UNITED STATES
Strong rhetoric on Xinjiang
An official on Friday accused China of putting more than 1 million minority Muslims in “concentration camps,” in some of the strongest US condemnation to date of what it calls Beijing’s mass detention of Muslim groups. The comments by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver are likely to increase tension with Beijing, which describes the sites as vocational education training centers. “The [Chinese] Communist Party is using the security forces for mass imprisonment of Chinese Muslims in concentration camps,” Schriver told a Pentagon briefing during a broader discussion about China’s military, estimating that the number of detained Muslims could be “closer to 3 million citizens.” Asked by a reporter why he used the term, Schriver said that it was justified “given what we understand to be the magnitude of the detention, at least 1 million, but likely closer to 3 million citizens out of a population of about 10 million.”
ESWATINI
Thousands march for reform
In a rare show of defiance, thousands of people on Friday demonstrated to demand political reforms. About 3,000 protesters, many sporting red T-shirts, took to the streets of Manzini, marching amid a heavy police presence. Political parties and pro-democracy groups have been outlawed for nearly five decades. One of the protest organizers, Wandile Dludlu, of the Swaziland United Democratic Front, said that the strong turnout shows that the political situation has reached a crisis point. “Swazis ... want to elect their own government. The current arrangement is not people-driven. It is appointed by king to serve the king not the people,” Dludlu said.
GERMANY
Three held over darknet site
Three people accused of running one of the world’s largest dark Web sites for selling drugs and other contraband have been arrested and charged in two countries following a two-year investigation, US prosecutors said on Friday. A fourth man who allegedly acted as a moderator and promoter for the site, Wall Street Market, was taken into custody in Brazil, California federal prosecutors said. “This case shows that we can hunt down these criminals wherever they hide,” US Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement. Tibo Lousee, Klaus-Martin Frost and Jonathan Kalla are accused of running Wall Street Market for nearly three years, providing a darknet platform for the sale of narcotics, counterfeit goods and hacking software to 1.1 million customers. The men, known to US, Dutch and German investigators as “coder420,” “Kronos” and “TheOne,” also face charges in Germany. Prosecutors in Frankfurt said that the federal criminal investigation office had secured the platform’s server infrastructure.
ISRAEL
Militants fire rocket barrage
Gaza militants yesterday fired dozens of rockets at Israel, which responded with strikes that killed a Palestinian, officials said, as a fragile ceasefire again faltered. About 90 rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave and its air defenses intercepted dozens of them, the army said, adding that it had targeted two rocket launchers with an airstrike in response, and its tanks hit a number of military posts used by Hamas. A Gazan security source said that a series of Israeli strikes hit at least three separate areas of the Gaza Strip and that three “resistance fighters” were wounded. No casualties were reported on the Israeli side.
‘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