UNITED STATES
McCain ends treatment
Arizona Senator John McCain has discontinued medical treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer, his family said on Friday. It is a likely indication that the war hero, presidential nominee and long-time leading lawmaker is nearing the end of his life. McCain has surpassed expectations for survival, but “the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict,” the family said. “With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment.” The six-term senator, who would turn 82 next week, has been away from the Capitol since December last year.
UNITED STATES
Lane weakens, risks remain
Hurricane Lane, which has threatened Hawaii for a week, is now a tropical storm, but meteorologists say that heavy rains could still wallop the islands with flash flooding and landslides. Lane dumped nearly 91cm of rain on parts of the Big Island over the past two days, forcing residents to flee their flooded homes in waist-high water. Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said that people need to be vigilant and not let their guard down. Upper-level winds known as shear swiftly tore Lane apart south of Honolulu. Lane has maximum sustained winds of 110kph as it slowly heads west, the National Weather Service said. As flooding hit the Big Island, brush fires broke out in areas of Maui and Oahu susceptible to flames.
UNITED STATES
Trolls targeted vaccine row
Russian trolls and bots on Twitter attempted to influence the debate over vaccine safety, with the aim of sowing discord among the US public ahead of the 2016 election, researchers reported this week. “Did you know there was a secret government database of #vaccine-damaged children? #VaccinateUS,” said one of the tweets mentioned in the American Journal of Public Health. Researchers studied the frequency of vaccine mentions by accounts suspected of being automated bots or linked to Russian propaganda campaigns. Researchers did not find a lot of tweets about vaccines — among a sample of 1.8 million tweets from July 2014 to September last year, there were just 253 containing #VaccinateUS, for example — but the study showed that “health communications have become ‘weaponized’: public health issues, such as vaccination, are included in attempts to spread misinformation and disinformation by foreign powers.” As seen in other controversial topics online, the messages were divided about evenly between pro and anti-vaccine. This was part of the strategy to promote discord in the public, researchers said.
UNITED STATES
Ex-CDC director arrested
Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Tom Frieden, a leading public health expert instrumental in the US’ response to the Ebola crisis and to legislating against smoking, was on Friday arrested and charged with sexual harassment. He was arrested on charges of forcible touching, sexual abuse and harassment of a 55-year-old woman in New York City’s Brooklyn Heights. He is accused of touching the woman’s buttocks and squeezing without her consent in October last year. The woman filed a complaint last month, police said. Frieden surrendered his passport and is next due in court on Oct. 11, prosecutors said. He is currently president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a US$225 million initiative at global health non-profit Vital Strategies.
‘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