UNITED KINGDOM
Lawmaker accused of rape
A lawmaker and former minister from the ruling Conservative Party has been arrested after a parliamentary aide accused him of rape, sexual assault and coercive control, according to reports on Saturday. The politician was not named, but the Metropolitan Police said in a statement that it had begun an investigation. “On Friday, 31 July, the Metropolitan Police Service received allegations relating to four separate incidents involving allegations of sexual offences and assault,” the statement said. “A man in his 50s was arrested on Saturday, 1 August on suspicion of rape. He has been released on bail to return on a date in mid-August,” it said.
AUSTRALIA
Whales surprise swimmers
A humpback whale calf, closely followed by its mother, yesterday came within meters of surfers and swimmers at Manly Beach, north of Sydney. It is unusual to see a whale calf so early in the year in Sydney. One board rider, Josh, told the Guardian Australia that he had never seen a whale, particularly a calf, come so close to the beach at Manly. “There was a bit of pointing going on and I looked round and the little one was just there,” Josh said. “Then mum came in pretty quick smart, I think when she realized how close people were.”
IRAN
US-based ‘terrorist’ nabbed
The government on Saturday said that it had arrested the head of a US-based “terrorist group” accused of being behind a deadly 2008 bombing in the southern city of Shiraz and planning other attacks. “Jamshid Sharmahd, who was leading armed and sabotage operations inside Iran, is now in the powerful hands” of the country’s security forces, state television said, citing a Ministry of Intelligence statement. It did not elaborate on where or when the alleged leader of the opposition royalist group known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, or Tondar (Farsi for “Thunder”), was detained.
UNITED STATES
Convention to be private
The vote to renominate President Donald Trump is set to be conducted in private later this month, without members of the press present, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Convention said, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. While Trump last month called off the public components of the convention in Florida, citing spiking cases of the virus across the country, 336 delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24 to formally vote to make Trump the Republican standard-bearer once more. If the Republican decision stands, it would mark the first party nominating convention in modern history to be closed to reporters.
AFGHANISTAN
Ranking extremist killed
The National Directorate of Security on Saturday said that it has killed a high-ranking official with an Islamic State affiliate in an operation in the country’s east. The directorate said in a statement that Assadullah Orakzai was an intelligence leader for the Islamic State and that special forces killed him near Jalalabad. Orakzai was suspected of being involved in several deadly attacks against military and civilian targets in the country. Last week, a UN report said the country saw a 13 percent drop in the number of civilians killed and wounded in violence in the first six months of the year, compared with the same period last year.
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
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
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