CHINA
Woman inks up Xi poster
A woman who live-streamed herself throwing ink onto a picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has been detained, according to activists. The US-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders activist network said authorities have also taken the woman’s father and a Chinese artist into custody after they sought to publicize her plight on social media. The woman, who has been identified by activists as 28-year-old Dong Yaoqiong (董瑤瓊), went live on Twitter on July 4 in a video in which she accused the Chinese Communist Party of employing “oppressive brain control.”
BANGLADESH
Drug war death toll hits 200
The death toll from a contentious Philippines-style war on drugs since May has hit 200, a local rights group said yesterday. The crackdown was launched to smash the surging trade in yaba, a cheap methamphetamine and caffeine pill, which authorities say has spread to almost every village and town. “So many people have been killed in such a short period of time,” said Sheepa Hafiza, executive director of the Ain o Salish Kendra rights group. “We condemn these extrajudicial killings and want fair investigations into each of these killings,” she added. About 25,000 alleged drug dealers have been arrested, home ministry spokesman Sharif Mahmud Apu told reporters.
JORDAN
Prehistoric bread uncovered
Charred remains of a flatbread baked about 14,500 years ago in a stone fireplace at a site in northeastern Jordan have shown researchers of a discovery detailed on Monday that hunter-gatherers in the Eastern Mediterranean achieved the cultural milestone of bread-making far earlier than previously known, more than 4,000 years before plant cultivation took root. “We now have to assess whether there was a relationship between bread production and the origins of agriculture,” said Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, a University of Copenhagen postdoctoral researcher in archeobotany and lead author of the research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
UNITED KINGDOM
Modifying baby genes backed
The creation of babies whose DNA has been altered to give them what parents perceive to be the best chances in life has received a cautious green light in a landmark report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. “It is our view that genome editing is not morally unacceptable in itself,” said Karen Yeung, chair of the Nuffield working group and professor of law, ethics and informatics at the University of Birmingham. “They acknowledge that this may worsen inequality and social division, but don’t believe that should stand in the way,” said Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society in California.
UNITED STATES
Volcano boat tours continue
Hawaiian tour boat operators plan to continue taking visitors to see lava, but will follow the US Coast Guard’s revised policy and stay farther away after an explosion caused molten rock to barrel through the roof of a vessel, injuring 23 people. The coast guard had allowed boat operators to apply for a special license to get within 50m from where the Kilauea volcano’s lava oozes into the sea, but on Monday changed the distance to 300m. “As we were exiting the zone, all of a sudden everything around us exploded,” said Shane Turpin, the owner and captain of the vessel that was hit by lava. “It was everywhere.”
‘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