PORTUGAL
Planned party ban protested
Thousands of people on Sunday took to the streets of Lisbon to protest a call for the far-right anti-immigration Chega (Enough) party to be banned. “Shame,” “We will resist to the end” and “For freedom of expression, against corruption” were among slogans written on placards at the march. A heavy security presence flanked the march, which drew protesters from across the country, responding to a call by Chega. Former presidential candidate Ana Gomes, a socialist, is leading the call for a Chega ban, going to court in February. There are also calls for a probe into the party’s finances. Gomes has said Chega harbors xenophobic ideas in contravention of Portugal’s constitution.
ISRAEL
Police, Palestinians clash
Police on Sunday clashed with hundreds of Palestinian protesters outside Jerusalem’s Old City, firing stun grenades and a water cannon to disperse the crowd, Israeli media said. Similar clashes have occurred nightly since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began last week. Palestinians said they typically gather on the stairs outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate each evening during Ramadan, but this year Israeli police put up barriers to keep away the crowds. Police accused the crowds of disorderly conduct and throwing stones at security forces. Police said they had made at least three arrests, and the Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said four people were injured.
UNITED STATES
Chicago schools to reopen
Chicago’s public high schools were yesterday set to reopen for the first time since the nation’s third-largest school district went fully remote amid the COVID-19 pandemic more than a year ago. The Chicago Teachers Union on Sunday announced that its members overwhelmingly approved a reopening plan that includes helping students 16 and older and their families obtain COVID-19 vaccines, with priority given to certain postal codes hit hard by the pandemic.
UNITED STATES
Pig’s head left for witness
Vandals left a pig’s head at the one-time California home of a use-of-force expert who testified on behalf of the officer accused of killing George Floyd, police said. Blood was also smeared on the house in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco, that once belonged to Barry Brodd, a retired police officer who was on the stand in the Minneapolis murder trial last week, police said in a statement on Saturday. “It appears the suspects in this vandalism were targeting Mr Brodd for his testimony,” the Santa Rosa Police Department said. “Because Mr Brodd no longer lives in the city of Santa Rosa, it appears the victim was falsely targeted.”
UNITED STATES
Couple solve cup mystery
An upstate New York couple may have finally solved the mystery of who has been tossing used coffee cups in their front yard for nearly three years. Edward and Cheryl Patton told the Buffalo News that they tried mounting a camera in a tree in front of their home in Lake View to catch the phantom litterer, but it was not until some neighbors got involved and followed a minivan and jotted down its license plate number that there was a break in the case. After Edward Patton called police, they waited and pulled over a vehicle driven by 76-year-old Larry Pope, who Cheryl Patton said had once worked with her and had had disagreements with her over union issues.
VANUATU
Infected body washes ashore
The government yesterday imposed a three-day domestic and international travel ban on its most populous island, Efete, after tests confirmed a body that washed ashore was infected with COVID-19. Government sources said the deceased was a Filipino sailor whose vessel had left Port Vila a day before his body was found washed up near a village about 5km outside the city on April 11. The man’s crewmates and police officers who retrieved the body had all tested negative for the virus, said the sources, who wished to remain anonymous, as they were not authorized to discuss the matter. It was not clear how or where the man died, or how his body ended up in the sea. The Pacific island nation has recorded only three COVID-19 cases, all arriving travelers, and the National Disaster Management Office said it was taking steps to ensure there was no transmission among the population of 200,000.
SINGAPORE
US$1.7m of drugs seized
The Central Narcotics Bureau yesterday said it made its biggest seizure of cannabis in 25 years in a drug bust last week. The bureau seized 23.7kg of cannabis and 16.5kg of heroin, as well as crystal methamphetamine and ecstasy tablets, it said in a statement. The cannabis haul was the largest since 1996 and the heroin seizure the biggest since 2001. The drugs are estimated to be worth more than S$2.3 million (US$1.7 million), the bureau said. Officers arrested a 22-year-old Malaysian male on Friday for suspected drug trafficking offenses. The trafficking of more than 500g of cannabis can carry the death penalty in the city-state.
SOUTH AFRICA
Blaze forces evacuations
Emergency workers have started evacuating three 17-story residential buildings overlooking Cape Town as a wildfire fanned by strong winds continued to burn out of control along Table Mountain, city officials said yesterday. The fire started early on Sunday morning on the slopes of Devil’s Peak, another part of the city’s mountainous backdrop, forcing University of Cape Town students to evacuate residences as runaway flames set several campus buildings ablaze, including a library housing historic books and scripts. About 250 firefighters were battling to control the blaze, as strong winds ground helicopters normally used in firebombing sorties. A thick plume of smoke is obscuring visibility throughout the city centre. Other properties damaged include the popular hikers’ restaurant at the Rhodes memorial and the thatch-roofed Mostert Mill, built around 1796 and the nation’s oldest working mill. Two firefighters sustained burn wounds and were hospitalized for treatment, officials said, as a change in wind direction saw the fire spread rapidly toward the city bowl overnight.
PHILIPPINES
13 die in SUV accident
Thirteen people, many of them children, drowned when their SUV on Sunday plunged into an irrigation canal in a northern mountain city, police said yesterday. Two of the 15 passengers of the crowded SUV survived the accident with injuries. The driver was among the dead, who included seven children, officials said. The victims were on their way to a popular lake when the accident occurred in Tabuk city in Kalinga Province. Police were investigating the cause, but initial reports indicate the driver, Soy Lope Agtulao, suddenly lost control, and the SUV skidded off the road and plummeted into the canal. Villagers and police brought the victims, mostly relatives, to two Kalinga hospitals.
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