UNITED STATES
Second prison officer arrested
A second prison worker was arrested and charged on Wednesday over the escape of two convicted killers weeks ago from a maximum-security New York State jail. Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, used power tools to cut their way out of their cells at the Clinton Correctional Facility before dawn on June 6. Corrections officer Gene Palmer, 57, was charged with promoting prison contraband, two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of official misconduct, New York State Police Major Charles Guess said in a statement. Palmer allegedly helped smuggle tools and other banned items hidden in frozen hamburger meat, said Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie, according to ABC News.
UNITED STATES
Gay couples’ kids fine: study
Scientists agree that children raised by same-sex couples are no worse off than children raised by parents of the opposite sex, according to a new study co-authored by a University of Oregon professor. The new research, which looked at 19,000 studies and articles related to same-sex parenting from 1977 to 2013, was released last week, and comes as the US Supreme Court is set to rule by the end of this month on whether same-sex marriage is legal. “Consensus is overwhelming in terms of there being no difference in children who are raised by same-sex or different-sex parents,” University of Oregon sociology professor Ryan Light said on Tuesday. The studies showed some disagreement among scientists on the outcome of same-sex parenting in the 1980s, but it largely subsided in the 1990s, and a clear consensus had formed by 2000 that there is no difference between same-sex and different-sex parenting in the psychological, behavioral or educational outcomes of children, Light said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Fossil worm had eyes, teeth
Nature has produced many oddities, but an ancient creature resembling a prickly sea worm is one of the few to have left scientists so baffled they were unable to distinguish its head from its the rear. The organism, called hallucigenia sparsa, was once one of the world’s most common creatures, but its unearthly appearance has led it to be regarded as an evolutionary misfit — not least because this basic anatomical question has remained unresolved. Now the discovery of a pair of simple eyes and a ring of needle-like teeth, has finally confirmed which way around the animal faced. The worm, which was around 35mm long, lived in the oceans about 505 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion when most major animal groups first appear in the fossil record. Early descriptions in the 1970s suggested that it walked on its spikes with a row of waving tentacles on its back. However, scientists later concluded that they had the creature upside down and it is now clear that they also had front and back confused. Researchers in England and Canada reported the new results in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
UNITED KINGDOM
The history of twerking
Twerking has been admitted to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary — and lexicographers said its origins go back almost 200 years. The dictionary now describes twerking as dancing “in a sexually provocative manner, using thrusting movements of the bottom and hips while in a low, squatting stance.” It had previously listed the word, but then to refer to a twisting or jerking movement or twitch. Researchers found it had been used with that meaning already in 1820.
CHINA
Apartment fire kills 13
An early morning fire yesterday killed 13 people in a seven-story apartment buildingin Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said. The fire erupted on the ground level, but did not spread far on a rainy night, CCTV reported. It said the deaths occurred on the top floor, meaning the victims likely died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Multiple people were hospitalized with burn injuries, the broadcaster said, and the Zhengzhou No. 1 People’s Hospital confirmed that four people were under urgent medical treatment for burn injuries. CCTV said the cause of the fire was not known. Many apartments in the country are not properly maintained, and haphazard remodeling projects have left behind safety hazards, such as improper wiring, bad ventilation and the removal of supporting struts.
JAPAN
Hoverboard comes to life
The future is here already — or at least the one imagined for Marty McFly — with a carmaker unveiling a real, working hoverboard, like that used in the Back to the Future film franchise. Toyota’s luxury car brand Lexus says it has created a prototype that glides frictionlessly just above the ground with technology similar to that used in so-called maglev trains. A teaser video posted online appears to show the hoverboard floating, although the sequence ends before a skateboarder actually begins to ride it. While the hoverboard Michael J. Fox’s character rides in Back to the Future II floats above anything — except water — the Lexus model requires magnets to be embedded in the ground, limiting its range to special tracks.
JAPAN
Murder plot leader executed
A man who robbed and killed a woman after plotting the crime with accomplices he met online was executed yesterday. The execution brings to 12 the total number of death sentences carried out since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took power in 2012. Tsukasa Kanda, 44, was hanged for killing 31-year-old Rie Isogai in Nagoya in 2007. He met his two accomplices via a mobile phone-based web service and the three of them together devised a plan to target a random woman victim. The men kidnapped Isogai from a Nagoya street and suffocated her by wrapping her head and neck with a plastic bag, adhesive tape and rope, before battering her head with a hammer, according to Ministry of Justice records. Kanda’s accomplices are serving life sentences. Kanda did not appeal his death sentence after the original district court ruling Japan and the US are the only major industrial nations that continue to have capital punishment.
VIETNAM
Flash floods kill seven
A disaster official says flash floods triggered by a tropical storm have killed seven people and left four others missing in the north. Tran Viet Phuong in Son La Province yesterday said that authorities are still searching for the four missing, including a four-year-old boy whose house was washed away. Flash floods washed away more than 20 houses in the province, he said. Tropical Storm Kujira, which slammed northern coast on Wednesday, has now dissipated, according to the national weather forecasters. The storm has dumped up to 20cm of rain on many parts of northern region over the past two days.
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
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