UNITED NATIONS
Warning over intolerance
The rise of populism has triggered an increase in anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim hatred and other forms of intolerance, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday. He told several hundred people, including Holocaust survivors, at an annual commemoration of the Holocaust that “a ‘new normal’ of public discourse is taking hold, in which prejudice is given a free pass and the door is opened to even more extreme hatred.” Guterres said people like him who grew up after World War II never imagined they would see rising attacks on Jews in Europe, but “anti-Semitism is alive and kicking… Irrationality and intolerance are back.’’
ITALY
Refugees rescued from sea
About 1,000 people were rescued from unseaworthy vessels in the Mediterranean on Friday, while one dead body was recovered, the coast guard said in a statement. The refugees, who were found aboard six inflatable and three wooden boats, were rescued in operations throughout the day, notably by two coast guard ships. The body was found on one of the inflatable boats.
CANADA
Abortion funding mulled
The government is considering contributing to a Dutch-led international fund to support abortion services in developing countries, set up in response to US President Donald Trump’s order to halt financing of nongovernmental organizations that support the practice. A spokesman for International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said that Bibeau had spoken with her Dutch counterpart about the fund, and was considering donating an unspecified sum to it or a similar measure that would support “sexual reproductive rights, including abortion” abroad. “Sexual health and reproductive rights will be at the heart of Canada’s new international assistance policy,” spokesman Louis Belanger said in an e-mail.
UNITED KINGDOM
George III papers online
An enormous cache of historical documents from the royal archives detailing the reign of King George III went online yesterday as part of the royal family’s effort to rehabilitate the legacy of the monarch widely regarded as having been insane. The monarch is often referred to as “mad King George.” He was the nation’s longest-reigning king, ruling from 1760 to 1820, but he suffered from a rare inherited blood disorder, porphyria, which comes with symptoms including insomnia, high blood pressure, sensitivity to sunlight and confusion, which during his lifetime were seen as signs of insanity. The portal is part of a five-year project to digitalize 350,000 documents in the archives’ collection of Georgian papers.
FRANCE
Soda refills banned
The government on Friday said no restaurants can offer free refills of sodas and other sugary drinks. The new regulation is the latest attempt to tackle what the government called a relentless rise in the national obesity rate. Fast-food restaurants are expected to be targeted under the new law. The new law, which takes effect immediately, said it aimed to “limit, especially among the young,” the risks of obesity and diabetes. However, the new law has divided the French, who consume fewer soft drinks per capita than residents of most other countries. “Each person has to take responsibility,” a 21-year-old man told Le Parisien newspaper. Restaurants “might as well put scales in front of each fast-food joint.”
PHILIPPINES
Abu Sayyaf leader wounded
A top leader of the Abu Sayyaf who is on the US’ list of “Most Wanted Terrorists” has been wounded in military airstrikes, Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday. Isnilon Hapilon, 50, was indicted in Washington for his involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans in the Philippines and has a US$5 million bounty on his head. Lorenzana said Hapilon was “seriously wounded” in military airstrikes on Wednesday in the mountain town of Butig. “As of [yesterday, Hapilon] is still being carried by four men in a makeshift stretcher moving northeast of Butig,” Lorenzana said. “Troops are in hot pursuit supported by ground artillery and air support.”
CHINA
Wingsuit jumper dies
A Canadian man has died after attempting a wingsuit jump, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, the latest fatality in the extreme sport that involves leaping from a plane or mountain while wearing a bodysuit with wings. The body of Graham Dickinson, 28, was found on Thursday on a cliff in the Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park in Hunan Province, the report said. Dickinson, who finished third in last year’s World Wingsuit League China Grand Prix at Tianmen Mountain, had been given permission to train in the area earlier this month. He was reported missing on Wednesday after he failed to return from a jump, the World Wingsuit League said on Facebook.
JAPAN
Artist targets Trump talk
Graffiti artist “281 Antinuke” said his latest street art — politically charged stickers plastered around central Tokyo — takes aim at US President Donald Trump. The artist pastes stickers dealing with social issues to lamp posts and walls to attract the attention of passersby. His latest postings target the controversial remarks made by Trump about women and minorities during his presidential campaign. The stickers show a figure resembling Trump standing between figures in white capes, which symbolize members of the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan, 281 Antinuke said. Trump “is saying white supremacist things, things that are much more than America first,” the artist said.
THAILAND
Royal impostors busted
A gang of con artists, led by a monk, have been arrested after masquerading as palace officials to dupe couples into paying for bogus royal visits to their weddings, police said yesterday. The three women and five men, including a monk who allegedly ran the racket, were detained on fraud charges after operating the scam for several years, reportedly raking in more than US$500,000. “The monk and his people asked some couples to pay money for special ‘high-up’ [royal] individuals to attend their weddings,” regional police commander Colonel Pumin Pumpunmuang said.
PERU
Protesters deface statue
A replica of Rio de Janeiro’s famed Christ statue donated by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht has been vandalized to protest a massive bribery scandal involving the firm. The 21m statue overlooking Lima was inaugurated in 2011 by then-president Alan Garcia. This week, vandals sprayed slogans on the statue reading “Alan is Guilty” and “Odebrecht Get Out.” Odebrecht last month admitted in a plea agreement with the US Justice Department that it bribed officials to the tune of almost US$800 million to win business in 12 countries, including US$29 million in Peru since 2000.
‘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