UNITED STATES
Bertrand Russell letter sold
The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles has acquired a 1937 letter written by Bertrand Russell in which the Nobel Prize-winning philosopher says if the Nazi army invades his native England the British should invite Adolf Hitler to dinner rather than fight. The museum, part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, announced on Wednesday that it paid US$4,000 for the letter at an auction in England last month. “If the Germans succeed in sending an invading army to England we should do best to treat them as visitors, give them quarters and invite the commander and chief to dine with the prime minister,” Russell wrote. “Such behavior would completely baffle them.” Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal Center’s founder, says Bertrand’s letter will be placed in the museum alongside one that Hitler wrote in 1919 outlining the anti-Semitic views that led to the Holocaust and killing of 6 million Jews.
MEXICO
Former airline boss sought
An official said the Attorney General’s Office has issued an arrest warrant for the former owner of defunct Mexicana Airlines on charges of misuse of funds. The official says the office has asked Interpol for help locating Gaston Azcarraga, who is accused of operating with illegal proceeds and is believed to be in the US. The official was not authorized to speak by name. The official said Azcarraga is accused of using investor funds without permission. Mexicana Airlines, once the country’s main commercial airline, ceased to operate in 2010 after filing for bankruptcy.
PANAMA
Canal work to restart
Work to widen the Panama Canal was to resume yesterday, an official said, two weeks after the huge project was suspended over US$1.6 billion in cost overruns. Canal administrator Jorge Quijano said that the consortium involved, Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), will “resume tomorrow [yesterday] morning as we develop an interim agreement.” Work to expand the canal was suspended earlier this month by the GUPC consortium. The dispute is over US$1.6 billion in cost overruns in the project, the main part of which is to build a third set of locks.
SAUDI ARABIA
Prince does sword dance
Britain’s Prince Charles donned a ceremonial Saudi thobe and checked red-and-white keffiyeh to join members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family in an ardah — sword dance — at the annual 17-day Janadriyah cultural festival at Riyadh during his 10th official visit to the kingdom. Adorned with elaborate dagger and bandolier, the prince successfully negotiated the steps while wielding a golden sword during the ceremony. He was accompanied by several Saudi princes, all similarly attired, at the event at a stadium in the city.
UNITED STATES
Toddler admitted to Mensa
With an IQ above 160, three-year-old Alexis Martin of Queen Creek is now the youngest member in the Arizona chapter of Mensa, a Phoenix television station reported. Alexis, who reads at a fifth-grade level and taught herself Spanish using her parents’ iPad, qualified by scoring among the top 2 percent of the general population on an intelligence test, her father said. Ian Martin told ABC15 in an interview that the family began noticing that something about their daughter was different when she was just a year old. “She would recite her bedtime story from the night before,” he told the station. “She didn’t just recite them, she recited them exactly.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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