MEXICO
Protesters besiege airport
Protesters angry at the apparent massacre of 43 students clashed with police and besieged Acapulco’s international airport for hours on Monday over the scandal shaking President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration. Thousands marched to the airport, with parents of the students leading the demonstration along with comrades from the missing young men’s teacher-training college in the southern state of Guerrero. “Pena out. Pena murderer. Stay in China,” protesters chanted, referring to the president’s decision to travel to a summit in Beijing amid public fury over the crime. The protesters blocked the airport’s entrance for more than three hours, though several tourists sneaked in through a private terminal.
UNITED KINGDOM
Reagan apology unearthed
So sorry we kept it a secret. That was then-US president Ronald Reagan’s message to then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher when US troops invaded Grenada in 1983 without telling her first. In a secret White House tape made public on Monday after a Freedom of Information Act request, Reagan called Thatcher as the invasion unfolded to apologize for having kept her in the dark, saying: “I’m sorry for any embarrassment we caused you.” The issue was particularly sensitive because Grenada was part of the Commonwealth. Reagan told Thatcher that total secrecy was needed because of fears that a leak — on the US side, not the British one — might endanger the military operation.
UNITED STATES
Violent crime down 4.4%
Violent crimes decreased by 4.4 percent last year, the FBI said on Monday, but said “much more work” is needed to reduce murders, rapes and armed robberies. Nearly 1.2 million violent crimes were committed across the country last year, including an estimated 14,196 murders, mostly by guns, the FBI said in its annual Crime in the United States report. By comparison, the murder rate in 2012 was 14,827, according to the FBI. More than 11 million people were arrested last year, mostly for drug-related offenses, larceny-theft and driving under the influence, the report said.
UNITED STATES
Stones feud with insurers
The Rolling Stones are embroiled in a legal feud with insurance underwriters who refused to pay US$12.7 million for a tour cancelation following the suicide of Mick Jagger’s girlfriend L’Wren Scott. The dispute came to light in court documents filed in Utah. Scott, a fashion designer and model, hanged herself in her New York apartment in March, leading Jagger to call off a tour of Australia and New Zealand — whose rescheduled dates are under way. The band claimed about US$12.7 million under an insurance policy that covered cancelation of a tour due to the “sudden and unforeseen” deaths of the band members’ loved ones, with Scott specifically listed. “Underwriters denied coverage under the policy because Ms Scott’s suicide was an intentional act and not a sudden and unforeseen event beyond her control,” a court document said.
UNITED STATES
End of CNN in Russia
CNN will stop broadcasting in Russia after a new law was passed that limits foreign ownership in media companies. Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting division said it hopes to resume broadcasting eventually, according to an e-mailed statement. The move was first reported by Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper. CNN’s Moscow bureau operations are unaffected, according to the statement.
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