NEW ZEALAND
Cyclist legislator gives birth
Lawmaker Julie Anne Genter got on her bicycle early on Sunday and headed to the hospital — where she gave birth an hour later. “Big news! At 3.04am this morning we welcomed the newest member of our family. I genuinely wasn’t planning to cycle in labour, but it did end up happening,” the Greens politician wrote on Facebook a few hours later. The island nation has a reputation for down-to-earth politicians. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern famously brought her then-three-month-old to a UN meeting as she was still breastfeeding. Genter — who is her party’s spokesperson for transport issues — also biked to the hospital in 2018 to give birth to her first-born, local media said.
AUSTRALIA
Online bullying law mulled
The government would introduce legislation to make social media giants provide details of users who post defamatory comments, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday. The government has been looking at the extent of the responsibility of platforms for defamatory material published on their sites, he said. The announcement comes after the country’s highest court ruled that publishers can be held liable for comments on online forums, which led to some news outlets, such as CNN, to deny Australians access to their Facebook pages. “The online world should not be a Wild West where bots and bigots and trolls and others are anonymously going around and can harm people,” Morrison said. The new legislation would introduce a complaints mechanism, so that if somebody thinks they are being defamed on social media, they would be able to require the platform to take the material down. If the content is not withdrawn, a court process could force the platform to provide details of the commenter.
CHINA
N Korean escapee captured
Police have captured a North Korean prisoner who last month staged a daring escape from jail and had been on the run for more than forty days, authorities said yesterday. Officials were offering a US$23,000 bounty for the recapture of the escapee, sparking massive interest on social media. The 39-year-old prisoner escaped the facility in Jilin City by scaling a shed and vaulting the outer wall on Oct. 18. A one-line statement from Jilin police said he had been remanded at about 10am yesterday morning, without giving more details. Videos shared by state-run Beijing News showed an emaciated-looking man being carried by several officers and a photograph of him with his hands behind his back. The man was convicted of illegal entry into China, larceny and robbery, and was due for release and deportation back to North Korea in 2023, prompting online speculation that he broke out to avoid being sent back.
CHINA
WTA reiterates concerns
Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) chairman Steve Simon has said he remains “deeply concerned” about the whereabouts of tennis player Peng Shuai (彭帥) and her ability to “communicate freely, openly and directly” after allegations that a powerful politician forced her to have sex. The three-time Olympian and former doubles champion has dropped out of public view after accusing former vice premier Zhang Gaoli (張高麗) of sexual abuse in a Nov. 2 social media post that was quickly taken down. “Steve Simon has reached out to Peng Shuai via various communication channels,” the WTA said in a statement on Saturday. “He has sent her two e-mails, to which it was clear her responses were influenced by others.”
‘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
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