UNITED STATES
Immigrant release ordered
A federal judge has ordered the government to release from detention centers immigrant children and their mothers caught entering the nation illegally from Mexico. In a filing late on Friday, California US District Judge Dolly Gee rejected the government’s request that she reconsider her ruling and ordered it to implement remedies by Oct. 23, saying the children and their mothers must be released without unnecessary delay. Two centers in Texas and one in Pennsylvania held about 1,400 people recently, mostly Central Americans seeking asylum after fleeing violence at home. The government had fought the judge’s ruling, saying that the facilities had been turned into short-term processing centers. However, Gee said in her order that the government remains in violation of a longstanding legal agreement that bans immigrant children from being held in secure unlicensed facilities.
JORDAN
UN touts female education
The head of the UN Population Fund said the agency’s “new mantra” is to keep girls in school until age 18 “in every nook and cranny of the world,” as a key means of slowing population growth. The UN expects the world’s population to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050. Agency executive director Babatunde Osotimehin said women tend to have fewer children if their first is born after they have turned 18 years old. He previously said that one in three girls is married before the age of 18. Osotimehin at a conference in Jordan on Friday said that pushing for primary education is not enough, adding that “we must up our game” as UN members prepare to ratify ambitious development goals for 2030 next month.
VENEZUELA
Border closure extended
President Nicolas Maduro is extending indefinitely the closure of a popular border crossing with Colombia and declaring a 60-day state of emergency in several western cities. Maduro earlier in the week announced a 72-hour closure of the normally busy crossing in Tachira State in response to a shooting of three army officers while patrolling for smugglers. On Friday night, he said the crossing would remain closed until the assailants are caught, adding that the state of emergency would allow security forces to reassert control over the long-volatile border. Maduro blamed smugglers and paramilitaries from Colombia for violence that has spilled over the 2,200km border in recent years. Opponents decried Maduro’s move and said that it might be an attempt to thwart defeat in upcoming legislative elections.
INDIA
Kashmiri separatist detained
Kashmiri leader Zameer Ahmed said that police have detained a top Kashmiri separatist leader after he landed at New Delhi’s airport ahead of talks between Indian and Pakistani security advisers. Ahmed said Shabir Ahmed Shah yesterday flew in from Indian Kashmir for a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s national security adviser Sartaj Aziz, who is scheduled to arrive in the Indian capital today. Shah and two colleagues were driven away from the airport by the New Delhi police, said Ahmed, who is also detained by the police. India opposes Pakistani leaders meeting with Kashmiri separatist leaders in New Delhi. The police in Indian Kashmir confirmed Shah’s detention in New Delhi.
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