not considered to be an imminent threat at the time and largely fell off the radar. Australia’s leaders have agreed to toughen laws that allowed Sajid Akram to own six guns. Mass shootings have been rare in Australia since a lone gunman killed 35 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur in 1996. That attack sparked a world-leading crackdown that included a gun buyback scheme and limits on semi-automatic weapons. However, Australia has documented a steady rise in privately owned firearms in recent years. – AFP

Wales state police said in a statement. “Early indications point to a terrorist attack.” Father Sajid, 50, was killed at the scene. Naveed, 24, was also shot and remained in hospital under police guard. Authorities said the attack was designed to sow panic. Australian police are investigating who the pair met during a visit to the Philippines weeks before the shooting. Mourners collapsed in grief as they held the first funerals for those slain in the attack. Rabbi Eli Schlanger was the first laid to rest, drawing masses of black-clad mourners who spilled out of the Chabad of Bondi Synagogue in Sydney’s east. The 41-year-old was a popular figure known to many around town as the “rabbi of Bondi”. Squads of police patrolled the streets outside the Bondi synagogue, marshalling the large crowds gathered for the service.

SYDNEY: Australian police charged one of the alleged Bondi Beach gunmen yesterday, as grief-stricken mourners buried the first of 15 people slain in the attack. Sajid Akram and his son Naveed are accused of opening fire at the beach on Sunday evening, killing 15 people. Naveed was charged with 15 counts of murder yesterday after waking from a coma, as well as committing a “terrorist act” and planting a bomb with intent to harm. “Police will allege in court the man engaged in conduct that caused death, serious injury and endangered life to advance a religious cause and cause fear in the community,” New South

Australians paying tribute to victims of the mass shooting on Tuesday. – REUTERSPIC

No evidence of terrorist training, says Philippines MANILA: The Philippines said yesterday there was no evidence that the country was being used for terrorist training, a day after it was revealed the men behind thes Bondi Beach mass shooting had spent last month on a southern island known for insurgencies. On Tuesday, the country’s immigration office confirmed that Sajid Akram and his son Naveed, who killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others, entered the country on Nov 1 headed for the southern province of Davao. The island of Mindanao, where Davao is located, has a long history of insurgencies. Australian authorities are investigating who the two men met during the trip. Colonel Xerxes Trinidad told reporters the father-and-son duo’s November trip to the Philippines would not have provided adequate time for significant training. “Training cannot be acquired in just 30 days ... especially if you are to undergo marksmanship (training),” he said. “They are fragmented, and they have no leadership.”

“(President Ferdinand Marcos) strongly rejects the sweeping statement and the misleading characterisation of the Philippines as the training hotspot,” presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro said at a press briefing. “No evidence has been presented to support claims that the country was used for terrorist training,” she said, reading from a National Security Council statement. “There is no validated report or confirmation that individuals involved in the incident received any form of training in the Philippines.”

But Rommel Banlaoi, a Manila-based security analyst, told AFP that while many insurgent groups were “on the run”, they were far from eradicated. “There are still many active training camps in (central) Mindanao. Those did not disappear,” he told AFP, adding even weakened insurgent movements maintained connections “locally and globally online”. – AFP

The Philippine military, however, said yesterday that armed groups still operating on Mindanao had been largely degraded in the years since the siege of Marawi. “We have not recorded any major terrorist operations or training activities ... since the beginning of 2024,” Philippine military spokeswoman Colonel Francel Padilla said at a morning press briefing.