AUSTRALIA
Lack of towels at nude swim
A towel shortage yesterday morning added an extra chill to a nude midwinter swim in Sandy Bay in Hobart, Tasmania. More than 1,000 people turned up at dawn to mark the winter solstice with a quick dip in the Derwent River as part of the Dark Mofo arts festival. The water temperature was a cool 14?C, but the air was 7?C. The event requires preregistration and supplies towels, but the unprecedented number of attendees meant that the towels quickly ran out.
VIETNAM
Official sacked over spill
The director of the Environment Protection Management Department has been fired for negligence over a toxic waste dump that killed tonnes of fish in a major crisis last year, according to officials and state media. Luong Duy Hanh is the latest official to be punished over the toxic leak, which was blamed on the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp plant, a unit of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Corp. State media yesterday reported that Hanh was sacked because he failed to properly oversee the steel plant project. He was blamed for not “consulting and supervising the implementation of the environmental protection unit during the construction and pilot operation” of the plant, according to the state-controlled Thanh Nien daily.
INDONESIA
Anti-terror laws tightened
The government has drafted a law allowing authorities to jail for up to 15 years citizens coming home after joining militant groups abroad, lawmakers said yesterday. “The new criminal code adopts the principle of universality, which means that wherever an Indonesian citizen commits a crime, they can be legally processed in Indonesia,” lawmaker Arsul Sani said.
The legislation is likely to be approved in September.
UNITED KINGDOM
No ‘sticking point’ in talks
There is no one sticking point in talks between Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, but a deal to support May’s minority government could take some time, her deputy said yesterday. “There’s no individual sticking point. Talks are progressing,” First Secretary of State Damian Green, who is effectively May’s deputy, told the BBC. “So we have a lot in common, but we are two different parties and so it will take some time to reach a deal.”
UNITED STATES
Castile footage released
The release of dashboard camera video of a black motorist’s fatal shooting by a Minnesota police officer is renewing the pain of the event for many people. Investigators on Tuesday released the video from police officer Jeronimo Yanez’s squad car. It was part of their investigation into 32-year-old Philando Castile’s death. The footage was made public just days after Yanez was acquitted in the case. Castile was shot in July last year in the St Paul, Minnesota, suburb of Falcon Heights after informing Yanez he had a gun. Minneapolis Urban League president Steven Belton said the video showed “a 21st century lynching.” Yanez testified that Castile ignored his commands not to pull out his gun and he feared for his life. The video does not show what happened inside the car.
ARGENTINA
Fernandez launches party
Former president Cristina Fernandez has returned to the nation’s political stage, launching a new party and promising to fight the economic policies of her conservative successor. The woman who governed Argentina from 2007 to 2015 told a rally in Buenos Aires on Tuesday that the party would be called Citizens Unity and would compete in October’s midterm elections. President Mauricio Macri was elected on a platform to clean up corruption and regenerate the economy with a pro-business government that would reverse some of the policies of left-leaning Fernandez.
HAITI
Sheeran to lead fundraising
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed former UN World Food Programme executive director Josette Sheeran as his special envoy for Haiti, with a mandate to raise money for a trust fund to help victims of a cholera outbreak that has afflicted more than 800,000 people. Guterres on Tuesday announced that Sheeran, who heads the Asia Society, would be “fully engaged” in fundraising for nation, which she visited for the World Food Programme and as US undersecretary of state. The UN is seeking US$400 million to aid affected communities and help eradicate cholera in the country, but as of late last month only US$2.67 million had been contributed to the fund.
UNITED STATES
Sapp to gift brain to science
Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp is donating his brain for medical research. Sapp on Tuesday announced on social media that his brain would go to the Concussion Legacy Foundation after his death. The 44-year-old said in a statement that he has started to feel the effects of the many hits he took during his 13-year NFL career. He said he has specifically become concerned about his memory. Sapp said he hopes his donation can help prevent concussions and permanent brain damage for future football players. Sapp played defensive tackle from 1995 to 2003 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
‘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