UNITED KINGDOM
Floods force evacuations
Dozens of homes have been evacuated on the south coast of Cornwall as flash floods swept through Cornwall and Devon after violent thunderstorms on Tuesday afternoon. “It literally just came over like a massive mist,” Karla Wainwright told BBC News, adding that hailstones smashed small panes of glass on the Paris Hotel where she works in the village of Coverack. Some residents had to be airlifted to safety as the flood waters washed into homes and both roads to the village were swamped. No injuries have been reported. Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said its crews responded to “multiple flooding-related incidents” in the Coverack area.
UNITED STATES
Teen sentenced for stabbing
A Connecticut teenager who fatally stabbed a man outside a fast-food restaurant during a dispute over spilled coffee has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Stamford Advocate reported that 17-year-old Marquest Hall was sentenced on Tuesday by a judge who called the March 2015 killing of 52-year-old Antonio Muralles “brutal, senseless and totally unnecessary.” Hall pleaded guilty in March to first-degree manslaughter. He will be eligible for parole in 12 years. Prosecutors say Muralles had just left a Stamford McDonald’s with a coffee when he inadvertently bumped into Hall and a friend and spilled some coffee on them. Hall was 15 at the time, but was charged as an adult. Hall did not speak at sentencing, but his lawyer says he is remorseful.
UNITED STATES
Man hammers raccoon
A Pennsylvania man says he was attacked by a raccoon as he worked on his car outside his home, and killed the animal with the only weapon he had: a hammer. Dan Waldenville told the Tribune Review that he was underneath his Jeep on Monday when the seemingly rabid raccoon ran up and bit him on the head. Patrolman John Carilli says he arrived to shoot the animal, only to see the hammer-wielding Waldenville in a standoff with it. The officer says the creature stood up on two legs to charge Waldenville, who whacked it about three times until it fell dead. Waldenville says he felt compelled to kill the raccoon when he saw it heading for his neighbor’s, where small children live. He is undergoing treatment for rabies, though the animal’s remains are still being tested.
UNITED STATES
Police round up buffalo
A herd of buffalo went running through the New Hampshire town of Gilford on Tuesday, forcing local police to play cowboy in rounding them up, while requesting that drivers not blow their car horns or try to approach the animals. The buffalo got loose from Bolduc Farm, whose owner, Robert Bolduc said the herd might have been startled by some construction work and found a weak spot in the farm’s fencing. Nine of the buffalo had been retrieved, but police were still looking for a mother and two yearlings.
MEXICO
Audit finds teachers absent
An audit of the nation’s teaching payroll found more than 44,000 teachers who were getting paid, but not in the classroom, Minister of Public Education Aurelio Nuno said on Tuesday. More than 17,000 of those teachers were allegedly diverted into union work and still receiving pay without teaching, while nearly 15,000 others who were in administrative positions have been sent back to classrooms, he said. The audit also found that more than 1,300 teachers who had been fired were still being paid.
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
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