FRANCE
Man wins jackpot twice
A man has won 1 million euros (US$1.18 million at the current exchange rate) twice in the past 18 months on the same lottery, media reported yesterday, a feat mathematicians said carried odds of about 16 trillion to one. Le Parisien newspaper said the unnamed player, from the eastern Haute-Savoie region, held winning tickets on both Nov. 11, 2016, and May 18 through My Million. The lottery is linked to the Euro Millions franchise, which is offered in 12 European nations twice a week and carries enormous jackpots, sometimes worth more than 100 million euros. French players who buy a Euro Millions ticket get automatically entered into the My Million draw, which carries a lower top prize of 1 million euros.
MEXICO
Water reserves established
President Enrique Pena Nieto has issued a series of decrees establishing water reserves, aiming to preserve sufficient supplies for tens of millions of people. The decrees protect defined volumes of water in nearly half of the country’s 756 river basins, limiting them to use for humans and nature. Business and industrial access to the reserved volumes are to be prohibited. Pena Nieto and the nonprofit World Wide Fund for Nature announced the reserves on Tuesday. The organization worked with the government over the past 12 years to map the country’s rivers and determine how much water is necessary to sustain life there, as well as provide water for growing human populations during the next 50 years.
UNITED STATES
Soldier takes APC on joyride
A soldier on Tuesday stole an armored personnel carrier (APC) from a National Guard base in Virginia and took the vehicle on a two-hour drive that ended in a police chase through downtown Richmond, the state capital, state police said. The unidentified man took the vehicle at about 7:50pm from Fort Pickett, an Army National Guard base in Blackstone, Virginia, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said in an e-mail. The suspect then drove the military vehicle, which was not equipped with any weaponry, east on Route 460 and then north into Richmond on Interstate 95 at about 65kph, Geller said. At about 9:40pm, the driver drove the armored vehicle onto a median and was surrounded by police, ending the 95km pursuit, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Police Tasered the suspect, who was identified as a soldier, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Keeli Hill told a news conference. No crashes or injuries occurred during the incident, Geller said. Charges are pending against the man, who was in state police custody, she said.
UNITED STATES
Two hurt in elk attacks
For the second time in three days, an elk has attacked someone in Yellowstone National Park. The National Park Service said a female elk with a calf on Tuesday attacked 53-year-old park visitor Penny Allyson Behr of Cypress, Texas, behind the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. Park officials said the elk surprised Behr as she walked between cabins. Behr backed away, but the elk kicked her in the head and body. Behr was taken to hospital. Her condition was not immediately released. On Sunday, a female elk with a calf kicked 51-year-old Charlene Triplett of Las Vegas in the head and body behind the same hotel. Triplett was in fair condition on Tuesday. Park officials were unsure if it was the same elk. They said the animals aggressively defend their young.
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
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
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