UNITED STATES
Storms batter Phoenix
Strong storm systems in Phoenix have caused major power outages, flooded part of a major highway and prompted air traffic controllers to divert some flights bound for Phoenix. The Arizona Republic reported that nearly 6,000 households on Saturday night lost power in the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It was not immediately clear when power would be restored. The Arizona Department of Transportation said that some lanes of eastbound Interstate 10 had been flooded. Transportation officials advised drivers to slow down or avoid driving altogether. The storms also prompted air traffic controllers to divert some flights bound for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to airports in Mesa, Tucson and Las Vegas. A US National Weather Service meteorologist said more storm systems were expected yesterday.
PUERTO RICO
Zoo struggles for funds
The economic crisis afflicting the nation for the past decade has also taken a toll on the island’s only zoo, with critics saying it is sorely understaffed and struggling to care for its animals on a limited budget. Conditions at Dr Juan A. Rivero Zoo, an 18-hectare zoo with more than 300 species in the town of Mayaguez, have deteriorated so far as to catch the attention of the US Department of Agriculture, which cited dozens of violations at the park in its most recent report from this spring. They included a distressed cougar housed in a tiny enclosure; a lack of working fans for camels and deer exposed to tropical heat; expired food and medicines and a tiger that inspectors said was underweight.
UNITED STATES
Actor Martin Landau dies
Martin Landau, a star of the 1960s TV series Mission: Impossible who made a late-career comeback with an Academy Award-winning performance in the 1994 film Ed Wood, died on Saturday aged 89, his publicist said on Sunday. Landau died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles from unexpected complications during a short hospitalization for an undisclosed illness, publicist Dick Guttman said in a statement. Landau won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of horror movie star Bela Lugosi in the Tim Burton film Ed Wood. He had been nominated for an Academy Award twice before, first for his performance in Francis Coppola’s Tucker and again for Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors.
SPAIN
Rollercoaster crashes
Thirty-three people on Sunday suffered minor injuries in a collision between two trains on a rollercoaster at one of the nation’s oldest theme parks, emergency services said. The accident at the Parque de Atracciones in Madrid happened as one train that had just completed the loop failed to stop, hitting the back of another train that was about to leave the station, an emergency services spokesman said. Of the 33 people who were injured, 27 were taken to hospital for evaluation, the spokesman said, addign that the injuries were mainly bruising and shock. The rollercoaster, the Mine Train, reaches a height of 17.5m and travels 450m through waterfalls at a maximum speed of 55kph, according to the theme park’s Web site. It is the first family rollercoaster in the nation to incorporate the use of virtual reality glasses, according to the Web site.
CHINA
Two killed in Walmart attack
A man armed with a kitchen knife killed two people and wounded nine in a Walmart supermarket on Sunday night in the southern city of Shenzhen, state media reported. The 30-year-old suspect was detained following the attack in the outlet in the city’s Bao’an District, Xinhua news agency said, citing local police. Knife attacks are not uncommon in China. In May, a man believed to be suffering mental health problems killed two people and injured 18 in a rampage in southwest Guizhou Province, while in January, a man armed with a kitchen knife stabbed 11 children at a kindergarten in the southern Guangxi region. Violent crime has been on the rise in China as the nation’s economy has boomed and the gap between rich and poor has expanded rapidly. Studies have also described a rise in the prevalence of mental disorders, some of them linked to stress as the pace of life becomes faster and support systems wither.
CYBERSECURITY
UAE hacked Qatar: report
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) orchestrated the hacking of a Qatari government news Web site, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. It said the nation planted a false story that sparked the crisis between Qatar and several Arab countries. The report was quickly decried as false by the Emirati Embassy in Washington. The Post cites unnamed US intelligence officials as saying that senior members of the Emirati government discussed the hacking plan on May 23. A day later, a story on the Qatari News Agency’s Web site quoted a speech by Qatar’s emir in which he allegedly praised Iran and Israel. The agency claimed it had been hacked, but Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Arab nations blocked Qatari media and later severed diplomatic ties.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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