UNITED STATES
Ship to help Colombia
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that the Pentagon will send a hospital ship to Colombia to help cope with strains on medical systems caused by the Venezuelan refugee crisis. Mattis said Colombian President Ivan Duque embraced the proposal during talks on Friday morning in Bogota. Some details of the plan for dispatching the USNS Comfort from Norfolk, Virginia, have not yet been worked out. Mattis said the ship would probably visit other South American countries also feeling the effects of the refugee problem.
UNITED STATES
Radio host shocked
A Wisconsin sports talk radio host had a good reason when listeners heard dead air this week: He had just been struck by lightning. Bill Michaels was hit on Thursday in Eau Claire as he hosted his show from the patio of a golf club as thunderstorms moved in. Michaels told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he was sitting at a metal-mesh table when he was jolted by lightning. He said it burned his arms and fingers and blew out his shoe. Michaels got up, said he could not finish his show and went to a hospital. His wife, Sherry Michaels, said on Facebook that her husband spent four hours in a hospital before being released with a bad headache and some numbness in his extremities.
CANADA
Woman charged over shove
A woman accused of injuring her 16-year-old friend when she pushed the teen off a bridge in Washington state has been charged with reckless endangerment following a shove captured on video that went viral. The KGW television station on Friday reported that charging documents filed by the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s office say Taylor Smith created “a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury” to Jordan Holgerson, who was pushed off a bridge on Aug. 7 at Moulton Falls, northeast of Vancouver, Washington, and fell 18m. She sustained injuries ranging from broken ribs to punctured lungs. New video obtained by NBC News shows a woman urging Holgerson to jump. In it a woman tells Holgerson to “just go” and “I’m going to push you.” Video that was posted earlier on YouTube and later removed shows Holgerson standing on the bridge with friends. Then a woman is seen forcefully pushing her off the span.
GEORGIA
Cubes solved under water
An 18-year-old student on Friday solved six Rubik’s Cubes under water in one breath in a bid to set a new Guinness World Record. Vako Marchelashvili was submerged in a glass tank for just over 1 minute, 44 seconds as he flipped, turned and solved the cubes in front of a crowd at the Gino Paradise aqua park in Tbilisi. He said he had been preparing for the challenge for six months, training several hours a day. “I trained a lot planning to break a record and to ensure my safety, because even a small mistake could be dangerous and life-altering,” Marchelashvili said afterward. “I think my result will stay as a record for a long time. I hope to break many other records.” After observing Marchelashvili’s attempt, the Georgian Records Federation issued a diploma confirming his result. The evidence is to be sent to the Guinness World Records headquarters for verification. The current underwater record of five cubes was set by Anthony Brooks in New Jersey in the US in August 2014, according to the Guinness World Record Web site.
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
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
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