UNITED STATES
Sanders footage emerges
In recent days, US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign has questioned rival Senator Bernie Sanders’ commitment to civil rights, trying to cement her support among black voters who could be crucial in upcoming primaries such as South Carolina’s. A lifeline has now arrived for the Sanders campaign, in the form of video footage more than half a century old. On Monday, Kartemquin Films uploaded footage of a young man, wearing thick glasses, surrounded by police officers who grabbed him by his arms and carried him away. The man looked as if he could be Sanders, so the company asked the public and Sanders to help confirm whether it was. On Friday, Sanders’ campaign spokesman Michael Briggs and senior adviser to the campaign Tad Devine said Sanders had said it was him. What sealed it was the watch the man was wearing; Sanders recalled owning a watch like that, Devine said. Sanders, then a 21-year-old student at the University of Chicago, was arrested on Aug. 12, 1963, while protesting segregation in Englewood, where Chicago Public Schools was planning to build a school. The footage was shot by Jerry Temaner, one of the co-founders of Kartemquin Films. Sanders was charged with resisting arrest.
UNITED STATES
Celebrity hacker faces jail
An Oregon man who accessed hundreds of e-mail accounts and stole explicit photographs of celebrities has pleaded guilty to a felony hacking charge in Los Angeles. Andrew Helton faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing nude or explicit photos from 13 people, including some unidentified celebrities. The plea was entered on Thursday. Hundreds of stolen nude images of stars including Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis have been posted online. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said Helton’s is a separate case and that none of the images he stole are believed to have leaked online. Prosecutors said Helton’s “phishing” scheme involved sending victims e-mails they thought were from Apple or Google. The messages asked victims to verify their e-mail accounts by clicking on a link that took them to a fake Web site, where Helton collected their usernames and passwords. Prosecutors said Helton used the information to access more than 360 e-mail accounts. Helton, 29, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 2.
UNITED STATES
‘Voice of God’ backs Clinton
The character actor Reg E. Cathey, best known for portraying Freddy Hayes of Freddy’s barbecue restaurant in the Netflix drama House of Cards, has narrated several ads for US Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders. Now, as the Democratic primary intensifies in South Carolina, Cathey’s resonant voice is about to get some competition from the actor known as Hollywood’s voice of God. Morgan Freeman has lent his voice to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, narrating in his deep, languid way several ads that will begin airing in South Carolina ahead of the state’s Feb. 27 Democratic primary. Freeman, whose voice has been the powerful backdrop in movies such as The Shawshank Redemption and Million Dollar Baby, has served as a campaign surrogate for Democrats in the past, narrating an ad for US President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign that was widely considered among the most effective from that cycle.
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