UNITED STATES
Pair seek balloon records
Two balloonists took flight from Japan on Saturday in a bid to break world records for distance and duration for gas balloon travel, in what they hope will be at least a six-day trans-Pacific flight reaching the US West Coast, officials said. The distance record of 8,383km for gas balloons was set on the only previous manned trans-Pacific flight, in 1981, while the duration record of more than 137 hours aloft was set in 1978 by a team crossing the Atlantic. “It goes to the philosophy of man,” said Ray Bair, an official observer with the National Aeronautic Association based at Mission Control in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “You always try to attain new heights and distances. That’s what this is all about.” Balloon pilots Troy Bradley, an American, and Russian Leonid Tuikhtyaev, collectively dubbed “Two Eagles,” took off after bad weather and poor wind trajectories had repeatedly delayed their launch, Bair said.
ECUADOR
Correa launches Web site
President Rafael Correa on Saturday unveiled a Web site meant to confront the “smearing” of his government on social media. The site will send alerts to subscribers concerning accounts where the government is being “defamed,” and allow users to report attacks on the president, he said. The government decided “to declare itself ready in the battle for dignity, for the truth on social networks,” Correa said during a weekly report. “If you know the identity of who is insulting, smearing, we will put them in the [weekly report] link or show them on networks in order to see if, when outed, the insulting stops,” he said. The site displays seven videos lauding government achievements, and a template to register for the site.
CANADA
Blind mother sees baby
A video that went viral last week showed a legally blind mother getting to look at her newborn child for the first time thanks to vision-enhancing glasses. The video posted to YouTube shows 29-year-old Kathy Beitz seeing her newborn boy with the aid of a bulky black headset. “For the first baby that I get to actually look at, being my own is very overwhelming,” Beitz said in the video. Beitz has genetic macular degeneration known as Stargardt disease. She was able to see her new son with the aid of eSight glasses that enhance video in real time. “She gave birth and she instantly wanted to see him,” said Yvonne Felix, Beitz’s sister who posted the video about the moment.
Felix, who has the same disease, is raising money so more people can access the expensive glasses at makeblindnesshistory.com.
BRAZIL
Coffee protein relieves pain
Scientists have discovered a protein in coffee that has effects similar to pain reliever morphine, researchers at the state University of Brasilia and state-owned Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp Embrapa said on Saturday. Embrapa said its genetics and biotech division, teaming up with the university’s scientists, had discovered “previously unknown protein fragments” with morphine-like effects in that they possess “analgesic and mildly tranquilizing” qualities. The company added tests on laboratory mice showed that the opioid peptides, which are naturally occurring biological molecules, appeared to have a longer-lasting effect on the mice than morphine itself. Embrapa said the discovery has “biotechnological potential” for the health foods industry and could also help to alleviate stress in animals bound for the slaughterhouse.
‘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