ENGLAND
BASE jumper evades police
Witnesses say a BASE jumper has safely parachuted from the EU’s tallest building, the Shard in London, and evaded police by jumping on the subway. Passers-by captured the stunt on social media on Saturday. Video footage and photographs showed the man with green chute deployed floating from the Shard onto a street near the London Bridge Station. They say the unidentified man folded his chute, handed it to an accomplice, and ran into the station minutes before police arrived. It is the first documented base jump since the 2012 completion of the Shard, a spire-shaped skyscraper that stands 95 stories and 310m high. BASE jumpers did film themselves leaping from the structure when it was still under construction. The finished building has no external rooftop viewing platform.
VENEZUELA
Rival marches in Caracas
Hundreds of opponents and supporters of President Nicolas Maduro held rival marches in Caracas, with anti-government forces demanding that the leader step down and his sympathizers denouncing US sanctions on some top officials. The marches on Saturday were animated, but peaceful, unlike massive anti-government protests in 2014 that left dozens dead and barricades burning in the streets. Government critics dressed in white shirts marched through the capital’s Chacao district, calling for the liberation of detained opposition members they consider political prisoners. The opposition blames the socialist-inspired government for the widespread shortages, deep recession and soaring inflation. Maduro said he “would never surrender to the oligarchy” and denounced a recent decision by US President Barack Obama to renew an executive order that declared a national emergency with respect to the South American country.
YEMEN
Overnight airstrikes kill 17
Airstrikes killed at least 17 suspected al-Qaeda militants overnight in a restive district in the southern port city of Aden, witnesses, medics and a security official said yesterday. The airstrikes hit the city’s al-Mansoura district, a stronghold for militants and an area which has witnessed several attacks against local security officials since the Saudi-led coalition retook Aden in July last year from the Iran-allied Houthi militia. The sources said at least 20 civilians and militants were wounded as well as three members of the security forces. The strikes targeted the militants who were sitting atop vehicles and one of the strikes hit a local government building. Intermittent clashes were still going on, they said. A security official said the strikes, thought to have been carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, were the “second stage” of freeing al-Mansoura from militants. There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition on the strikes.
PAKISTAN
Rain causes mine collapse
A local government official says heavy rain has caused the collapse of a coal mine in the country’s northwest, killing at least eight miners and leaving another four missing and feared dead. Local administration official Dost Mohammad said that the mine in the Orakzai tribal region collapsed the previous evening. He says military rescuers succeeded in saving 29 miners despite being hampered by the continuing rain. Another official, Latifur Rehman, says heavy rains in other parts of the northwest have led to the deaths of seven people in two days due to collapsing roofs and walls.
‘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