VENEZUELA
Steak dinner sparks furor
Videos of President Nicolas Maduro feasting on a steak dinner prepared by a celebrity chef at a time many in his crisis-wracked nation are going hungry has drawn fury from opponents of the embattled socialist leader. Maduro is seen puffing on a cigar from a personalized box while he is served a steak by Nusret Gokce, a Turkish chef better known by his nickname Salt Bae. Maduro on Monday said that the meal was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that arose when he stopped over briefly in Istanbul on the way home from a visit to China, but with Venezuelans struggling to feed themselves amid hyperinflation and widespread shortages many in the opposition have taken to social media to denounce the meal as offensive.
IRAN
Traffic accident kills 19
At least 19 people were killed when a bus and a fuel tanker collided 200km south of Tehran, state television reported yesterday. The collision, which occurred at about 11:15pm on Monday, triggered a fireball that engulfed both the truck and the bus on the motorway between Kashan and Natanz. “Based on preliminary investigations, the tanker swerved to the side, hitting the bus and causing an explosion and fire which killed 19 of the passengers at the scene,” General Mohammad-Hossein Hamidi said. State television aired footage of firefighters battling the blaze as emergency crews rushed to take the wounded to nearby hospitals.
UNITED STATES
Man urinates on geyser
Yellowstone National Park officials have ticketed a man caught on video wandering close to the Old Faithful geyser, where he risked burns from the boiling-hot water that erupts every hour or so. The man’s actions between eruptions startled a crowd of a couple hundred people at the park’s most famous attraction. At one point, he lay on the ground near the gurgling hole. “A bunch of the crowd thought he was going to jump. We didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Ashley Lemanski of Harbor Beach, Michigan, who shot the video on Friday last week. The man appeared to urinate on the geyser while a park ranger repeatedly yelled at him to get to safety. Rangers caught up with him after he walked back onto boardwalks, Lemanski said.
UNITED STATES
Abandoned car shuts airport
A man who caused a busy terminal at Phoenix’s airport to shut down for hours after abandoning a rental car in a no-parking area is not facing charges. Police say the unidentified 29-year-old man received a parking notice that carries a US$52 fine and was ordered to pay a US$75 towing fee. The man left the rented vehicle in a restricted area of Terminal 4’s second level. A bomb squad was called in, the terminal was partially evacuated and three of four security checkpoints were closed. More than 300 flights were delayed and dozens canceled.
UNITED STATES
Bear gets stuck in globe
A bear cub in Wisconsin had a Winnie the Pooh moment, but it was not a honey pot that got stuck on its head. It was a hard plastic globe. Authorities on Sunday rescued the cub after a passerby spotted it near Balsam Lake with the mother bear nearby. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office used a squad car to keep the mother away while authorities and two bear hunters worked on the globe as the cub was contained in a net. Sheriff’s Sergeant Brent Waak said the thick globe resisted pliers, tin snips and pruning shears. It finally slipped off after bolt cutters were used.
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
‘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