UNITED STATES
Trump passes mental test
The cognitive test on which President Donald Trump received a perfect score is considered a good screening tool for mental decline in an otherwise healthy person, medical experts said. Trump asked to be administered a mental test and was given the Montreal Cognitive Assessment as part of a medical exam by Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, who on Tuesday said he had absolutely no concerns about Trump’s neurological function. Trump scored 30 out of 30. “It’s a screening assessment that we use routinely in the clinics to determine whether someone has some degree of cognitive impairment or not,” he said. “If they score poorly on that assessment, then usually there is more detailed evaluation that follows, but if they score well that usually indicates there is pretty good cognitive function. They are essentially intact.”
UNITED STATES
Drunk droning outlawed
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Monday signed a law making it illegal to fly an uncrewed aerial vehicle after too many drinks, a spokesman said on the Republican’s last day in office. The law prohibits flying a drone with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or higher, the same as for driving a vehicle, or while drugged. Violators face up to six months in jail, a US$1,000 fine or both.
MEXICO
Dinosaur tail to be auctioned
A fossilized dinosaur tail discovered in Morocco is to be auctioned on Tuesday night to raise funds for the reconstruction of thousands of schools damaged by two earthquakes that struck the Latin American nation in September last year. The 4m, 180kg tail is to be offered at a reserve price of 1.8 million pesos (US$95,805), according to organizer Morton’s Auction House. Anything raised above the reserve price is to be donated to the BBVA Bancomer Foundation to help finance the reconstruction of about 5,000 damaged schools.
UNITED KINGDOM
France to lend tapestry
France is set to lend Britain the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th century treasure that tells the tale of how William the Conqueror came to invade England in 1066, several national British media reported yesterday. French President Emmanuel Macron, who is due in Britain today for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May, is due to make the announcement during his visit, according to the Times and Guardian newspapers. The tapestry, whose precise origins are obscure and which has never left France in its nearly 950-year history, is on display in the town of Bayeux, in the northwestern French region of Normandy.
CHINA
Reporter says wife abducted
A Chinese-American journalist who extensively interviewed the exiled businessman Guo Wengui (郭文貴) has said that his wife has been kidnapped and held for months by Chinese security forces. Chen Xiaoping (陳小平), a New York-based editor at Chinese-language Media Mirror Group, told The Associated Press that a new video that surfaced this week of his wife denouncing his work was filmed under duress and proves that she is being held captive by the government. An anonymous YouTube account believed to be linked to Chinese security agencies on Monday uploaded a video of Li Huaiping (李懷平) asking her husband to stop searching for her. Li disappeared from southern China in September last year.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of