CHINA
Police detain 21 protesters
Police have detained 21 people involved in a protest against a planned garbage incinerator, the latest incident of environment-related unrest in the country. In a statement late on Sunday, the government of Gaoyao district in Guangdong Province’s Zhaoqing City said about 1,300 people had gathered to protest earlier in the day, which had caused traffic problems. While the protesters were dispersed by the early afternoon and there was no “drastic behavior,” 21 people have been taken in for questioning, it added. Zhaoqing police said on their official microblog that the situation had returned to normal. However, the official China Daily said there had been some violence. “The lawbreakers threw stones and bottles of mineral water at police,” propaganda official Duan Jianxin (段建新) told the newspaper. “Some police officers were injured.”
NEPAL
Summit claim challenged
Mountaineering authorities are investigating a climbing claim by an Indian couple who are accused of altering photographs of themselves on the summit of Mount Everest, an official said yesterday. Department of Tourism chief Sudarshan Dhakal said that authorities are reviewing the Everest climb made by Dinesh Rathod and his wife, Tarakeshwari, in May. They were issued climber’s certificates from the government after they presented a photograph of themselves on the 8,850m summit. The couple, who are both police officers from Pune in the Indian state of Maharastra, had also claimed they were the first Indian couple to scale Everest. However, fellow climbers said the couple never reached the summit and used someone else’s photographs to earn their climbing certificates. Another Indian climber, Satyarup Sidhantha from Bangalore, said it was his photograph that the couple altered to make it appear they were on the summit. If the accusation is found to be true, the couple would lose their certificates and be banned from climbing any mountains in Nepal.
TURKEY
Bombing suspects charged
Thirteen suspects, including 10 Turks, were on Sunday charged over the Istanbul airport suicide bombings, the deadliest of several attacks to strike Turkey’s biggest city this year, the Dogan news agency reported. The suspects, who are in police custody, were charged with belonging to a terror group, homicide and endangering the unity of the state, Dogan reported, without providing the foreigners’ nationalities. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, meanwhile, gave some new details on the probe, saying police had arrested a total of 29 to date over the attacks, including foreigners. “Everything will be unveiled in due time,” Yildirim said.
UNITED KINGDOM
UKIP leader Farage quits
The leader of Britain’s anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage yesterday said he would stand down after having realized his ambition of winning last month’s referendum in favor of Brexit. “I have never been, and I have never wanted to be, a career politician. My aim in being in politics was to get Britain out of the European Union,” he told reporters. “So I feel it’s right that I should now stand aside as leader of UKIP. “During the referendum campaign, I said ‘I want my country back’. What I’m saying today, is, ‘I want my life back,’ and it begins right now,” he said. He said he would continue to support the party, and continue to watch Brussels “like a hawk” during the negotiations around Britain’s exit from the EU.
AUSTRALIA
Eight charged after ‘ice’ bust
A Malaysian is among eight men charged over a seizure of the drug “ice” worth about A$275 million (US$206.75 million), authorities said yesterday. About 275kg of crystal methamphetamine were found under the floorboards of shipping containers after a tip-off, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said. As part of a controlled operation, the containers were delivered to an industrial estate in Melbourne and seven Australians and one Malaysian, all aged between 24 and 34, were arrested. Police said they worked with Chinese authorities on the case, as they cooperate to fight criminal syndicates trafficking ice to Australia and internationally. The arrests come after 14 suspected members of an international drug ring — eight Chinese and six Malaysians — were charged in May over a A$200 million seizure of ice.
UNITED STATES
Lawmaker urges ‘step back’
Several lawmakers accused Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government of human rights abuses and aggression toward its neighbors, calling for maintaining a tough line with Moscow. The exception was Representative Dana Rohrabacher. The Californian urged both Russia and the US to “take a deep breath and take a step back.” The 69-year-old, self-described “surfer Republican” has long been a lone pro-Russian voice on Capitol Hill, defending Putin and urging dialogue with the Kremlin. In spring, Rohrabacher’s position drew support from Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, who advocates giving relations with Moscow another chance. A former speechwriter for former president Ronald Reagan, 14-term Rohrabacher takes pride in having worked to weaken “our major global enemy at that time, the Soviet Union.”
UNITED STATES
Juno to begin Jupiter orbit
A solar-powered spacecraft is spinning toward Jupiter for a close encounter with the biggest planet in the solar system. NASA’s Juno spacecraft late yesterday was to fire its rocket engine to slow itself down from a speed of 250,000kph and slip into orbit around Jupiter. Juno was put on autopilot days ago, so the critical move comes without any help from ground controllers. The spacecraft’s camera and other instruments were also turned off for the arrival, so there will not be any pictures of the moment Juno reaches its destination. Scientists have promised close-up views of Jupiter’s poles, clouds and auroras during the 20-month, US$1.1 billion mission. Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter. Galileo, which launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for 14 years.
UNITED STATES
Clinton camp seeks ‘trust’
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign is turning to powerful advocates, chief among them President Barack Obama, to vouch for the Democratic front-runner shadowed by an FBI investigation on the brink of her nomination. Clinton herself acknowledged that she has “work to do” to earn the trust of voters after nearly four decades in public life, as she faces Trump in the general election, and she has called in help from advocates to attest to what Senator Elizabeth Warren calls her “good heart.” Today, Obama is set to join Clinton at a campaign event in battleground North Carolina meant to personalize the “I trust Hillary” theme. “Trust” is on the lips of Democrats, because it is a remarkable vulnerability that persists for Clinton.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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