MEXICO
Newspaper workers strike
Workers at one of the nation’s main national newspapers have gone on strike to demand better wages and conditions. Strikers on Friday hung a black-and-red flag on the gates of La Jornada in Mexico City. They locked the gates with a chain. One woman shouted: “For all they have done to the workers, strike!” La Jornada’s parent company issued a statement saying the strike had not been approved by 60 percent of its union workers and argued it “should be declared nonexistent.”
UNITED NATIONS
Ban Ki-moon to join Elders
Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is joining The Elders, the group of former world leaders founded by former South African president Nelson Mandela to promote peace, justice and human rights worldwide. Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan is chairman of The Elders. He said on Friday in announcing the appointment that Ban “will bring a unique and valuable perspective based on his record of global leadership and understanding of geopolitics.” Former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, deputy chair of the group, said Ban would take on issues that he championed as secretary-general — climate action, gender equality and action to combat poverty. Ban was secretary-general from 2007 through last year.
UNITED states
Man jailed for hacking CIA
A man has been sentenced to two years in prison in connection with a series of computer hacks that targeted former CIA director John Brennan and other government officials. Andrew Otto Boggs, 23, of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, earlier this year pleaded guilty to unauthorized computer access for his participation in the hacking group “Crackas with Attitude.” In 2015 and last year, the hackers gained access to personal online accounts of senior US government officials. Boggs was known online as “INCURSIO.” The sentence imposed on Friday by District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee in Alexandria matched that sought by prosecutors.
UNITED STATES
Bear invades bedroom
A huge crash jolted 11-year-old Zach Landis awake in his Anchorage home, but it soon became clear this was not an ordinary intruder or even his sisters playing a trick on him. A black bear had just broken through the garden-level window of Zach’s tiny bedroom and was whimpering like a scared dog in the room. The boy screamed, and the man-sized animal bolted out the window and disappeared. The boy scrambled over shattered glass and ran upstairs to tell his parents. His father called police after seeing the damage left behind. No one was hurt, just shaken up.
UNITED STATES
Officer on leave over video
A suburban Chicago police officer captured on video pinning a black teenager to the ground and threatening him for trespassing has been placed on leave. Lansing Mayor Patricia Eidam announced the move on Friday after meeting with the teen’s family. She also said the investigation into the incident, that happened on Saturday last week, would be turned over to an outside governmental agency. A highly viewed Facebook video shows the officer, who was off duty at the time, pinning the 15-year-old to the ground after he and a white minor, who recorded the video, refused his orders to stay off his property.
‘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