UNITED STATES
Philip Roth dies aged 85
Philip Roth, a prize-winning novelist and fearless narrator of sex, death, assimilation and fate, has died. The celebrated and controversial author of Portnoy’s Complaint, The Counterlife and other novels was 85. His death was confirmed by his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who said Roth died on Tuesday night of congestive heart failure. Roth won virtually every literary honor, including the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. Author of more than 25 books, Roth was a fierce satirist and uncompromising realist, confronting readers in a bold, direct style that scorned false sentiment or hopes for heavenly reward.
CHILE
Rancagua priests suspended
The Catholic Church in Rancagua on Tuesday suspended 14 priests while they are investigated for “improper conduct,” a development that could deepen the crisis the church is facing over sexual abuse charges. The suspensions were announced after a meeting of 68 priests of the diocese of Rancagua, which is located to the south of capital, Santiago. “Precautionary measures have been adopted,” Rancagua vicar general Gabriel Becerra told reporters. Earlier on Tuesday the Vatican said Pope Francis would host a second group of victims of sexual abuse in the country, days after the nation’s bishops all offered to resign over the scandal. Earlier this month, the pope met three men who were victims of a priest accused of abusing boys in Santiago in the 1970s and 1980s.
UNITED STATES
School head urged to quit
Two hundred professors at the University of Southern California on Tuesday demanded the resignation of the school’s president over a widening sexual abuse scandal involving a former campus gynecologist. Faculty members said they wanted to “express their outrage and disappointment over the mounting evidence of president [Max] Nikias’ failure to protect our students, our staff, and our colleagues from repeated and pervasive sexual harassment and misconduct.” In a letter to the board of trustees, the professors said Nikias had lost the “moral authority” to lead the university or to lead an investigation into decades of alleged sexual abuse by George Tyndall. On Monday, five women filed lawsuits against the university and Tyndall.
UNITED STATES
Two satellites launched
A SpaceX rocket on Tuesday blasted off a duo of sports car-sized satellites built by the US and Germany to reveal changes in sea level rise, ice melt and drought on Earth. The US$521 million payload is called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO). It picks up from GRACE, a satellite pair that launched in 2002 and tracked, among other things, precisely how much ice was lost each year in Greenland and Antarctica until last year.
FRANCE
Vase to star at auction
A Chinese vase discovered in a battered shoebox stuffed in an attic is set to be the star of a Sotheby’s auction next month. Experts have identified the find as an exquisite porcelain vessel made for Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong (乾隆) and the guide price for its auction on June 12 starts at a modest 500,000 euros (US$590,000). It was found by chance among dozens of other pieces of Chinoiserie. “We didn’t like the vase too much, and my grandparents didn’t like it either,” said the owner of the piece, who got in touch with Sotheby’s three months ago.
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
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
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