SOUTH KOREA
Ex-president’s retrial starts
The retrial of former president Park Geun-hye began yesterday over the sprawling corruption scandal that saw her impeached, convicted and jailed, only for the hearing to end after five minutes. Park, the nation’s first female president, boycotted the session, Yonhap news agency reported. She has refused to take part in the judicial proceedings against her for more than two years. As a result, the Seoul High Court adjourned and scheduled another session for Jan. 31, when it is to move straight to closing arguments, Yonhap reported.
SYRIA
Israel attacks base: army
Israeli jets attacked the main T4 air base in Homs province, the army said on Tuesday, adding that its air defenses downed several missiles in strikes that caused only material damage. An army spokesman told state media that four Israeli missiles did reach the base, but said air defenses intercepted several others. State television earlier did not say who was behind the attack on the major air base, which Israel accuses of hosting an Iranian military presence and has attacked several times in recent years. The army statement said that the Israeli jets flew from Tanf to the southeast, where the US has set up a base near the Iraqi-Jordanian border.
UNITED STATES
Flynn seeks to retract plea
President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn on Tuesday asked a judge for permission to withdraw his guilty plea in the Russia election interference probe. In a big reversal, Flynn’s lawyers argued that prosecutors contravened a plea agreement that he struck with them, because they demanded he give false testimony. Flynn, a retired US Army lieutenant general, lasted only 22 days in the job in the early days of Trump’s administration. He was being investigated for his contacts with Russians when he was removed and eventually pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. His lawyers claimed that after Flynn changed his legal team in June, prosecutors demanded that he admit falsely that he knowingly lied in filing forms with the Department of Justice that concealed work his lobbying firm did for the government of Turkey.
UNITED STATES
Teen shot dead in school
A 16-year-old student was on Tuesday night shot to death at a Texas high school, and a suspect was arrested hours later, officials said. Grenita Lathan, interim superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, confirmed that the shooting victim at Bellaire High School had died. She gave no other information and took no questions. A suspect and another person police said was connected to the case were arrested about three-and-a-half hours after the shooting, statements from the school district and Bellaire police said.
PERU
Iconic site ‘damaged’
One tourist is facing trial and five others are to be deported after being accused of damaging the nation’s cultural heritage and reportedly defecating in a sacred temple at the iconic Machu Picchu sanctuary, police said on Tuesday. The six were arrested by police on Sunday after being found by park rangers in a restricted area of the Temple of the Sun, an important site at the Inca sanctuary. Authorities said the four men and two women had damaged the 600-year-old temple and defecated on the site, which lies in the southern Cusco region.
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