UNITED STATES
China relationship ‘no better’
The relationship with China is no better under President Joe Biden than it was under his predecessor, Donald Trump, and it might even have gotten worse, economist Stephen Roach said this week. “If anything, he’s been tougher,” Roach, a Yale University senior lecturer and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said of Biden. His views go against the tide of optimism that followed last month’s G20 summit, at which Biden had his first in-person talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Many China watchers saw them as a sign that the relationship between the superpowers was on the mend.
JAPAN
‘Kobe Cannibal’ dies aged 73
Issei Sagawa, a man known as the “Kobe Cannibal” who killed and ate a woman, but was never jailed, has died aged 73. Sagawa died of pneumonia on Thursday last week and was given a funeral attended only by relatives, his younger brother said in a statement. In 1981, Sagawa was studying in Paris when he invited Dutch student Renee Hartevelt to his home. He shot her in the neck, raped her and then consumed parts of her body over the course of several days. Sagawa then attempted to dispose of her remains in the Bois de Boulogne park and was arrested several days later, confessing his crime to police. However, he was two years later deemed unfit for trial by French medical experts and was initially held in a psychiatric institution before being deported to his home country. On his arrival, he was ruled sane by health authorities, saying that Sagawa’s only problem was a “character anomaly” and that he did not require hospitalization.
UNITED STATES
Twitter suspends Ye
The Twitter account of Ye was suspended after the rapper, formerly known as Kanye West, posted a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David. Twitter CEO Elon Musk confirmed the suspension in a tweet replying to a Ye post of an unflattering photograph of the billionaire, which Ye called his “final tweet.” Musk wrote: “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.” Ye has made a series of anti-Semitic comments in the past few weeks, including praising Adolf Hitler in an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Thursday. Ye’s remarks led to his suspension from social media platforms and companies such as Adidas cutting ties with him.
UNITED NATIONS
Baguette named heritage
UNESCO this week announced additions to its “intangible cultural heritage” list, including the French baguette, Serbian brandy and a Tunisian condiment. The baguette “celebrates a whole culture, the daily ritual, a structural element of a meal, synonymous with sharing and conviviality,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said on Wednesday.Sljivovica, Serbia’s national drink, made from fermented plums and used to toast births, marriages and mourn deaths, was awarded heritage status on Thursday. The agency wrote on Twitter that it had added to its intangible heritage list “social practices and knowledge related to the preparation and use of the traditional plum spirit.” Tunisian harissa was awarded the status after the country in its application with the agency said that the condiment, made with sun-dried hot peppers, freshly prepared spices and olive oil, is “an integral part of domestic provisions and the daily culinary and food traditions of Tunisian society.”
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
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