UNITED STATES
Russia intelligence ‘sound’
A Senate committee on Tuesday said that intelligence agencies’ assessment of Russian activities during the 2016 presidential election was based on “sound” analysis not swayed by politics. The January last year intelligence assessment said that Russian activities in the run-up to the presidential election represented a “significant escalation” in a long history of Russian attempts to interfere in domestic politics, the committee said. The intelligence agencies found that Russians had engaged in cyberespionage and distributed messages through Russian-controlled propaganda outlets to undermine public faith in the democratic process, “denigrate” Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and develop a “clear preference” for President Donald Trump. The Senate intelligence committee’s report comes two weeks before Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
ECUADOR
Ex-president faces arrest
A court on Tuesday ordered the arrest of former president Rafael Correa over alleged links to the kidnapping of an opponent in Colombia. The National Court of Justice said Judge Daniella Camacho “resolves to impose preventive detention” against Correa — who is based in Brussels — and has alerted Interpol. Correa, president from 2007 to last year, was one of the feistiest characters in Latin American politics. He now lives in his wife’s native Belgium, but is under investigation at home for involvement in the kidnapping of former lawmaker Fernando Balda in 2012. Correa questioned the motivation for the case, after he and his former ally, President Lenin Moreno, struggled for control of their deeply divided leftist ruling Country Alliance party. Balda considered himself a persecuted politician under Correa’s government. Last month, a judge ordered Correa to appear in court every two weeks to assist the investigation.
UNITED STATES
Hawaii bans sunscreens
Hawaii Governor David Ige on Tuesday signed legislation that would ban the sale of sunscreens containing two chemicals believed to harm coral reefs. The move makes Hawaii the first US state to enact a ban on oxybenzone and octinoxate. “This is just one small step toward protecting and restoring the resiliency of Hawaii’s reefs,” Ige said at a signing ceremony for the bill, which takes effect in 2021. Ige said the state would also need to continue other efforts to protect coral, including fighting invasive species, pollution from land runoff and climate change. Sunscreen containing oxybenzone and octinoxate would only be available to those with a prescription from a physician.
UNITED KINGDOM
Arrest in baby killings case
British police on Tuesday arrested a female healthcare worker on suspicion of murdering eight babies and trying to kill six others at a hospital neonatal unit in the northwest of England. Detectives began investigating the deaths of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester more than a year ago, after the hospital reported a higher than expected mortality rate, which it could not explain, on the unit that cares for premature babies and infants needing special care. The hospital asked police to “rule out unnatural causes of death.” The investigation initially focused on the deaths of eight babies. Police said that they are investigating the deaths of 17 babies and 15 “non-fatal collapses” at the unit between March 2015 and July 2016.
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