UNITED STATES
Nearly 4,000 blacks lynched
A new study by the Equal Justice Initiative showed that nearly 4,000 blacks were lynched in the south from 1877 to 1950, an average of more than one a week for 73 years. The Alabama-based human rights group said that present-day racial discrimination and criminal justice problems are rooted in the country’s violent past. “In Germany you’re forced to deal with the legacy of the Holocaust,” group founder Bryan Stevenson said. “We do the opposite in America. We haven’t committed ourselves to truth and reconciliation, we haven’t really tried to deal with the consequences of this legacy.” The group documented 3,959 lynchings in 12 southern states from 1877 to 1950, with the majority of the killings taking place between 1880 and 1940.
UNITED STATES
“Newsweek’ hack probed
The FBI is investigating the hijacking of Newsweek’s Twitter feed on Tuesday by pro-Islamic hackers in which a threat was made to President Barack Obama’s family, the White House said. “This particular intrusion is one that is already being investigated by the FBI,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, without elaborating. Newsweek said the Twitter feed was taken over for 14 minutes before the news organization was able to regain control.
FRANCE
Clinic told to pay over switch
Two families whose babies were switched at birth more than 20 years ago were awarded nearly 2 million euros (US$2.26 million) in compensation on Tuesday. The court in the southern town of Grasse ordered the clinic at the center of the mix-up in the city of Cannes to pay 1.88 million euros — six times less than the families had called for. On July 4, 1994, Sophie Serrano, now in her late 30s, gave birth to Manon at a clinic in Cannes. The baby suffered from jaundice and doctors put her in an incubator equipped with lights to treat the problem along with another affected newborn girl. An auxiliary nurse unwittingly switched them, and although both mothers immediately expressed doubt about the babies, pointing to their different hair lengths, they were sent home anyway. After discovering the switch, the two sets of parents met their biological daughters for the first time when they were 10 years old, but did not ask that they be switched back.
FRANCE
Dealer caught in the act
A suspected drug dealer threw his cannabis stash out of his apartment, only for it to fall straight into the hands of police stationed outside. Hearing the dreaded tread of security forces up his stairs, the man tried to get rid of the tell-tale evidence by hurling three bags of the drug off his balcony, without knowing other officers were posted outside. He was arrested along with his girlfriend, who was also in the apartment in Drancy near Paris. Four kilograms of cannabis were recovered and more than 2,000 euros in cash.
ISRAEL
Man leaves drugs, resume
A man looking for a job may need to add “drug dealer” to his resume. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says officers arrested the 27-year-old after finding his resume in a bag along with 350 packets of an illegal drug. Rosenfeld said on Tuesday that the man was shocked when police knocked on his door and asked how they found him. Police say the resume described him as “responsible” and “serious,” and said he had a background in security. The drug, called “Mr Niceguy,” is a synthetic substance that users say has narcotic effects.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion