PERU
Landslides kill 15
Landslides in the nation’s south have left at least 15 people dead, 20 injured and two missing, authorities said on Monday, warning that the toll from the disaster could rise. “The number of people dead so far has risen to 15,” said the directorate of the National Civil Defense Institute in the Arequipa region, where mud and rock slides began on Sunday as a result of torrential rains. Hardest hit were four villages in an area called Nicolas Valcarcel. Arequipa Governor Rohel Sanchez told Canal N television that “the situation in these four towns is really bad.” In hills near the villages, miners were working and were probably swept away, Sanchez said. “There is a high probability that in the tunnels themselves there are also people who are dead there.”
UNITED STATES
Senators question Meta
Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, chair and vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Facebook parent Meta Platforms on Monday about documents that show it knew developers in China and Russia had access to user data that could be used for espionage. “It appears from these documents that Facebook has known, since at least September 2018, that hundreds of thousands of developers in countries Facebook characterized as ‘high-risk,’ including the People’s Republic of China, had access to significant amounts of sensitive user data,” Warner and Rubio wrote in the letter to company founder Mark Zuckerberg. The letter said an internal Meta document showed that nearly 90,000 developers in China had been given access to information about users, including profile data, photographs and private messages even though Facebook had never been able to operate in China. More than 42,000 developers in Russia, and thousands in Iran and North Korea, also had access to the information, they wrote.
UNITED STATES
Powerball pays US$747m
Someone in Washington State on Monday won an estimated US$747 million Powerball jackpot. The winning numbers were 05, 11, 22, 23, 69 and the Powerball 07. Lottery officials did not immediately make an announcement of a winner, but the Powerball Web site said there was a jackpot winner in Washington State. The site also said that the jackpot for the next drawing on Thursday had dropped to US$20 million. It was the first Powerball jackpot win since Nov. 19, 2022. That winless streak allowed the prize to grow until it stood as the ninth-largest in the nation’s history. The jackpot on Monday is for a winner opting for an annuity paid over 29 years.
UNITED STATES
Intruder breaches base
An intruder has breached the home of Air Force One and a resident opened fire on the trespasser, Joint Base Andrews (JBA) said in a statement on Monday. During the incident, which occurred at about 11:30am, “a man gained unauthorized access to a JBA housing area,” it said in a statement on Twitter. “A resident discharged a firearm, security forces arrived on scene to apprehend the intruder and law enforcement is investigating the incident.” JBA is home to the fleet of blue-and-white presidential aircraft, including Air Force One, Marine One and the “doomsday” 747 aircraft that can serve as the nation’s airborne nuclear command and control centers if needed.
‘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