UNITED STATES
Ginsburg hospitalized
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized after experiencing chills and fever, the court said on Saturday. The court’s public information office in a statement said Ginsburg was admitted on Friday night to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was initially evaluated at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington before being transferred to Johns Hopkins for further evaluation and treatment of any possible infection. With intravenous antibiotics and fluids, her symptoms abated and she expected to be released from the hospital as early as yesterday morning, the statement said. Earlier this month Ginsburg, 86, suffered what the court described as a stomach bug.
FRANCE
Autographed ‘Tintin’ sold
A print from a classic Tintin comic book signed by US astronaut Buzz Aldrin fetched 33,800 euros (US$37,250), triple the auction house’s estimate, at a Paris sale on Saturday. The image from Explorers on the Moon, a 1950s adventure where the Belgian reporter becomes the first human on the moon, features an inscription from Aldrin: “First moonwalkers after Tintin.” Aldrin was the second man to walk on the lunar surface after Neil Armstrong during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.
ITALY
Migrants rescued at sea
Coast guards on Saturday said they had rescued 143 migrants off the island of Lampedusa, although about 20 others were apparently missing, according to the survivors. “The crews of four patrols rescued 143 people who had fallen into the sea” from a 10m boat, the coast guard said in a statement. Two men, an Eritrean and a Libyan, said they had been unable to locate their wives following the rescue. A search for those missing continued on Saturday evening with two planes from Frontex — the border and coast guard agency for the EU’s Schengen area — and the Italian navy flying over the area. Police were also searching the Lampedusa coast to see if any of the migrants had managed to swim ashore. Those rescued were taken to Lampedusa, where they were allowed to disembark.
FRANCE
Heavy rains hit Cote d’Azur
Two people were missing and hundreds of homes flooded on Saturday as heavy rains hit the Cote d’Azur, disrupting air and rail transport and leading to hundreds of evacuations. One of the missing was a 77-year-old man. Near Muy, in the Car area, a woman was also missing after a lifeboat capsized with three crew members and three other people aboard. While five of them reached safety, she could not be found. Two other people were rushed to hospital as storms hit the area overnight. The two districts affected,
BRAZIL
Government ready for unrest
President Jair Bolsonaro said that his government is prepared for any unrest, as he expressed his concern about the wave of protests across South America. However, he said that he did not expect trouble in the country. “We always have to be prepared so that we are not surprised by events,” he told reporters at a military ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. “There is no reason whatsoever, as we understand, for this movement to come here.” So far there have been no major demonstrations in the country, although the recent release from jail of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva might energize the opposition.
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