UNITED STATES
Professor kills two, himself
A university professor who studied the geography of crime is suspected of killing a woman he lived with before driving hours to a university in Mississippi to shoot another professor, police said. Shannon Lamb, a social science professor at Delta State University, then shot himself, police said, after they followed him and he pulled his car over, and he fled into woodland near the town of Greenville. Officers later heard a single gunshot and found Lamb’s body, Cleveland Police Chief Charles Bingham told a late-night news conference.
UNITED STATES
Shooter to stay in prison
A court declined on Monday to release on bail a former police officer who had shot a South Carolina man in the back in April. Michael Slager, at the time a police officer in North Charleston, was fired, arrested and charged with murder three days after the incident when video emerged showing him shooting motorist Walter Scott in the back five times as Scott was trying to run away. Slager, 33, is white and Scott, 50, was black, and the shooting set off protests in the city as a string of incidents around the nation caused anger over police violence against African Americans.
BRAZIL
Austerity package unveiled
The government announced a massive US$17 billion austerity package on Monday in a bid to boost its ailing economy amid a deepening crisis that has already caused a downgrade of the nation’s credit rating. The package — announced at a news conference by Planning Minister Nelson Barbosa — includes freezing public sector salary raises and hiring, entirely eliminating 10 of 39 ministries, cutting 1,000 jobs, and slashing housing and health-related social spending. “These are major corrections,” Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said. Just a few years ago, Brazil was in carnival mode as one of the BRICS group of emerging giants, winner of hosting rights to both last year’s FIFA World Cup and next year’s Olympic Games, but the government announced last month that the world’s seventh-largest economy was officially in recession and that the contraction could extend through next year, becoming the longest recession since 1931. Last week’s shock downgrade of Brazil’s sovereign credit rating to junk status by Standard & Poor’s sent the government scrambling to prevent an exit of foreign capital and to balance the books, in an economy already suffering from plummeting commodity prices and the effects of a huge corruption scandal.
GREECE
No grand coalition: Tsipras
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he would not form an “unnatural” grand coalition government with conservative rivals if he wins Sunday’s general election, despite polls suggesting that neither party can score an outright victory. In a televised debate late on Monday, Tsipras vowed to form a “progressive” coalition that would not include opposition leader Evangelos Meimarakis’ center-right New Democracy party. Tsipras called the snap election after reaching an agreement with eurozone nations for a massive third international bailout, despite having served only seven months as prime minister. Harsh terms demanded for the 86 billion euro (US$97 billion) rescue deal split Tsipras’ SYRIZA party, with a breakaway group toppling the government and running against him in Sunday’s election. The 41-year-old has clung to a slim lead in the opinion polls, but has suffered a sharp drop in his approval rating.
‘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
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