CHINA
Canadian faces retrial
A Canadian convicted of drug trafficking in China faces the possibility of more serious charges after a court on Saturday ordered a new trial amid tensions over Canada’s arrest of a Chinese technology executive. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was tried in 2016, but his case has been publicized by the Chinese press following the Dec. 1 arrest of Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) on US charges related to trading with Iran. An appeals court agreed with prosecutors who said Schellenberg was punished too leniently when he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of being an accessory to drug smuggling.
INDONESIA
Yet another volcano erupts
A volcano on the island of Bali early yesterday shot a new burst of hot ash into the air in the latest of the country’s several eruptions within a week. Mount Agung erupted for about three minutes, spewing white clouds of smoke and ash more than 700m into the air, the Volcanology and Geological Mitigation Agency said in a statement. The eruption of the 3,031m volcano did not prompt evacuations, and its alert status remains at the second-highest level.
FRANCE
‘Yellow vest’ numbers down
Police on Saturday fired tear gas at “yellow vest” demonstrators in Paris, but the turnout for round seven of the protests that have rocked the country appeared low. Several hundred people had gathered near the offices of several state-run television stations and the BFM TV channel shouting “Fake news” and calling for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron. Protesters spilled onto tram lines and lobbed projectiles at police who replied with tear gas grenades and detained several people. Police said about 12,000 had joined Saturday’s rally by midday.
GERMANY
Car brings flights to a halt
A man on Saturday forced open a locked gate on the security perimeter of Hannover Airport and drove a Mercedez-Benz onto the airfield before coming to a halt underneath an airliner and being detained, police said. Flights were suspended for more than four hours. Police said a test suggested that the driver, who told them he was a 21-year-old from Poland, was under the influence of drugs and there were no indications that his actions were terror-related.
THE NETHERLANDS
Five held for terrorist plot
Dutch security forces on Saturday arrested four people in Rotterdam on suspicion of preparing for a “terrorist crime,” police said, while a fifth suspect was detained in Germany. Elite counter-terrorism units and police arrested the men and carried out searches at the locations where they were detained, Rotterdam police said. “Investigations will continue in the coming days, with the emphasis on further investigation of the nature and scale of the terrorist threat,” a brief police statement said.
UNITED KINGDOM
BBC concerned over leak
The BBC has written to Russian authorities to express concern about the safety of its staff in Moscow after it emerged that the details of dozens of the broadcaster’s journalists had been published online in apparent retaliation to the publication in the Sunday Times of eight Edinburgh-based Sputnik reporters’ details. The journalists, most of whom are Russian citizens, are identified by their legal names, which in some cases differ from their bylines.
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