IRAN
New pahse for reactor starts
Tehran and Moscow on Sunday inaugurated a new phase of construction for a second reactor at Iran’s sole nuclear power plant in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf coast. Atomic Energy Organization of Iran head Ali Akbar Salehi and Alexander Lokshin, deputy chief of Russia’s nuclear agency, Rosatom, launched the new stage at a ceremony where concrete was poured for the reactor base. The reactor is one of two officially under construction since 2017 at the Bushehr site about 750km south of Tehran. The landmark 2015 nuclear deal Iran signed with six major powers, including Russia, placed restrictions on the sort of nuclear reactor Tehran could develop and its production of nuclear fuel, but it did not require Iran to halt its use of nuclear energy for power generation. “In a long-term vision until 2027-2028, when these projects are finished, we will have 3,000 megawatts of nuclear plant-generated electricity,” Salehi said at the ceremony.
POLAND
Ukrainian extradition mulled
Ihor Mazur, a Ukrainian veteran of the war in the country’s east who was detained in Poland based on an Interpol request issued by Russia, was released on Sunday, according to officials and Polish media. However, Mazur must remain in the eastern Polish city of Lublin as authorities there examine the extradition request, private television broadcaster TVN reported. In a brief interview with TVN from Lublin, Mazur said he was invited to Poland to attend a conference in Warsaw devoted to security issues, and Polish and Ukrainian cooperation against Russian actions in the region. “I think my case was the main topic of this conference,” Mazur told TVN. Mazur was detained by Polish border guards on Friday based on the Interpol request from Russia, which had sought his extradition. Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Andrii Deshchytsia on Sunday announced that a Polish prosecutor ordered Mazur’s release.
DENMARK
Jewish graves desecrated
Vandals have desecrated more than 80 graves at a Jewish cemetery in the western town of Randers, police said on Sunday. “More than 80 gravestones were daubed with green graffiti and some were overturned” at the Ostre Kirkegard cemetery, a police statement said. “There are no symbols or words written on the gravestones, but paint has been daubed on them,” the local Ritzau news agency quoted police spokesman Bo Christensen as saying. Police said a complaint had been made on Saturday. “The attacks at the weekend ... are both an attack against Danish Jews and against all of us,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Facebook. “Our Jewish citizens must be respected and not live in fear.”
UNITED STATES
Porsche goes airborne
Police say a convertible traveling at high speed went airborne and crashed into the second floor of a New Jersey commercial building, killing both of the car’s occupants. Toms River police say the red Porsche Boxster went out of control just after 6:30am on Sunday. The car hit the center median, struck an embankment and went airborne into the building. Police said two Toms River men, 22-year-old Braden DeMartin and 23-year-old Daniel Foley, were deceased when emergency responders arrived at the scene. Police said the structure, which was unoccupied at the time, had been deemed unsafe by a building inspector.
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