UNITED STATES
Pipeline nearing approval
The Dakota Access pipeline is in the final process of getting approvals to complete construction across the Missouri River, North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said. The acting secretary of the army has directed the army corps of engineers to proceed with an easement necessary to finish the pipeline, said Don Canton, spokesman for Hoeven. The easement “isn’t quite issued yet, but they plan to approve it” within days, he added. Jan Hasselman, a lawyer representing the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, cautioned in an e-mail that the battle was not over. “People are jumping the gun, no easement has been issued,” he said, adding that he had confirmed that with the Department of Justice.
WEST BANK
Officers brace for eviction
Israeli forces and West Bank settlers yesterday braced for the looming evacuation of an outpost slated for destruction. The military issued eviction orders the day before telling residents to evacuate Amona within 48 hours and blocked roads leading to the outpost. It was unclear when that deadline expires. Thousands of soldiers and police gathered around Amona early yesterday morning. A few dozen settlers set fire to tires at the entrance to the outpost and threw stones at Israeli forces. The Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that Amona was built on private Palestinian land and must be demolished.
UNITED STATES
Vitiello to lead border patrol
A career border patrol official who was backed by the agents’ union was on Tuesday named chief of the agency, less than a week after his predecessor resigned under pressure. Customs and Border Protection said Ronald Vitiello was appointed to lead the agency at a time when President Donald Trump has pledged to erect a wall on the nation’s border with Mexico and add 5,000 agents from the current 20,000. The National Border Patrol Council — an early and outspoken backer of Trump’s presidential bid — openly supported Vitiello for the job and pushed for the ouster of his predecessor, Mark Morgan, who resigned on Thursday last week at the request of the new administration.
AUSTRALIA
PM not clear on US pledge
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday would not say how many refugees from Pacific island camps would be resettled in the US after President Donald Trump’s administration said “extreme vetting” would be used to check their cases. Turnbull said that Trump had agreed during a weekend telephone conversation to keep a promise by the former US administration to resettle an undisclosed number of mostly Muslim refugees. Canberra has refused to accept them and instead pays for them to be housed in the impoverished nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
AFGHANISTAN
Fatalities soar: US report
The death rate among Afghan security forces soared last year, as the Kabul government’s overall control of the nation dropped significantly, a report by the US government’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said yesterday. The report said that 6,785 Afghan soldiers and police officers were killed between Jan. 1 and Nov. 12 last year, with another 11,777 wounded. That is an increase of about 35 percent from all of 2015, when about 5,000 security forces were killed. Afghan police and army units took over from NATO the task of providing security for the nation in 2015.
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