TURKEY
Russian missiles due soon
The government expects the delivery of the controversial Russian S-400 missile defense system to begin next month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday told reporters on his plane as he was returning from a visit to Tajikistan. “I believe [S-400s] will begin to arrive in the first half of July. Colleagues in charge of the schedule are following the issue,” Erdogan said. Despite complaints from the US, he was adamant the deal was not one that the nation would walk away from. “If we now swallow our words, this would not comply with the manners of our state, and it would also not suit my statesmanship,” he said.
ISRAEL
PM’s wife fined
Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been sentenced to pay a fine of about US$15,000 for misusing state funds. A Jerusalem magistrate court yesterday accepted the plea bargain that she signed with prosecutors to settle the allegations she misused about US$100,000 in state money on lavish meals. The State Attorney’s office said she would pay additional fines to close the case, which accused her of running up large tabs at luxury restaurants while the official residence employed a full-time chef. She was indicted on charges of fraud and breach of trust last year. The settlement saw her admit to more minor charges and reduced the overspending charge to US$50,000.
JAPAN
Policeman stabbed
A police officer was stabbed several times in the chest with a kitchen knife and his loaded handgun stolen while on patrol in the western city of Suita yesterday morning, public broadcaster NHK reported. The attack, which police believe may have been premeditated, sparked a manhunt with police using loudspeakers at a railway station to warn people to be on the alert. The 26-year-old officer was found lying on the ground in front of a police box with a kitchen knife in his left chest at about 5:30am. A security camera showed a man, who appeared in his 30s, hanging around the police box about an hour before the stabbing, NHK said.
BRAZIL
Rio governor wants missile
Far-right Rio de Janeiro Governor Wilson Witzel has advocated using a “missile” to blow up criminals in one of the city’s most violent slums. Witzel, who presided over a record number of police killings in the first three months of his term, on Friday said that Rio residents were living in a “state of terrorism,” in comments broadcast by RJTV. “If it were authorized by the United Nations, in other parts of the world, we’d have authorization to send a missile there to blow up those people,” Witzel said, referring to the City of God favela, where an intense gunfight between police and gangsters took place on Wednesday that killed at least one person.
ITALY
Director Zeffirelli dies at 96
Director Franco Zeffirelli, who delighted audiences around the world with his romantic vision and extravagant productions for film, television, opera and theater, such as Romeo and Juliet, died on Saturday at 96. Zeffirelli’s son, Luciano, said his father died at home in Rome. The director produced classics for the world’s most famous opera houses, from Milan’s La Scala to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and plays for London and Italian stages. He had made it his mission to make culture accessible to the masses, often seeking inspiration in literary greats.
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
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