UNITED STATES
Tommy Ramone dead at 62
Drummer Tommy Ramone, the last surviving founding member of pioneering punk band The Ramones, has died, the band said on Twitter yesterday. Born Erdelyi Tamas in Budapest, Ramone died on Friday at his New York home following treatment for cancer, magazine Variety reported. He was 62. The four original members, who all took on the last name “Ramone,” formed the band in the mid-1970s and made it big with their first three albums: Ramones (1976), Leave Home and Rocket to Russia (both from 1977). Tommy Ramone surrendered his drumsticks to Marky Ramone in 1978, but remained as the band’s coproducer and advisor through 1984. The Ramones disbanded in 1996. Lead vocalist Joey Ramone died in 2001, bass guitarist and vocalist Dee Dee Ramone in 2002, and guitarist Johnny Ramone in 2004. “It wasn’t just music in The Ramones: it was an idea,” the band’s Facebook entry reads, citing Erdelyi. “It was bringing back a whole feel that was missing in rock music — it was a whole push outwards to say something new and different.”
VENEZUELA
Caracas to host Xi soon
President Nicolas Maduro has announced that he would be welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for an official visit “in the next days.” Xi will be making a stop in Caracas as part of his trip to the continent for the summit of the BRICS group of emerging powers made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Speaking during a tour of a Chinese bus factory in northern Venezuela on Friday, Maduro described Xi’s upcoming visit as “historic,” but did not give a date. Xi “will come to Venezuela on an official trip to ratify a series of development agreements,” Maduro said in remarks carried on state media. Xi will co-chair the BRICS leaders meeting in Brazil on Tuesday, Chinese officials said earlier in Beijing. Xi will continue on to Argentina, Venezuela and longtime ally Cuba.
MEXICO
Three new parties approved
The National Electoral Institute has granted registration to three new political parties, including one led by former leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement, or MORENA, registered with a half-million members, many of whom are former members of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). Lopez Obrador ran for president twice for the PRD and he is expected to run for MORENA in the 2018 presidential election. The institute said on Thursday it also registered the Social Encounter Party, which describes itself as a “family values party” and has 300,000 members. Registration also was given to the Humanist Party, which has 200,000 members and says it’s at the center of the political spectrum, to put the total number of political parties in the country at 10.
BOLIVIA
Burst dam polluting river
A dam in the southwestern mining town of Canutillos that helped keep dangerous pollutants out of a major regional waterway has burst, sparking an environmental emergency, officials said. “The lower part of the dam broke — there was some sort of explosion — which caused the water to rush into the Pilcomayo,” local prosecutor Jose Luis Rio said on radio about the accident, which he said took place on Thursday. The private Santiago Apostol mine extracts lead, silver and zinc. Rios said authorities are investigating the dam failure. Officials said residue from the facility risks despoiling the Pilcomayo River, which runs through the country to Argentina and Paraguay.
‘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