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  • Super Bowl Parade Shooting: Two Juveniles Charged

    Super Bowl Parade Shooting: Two Juveniles Charged

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    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two juveniles were charged with crimes connected to the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally, authorities said Friday, as the city tries to recover in the aftermath of the violence.

    A news release from the Jackson County Family Court said the juveniles were charged Thursday and are being detained in the county’s Juvenile Detention Center “on gun-related and resisting arrest charges.” The release said it is “anticipated that additional charges are expected in the future as the investigation by the Kansas City Police Department continues.”

    No further information was released. Juvenile court cases are largely kept private under Missouri law, and hearings are not open to the public.

    Police initially detained three juveniles but released one who they determined wasn’t involved in the shooting. Police are looking for others who may have been involved and are calling for witnesses, victims and people with cellphone video of the violence to call a dedicated hotline.

    Meanwhile, Kansas Citians are turning to religious gathers, vigils and counseling to try to cope with the horror of what happened.

    A mother and popular disc jockey died in the burst of gunfireWednesday as the parade and rally were concluding, and 22 others — more than half of them children — were injured. By Friday, two people remained in critical condition and one was in serious condition. Most of the injured children were out of the hospital and expected to recover.

    But the emotional recovery is only just beginning in a community horrified that two juveniles could cause such trauma. Police believe a dispute between several people led to the shooting.

    The slain woman was identified by radio station KKFI-FM as Lisa Lopez-Galvan, host of “Taste of Tejano.” At a vigil honoring her Thursday night, Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw said the city is working to offer support to those who are struggling.

    “Remember that we are not defined by this tragedy,” Parks-Shaw said, the Kansas City Star reported. “We are defined by our courage, our strength and our unwavering spirits. Hold on to hope. Lean on one another. And know that a brighter tomorrow awaits.”

    The Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office set up in-person counseling for the traumatized. Twelve people attended Thursday, including two children, spokesman Michael Mansur said Friday. The agency also established a hotline offering counseling, but Mansur didn’t immediately have information on how many called the hotline.

    The Chiefs won their third Super Bowl in five years Sunday, beating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime. The two previous celebrations went off without any trouble.

    On Wednesday, players rode double-decker red buses through Missouri’s largest city. The parade ended with a rally at the sprawling Union Station. It was just breaking up with shots erupted. Many people thought they were hearing fireworks. Eventually, some ducked for cover. Others leapt over barriers and sprinted, many carrying children.

    Beyond the gunshot wounds, several people were treated at hospitals for injuries suffered amid the chaos. So many personal belongings were left behind that police set up a site for people to try and find what they lost.

    Two men at the rally jumped on and detained someone with a gun, though police have not confirmed whether it was one of the people arrested.

    Paul Contreras of Bellevue, Nebraska, said he heard a man yelling to stop someone and was able to tackle the person from behind. Contreras noticed that the person he tackled had a gun, he said, and he wasn’t sure if he might have another under a heavy jacket.

    Soon, Contreras was joined by another man.

    “We’re like, we got to keep him down until law enforcement gets there. Because as much as we’re fighting to keep him down, he’s fighting to get up,” Contreras, whose daughter captured it all on video, told The Associated Press.

    The man who helped Contreras was Trey Filter. He was with his family when he heard yells of “get him.”

    “We was like, ‘We got him,’” Filter, 40, of the Wichita, Kansas, area, told AP. “I’ll always remember that. And then they started screaming, ‘There’s a gun!’”

    The gun fell near his wife, Casey Filter, who picked it up. By then, the fleeing person was under a dogpile.

    The shooting occurred despite the presence of more than 800 police officers in the area, including on top of nearby structures, said Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended with his wife and mother and ran for safety when the shots were fired. But he doesn’t expect to cancel the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day parade.

    “We have parades all the time. I don’t think they’ll end. Certainly we recognized the public safety challenges and issues that relate to them,” Lucas said.

    Taylor Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, donated $100,000 to Lopez-Galvan’s family. Two $50,000 donations were posted Friday under the singer’s name on a GoFundMe page. Swift’s representative confirmed the donations to Variety, the trade publication reported, and The Associated Press independently verified the posts.

    Kansas City has long struggled with gun violence, and in 2020 it was among nine cities targeted by the U.S. Justice Department in an effort to crack down on violent crime. In 2023, the city matched a record with 182 homicides, most of which involved guns.

    Lucas has joined with mayors across the country in calling for new laws to reduce gun violence, including mandating universal background checks.

    ___

    Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri. McFetridge reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

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    NICK INGRAM, SCOTT MCFETRIDGE and JIM SALTER / AP

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  • Why North Korea Has Resumed Sending Workers Abroad

    Why North Korea Has Resumed Sending Workers Abroad

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    Kim Jong Un has sent new batches of his workers overseas since relaxing pandemic border controls and launched a fresh crackdown on his people, according to the U.S. point person for North Korean human rights.

    “What we’ve seen is that the human rights situation in North Korea has worsened,” Julie Turner, the State Department’s special envoy on the country’s human rights issues, told reporters Wednesday during a visit to Tokyo. “Covid-19 allowed the North Korean government to tighten many of the controls inside North Korea,” she said.

