PHILIPPINES
Protest ordered via tweet
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr has urgently ordered, via Twitter, the filing of a diplomatic protest against China after its coast guard ships reportedly strayed near the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the South China Sea. Locsin, who is accompanying President Rodrigo Duterte on a visit to Russia, issued the usually confidential order to his officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs after the nation’s military chief reported the new Chinese activity. Locsin tweeted: “Do I have to fly home to file the goddamned diplomatic protest myself? That’s the military speaking. Not some friggin’ civilian media outlet. File now!!!”
AUSTRALIA
Morrison denies pressure
Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday denied being pressured by US President Donald Trump to help probe the origins of the US Department of Justice’s investigation of Russian interference in the US’ 2016 election. Morrison said he had a brief telephone conversation with Trump a couple of weeks ago, in which Trump asked for a point of contact within the Canberra government to help US Attorney General William Barr with the inquiry. In an interview with Sky Television, Morrison said he was happy to provide that, given the fact his ambassador in Washington had made a written offer of help to Barr in May. It would have been “quite extraordinary” to deny such cooperation, he said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Prince slams media
Prince Harry’s wife Meghan has started legal proceedings against the Mail on Sunday over the publication of a private letter to her father that her lawyers said was “unlawful.” In a lengthy statement on Tuesday, the prince said the couple had taken legal action in response to what he called “bullying” by some sections of the nation’s press. “Though this action may not be the safe one, it is the right one,” he said. “My deepest fear is history repeating itself. I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditized to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”
SOUTH KOREA
Two more pig flu cases
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday confirmed two additional cases of African swine fever near the border with North Korea despite heightened efforts to contain the epidemic. It said that lab tests confirmed the country’s 10th and 11th cases of the disease at two farms in Paju, a border town where the first infection was confirmed on Sept. 17.
UNITED STATES
Family feud over body
The missing corpse of Mexican troubadour Jose Jose has become the central plot of a bizarre soap opera that has seen his family feuding over the whereabouts of his remains. The Mexican government said the “Prince of Song” died on Saturday last week at age 71 outside Miami, Florida. His two oldest children have accused their half-sister and her mother of hiding his body. “The only thing the family wants is to say goodbye to Jose Jose,” Jose Joel told reporters on Tuesday outside a funeral home in Miami where he thought the body might be, accompanied by his sister, Marysol Sosa. They said that their half-sister, Sarita Sosa, has concealed the whereabouts of the body and was “after the money.” “We do not know if there is a will... That will be another sewer that we will open when the time comes,” Jose Joel said.
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
‘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
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