MEXICO
Kellogg’s cereals seized
The country has seized 380,000 boxes of Corn Flakes, Special K and other Kellogg’s cereals, claiming the boxes had cartoon drawings on them in violation of recently enacted laws aimed at improving children’s diets. While Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies are clearly not the worst thing Mexican children eat, the laws prohibit food companies from using marketing tactics that might appeal to children, like cartoons or mascots. The consumer protection agency also said on Friday that the cereal boxes did not clearly state nutritional values like calories, fats, salt or sugar, or did not have the proper warning signs for levels of those ingredients that are considered excessive.
RUSSIA
Hacker group broken up
Moscow on Friday said that it had dismantled the prominent hacking group REvil, which last year carried out a high-profile attack on US software firm Kaseya, following a request from Washington. The announcement came on the same day that Ukrainian government sites were hit by hackers in an attack that Kiev linked to Moscow, which has amassed tens of thousands of troops on the border. Russia’s Federal Security Service said in a statement that it had “suppressed the illegal activities” of members of the group during raids on 25 addresses that swept up 14 people. The searches were carried out following an “appeal from the relevant US authorities.”
UNITED STATES
Militia leader remains jailed
The founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group remained in jail after his first court appearance on Friday, a day after his arrest on charges he plotted with others to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6 last year to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. The seditious conspiracy charges against Stewart Rhodes and 10 other Oath Keepers members or associates are the first to be levied in connection with the riot. They are also the first to be brought by the Department of Justice in more than a decade. A federal magistrate judge in Plano, Texas, ordered Rhodes, 56, of Granbury, Texas, to be held in custody until a detention hearing on Thursday.
UNITED STATES
Baldwin hands over phone
Actor Alec Baldwin has handed his cellphone to authorities as they investigate the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the Rust movie set, almost a month after a warrant was issued for the device. The actor was holding a Colt gun during a rehearsal for the Western being filmed in New Mexico in October last year when it discharged a live round, killing Halyna Hutchins. Police are investigating why live ammunition was present on set, and last month requested Baldwin’s phone on the grounds “there may be evidence on the phone” that could be “material and relevant to this investigation.”
UNITED STATES
Students stage walkout
Hundreds of Chicago students staged a walkout on Friday, saying there were not enough precautions in place to protect them from COVID-19, despite an agreement between the teachers’ union and school district to return to classrooms. The walkout at schools across the city culminated outside district offices downtown, where the students waved signs, chanted and briefly blocked traffic. “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Lori Lightfoot’s got to go,” they said, a reference to the Chicago mayor.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
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