FRANCE
‘Vogue’ goes transgender
Vogue is to become the first local magazine to feature a transgender model on its cover, according the honor to Valentina Sampaio of Brazil in next month’s edition. Calling Sampaio the “glam standard-bearer of a cause that is on the march,” the magazine describes the 22-year-old as a “femme fatale,” who happened to be born a boy. “Beyond her evident physical qualities and her sparkling personality, [Sampaio] embodies ... a long and painful fight against being perceived as a ‘gender exile,’” editor-in-chief Emmanuelle Alt writes in her editor’s letter. A sultry Sampaio, bathed in dark purple and blue light, appears over the words “Transgender Beauty,” with a subtitle reading: “How they are shaking up the world.”
BELGIUM
Minister left immobile
A minister arrived by bike to a news conference to promote cycling on Tuesday, only to find it had been stolen when he left a half an hour later. Ben Weyts, minister of mobility for the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, unveiled a plan to invest 300 million euros (US$320 million) in cycle lanes as part of a wider program to promote alternative modes of transport. “We left the bike in racks at the station and locked it,” a spokesman for the minister said. “When we got back half an hour later, it was gone.” While the nation is obsessed with cycling as a sport, cars are the main method of commuting to work, leading to some of the worst road congestion in Europe. The minister had to call his driver to pick him up from the station in Halle, just south of Brussels, the spokesman said, and hoped police would discover the bicycle thief with the help of security-camera footage.
AUSTRIA
Cat found 950km from home
Six months after her cat ran away, a woman in the Netherlands is looking forward to a reunion — in a village 950km away. State broadcaster ORF reported that Pepper turned up in Aschbach-Markt, west of Vienna. She looked to be just another stray to the person who took her to a veterinarian, but an examination revealed that the well-traveled feline was microchipped, allowing veterinarian Katharina Zoechling to trace the owner and through photographs, establish that the cat was indeed hers. ORF said on Tuesday that the unnamed owner is planning a trip to the village to claim Pepper and while how the cat got there might never be known, one guess is she hitch-hiked — on the back of a truck.
UNITED STATES
Roach named Tom Brady
More than a week after the Falcons fell victim to the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, an Atlanta zoo has named a cockroach after New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Zoo Atlanta said on Facebook that it had a bet with Rhode Island’s Roger Williams Park Zoo that called for the loser to name a baby animal after the winning team’s star quarterback. Both zoos figured the loser would be pretty bitter about the game, so they agreed the animal in question would be a Madagascar hissing cockroach. The zoo introduced a whole family of cockroaches in a video on Monday, including a tiny Tom Brady. Qaurterback Brady and the New England Patriots came back from a 25-point deficit to defeat Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in overtime to win the team’s fifth Super Bowl title earlier this month.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in