UNITED STATES
Comey talks Clinton probe
Former FBI director James Comey said his belief that former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton would be elected president in 2016 “was a factor” in his handling of the probe into her misuse of a private e-mail server while she was in office. Comey, who was last year fired by President Donald Trump, told ABC that a desire to ensure Clinton’s victory was seen as legitimate played a role in his decision to announce the FBI would reopen the investigation, made 11 days before the election. “I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been, because I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, and so I’m sure that it was a factor,” he said in the interview.
FRANCE
Protests turn violent
Authorities say 63 people have been arrested and nine police officers injured as protests took place in two cities amid simmering anger at President Emmanuel Macron’s labor law changes. Minister of the Interior Gerard Collomb denounced the violence and damage to stores and public buildings at the edges of Saturday’s protests in Nantes in the west and Montpellier in the south. Collomb called for calm as another protest was planned yesterday at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Other protests on Saturday were largely peaceful. Train workers were marching during on-and-off strikes over Macron’s railway labor reform plan, disrupting traffic nationwide.
UNITED STATES
Gun rights supporters rally
Gun rights supporters — many carrying rifles and ammunition — on Saturday gathered at state capitols across the country to push back against efforts to pass stricter gun control laws that they fear threaten their constitutional right to bear arms. From Delaware to Wyoming, hundreds gathered at peaceful protests to listen to speakers who said that any restrictions on gun ownership or use eventually could lead to a ban on gun ownership, which is guaranteed under the Second Amendment.
UNITED STATES
Rights lawyer burns self
A well-known gay rights lawyer and environmental advocate has burned himself to death in a grisly protest against ecological destruction. Police say the charred remains of 60-year-old David Buckel were found early on Saturday in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. The Daily News reported that Buckel left a suicide note saying he had used fossil fuel to burn himself as a metaphor for the destruction of the planet. He added that he hoped his death was “honorable” and “might serve others.” Buckel was the lead attorney in a lawsuit involving Brandon Teena, a transgender man who was murdered in Nebraska.
MONTENEGRO
Voters head to polls
Voters yesterday cast ballots in a presidential election, with former prime minister Milo Djukanovic expected to win after his party defied Russia and took the small Balkan nation into NATO last year. The vote was the first since the country joined the Western military alliance in December last year. It is seen as a test for Djukanovic, who favors European integration over closer ties to traditional ally Moscow. Djukanovic, the country’s dominant politician, and his Democratic Party of Socialists have ruled the country for nearly 30 years. President Filip Vujanovic was not running due to term limits.
‘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