NORTH KOREA
Measures announced
The government is taking emergency measures to prevent the spread of African swine fever, state media said yesterday, weeks after confirming an outbreak in the country. The virus, fatal to wild boar and pigs, but harmless to humans, has cut a swathe through China, Vietnam and Mongolia before reaching the country. Pyongyang last month told the World Organisation for Animal Health that 77 out of 99 pigs had died from the disease at a farm near the Chinese border, the South Korean Ministry of Agriculture has said. Seoul has expressed concern over the possible spread of the disease across the border and repeatedly offered to assist with quarantine efforts, but said that Pyongyang had yet to respond. The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said that nationwide quarantine efforts were under way, including disinfecting farms and banning the distribution of pork products. “Emergency preventive efforts are actively under way all across the country to block the spread of the African swine fever,” it said.
CHINA
Flooding kills 19 people
Flooding caused by torrential rains has killed at least 19 people in the south, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. In the Guangxi region, which borders Vietnam, week-long downpours triggered floods in six cities, killing 12 and affecting more than 570,000 people, Xinhua said, citing the regional emergency management department. Houses collapsed and crops were damaged, it added. Rainfall was expected to intensify through today, the regional weather bureau said, according to Xinhua. In Guangdong Province, seven people were killed and one was missing as heavy rain destroyed roads and toppled houses, the report added.
UNITED STATES
Troops to head to Poland
The government was yesterday expected to announce that it would send about 1,000 additional troops and a squadron of Reaper drones to Poland to beef up the nation’s ability to defend itself amid worries about Russian military activity, officials said on Tuesday. A preliminary agreement avoids any permanent US base or presence in the country and sticks instead to a rotational force, they said. The Reaper drones would be used to provide greater intelligence to Poland, they added. An announcement was expected yesterday, when President Donald Trump meets with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House.
CANADA
Most Internet users fooled
About 86 percent of Internet users have been duped by misinformation, a global survey published on Tuesday showed. Respondents said that they want governments and social media companies to crack down on these activities, which are contributing to a growing distrust of the Internet, as well as negatively affecting economies and political discourse. The US took the lion’s share of the blame for spreading misinformation, followed by Russia and China, the annual Ipsos survey of more than 25,000 Internet users in 25 countries found. The results revealed widespread distrust of social media companies, and growing concerns over online privacy and biases baked into algorithms used by Internet companies.
MEXICO
Top diplomat to visit China
Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard on Tuesday said that he plans to visit China after a G20 summit in Japan later this month. “The meeting in China is very important, something that we’ve been planning for months,” Ebrard said at a banking conference, adding that the visit would take place early next month. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last week said that he does not plan to travel to the G20 meeting in Osaka scheduled for June 28 to 29, adding that Ebrard and Secretary of Finance and Public Credit Carlos Urzua would represent him instead. It is to be the first time a Mexican president skips the summit of the most powerful world leaders.
UNITED STATES
Trump decries CIA sources
Trump on Tuesday took a public stance against the use of CIA informants to spy on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, possibly taking away a valuable tool of the intelligence community. Trump spoke a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Kim’s slain half brother, Kim Jong-nam, was a source for the CIA. “I saw the information about the CIA, with respect to his brother, or half brother, and I would tell him [Kim Jong-un] that would not happen under my auspices, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t let that happen under my auspices,” Trump said.
BRAZIL
Official says firing political
The head of the National Indian Foundation on Tuesday said that he was fired due to pressure from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, which under President Jair Bolsonaro is seeking to open reservation lands to commercial agriculture and mining. Franklimberg Ribeiro de Freitas was dismissed by the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, which oversees the agency, the ministry confirmed. In remarks to agency employees, De Freitas blamed Luiz Antonio Nabhan Garcia, secretary of land affairs in the agriculture ministry, for his dismissal. De Freitas said that Bolsonaro was “very poorly advised.”
‘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