US senator John McCain, snapped this week playing poker on his iPhone during a key hearing about military intervention in Syria, has just added his name to the growing list of lawmakers around the world caught whiling away an uninspiring moment in the chamber with their mobile device.
At least McCain, the Republican party presidential candidate in 2008, could laugh it off: “Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing — worst of all I lost!” he tweeted.
Others have not been so fortunate. Three Indian politicians from the conservative Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party resigned last year after being filmed watching porn clips on a mobile phone during a session of the state parliament. They had initially insisted they were not “enjoying” the video so did not need to step down, while one said he was trying to turn the phone off at the time.
ESCORT GIRLS
Similarly implausible excuses abound. When Simeone di Cagno Abbrescia, a 66-year-old, thrice-married Italian member of parliament, was spotted two years ago browsing pictures of escort girls on his government-issue iPad during a no-confidence vote, he insisted he was “looking at my e-mail messages when a window popped up. We only received the iPads a month ago and my fingers slipped as I was looking for the news pages.”
A Thai MP, Pongpan Sunthornchai, caught ogling photographs of women in swimsuits on his iPad during an important debate on the transport costs of rice, likewise pleaded technological ineptitude.
The Bangkok Post said he “pressed the wrong link and accidentally got sexy pictures. Then the wrong link again, and got more raunch. He tried again and again, and he kept getting sexy photos. It was all so confusing.”
He now wanted to return his iPad, he said.
French MPs have also been snapped making online poker bets, playing chess, reading adult cartoons, browsing clothing catalogues and placing orders for fine wines on their iPads and smartphones.
RED-FACED
Back in the US, Florida state senator Mike Bennett was left red-faced when a cameraman filmed him looking at a picture of topless women on his laptop during a state abortion debate.
Thankfully in the UK, the Mother of Parliaments — where handheld devices may be used in the Chamber “provided that they are silent, and used in a way that does not impair decorum” — has yet to witness such indignities.
Although with a prime minister alleged to spend “a crazy, scary amount of time playing Fruit Ninja on his iPad,” it can surely only be a matter of time.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in