HONG KONG
Police switch to goose-step
The Police Force is to switch from colonial-era British marching drills to the goose-stepping style seen on the Chinese mainland to show “patriotism,” it said in a statement yesterday. The stiff-legged marching technique was first publicly demonstrated by local officers on April 15 during National Security Education Day — designated to mark Beijing’s imposition of the National Security Law to crack down on dissent. Police have used goose-stepping in ceremonies and parades, but it is to become part of officers’ daily routines from July 1 — to mark the 25th anniversary of the territory’s handover to Beijing. On Thursday, the Fire Services Department announced in an annual report that it would make a similar switch before the end of the month.
INDIA
Train derailment kills nine
Rescuers found four bodies overnight as they cleared the 12 mangled coaches of a train that derailed in West Bengal state, raising the death toll to nine, a railroad official said yesterday. At least 45 people were injured in the accident on Thursday, as the coaches went off the rails and three capsized, Ministry of Railways spokesman Rajiv Jain said. The rescue work was completed and the track was being cleared to restore train services in the region, Jain said. The train was on its way to Gauhati in Assam state from Bikaner, a city in Rajasthan state, when the accident occurred in Jalpaiguri District. All of the injured were being treated in a hospital, senior police officer Debarshi Dutta said. Senior railway official Guneet Kaur said the cause of the accident was being investigated. She said the government would provide financial compensation to families of the deceased and all of the injured.
AUSTRALIA
Mercury hits 62-year high
Authorities yesterday told people to stay indoors as a severe heatwave along the northwestern coast pushed temperatures to a blistering 50.7°C, hitting a high last seen 62 years ago. An iron ore mining region in the northwest, Pilbara, where temperatures hit the record high on Thursday, is known for its hot and dry conditions, with temperatures usually hovering in the upper 30s this time of year. Scientists have found that rising temperatures can hit public health and outdoor labor productivity, resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses. Australia lost an average of A$10.3 billion (US$7.51 billion) and 218 productive hours every year in the past two decades because of heat, a global study published this week by researchers at Duke University showed.
RUSSIA
Turkey, Armenia hold talks
Envoys from Turkey and Armenia were yesterday to hold a first round of talks in Moscow aimed at normalizing ties, in a move Armenia expects would lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations and reopening borders after decades of animosity. Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic or commercial ties for three decades and the talks are the first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord. That deal was never ratified and ties have remained tense. The neighbors are at odds over various issues, primarily the 1915 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Armenia says the 1915 killings constitute a genocide. Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but contests the figures and denies the killings were systematically orchestrated or constitute a genocide.
DENMARK
Agency warns of espionage
The Security and Intelligence Service on Thursday warned that China and Russia are looking to destabilize parts of the kingdom, including Greenland, as the nations’ geopolitical ambitions in the region grow. Espionage and influence operations by Chinese and Russian spy services, including through cyberattacks, pose a threat against authorities, companies and research bodies in Denmark and the semi-autonomous Faroe Islands and Greenland, the service said in its first publication assessing such risks. “The kingdom is particularly vulnerable in that regard, as Chinese or Russian intelligence services can exploit controversial topics to try to create tensions in or between the three parts of the kingdom or complicate relations with allies, particularly the US,” the agency said.
UNITED STATES
Comic page fetches US$3m
A single page of artwork from a 1984 Spider-Man comic book on Thursday sold at auction for a record US$3.36 million. Mike Zeck’s artwork for page 25 from Marvel Comics’ Secret Wars No. 8 brings the first appearance of Spidey’s black suit. The “symbiote suit” would eventually lead to the emergence of the character Venom. The record bidding, which started at US$330,000 and soared past US$3 million, came on the first day of Heritage Auctions’ four-day comic event in Dallas. The previous record for an interior page of a US comic book was US$657,250 for art from a 1974 issue of The Incredible Hulk that featured a tease for the first appearance of Wolverine. Also on Thursday, one of the few surviving copies of Superman’s debut, Action Comics No. 1, sold for US$3.18 million, putting it among the priciest books ever auctioned. None of the sellers or buyers were identified.
POLAND
Diocese sorry for gay query
A Catholic diocese on Thursday apologized for asking a court to determine whether a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest is gay, and whether the sexual contact might have consequently been pleasurable for him. Following wide criticism, the Bielsko-Zywiec diocese said that its letter to the court should not have included questions about the victim’s sexuality or have suggested that he drew pleasure from contact with the priest. The diocese dispatched the letter in response to a lawsuit by the victim, Janusz Szymik. “We apologize to Janusz and to all who have been scandalized” by the questions, the diocese said in a statement, vowing to change the letter’s wording. Szymik, who is now 48, was an altar boy when the abuse began in the 1980s. He sued the diocese in a civil court last year.
UNITED STATES
Court halts vaccine mandate
The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a blow to President Joe Biden in blocking his COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing mandate for employees of large businesses. The court allowed a vaccination mandate for healthcare workers at facilities receiving federal funding. Biden said he was “disappointed” in the court’s decision striking down his mandate for businesses with 100 employees or more to vaccinate or test their workers for COVID-19. “I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law,” Biden said in a statement. The Supreme Court’s six conservative justices ruled the mandate would represent a “significant encroachment into the lives — and health — of a vast number of employees.”
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
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