AUSTRIA
IAEA head Amano dies
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director-
general Yukiya Amano has died, the nuclear watchdog said in a statement yesterday, just as he was preparing to step down because of an unspecified illness. The 72-year-old Japanese had led the IAEA since 2009, steering the UN agency through a period of intense diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program. He had been preparing to leave his position in March, well before the end of his term on Nov. 30, 2021. The IAEA said in September last year that Amano had undergone an unspecified medical procedure. The statement did not lay out a timeframe for naming his successor, but a race to succeed him had been taking shape since last week, when it became clear he would step down early.
SYRIA
Airstrikes kill at least 20
Airstrikes on a popular market and residential neighborhoods yesterday killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens in an attack on one of the main opposition-held cities in the northwest, rescuers and residents said. The raids, believed to be carried out by either Syrian or Russian jets, targeted Maarat al-Numan, a densely populated city in Idlib Province, leaving a trail of destruction and carnage, they said. “Bodies are lying on the streets. May God take revenge on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad]) for their crimes,” said Abdul Rahman al-Yasser, a rescuer from Idlib’s civil defense team searching for bodies under the rubble.
INDIA
Lightning kills 33 people
Officials said that dozens of people have died in a thunderstorm that struck the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. State disaster relief official Sandhya said that lightning on Sunday killed 33 people and injured 13 more. The official who only goes by one name said that 20 houses collapsed in the storm. Heavy rains and lightning lashed the region when farmers were working in the field. Meterological Department official J.P. Gupta said that a low-pressure area developed forming a squall line. Police officer Pradyuman Singh said that seven people were killed in one village while working in a paddy field, including a woman and a child.
UNITED STATES
No more piglet race
Watermelons are set to replace piglets in an annual event celebrating agriculture at a California fair. The Press Democrat on Saturday said that the Sonoma County Fair has eliminated the pig scramble from Farmers Day due to rising public concern and protests over animal welfare. In the long-running event at the fair in Santa Rosa, youngsters chased and tried to capture piglets weighing 18 to 27kg. Officials said that this year’s event on Aug. 4 would instead include elementary-school children carrying watermelons slicked with vegetable oil around an obstacle course in a timed race.
MEXICO
First-half murders hit record
Murders jumped in the first half of the year to the highest on record, official data showed, underscoring the vast challenges President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador faces in reducing violence in the cartel-ravaged country. There were 14,603 murders from January to last month, versus the 13,985 homicides registered in the first six months of last year, according to data posted over the weekend on the National Public Security Office Web site. The nation is on course to surpass last year’s record of 29,111 murders.
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