UNITED STATES
‘Ark’ preserves rare plants
Seeds from hundreds of rare plant species around New England are being collected and frozen inside a “seed ark” for future use, and to keep the plants from becoming extinct. Inside the freezer at a botanical garden near Boston are tightly sealed packages containing an estimated 6 million seeds collected from hundreds of rare and obscure species. It is a way of preserving the genetic material of plants that could die out because of natural disasters, climate change or even simply being trampled afoot by unsuspecting hikers. The New England Wild Flower Society is heading the project in Framingham, Massachusetts.
UNITED STATES
Protesters back immigrants
Thousands of people on Sunday took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest US President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind a program that deferred deportations of immigrants who had arrived illegally as children. “No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA,” demonstrators chanted as they gathered in a park before marching through a Latino neighborhood in the California metropolis. Trump, in a decision hostile to undocumented immigrants, recently abrogated an order issued by his predecessor, former US president Barack Obama, that protected about 800,000 young people by granting them temporary legal status as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program.
UNITED STATES
Eight killed in shooting
At least eight people are dead, including the suspect, after a shooting at a home in Plano, Texas, authorities in North Texas said on Sunday night. The shooting occurred at about 8pm in the city less than 32km northeast of Dallas. Plano police spokesman David Tilley said police initially responded to a report of shots fired. When the first officer arrived and went inside the home, the officer confronted the suspected shooter. The officer opened fire, Tilley said, killing the suspect. Two others were injured in the shooting.
UNITED STATES
McCarthy wins Emmy
Melissa McCarthy won an Emmy on Sunday for her spoofs of former White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live in TV sketches that went viral. With slicked back hair and wearing ill-fitting suits, McCarthy played Spicer, whom she dubbed Spicey, as an enraged man who attacks the media, craves the praise of his boss and rides a motorized speaker’s podium. McCarthy on Sunday was named best guest actress in a comedy series for her impressions. The star of Bridesmaids and Mike & Molly was not at the ceremony in Los Angeles to accept the award.
UNITED STATES
Bannon opposed FBI firing
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said the firing of former FBI director James Comey might have been the biggest mistake in “modern political history.” Bannon said he opposed US President Donald Trump’s decision to oust Comey, calling the FBI “an institution.” Bannon told CBS that institutions such as the US Senate and House of Representatives can be changed “if the leadership is changed.” However, he also said the FBI is different. “I don’t believe that the institutional logic of the FBI, and particularly in regards to an investigation, could possibly be changed by changing the head of it,” Bannon said. The ousted White House adviser also said that if Comey had not been fired, “We would not have the Mueller investigation,” referring to special counsel Robert Mueller.
BANGLADESH
Land offered to Rohingya
The government said it has offered a plot of land for a new camp to shelter Rohingya Muslims who have fled recent violence in Myanmar. The violence has driven nearly 300,000 Rohingya to flee Buddhist-majority Myanmar, with many of them packed into existing camps or huddled in makeshift settlements that have mushroomed along roadsides and in open fields across Cox’s Bazar District on the border. State Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Shahriar Alam said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had 0.8 hectares near the existing camp of Kutupalong “to build temporary shelters for the Rohingya newcomers,” a Facebook message said yesterday.
INDIA
Soldiers kill Kashmiri rebels
Government forces yesterday killed two suspected rebels and captured one in Kashmir during a brief gunbattle, sparking protests by civilians, police said. Soldiers and special counterinsurgency police forces surrounded a neighborhood in Khudwani, a village in the south of Indian-administered Kashmir, after a tip-off about the presence of militants. Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of residents who took to the streets in support of the slain militants and threw stones at government forces. Both belonged to the region’s largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, police said.
AUSTRALIA
PM defends baby and beer pic
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday brushed off criticism of a photograph of him nursing a beer while holding his granddaughter as online “craziness.” Turnbull posted the image he labeled “multitasking” on Facebook at the weekend as he watched an Australian rules football game in Sydney. It showed him kissing the forehead of baby Alice while holding the drink, drawing the ire of some social media users. “Disgraceful holding a child with alcohol in hand,” wrote Marg Walker, while another called him “irresponsible.” Turnbull said the backlash was only from a minority. “I think it’s in the sort of craziness of social media that you see things like that,” he said.
JAPAN
PM urges stronger defense
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday called for a boost to the country’s defenses in the face of North Korean threats, warning that Tokyo needs to be able to protect itself. The call is a common refrain from the nationalist leader, who has long advocated a stiffening of the nation’s military posture, despite its officially pacifist constitution. In a speech to senior Self-Defense Forces officers Abe said: “No one else will protect you if you don’t have the mindset of protecting yourself. We have to take all appropriate measures against [incidents such as] North Korea’s missile launch over Japan.”
ZIMBABWE
Mugabe may name successor
President Robert Mugabe on Saturday said that he may name a preferred candidate to replace him as a bitter succession battle between his wife and the vice-president grinds on. However, the 93-year-old liberation-leader-turned autocrat ruled out simply appointing his favored figure and said his ruling ZANU-PF party must make the final decision. The president’s wife Grace Mugabe and vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa have been locked in an increasingly acrimonious fight over who will take power when Mugabe dies. “I can have my own candidate, but that person must fight it out with other candidates at the congress,” Mugabe said.
‘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