CHINA
Pingdu rioters charged
State media said 10 people have been charged with various offenses after rioting at a gathering of military veterans protesting for better benefits. It was not clear whether the suspects are veterans, but the violence at the Oct. 4 to 7 gathering in the eastern city of Pingdu points to continued tensions between authorities and ex-servicemen despite the establishment this year of a Cabinet agency to oversee veterans’ affairs. Multiple protests have been staged in the past few years, including in Beijing, to demand better pensions and healthcare. The official Xinhua news agency on Sunday reported that about 60 people among the 300 who gathered assaulted officers and smashed a police van and three civilian vehicles using axe handles and fire extinguishers. A total of 34 policemen and others were injured during the disturbance, it said.
ISRAEL
Bus stop caught in drive-by
A drive-by shooting wounded several Israelis at a bus stop near a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Sunday night, the military said. Six people were hospitalized after the attack near the Ofra settlement north of Jerusalem, including a 30-year-old woman whose condition was serious, the army said in a statement. “Shots were fired at Israeli civilians standing at a bus station from a passing Palestinian vehicle,” the military wrote on Twitter. Soldiers “nearby responded by firing toward the vehicle, which fled,” it said, adding that “troops are currently searching the area.” The wounded were rushed to a hospital in Jerusalem, it added. It is the first such attack in the West Bank since Nov. 26 when a Palestinian rammed soldiers with a car and injured three of them. The assailant in that incident was later killed by soldiers.
‘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
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
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