CHILE
Menchu slams cop violence
Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu on Monday added her voice to calls for the government to stop police violence against protesters during weeks of anti-government unrest that have left 20 people dead and nearly 1,600 injured. Prosecutors say five died at the hands of state agents. A UN human rights mission is investigating allegations of police brutality. The Guatemalan activist led a group that delivered a letter calling on President Sebastian Pinera to “immediately halt the violence” by security forces, and end what they called “serious and systematic” abuses.
GUATEMALA
Giammattei backs Guaido
President-elect Alejandro Giammattei on Monday said his government would break diplomatic relations with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government when he takes office on Jan. 14. Giammattei said he would recognize Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido instead. “I think it’s the right thing to do. There are other South American [governments] that will do the same,” he said, without going into detail.
UNITED STATES
Trump promotes son’s book
President Donald Trump is promoting Donald Trump Jr’s book on Twitter even as he continues to accuse the family of former vice president Joe Biden family of self-dealing. The president used his Twitter feed to publicize his son’s new book, telling his 66.5 million followers that they should “Go order it today!” The director of public policy at a nonpartisan government watchdog group says that kind of promotional tweet would be a violation of ethics rules if it had come from any federal employee other than the president.
UNITED STATES
Bordeaux arrives at ISS
A dozen bottles of fine French wine arrived on Monday at the International Space Station (ISS), but not for the astronauts. The red Bordeaux will age for a year before being returned to Earth. Researchers will study how weightlessness and space radiation affect the aging process. The bottles arrived aboard a Northrop Grumman capsule that launched from Virginia on Saturday last week, each packed in a metal canister to prevent breakage. Universities in France and Germany are taking part in the experiment.
RUSSIA
Woman’s gold shoes fail
Customs officers detained a woman at the border between eastern Siberia and China with nearly 2kg of gold in her shoes, after she appeared to be walking strangely. Officers noticed that the woman “was nervous and acted in a suspicious manner,” Marina Boiko, a spokeswoman for the regional customs authorities, said yesterday. A search led to the discovery of eight pieces of gold weighing a total of 1.9kg, which had been attached to the insoles of her shoes with duct tape. The ingots, valued at more than 5 million rubles (US$79,000) had been made illegally. The woman had tried to smuggle the gold at the request of a Chinese citizen, Boiko said.
UNITED STATES
Sweet deal for student
Krispy Kreme on Monday reached an agreement with a Minnesota college student who drove to Iowa every weekend to buy hundreds of doughnuts to resell them in the Twin Cities area, after stopping him last week over liability issues. Its said Jayson Gonzalez, 21, can now work with it as an independent operator. The deal includes a 500-dozen doughnut donation when he starts up again.
‘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