MALTA
Fenech arrested over murder
Authorities on Wednesday arrested a prominent businessman who appears to be a “person of interest” in the assassination of a prominent investigative reporter. Yorgen Fenech was on a yacht leaving the country that was intercepted by the military early on Wednesday and forced back to port. In remarks to reporters, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat did not directly tie the arrest to the slaying of 53-year-old Daphne Caruana Galizia in a powerful car bomb on Oct. 16, 2017. However, he did say that it appeared to result from comments he made a day earlier on the possibility of a pardon for an alleged middleman who had offered to identify the mastermind of the killing. “If I had not given these instructions, maybe today we might be speaking of persons of interest who might have escaped,” Muscat told reporters. Caruana Galizia’s three sons were more direct in their comments on Twitter, making a link between the arrest and their mother’s assassination. Muscat said that no politician is tied to Caruana Galizia’s murder, but her sons have said that Fenech is tied to Muscat’s chief of staff and a former energy minister.
MYANMAR
Suu Kyi to lead team to ICJ
State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi is to lead a legal team that will seek to contest an accusation of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the treatment of the nation’s Rohingya Muslim minority. “The state counselor, in her capacity as union minister for foreign affairs, will lead a team to The Hague, Netherlands, to defend the national interest of Myanmar at the ICJ,” her office said on Facebook late on Wednesday. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh at the onset of military attacks on Muslim villages in Rakhine State in 2017. The genocide case was lodged by the Gambia on Monday last week and public hearings are to begin on Dec. 10.
UNITED STATES
Gore launches climate talks
Former vice president Al Gore is launching a series of climate presentations around the globe over the next 24 hours. The Climate Reality Project, founded by Gore, is sponsoring the “24 Hours of Reality” presentations. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, ahead of his talk, Gore said that there are reasons to hope some of the predicted worst-case scenarios for climate change can be avoided. He said that reasons to hope include the auto industry’s move toward electric cars, the increasing competitiveness of renewable energy and a move by farmers toward environmentally friendly practices. Gore said that he has trained 20,000 climate activists, many of whom would be giving the presentations at more than 1,700 locations as far flung as Antarctica and the Great Barrier Reef.
COLOMBIA
Envoy sorry for US criticism
Ambassador to the US Francisco Santos has apologized after a recording surfaced in which he criticizes the US Department of State as a feckless institution subjugated to the White House. Publimetro on Wednesday released a recording of a conversation between Santos and minister of foreign affairs-designate Claudia Blum. The newspaper said that the private conversation happened last week at a Washington cafe and was recorded by a third person it did not identify. In the conversation, Santos complains that the department had lost its muscle as a driver of US policy, as it was when he was vice president a decade ago. He compares it to a non-governmental organization.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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