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.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion