UNITED STATES
Kavanaugh vote set for today
The Senate’s Republican leadership moved forward with the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, setting up a procedural vote today and a final floor vote tomorrow. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to end debate on the pick, announcing that the FBI would on Wednesday present the Senate with its highly anticipated report, which had been demanded by Democrats and a handful of Republicans, who wanted a more complete evaluation of the nominee. Several people with information on allegations against Kavanaugh said they had not heard from the FBI, suggesting that its report might be narrower than was desired by some lawmakers.
UNITED STATES
Judge blocks TPS plans
A federal judge in California on Wednesday barred President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing a plan to end temporary protections for more than 300,000 immigrants in the US from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. US District Judge Edward Chen issued a preliminary injunction in a suit brought by a number of immigrants with temporary protected status (TPS). The TPS designation offers protection from deportation to immigrants already in the US, including those who entered illegally, from countries affected by natural disasters, civil conflicts and other problems. The government has failed to establish any real harm if “the status quo (which has been in existence for as long as two decades) is maintained during the pendency of this litigation,” Chen wrote in the order.
ETHIOPIA
Officer shoots colleagues
A drunk police officer allegedly shot dead two colleagues in Addis Ababa yesterday, state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corp reported. The policeman who fired on his colleagues was also shot dead, Fana quoted Federal Police Commissioner Zeynu Jemal as saying. The attacker was intoxicated with alcohol at the time, Zeynu was quoted as saying. He mentioned no possible ethnic motivation behind the shooting, which came after an escalation of ethnically-charged violence in the nation.
BRAZIL
Inmates die in breakout
Nine prisoners have been killed and 19 are on the run after fleeing into a wooded area near a prison in northern Tocantins State, authorities said. The Tocantins Public Security Department on Wednesday said that 28 inmates fled the Barra da Grota prison amid a riot that broke out on Tuesday. Nine of them were killed in a subsequent shoot-out with police officers, who tracked them down in the woods. Police were scouring the area for the missing 19 prisoners and two prison staff members who were taken hostage.
UNITED STATES
Man dies after attack
A fourth man has died after he was struck in the head during a series of attacks on mostly homeless men in the Los Angeles area last month, media said on Wednesday. The man, who has not been identified, was attacked while he slept on Sept. 24. He died on Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ramon Escobar, 47, who fled to California from Texas after being questioned in the disappearance of two Houston relatives, was arrested last week on suspicion of bludgeoning seven men. Escobar, a Salvadoran national and convicted felon who has been repeatedly deported from the US, faces three counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder and four counts of robbery, authorities said.
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