UNITED STATES
Steamboat Geyser erupts
Yellowstone National Park’s Steamboat Geyser — the world’s tallest — has erupted for the first time in more than eight years. Park geologist Hank Heasler says Wednesday night’s nine-minute blast sent steaming hot water an estimated 90m in the air. Steamboat is one of more than 500 geysers at Yellowstone, which boasts the largest collection of hydrothermal features in the world. In the past, it has gone as long as 50 years without a major event. In 1964, it erupted a record 29 times.
UNITED KINGDOM
BBC sorry for prince’s penis
The BBC apologized on Thursday for accidentally showing an image of Prince William with a penis drawn on his head. The broadcaster’s breakfast TV show aired a video clip of a comedy group who were appearing later on the program. The image of the prince, with a beard and moustache scrawled in black pen on a newspaper photograph, flashed up on the screen for a couple of seconds. He had also acquired glasses, missing teeth and a penis on his head. It had apparently been missed by BBC editors, but was spotted by several viewers. “This image was shown fleetingly within a comedy promotional video for Barbershopera, a humorous barbershop group, who were appearing later on in the program,” a BBC spokeswoman said. “The material was provided by Barbershopera, but we failed to spot the offending material within it. We apologize for this.”
UNITED STATES
Birth earns Metro fare card
A woman who gave birth to a boy on a Washington Metro platform has received US$100 in subway or bus fare. Shavonnte Taylor received a handwritten note of congratulations on Thursday from Metro general manager Richard Sarles, along with a US$100 fare card. Taylor gave birth on the L’Enfant Plaza station platform on Thursday morning. She went into labor aboard a train and an off-duty emergency medical technician helped her off the train and delivered the baby. Taylor and her son, Amir, were reported to be in good health.
UNITED STATES
King statue wording fixed
Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin (雷宜鋅), who created the Martin Luther King Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, said on Thursday that a disputed inscription on the side of the monument has now been completely removed. Lei said his team is putting the final touches on the white granite monument. Dedicated two years ago, the monument features several historic quotations from King, who was assassinated in April 1968. But one inscription — “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness” — was challenged by critics who said it had been taken out of context. The National Park Service said the repair work — at a cost of up to US$800,000 — would be completed before the 50th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28.
RUSSIA
Space boss reprimanded
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday issued an official reprimand to Roscosmos boss Vladimir Popovkin after a series of embarrassing rocket launch failures. The reprimand is a warning to Popovkin that he faces the sack if he does not rectify the stated shortcomings.The country suffered one of its worst space failures of recent years on July 2 when a Proton-M rocket carrying a navigation satellite exploded shortly after launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome. That failure came after a string of botched unmanned launches in the last two years.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was