UNITED STATES
‘From Russia with love’
A man discovered a 50-year-old letter in a bottle from the Russian Navy on the shores of western Alaska. Tyler Ivanoff found the handwritten Russian letter early this month while gathering firewood near Shishmaref, about 966km northwest of Anchorage, television station KTUU reported. Ivanoff shared his discovery on Facebook where Russian speakers translated the message to be a greeting from a Cold War Russian sailor dated June 20, 1969. The message included an address and a request for a response from the person who finds it. Reporters from the state-owned Russian media network Russia-1 tracked down the original writer, Captain Anatolii Prokofievich Botsanenko, KTUU reported. Botsanenko was skeptical he wrote the note until he saw his signature on the bottom. He said he sent the message when he was aboard the Sulak. Botsanenko shed tears when the Russian TV reporter told him the Sulak was sold for scrap in the 1990s.
UNITED STATES
CBP seizes ‘hot’ cargo
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have seized nearly 3.4 tonnes of marijuana worth US$2.3 million hidden in a consignment of jalapeno peppers. A sniffer dog alerted officers to a trailer with a shipment of peppers in San Diego on the border with Mexico on Thursday, the agency said. The CBP statement said “a 37-year-old male Mexican citizen entered the port of entry driving a tractor pulling a trailer with cargo manifested as jalapeno peppers.” Officers at Otay Mesa cargo facility found 314 packages of marijuana mixed among the jalapeno peppers. It was the second-largest haul of marijuana at the facility in days. Officers seized 4.8 tonnes of the drug in a shipment of plastic auto parts on Tuesday.
SPAIN
Thousands flee wildfire
A raging wildfire on the island of Gran Canaria forced the evacuation of about 5,000 people, authorities said on Sunday, warning it could take days for the blaze to be brought under control. The fire, which has spread to the mountainous Cruz de Tejeda region popular with tourists for its breathtaking views, is “extremely fierce” and “unstable,” Canary Islands President Angel Victor Torres in a statement. No fatalities have been reported. More than 600 firefighters and 14 aircraft battled to contain the flames, hampered by strong winds and high temperatures. With the temperature set to rise yesterday, authorities estimate it could take days before the blaze is brought under control. “The next few hours will be very important, because the weather forecast for the night is not good,” Torres said. The fire broke out days after another wildfire in the same region forced the evacuation of hundreds.
UNITED KINGDOM
Prince denies Epstein link
Prince Andrew has rejected renewed suggestions he might have been involved in the alleged sex crimes of his one-time friend Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew said in a statement released by Buckingham Palace that he “has been appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged crimes. His Royal Highness deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behaviour is abhorrent.” The statement was released after the Mail on Sunday obtained a Dec. 6, 2010, video showing Andrew inside Epstein’s New York home waving goodbye to a young woman. The video was recorded after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution involving a minor. Epstein killed himself on Aug. 10 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
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