PHILIPPINES
Duterte signs Paris pact
President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change restricting greenhouse gas emissions, putting the deal one step closer to ratification in the country, a senator said yesterday. The agreement, which came into force on Nov. 4 last year, aims to transform the world’s fossil-fuel-driven economy within decades and slow the pace of a global temperature increase to “well below” 2?C. Manila has committed to reduce its emissions by 70 percent by 2030, but it will need technical and financial support to achieve it.
VIETNAM
Vietnam slams fishing ban
Vietnam has slammed a fishing ban China has imposed in parts of the disputed South China Sea, saying it violates Vietnamese sovereignty and further complicates the tense situation in the troubled waters. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture on Monday issued a seasonal fishing ban in parts of the South China Sea, including waters near the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) claimed by Vietnam, but occupied by China. Taiwan also lays claim to the island. Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Hai Binh said China’s unilateral action seriously violates Vietnam’s sovereignty and goes against international law.
Nicaragua
Exorcism victim dies
Officials say a 25-year-old woman died after being thrown into a fire to drive “demons” from her body. The woman, Vilma Trujillo Garcia, suffered burns over 80 percent of her body. Vice President Rosario Murillo called her death “regrettable.” Prosecutors say evangelical pastor Juan Gregorio Rocha Romero and four other people have been arrested in her death. Rocha Romero told the newspaper La Prensa that the woman fell into the fire and a demon exited her body. The victims’ husband, Reynaldo Peralta Rodriguez, said the mother of two was taken inside a church last week when members thought she was possessed after allegedly trying to attack people with a machete.
SYRIA
Al-Quaeda deputy may be dead
The US government is investigating whether al-Qaeda’s No. 2 has been killed in Syria, an official said on Tuesday, amid reports of a US strike in or around Idlib. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that agencies were working to confirm whether Abu Khayr al-Masri is dead, in what would be a major counterterrorism coup. Masri was a son-in-law of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and was believed to be deputy to the group’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
UNITED STATES
Obamas sign book deal
Penguin Random House has landed a deal to publish two forthcoming books by former US president Barack Obama and the former first lady, Michelle Obama, with one volume to be written by each, the publishing company said on Tuesday. Terms of the agreement, in which the publishing house acquired worldwide publication rights for the two books, were not disclosed, but in keeping with their past practice, the Obamas plan to donate a “significant portion of their author proceeds to charity,” including the Obama Foundation, the publisher said in a statement announcing the deal. The deal followed a heated auction for global rights to the two books with bidding that reached more than US$60 million, a record sum for US presidential memoirs, the Financial Times reported.
‘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