CUBA
Protesters sentenced
Courts issued prison terms — some up to 18 years — for another 74 people involved in protests last year against the government, officials said on Wednesday. Judicial authorities in Havana, Santiago and Matanzas announced sentences for 74 defendants accused of sedition, public disorder and other crimes related to the protests. Two defendants were acquitted. Of those who were sentenced, 56 got between 10 and 18 years behind bars, while the other 18 — including 12 teenagers — had their sentences commuted to “correctional labor.” Those convicted “attacked the constitutional order and stability of our socialist state,” the prosecutors’ office said. Mass protests broke out across Cuba on July 11 and 12 last year, with demonstrators demanding freedom amid economic strife, shortages of food and medicine, and growing anger at the government.
BRAZIL
Judge faces investigation
The country’s judicial watchdog agency on Tuesday said that it is investigating a judge who stopped an 11-year-old rape victim from getting an abortion — a procedure that advocates insist is allowed in the South American nation for rape cases at any stage of a pregnancy. Santa Catarina State Judge Joana Ribeiro Zimmer was filmed at a hearing on May 9 asking the child whether she understood how pregnancies happen, referring to her rapist as “the father of the baby,” asking her to “hold on a little more” and even suggesting a name should be picked. The girl said that she did not want to give birth. The case, reported by The Intercept Brasil Web site last week, prompted associations of magistrates and human rights groups to request that the National Council of Justice remove Zimmer from her post.
CHILE
First lady title changed
The new government is doing away with the office of the first lady in an effort to transform a role that the president and his partner have characterized as archaic. The first lady is to be known as the “sociocultural coordinator of the republic’s presidency,” the government said in a news release on Wednesday. The administration of President Gabriel Boric got to that title after having to backtrack on an effort to give the role a makeover by declaring the office once known as “the first lady’s Cabinet” would be changed to “Irina Karamanos’ Cabinet,” using the name of the president’s partner. The move, which became public on Tuesday, drew accusations from many members of the opposition that the government was trying to personalize an institutional role in the government. Camila Vallejo, a spokeswoman for the state, said that the change amounted to an “administrative error” and the reference to “Irina Karamanos’ Cabinet” was removed from the executive’s Web site on Wednesday.
UNITED STATES
Lightning kills woman
A woman and two dogs were killed on Wednesday by a lightning strike as thunderstorms pounded southern California, authorities said. The fatal lightning strike was reported at 8:50am near the San Gabriel River in Pico Rivera, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sergeant Jonathan Branham said. “It was a female Hispanic adult who had been struck by lightning and did not survive her injuries,” he said. “She was walking two dogs and the dogs were also deceased.” The woman was later identified as Antonia Mendoza Chavez, 52.
TURKEY
Wildfire spreading
Firefighters yesterday battled a wildfire in the country’s southwest from land and air, as hopes that the blazes were contained fizzled after they spread again due to high temperatures and windy conditions. Scenes of burning woodland near the Aegean coastal resort of Marmaris sparked fears of a repeat of last year’s fires that devastated tens of thousands of hectares across the region. The cause of the fire, which began at about 8pm on Tuesday is not clear. Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirisci said that about 150 people from 51 houses were evacuated as a precaution.
UNITED KINGDOM
Polio virus found in sewage
Health officials on Wednesday warned parents to ensure their children have been vaccinated against polio after the virus that causes the disease was found in London sewage samples in the past few months. The Health Security Agency said it believes the virus was “vaccine-derived,” meaning it came from someone who received the live polio vaccine abroad. That person would then have passed the virus to closely linked individuals in London, who shed the virus into their feces. Authorities said that the risk to the public is “extremely low.”
JAPAN
City data lost after night out
A city has been left with more than a headache after yesterday admitting that a contractor lost a USB containing personal data on all 460,000 residents during a night out. The western city of Amagasaki said that a private contractor, whose name has not been disclosed, was carrying the memory stick while out for drinks after work on Tuesday evening, when the person, who was working on a COVID-19 pandemic relief program, lost a bag containing the USB. “We deeply regret that we have profoundly harmed the public’s trust in the administration of the city,” an Amagasaki official told a news conference. The encrypted information was put on the USB to transfer it to a call center in Osaka. It included the names, genders, addresses, birthdays and other personal information of all the city’s residents, as well as tax data and bank account information on some locals, the city said.
INDIA
BJP picks tribal candidate
A woman representing the nation’s tribal community is likely to be the country’s next president after the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) picked Draupadi Murmu as its candidate. The presidency is a ceremonial post and the election of Murmu, 64, is a formality with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in a strong position to galvanize support for her among lawmakers representing parliament and state legislatures. The BJP chose Murmu at the party’s parliamentary board meeting on Tuesday chaired by Modi. Party president J.P. Nadda told reporters that they felt the next president should be a female tribal candidate. The vote is to be held on July 18.
AUSTRIA
Vienna tops livable city list
Vienna has made a comeback as the world’s most livable city, an annual report published yesterday in The Economist showed. The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was not included this year after Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, while Russian cities Moscow and St Petersburg fell in the rankings over “censorship” and the effects of Western sanctions. Vienna snatched the top spot from Auckland, which dropped to 34th place due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the report said. Europe boasted six out of the top 10 cities.
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
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