CHINA
China lifts US beef ban
China has removed an almost 13-year-old ban on some US beef products, its quality inspection regulator said yesterday. A ban on imports of “American bone-in beef and boneless beef for cattle under 30 months” has been lifted immediately, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said, according to a document posted on its official Web site. China stopped most beef imports from the US more than a decade ago after mad cow disease was found in Washington state in December 2003. China is already the world’s largest consumer of pork and demand for beef is surging as its burgeoning middle class adds more meat to its diet.
UNITED STATES
Disney pulls ‘Moana’ costume
Disney on Wednesday said it would no longer sell a boy’s costume for a Polynesian character that some Pacific Islanders have compared to blackface. The getup depicts Maui — a revered figure in Polynesian oral traditions and viewed by some Pacific Islanders as an ancestor — who is a character in the upcoming animated movie Moana. It has a long-sleeve brown shirt and long pants featuring full-body tattoos. It comes with a fake shark-tooth necklace and green-leaf “skirt.” Disney’s online store had offered boy’s pajamas and a men’s T-shirt in a similar design, but those products were no longer available on Wednesday. “The team behind Moana has taken great care to respect the cultures of the Pacific Islands that inspired the film, and we regret that the Maui costume has offended some,” the company said in a statement. “We sincerely apologize and are pulling the costume from our Web site and stores.” Chelsie Haunani Fairchild said it is off-putting to have a child wear the skin of another race. “Polyface is Disney’s new version of blackface,” Fairchild said in a video she posted on Facebook.
UNITED STATES
Police pepper-spray girl
Police pepper-sprayed a 15-year-old girl and charged her as a juvenile with assault and disorderly conduct after her bicycle hit a car, prompting disagreement on Wednesday about whether the officers acted properly. Hagerstown Police captain Paul Kifer said the officer who arrested the girl had to subdue her with chemical spray to get her into a cruiser for a ride to the police station on Sunday. Kifer said the girl had refused to cooperate with police trying to question her about the accident and find a parent to authorize her refusal to receive medical treatment from paramedics on the scene. “At that point, as would be even with an adult, if you’re refusing to give us information on a traffic situation, at that point you can be arrested until we determine who you are,” he said. Kifer said investigators determined that the girl caused the accident. She is also charged with failure to obey a traffic device and marijuana possession.
UNITED STATES
Tussauds splits Brangelina
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s split is a literal one at several Madame Tussauds wax museums. A spokeswoman for the wax museum in London says they wanted to mirror Jolie and Pitt’s separation, which came to light on Tuesday. She says the wax figures “are now featured at a respectful distance from each other.” Jolie’s figure has been placed near one of Nicole Kidman. Pitt’s is hanging out with the figure of his co-star in several films, Morgan Freeman. The couple will also be split up at Madame Tussauds’ museums in the US. Madame Tussauds says figures of Jolie and Pitt are on display at 15 of its 20 locations across the globe.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of