CANADA
Biden may scrap pipeline
US president-elect Joe Biden plans to scrap the permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline between the US and Canada, two local broadcasters said on Sunday. CBC and CTV cited sources and notes from Biden’s transition team that indicate he would rescind the permit via executive order following his inauguration tomorrow. The US$8 billion pipeline extension would transport about 500,000 barrels of oil per day from tar sands in Alberta to refineries in coastal Texas. Alberta premier Jason Kenney said on Twitter he was “deeply concerned” by reports of Biden’s plan to now nix the project. “Should the incoming US administration abrogate the Keystone-XL permit, Alberta will work with TC Energy [the owner] to use all legal avenues available to protect its interest in the project,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Phil Spector dies at 81
Phil Spector, the eccentric and revolutionary music producer who transformed rock music with his “Wall of Sound” method and who later was convicted of murder, has died. He was 81. California state prison officials said he died on Saturday of natural causes at a hospital. Spector was convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson in 2003 at his castle-like mansion on the edge of Los Angeles. After a trial in 2009, he was sentenced to 19 years to life. Clarkson, star of Barbarian Queen and other B-movies, was found shot to death in the foyer of Spector’s mansion. Decades before, Spector had been hailed as a visionary for channeling Wagnerian ambition into the three-minute song, creating the “Wall of Sound” that merged spirited vocal harmonies with lavish orchestral arrangements to produce such pop hits as Da Doo Ron Ron, Be My Baby and He’s a Rebel.
UNITED STATES
Twitter suspends lawmaker
Twitter on Sunday temporarily suspended the account of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican lawmaker from Georgia who has expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories online. Greene said in a statement that her account was suspended “without explanation,” accusing big tech companies of “silencing” conservative views. Greene had posted a clip from an interview with a local news outlet in which she condemned Georgia election officials and expressed support for debunked theories claiming that voting machines, absentee ballots and other issues led to widespread fraud in the state during the presidential election. Twitter responded to the tweet, and others, with a message that called the election fraud claim “disputed,” and saying it posed “a risk of violence.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Police break up ‘swordfight’
A brawl between 40 men using knives, bottles and a sword has been broken up by police in west London. Police initially reported that two swords had been used in the fight in Southall, England, in the early hours of Sunday, but later corrected this to “at least one sword.” At 8pm on Sunday, police released a statement saying that they had been called at “around 0200hrs to a large group of males fighting with knives and at least one sword in the area of King Street, Southall.” Two men in their 20s were arrested and remain in police custody, according to the statement. Despite the diverse and unusual weapons used, police said: “There are no reported injuries.” The police have asked anyone with information about those involved to come forward.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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