UNITED STATES
Dubious No. 1 for Rodman
Dennis Rodman is at the top of a list no one wants to be on at all. He’s been named GQ magazine’s No. 1 least influential celebrity of this year. The 52-year-old former basketball player who has visited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was the top pick in the magazine’s third annual list of the least influential celebrities, which also includes pop star Miley Cyrus, President Barack Obama and celebrity chef Paula Deen. GQ called Rodman a “Q-list celebrity willing to commit borderline treason just to hang out with a dictator who himself aspires to be a Q-list celebrity.” Rodman last week said he is preparing to return to North Korea late next month for an exhibition basketball tour. Deen came in at No. 2, while former sexting congressman Anthony Weiner took the No. 3 spot. Cyrus won the No. 6 position and Obama came in at No. 17 because “nothing gets done.”
SPAIN
Police monitoring killer
Police are keeping a sadistic killer known as the “tracksuit madman” under close watch after his release from prison under a European human rights ruling, officials said on Saturday. Manuel Gonzalez Gonzalez was released on Friday from a penitentiary west of Barcelona where he had been serving a 169-year sentence delivered in 1997 for horrific sexual assaults on 16 women and the resulting death of one of the victims. “According to the experts, he is not cured of his urges,” a regional interior ministry official, Ramon Espadaler, told Catalunya Radio. Gonzalez was jailed for a string of violent attacks between 1991 and 1993 on girls and women he approached from behind and stabbed their genitalia. His release complied with an Oct. 21 European Court of Human Rights ruling that found Madrid had acted illegally by denying certain prisoners shortened sentences for good behavior.
SPAIN
Anti-austerity groups march
Anti-austerity groups and trade unions angry at the effects of the financial crisis held protest marches in 55 cities on Saturday, calling on the government to rethink its policy of cutbacks in public services, education and health care. Thousands marched to Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square — many wearing white medical scrubs — carrying banners reading “Health care is not for sale.” The peaceful protests coincided with anti-fascist gatherings, including one outside the giant mausoleum where the dictator general Francisco Franco is buried. Many protesters carried tri-color republican flags in commemoration of the democratically elected government that Franco overthrew.
MEXICO
Zombies crowd Mexico City
More than 7,000 “zombies” on Saturday crammed Mexico City’s streets for the popular Zombie Walk Mexico. Decked out in masks and costumes, participants brought out their best fake blood and makeup for a tongue-in-cheek walk with fear. The Day of the Dead in November is one of the country’s beloved holidays, with people bringing food and parties to relatives’ gravesides.
UNITED KINGDOM
Jagger to be great-granddad
Mick Jagger may still be strutting about onstage giving his fans Satisfaction — but at 70 the Rolling Stones’ frontman is about to become a great-grandfather, his daughter confirmed yesterday. Jagger’s grand-daughter Assisi, 21, is due to give birth early next year, her 42-year-old mother, Jade Jagger, told the Sunday Times.
‘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
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