SPAIN
‘Queen of Chess’ quits
The world’s top female chess player has given up her last game to protest being paired against mostly female players at a major tournament where male contestants outnumbered them. The dramatic loss of Chinese grandmaster and world champion Hou Yifan (侯逸凡) came only five moves into the final round of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival against opponent Babu Lalith of India. Hou later apologized to fans in a video on the event’s Web site, but said she was upset by the “unbelievable and weird pairings” after playing against seven women in 10 rounds. “I think it’s unfair, not only for me, but for the other women players,” the 22 year-old player often referred as the “Queen of Chess” said.
UNITED STATES
Girl shot brother: police
Police said that a 14-year-old Ohio girl told them she fatally shot her 15-year-old brother after they fought over a video-game system and he repeatedly hit her in the face. A Lucas County Juvenile Court judge on Wednesday found sufficient probable cause to charge the girl with murder in the December shooting death of her brother. The Associated Press generally does not identify juveniles charged with crimes. Toledo police Detective Jeff Clark testified the girl told him that her brother hit her in the face so many times before the shooting that it felt like she was being hit with a baseball bat. Prosecutors have filed a motion to transfer the case to adult court. A hearing next month will be held to determine whether the girl should be tried as an adult.
UNITED STATES
Lawmaker fired as server
A Rhode Island state legislator has been fired from her job as a waitress because her employer says she was promoting her political views to patrons. Classic Cafe owner Raymond Burns said he warned Providence Democratic state Representative Moira Walsh that her “vocal political discussions” during her shift were interfering with her work. He said that a scathing online review was the final straw. Walsh said the negative review complained about her political beliefs, not her service. The review discouraged men from patronizing the Providence breakfast spot because of what it described as “anti-male” views she had expressed on the radio and social media.
UNITED STATES
Taller fence for White House
The National Capital Planning Commission has approved the design of a taller, stronger fence around the White House. The Secret Service said that Thursday’s approval means the agency could move forward with contracting to build the new fence. The changes were proposed after a series of people managed to scale the 2.1m barrier. In the most serious security breach, a man got over the fence in 2014 and ran deep inside the White House while carrying a folding knife before he was caught. The new metal fence will be 3.5m tall and will have “anti-climb and intrusion detection technology,” the agency said. Construction is expected to begin next year.
FRANCE
Louvre attacker detained
Police cordoned off Paris’ Louvre museum after a soldier fired five shots at an assailant armed with a machete. The attacker was alive and has been taken into custody. The attack happened after 10am in the staircase of the museum that connects an underground shopping mall with the museum’s courtyard, the Paris Prefecture’s Michel Cadot told a news conference. The attacker cried Allah Akbar, Cadot said. He carried a bag, but it did not contain explosives.
‘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