UNITED KINGDOM
Merkel pushes Brexit talks
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday urged Britain to quickly launch Brexit talks with the EU after Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a harsh election setback. “We are ready for the negotiations. We want to do it quickly, respecting the calendar,” Merkel said during a visit to Mexico. “We were waiting for the election in Britain, but in the next few days, these talks will begin. We will defend the interests of the 27 member states, and Britain will defend its own interests,” she told a news conference. “At the same time, we say that we want to remain a good partner to Britain. Britain is part of Europe, even if it will no longer be part of the European Union.”
UNITED STATES
Senator uses salty slogans
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Friday used salty language to express her frustration with Washington politics. “If we are not helping people, we should go the fuck home,” the Democrat declared in a speech to activists. “And that should be our North Star. That should be our framing principle of what we are doing in public service.” It is rare for members of Congress to swear in public, but it is not the first time for Gillibrand. The 50-year-old New Yorker cursed several times in her 2014 book and used the f-word in a recent magazine interview. She faces re-election for her Senate seat next year and is also among several Democrats who could run for president in 2020. Gillibrand’s fiery language prompted cheers and applause from those gathered for the Personal Democracy Forum, a New York City conference of political activists and technology enthusiasts. She also lashed out at President Donald Trump for failing to follow through on promises to improve healthcare and the tax system for working families. “Has he kept any of his promises?” she asked. “No. Fuck no.”
VENEZUELA
Opposition files new cases
Opposition lawmakers on Friday filed fresh court cases against planned crisis reforms, raising pressure on the government in a deadly political struggle after a similar challenge by a senior official. The opposition filed a case with prosecutors alleging that the government, judges and electoral officials were conspiring “to violently change the constitution,” lawmaker Tomas Guanipa said. The move came after Attorney General Luisa Ortega on Thursday mounted a separate challenge in the Supreme Court against President Nicolas Maduro’s efforts to rewrite the constitution. Various opponents of Maduro also went to the court on Friday to try to add their names to the list of plaintiffs in that lawsuit, but found the tribunal closed and blocked by riot police vans.
IRAN
Seven arrested for attacks
State television is reporting that authorities have arrested seven suspects for supporting the Islamic State-claimed dual attacks that killed 17 people in Tehran. The state TV’s Web site iribnews.com quotes Alborz Province Chief Justice Ahmad Fazelian as saying: “These agents who were supporters of the two terrorist groups and had full coordination with them were arrested and they were delivered to Tehran’s judicial and security authorities.” The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for dual attacks on Wednesday on Iran’s parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Iranian authorities on Thursday said the assailants were Iranian nationals and they have arrested six suspects, including one woman, since the attacks. More than 40 people were wounded in the attack.
‘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