MEXICO
Kellogg’s cereals seized
The country has seized 380,000 boxes of Corn Flakes, Special K and other Kellogg’s cereals, claiming the boxes had cartoon drawings on them in violation of recently enacted laws aimed at improving children’s diets. While Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies are clearly not the worst thing Mexican children eat, the laws prohibit food companies from using marketing tactics that might appeal to children, like cartoons or mascots. The consumer protection agency also said on Friday that the cereal boxes did not clearly state nutritional values like calories, fats, salt or sugar, or did not have the proper warning signs for levels of those ingredients that are considered excessive.
RUSSIA
Hacker group broken up
Moscow on Friday said that it had dismantled the prominent hacking group REvil, which last year carried out a high-profile attack on US software firm Kaseya, following a request from Washington. The announcement came on the same day that Ukrainian government sites were hit by hackers in an attack that Kiev linked to Moscow, which has amassed tens of thousands of troops on the border. Russia’s Federal Security Service said in a statement that it had “suppressed the illegal activities” of members of the group during raids on 25 addresses that swept up 14 people. The searches were carried out following an “appeal from the relevant US authorities.”
UNITED STATES
Militia leader remains jailed
The founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group remained in jail after his first court appearance on Friday, a day after his arrest on charges he plotted with others to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6 last year to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. The seditious conspiracy charges against Stewart Rhodes and 10 other Oath Keepers members or associates are the first to be levied in connection with the riot. They are also the first to be brought by the Department of Justice in more than a decade. A federal magistrate judge in Plano, Texas, ordered Rhodes, 56, of Granbury, Texas, to be held in custody until a detention hearing on Thursday.
UNITED STATES
Baldwin hands over phone
Actor Alec Baldwin has handed his cellphone to authorities as they investigate the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the Rust movie set, almost a month after a warrant was issued for the device. The actor was holding a Colt gun during a rehearsal for the Western being filmed in New Mexico in October last year when it discharged a live round, killing Halyna Hutchins. Police are investigating why live ammunition was present on set, and last month requested Baldwin’s phone on the grounds “there may be evidence on the phone” that could be “material and relevant to this investigation.”
UNITED STATES
Students stage walkout
Hundreds of Chicago students staged a walkout on Friday, saying there were not enough precautions in place to protect them from COVID-19, despite an agreement between the teachers’ union and school district to return to classrooms. The walkout at schools across the city culminated outside district offices downtown, where the students waved signs, chanted and briefly blocked traffic. “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Lori Lightfoot’s got to go,” they said, a reference to the Chicago mayor.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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