FRANCE
Paris on flooding alert
Parisians have been warned to stay away from the Seine as it continues to rise, flooding surrounding roads and causing disruption to the city’s transport network. As water levels on Wednesday touched 5.2m, the capital’s authorities said the river was expected to reach 6.1m by tomorrow. Quayside roads and tunnels have been closed and all river traffic, including cruise boats and water taxis, halted as vessels are unable to pass under the bridges. Houseboat residents have been advised to move out and city police head Michel Delpuech told residents to take extreme care near the water. Parisians were also warned they were more likely to come across members of the city’s rat population after the rising water swamped the rodents’ dens and forced them to seek drier shelters.
AUSTRALIA
National day rallies planned
Tens of thousands of people plan to mark Australia Day, today, with mass protests, demanding the date of the national holiday be changed given its links to colonization and the ill-treatment of Aborigines. Australia Day marks the date the British First Fleet sailed into Sydney Harbor in 1788 and declared the land unoccupied, despite encountering Aborigines, and established settlements. Aborigines have occupied the continent for about 50,000 years. “We expect at least 10,000 to 12,000 people, twice as many as last year, to come out and call for invasion day to be abolished,” said Raymond Weatherall, an organizer of a rally in Sydney. More than half of all Australians support changing the date of the national holiday, a poll by The Australia Institute think tank showed last week. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, under pressure from his conservative back bench and populist right-wing politicians, has said he supports celebrating Australia Day on Jan. 26.
UNITED KINGDOM
Doctors say fear for Assange
The ongoing six-year confinement of WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange in London’s Ecuadoran embassy is dangerous to his physical and mental health, new clinical assessments said. A pair of doctors reached the verdict after spending 20 hours over three days in October last year performing “a comprehensive physical and psychological evaluation” of Assange, the Guardian reported on Wednesday. “While the results of the evaluation are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, it is our professional opinion that his continued confinement is dangerous physically and mentally to him, and a clear infringement of his human right to healthcare,” they wrote in the newspaper.
UNITED STATES
Trump ready for interview
President Donald Trump said he is “looking forward” to being interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump told reporters on Wednesday he would be willing to answer questions under oath. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, but his probe has expanded to include potential misdeeds by those in Trump’s orbit and the president himself. Trump also said he does not recall asking then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe last year about whom he voted for in 2016. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for hours in the special counsel’s Russia investigation, the Department of Justice said, as prosecutors moved closer to a possible interview with Trump about whether he took steps to obstruct an FBI probe into contacts between Russia and his 2016 campaign.
‘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