UNITED STATES
Testimony change made
Child sex trafficking victims are no longer to be made to testify in court, after New York adopted a law on Wednesday making it the final state to end the practice. Under a UN measure known as the Palermo Protocol, children do not have to prove they were trafficked, Equality Now trafficking expert Romina Canessa said. The move faced resistance from some legislators who were initially reluctant to increase criminal penalties, Canessa said. “It took a little bit of convincing and just making state legislators realize that there is a reason why federal and international law, and the majority of other states, don’t require proof of coercion for minors,” she said. “This is an issue of rape of children.”
UNITED STATES
Anti-LGBT baker files suit
A Colorado baker who gained notoriety for refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple is headed for a new showdown with the state, this time over a birthday cake for a transgender woman. Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the state claiming that his rights to freedom of speech and religion were being violated. The case involves Autumn Scardina, who in June last year ordered a cake with a pink interior and blue exterior to celebrate her birthday and the seventh anniversary of her transition. Scardina filed a complaint with the state’s Civil Rights Commission after being told that Phillips could not fill the order because of his religious beliefs.
UNITED STATES
Judge orders pipeline review
A federal judge in Montana on Wednesday ordered the Department of State to do a full environmental review of a revised route for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, which could delay the project. District Court Judge Brian Morris ordered the review of a revised pipeline route through Nebraska to supplement one the department did on the original path in 2014. Morris said the department was obligated to “analyze new information relevant to the environmental impacts of its decision” to issue a permit last year.
MEXICO
Light of the World gathers
More than half a million members of a Pentecostal church called the Light of the World held a massive “holy supper” this week, one of the largest religious ceremonies in the world. With mass baptisms, 600,000 loaves of bread and 20,000 liters of wine, members of the church celebrated their 80th annual “holy convocation,” a six-day gathering in Guadalajara. Organizers said participants traveled from 57 countries on five continents to take part. The religious fervor reached maximum pitch on Tuesday night, with the celebration of the supper and the arrival of the church’s leader, Nasson Joaquin Garcia, whose followers believe he is the last apostle of Jesus. Leaders say it is the second-largest religion in the nation and expanding fast, with 22 percent growth per year.
UNITED STATES
Temporary ban for Jones
Twitter has banned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Web site, Infowars, from tweeting for seven days, saying their tweets violated its rules against abusive behavior. The site said it late on Tuesday asked Jones to delete a tweet that contained a video, which according to a company spokesman had a segment that is an “incitement to violence.” As of Wednesday, the tweet has disappeared from his account.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing