COLOMBIA
UN envoy urges protection
The new UN envoy to Colombia on Wednesday urged the government to swiftly implement its plan to protect social leaders, saying seven leaders were killed in just the first week of this month. Carlos Ruiz Massieu told the UN Security Council that there have also been 31 attacks since UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ latest report was published earlier this month. According to the attorney general’s investigations, three-quarters of the killings were from attacks by “criminal and armed groups” on leaders of “local action boards”, and indigenous communities and those active in land reclamation and voluntary crop substitution programs, he said.
UNITED STATES
Trump delays speech
President Donald Trump announced late on Wednesday that he would give the State of the Union address when the government shutdown ends, after House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi effectively blocked him from delivering the annual speech in Congress. “As the Shutdown was going on, Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address. I agreed,” the president tweeted. “She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative — I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over.” Trump also said he was not looking for an alternative venue, because none “can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber,” adding that he looked forward to giving a “great” address “in the near future.”
? UNITED STATES
Cohen postpones testimony
President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has postponed his testimony in Congress, citing threats from the president, Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis said on Wednesday. The threats were unspecified, but allegedly came from Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, according to a statement from Davis. Cohen had been scheduled to appear before the House of Representatives’ oversight committee on Feb. 7 to testify about his work for Trump, including contacts with Russia during the 2016 election and hush payments he allegedly made at Trump’s direction to two former lovers of the president. “Due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr Cohen’s continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date,” Davis said. “This is a time where Mr Cohen had to put his family and their safety first.”
UNITED STATES
About 7m uninsured
About 7 million fewer Americans have health insurance today than did four years ago, a survey showed, the highest uninsured rate since 2014. The figures come from a poll conducted by Gallup, which since 2008 has asked about 28,000 people each quarter: “Do you have health insurance?” Last year, the pollsters found that 13.7 percent of Americans lacked health insurance, the highest levels since 2014. That represented a net increase of 7 million uninsured people. Comparably in 2014, the number of people without insurance was decreasing because Obamacare was going into effect. At its peak, just after Obamacare was passed, but before it went into effect, nearly one in five Americans lacked health insurance. Uninsured rates were at their lowest around the time of President Donald Trump’s election in 2016 (at 10.6 percent), Gallup reported, and began to rise after a series of sustained Republican attacks on the law.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Police battle piracy surge
Police yesterday asked the public for help tracking down a “notorious” pirate, as they tried to end a spate of offshore and onshore robberies. Officers were struggling to apprehend the chief suspect — a prison escapee and alleged pirate named Tommy Baker — because their last patrol boat broke down six years ago, Police Commissioner Gari Baki said. Baker was said to have escaped from Port Moresby General Hospital in October last year while receiving medical treatment. The Post Courier reported that seven police houses were burned down and several officers were wounded in a shoot-out with Baker’s gang. “A lot of police work went into his initial capture, but he simply walked out of prison, so we have to now spend a lot of money to get him back in again,” Baki said in a statement. Sea piracy is on the rise in Alotau “due to the fact the police does not have the ability to deal with it,” he added.
JAPAN
Sterilization law upheld
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law that effectively requires transgender people to be sterilized before their gender can be changed on official documents. The court acknowledged “doubts” were emerging over whether the rule reflects changing social values, but said the law was constitutional. The decision published yesterday upholds a law that requires any person wishing to change their documents to have “no reproductive glands or reproductive glands that have permanently lost function.” It also requires the person to have “a body which appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs of those of the opposite gender.” The panel of four justices said that the measure was intended to prevent “problems” in parent-child relations that could lead to societal “confusion.” The judges said they recognized the invasive nature of the law, adding that legislation should be regularly reviewed as social and family values change.
RUSSIA
Cruise missile displayed
Moscow on Wednesday showed foreign military attaches a new cruise missile that the US says breaches a landmark arms control pact, billing it as an exercise in transparency it hoped would persuade Washington to stay in the treaty. Washington has threatened to pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, alleging that the Russian missile breaches the pact, which bans either side from stationing short and intermediate-range, land-based missiles in Europe. Russia says the missile’s range puts it outside the treaty and has accused the US of inventing a false pretext to exit the treaty.
CHINA
Monkey with disorder cloned
Scientists yesterday announced that they had cloned five monkeys from a single animal that was genetically engineered to have a sleep disorder, saying it could aid research into human psychological problems. A research team from the Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai said it had altered the genes of a macaque to give it circadian rhythm disorder. They then cloned five macaques from that individual, and found that the new monkeys show signs of mental problems associated with sleep disorders. The findings, published yesterday in the journal National Science Review, were hailed as a world first by Chinese media. The report’s authors said the findings could aid research into human psychological illnesses because scientists would be able to create animals with specific disorders.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
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