MEXICO
Five killed in Cancun
Gunmen burst into a bar in the Caribbean resort city of Cancun and opened fire, killing five people and wounding five more, authorities said on Saturday. Quintana Roo State prosecutors said in a statement that the attack took place in a club called La Kuka, which is on a main avenue in central Cancun about 6km from the seaside tourist hotel zone. Four men carrying a long gun and three handguns entered and began shooting, prosecutors said. Two of the injured were in critical condition.
UNITED KINGDOM
Marx memorial attacked
The memorial of German philosopher Karl Marx has been vandalized in London for the second time in two weeks, the cemetery that manages the site said on Saturday. The words “architect of genocide,” “terror and oppression” and “mass murder” were written in red paint on the grave in the capital’s Highgate cemetery. “Doctrine of hate” was also scrawled on the memorial, among other slogans. The grave of Marx, who developed the theory of international communism, was also attacked on Feb. 4 when it was seemingly struck several times with a blunt metal instrument. A marble plaque with the names of Marx and his family — the monument’s oldest and most fragile part — was repeatedly hit.
SPAIN
Catalans march in Barcelona
Tens of thousands of people waving pro-independence flags and holding pictures of jailed Catalan separatist leaders on Saturday took to the streets of Barcelona to call for self-determination for the region. Chanting “freedom” and “independence,” about 200,000 people, according to police, took part in the peaceful march at a time when the region’s divisive independence drive is back in the spotlight. The trial of 12 separatist leaders, nine of whom have been jailed since late 2017 or early last year, started last week in Madrid. They are being tried for their role in a referendum and an independence declaration deemed illegal by the courts.
NORTH MACEDONIA
Migrant smugglers nabbed
Police have broken up a criminal ring of migrant smugglers and filed charges against 21 people, including a police officer, for illegal trafficking. They raided 20 locations in four cities, including the capital, Skopje, detained 17 people and seized several cellphones, weapons and travel documents, as well as significant amounts of drugs and money, police said on Saturday. Three men were on the run and one was in jail on another charge, they said. Since May last year, the group has organized illegal transport for migrants in Greece to the border with Serbia, where the migrants were temporarily sheltered, police said.
JAPAN
US asked for nomination
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in autumn last year nominated US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize after receiving a request from the US government to do so, the Asahi Shimbun reported yesterday. The report followed Trump’s claim on Friday that Abe had nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize for opening talks and easing tensions with North Korea. The Japanese leader had given him “the most beautiful copy” of a five-page nomination letter, Trump said at a White House news conference. The US government had sounded Abe out over the nomination after Trump’s summit in June last year with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the Asahi 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