UNITED KINGDOM
Rwanda deportations touted
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday revealed a controversial plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, acknowledging that the move is likely to face significant legal hurdles. Migrants who cross the English Channel on small boats risk being sent to the African state, Johnson said. The measure, which is a major shift in approach, is designed to deter people from making the dangerous crossing, he said. About 28,000 did so last year. “This problem has bedeviled our country for too long and caused far too much human suffering and tragedy,” Johnson said. “This is the government that refuses to duck the difficult decisions.” The plan is likely to spark a huge political row, given the criticism faced by other countries with similar policies. There has already been a major backlash from opposition parties in parliament and human rights groups.
SOUTH KOREA
Most virus curbs lifted
The country is to lift almost all social distancing measures, the government said yesterday, citing a dramatic fall in reported cases of COVID-19 cases after a surge fueled by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. However, a mask mandate would remain, it said. People would be required to wear masks indoors “for a considerable time ahead,” the government said, adding that it might lift the requirement to wear masks outdoors in two weeks, if cases continue to fall. “The midnight business curfew and a 10-person cap on the size of gatherings will be lifted starting Monday,” Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said. The decision marks the end of two years of strict distancing requirements, which have put huge strain on small businesses, and indicates South Korea is returning to normality. However, requiring people to wear masks indoors was “inevitable for a considerable time ahead,” Kim said.
UNITED STATES
Wildfire kills two people
A wildfire that has burned more than 200 homes on the edge of a mountain community in New Mexico and killed two people was caused when a power line was toppled by strong winds, state authorities said. Crews on Thursday worked to restore power to parts of areas affected. Firefighters used a break in what had been a steady stream of relentless gusts to make headway against the deadly blaze. The remains of the couple were found on Wednesday afternoon near their home after family members notified police that the two had tried to evacuate, but were unaccounted for. Authorities were working to confirm their identities.
DENMARK
Pig emotions decoded
Researchers have developed a way of decoding the feelings of pigs through their grunts, oinks and squeals in a project aimed at improving animal welfare. Biologists studied more than 7,000 recordings from 411 pigs, from the brief squeaks of satisfaction at feeding time to the desperate cries at slaughter, before classifying them into 19 categories. “We show that it’s possible basically to figure out the emotions of the pigs according to their vocalizations,” said project leader Elodie Briefer, a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. The project offers a new way of improving animal welfare by laying the groundwork for a tool that can categorize an emotion based on the noise produced, she said. “We also run a machine learning algorithm ... which produces a spectrogram, then it is trained to recognize negative and positive contexts.” The new tool would help farmers monitor their pigs’ mental health in addition to their physical wellbeing.
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