INDONESIA
Poll workers die of fatigue
As of Saturday night, 272 election workers have died since the April 17 national elections, mostly of fatigue-related illnesses caused by long hours of work counting millions of ballot papers by hand, while 1,878 had fallen ill, General Elections Commission spokesman Arief Priyo Susanto said yesterday. The elections were the first time the presidential vote was combined with national and regional parliamentary ones, with an aim to cut costs. Voters had to punch up to five ballot papers in more than 800,000 polling stations during the eight-hour vote, and the ballots were then counted by hand. The commission is expected to conclude vote-counting and announce the winners of the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 22.
FRANCE
Lead warning issued
Paris police on Saturday said that areas near Notre Dame Cathedral with elevated lead levels after a fire that ravaged the church would remain closed to the public until they are deemed safe. The fire sent large amounts of lead into the air because hundreds of tonnes of the metal were used in Notre Dame’s frame, as well as its spire that burned and collapsed. Police have advised residents and shopkeepers around the cathedral to remove any surface dust they see with wet wipes. Precautions would be taken to protect workers when the cathedral is rebuilt, a police statement said.
UNITED STATES
NRA president bows out
National Rifle Association (NRA) president Oliver North on Saturday announced that he would not serve a second term, making it clear that he had been forced out by the group’s leadership after his own failed attempt to remove long-time chief executive Wayne LaPierre in a burgeoning divide over the group’s finances and media operations. “Please know I hoped to be with you today as NRA president endorsed for re-election. I’m now informed that will not happen,” North said in a statement at the group’s annual convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, that was read by NRA first vice president Richard Childress.
UNITED STATES
People asked to return cash
Police in Grand Haven, Michigan, are appealing to people to surrender their instant riches after a box with US$30,000 fell off the back of a truck on Thursday. Authorities said drivers stopped to pick up cash, but only US$2,500 was immediately recovered and returned to the owner, who had forgotten that a cash box was on the truck’s bumper. Traffic was backed up on US 31 after money hit the ground. By Saturday, more money was trickling in. The city’s Department of Public Safety said two teenagers turned in US$630, and a woman US$3,900.
RUSSIA
Putin appeals to Ukrainians
President Vladimir Putin said that he might extend an offer of citizenship to cover all Ukrainians after he sparked controversy by ordering passports be made available to people in areas of the country controlled by pro-Moscow separatists. The offer of citizenship is “not only to the people who live” in the rebel-held areas of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Putin told reporters in Beijing on Saturday. “We are generally thinking to provide a simplified citizenship procedure to Ukrainian citizens.” Putin issued his decree on Wednesday, ordering the creation of a fast-track procedure for residents in separatist areas to claim passports.
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