MALAYSIA
Haze-hit state sent masks
The government has sent half-a-million masks to the eastern state of Sarawak, where air pollution levels have spiked amid worsening forest fires in Indonesia, the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) said yesterday. The smoldering fires that Indonesian farmers often use to clear land produce a choking haze that drifts over the region. “NADMA has acquired 500,000 face masks and sent them to the agency’s branch in Sarawak,” it said in a statement. The air pollution index in Sarawak reached unhealthy levels yesterday, with one district recording a reading of 201, a “very unhealthy” level.
SYRIA
War damaged 120 churches
More than 120 Christian places of worship have been damaged or destroyed by all sides in the country’s eight-year conflict, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said on Monday. Some of the attacks were deliberate, such as the Islamic State group using bulldozers to destroy the ancient Saint Elian Monastery in Homs Province in 2015, but most were caused by frontline combat, shelling or rockets, the monitoring group said. “Targeting Christian places of worship is a form of intimidation against and displacement of the Christian minority,” group chairman Fadel Abdul Ghany said.
THE NETHERLANDS
Family drama kills three
At least three people were killed in an apparent family shooting at a home in the southern city of Dordrecht on Monday, police and news reports said. “The shooter is believed to have been a police officer who also shot himself,” the tabloid newspaper De Telegraaf said, adding that a fourth family member was seriously wounded and taken to the hospital. “Three people have been killed and another was seriously wounded,” Rotterdam police tweeted, without further details. Dordrecht Mayor Wouter Kolff tweeted that he was “very touched and sympathized with everyone involved.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Terrorists thwarted 22 times
Authorities have foiled 22 attacks since March 2017, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu told a conference on international terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, on Monday. Seven related to “suspected right-wing terrorism,” Basu said, according to the text distributed by Scotland Yard. Attacks are becoming easier to carry out and harder to detect, he added. He promoted the merits of “Prevent,” a counter-terrorism program that is designed to spot and deter people who might be vulnerable to recruitment by violent radicals. “Prevent is designed to break the cycle of extremist violence by empowering communities and individuals,” Basu said.
UNITED STATES
NRA sues city over label
The National Rifle Association (NRA) on Monday sued San Francisco after the city’s Board of Supervisors made a declaration stating that the NRA is a terrorist organization, the San Francisco Chronicle and other media reported. The NRA, a gun club and gun rights lobbying group with deep political influence, alleged in the suit that the city was violating its free speech rights for political reasons, the reports said. However, San Francisco Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who introduced the measure, said that she believed their action would stand up in court, according to the New York Times. “It’s a resolution. It’s not an ordinance. It’s non-binding,” she told the newspaper.
‘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