    North Korea has sent its workers to Russia and China for years, where they earn hard currency desperately needed by Pyongyang in defiance of United Nations resolutions that ban the moves. Kim has recently stepped up cooperation with Russia through the transfer of arms to help President Vladimir Putin in his war on Ukraine, the U.S. has said.

    Read More: As U.S. and China Rivalry Heats Up, Each Side’s Asia Allies Ramp Up Military Spending

    Late last year, Kim’s regime began allowing workers, diplomats and students stranded abroad due to his decision to close the borders during the pandemic to return home. He now appears to be sending workers abroad, Turner said.

    “There is certainly a process going on right now to bring many of those individuals home, but at the same time we are seeing movements of new groups of workers being dispatched overseas,” she said.

    Turner did not specify where the workers may be going, but added Russia is a country of concern and there are still many North Korean workers who have remained in China. 

    Around 300 workers from North Korea arrived in Russia by train this month, Yonhap News of South Korea reported Wednesday, citing Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification.

    Governments in the U.S. and Europe for years have condemned North Korea for what they see as chronic and systematic human rights abuses. The U.S. State Department’s most recent annual report on human rights said there are credible reports of arbitrary killings, forced disappearances and a network of political prisons engaged in torture in North Korea.

    Read More: A Vibrant North Korean Community in London Finds Its Days Are Numbered

    Kim’s regime has bristled at any criticism of its human rights record for decades. The state’s propaganda apparatus in December carried a report that accused Turner of “staging various sorts of fanatical anti-DPRK ‘human rights’ rackets,” that are intended to demonize Pyongyang and bring down the leaders of the country formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

    Turner said the comments indicate North Korea is paying attention to what the U.S. has been saying about the human rights situation under Kim.

    Kim oversaw tests Wednesday of what North Korea said were new types of cruise missiles designed to defend against an invasion and frustrate “the adventurous attempt of the enemy navy,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported. It was the fifth such barrage of cruise missiles fired off in the past several weeks.

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    Jon Herskovitz / Bloomberg

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  • Harvey Weinstein Appealing New York Rape Conviction: What to Know

    Harvey Weinstein Appealing New York Rape Conviction: What to Know

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    NEW YORK — Nearly four years after Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sent to prison, New York’s highest court will hear arguments Wednesday in his quest to overturn the landmark #MeToo-era verdict.

    Weinstein’s lawyers are asking the state’s Court of Appeals in Albany to dismiss the disgraced movie mogul’s 2020 conviction, arguing the judge trampled his right to a fair trial by “succumbing to the pressure” of America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct perpetrated by powerful figures.

    Read More: The Silence Breakers: TIME Person of the Year 2017

    The judge, James Burke, allowed testimony from three women whose allegations weren’t part of the case and ruled that prosecutors could confront Weinstein about other, unrelated misbehavior if he had testified, which he declined to do.

    “What we’re arguing is that there should not be a different set of rules for an individual in society who becomes vilified,” Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said. There can’t be “the Weinstein rule that just applies to that little sliver of society that everyone decides to really hate,” he said.

    Weinstein, 71, was convicted February 24, 2020 of a criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006, and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison and is incarcerated at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, a state prison about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Albany.

    Read More: In Harvey Weinstein Trial, Drama Gives Way to Lesson on ‘Rape Myths’

    Weinstein was acquitted at the same Manhattan trial of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault stemming from actor Annabella Sciorra’s allegations of a mid-1990s rape. The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named; Sciorra has spoken publicly about her allegations.

    Last year, Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles of raping and sexually assaulting an Italian actor and model, who said he appeared uninvited at her hotel room door during a film festival there in 2013. He was sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison in that case, meaning he’d still be locked up even if the Court of Appeals were to rule in his favor.

    Weinstein maintains his innocence. He contends any sexual activity was consensual. He is not expected to attend Wednesday’s arguments, which pertain only to the New York case, but may monitor the court’s livestream from prison. The court is not likely to rule immediately.

    The New York Court of Appeals agreed last year to take Weinstein’s case after an intermediate appellate court upheld his conviction. Weinstein’s lawyers want a new trial, but only for the criminal sexual act charge. They argue the rape charge can’t be retried because it involves alleged conduct outside the statute of limitations.

    Allegations against Weinstein, the once powerful and feared studio boss behind such Oscar winners as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” ushered in the #MeToo movement. His New York trial drew intense publicity, with protesters chanting “rapist” outside the courthouse.

    Read More: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Harvey Weinstein?

    In their appeal, Weinstein’s lawyers argued that Burke swayed the trial’s outcome with repeated rulings favorable to prosecutors, including decisions that “overwhelmed” the trial with “excessive, random, and highly dubious prior bad act evidence.” Burke’s term expired at the end of 2022. He was not reappointed and is no longer a judge.

    Had Weinstein testified, Burke ruled that prosecutors would’ve been able to question him about more than two-dozen alleged acts of brutish behavior over 30 years, including whether he’d stranded a colleague in a foreign country or screamed at restaurant staff while demanding a late-night meal.

    Weinstein’s lawyers argued Burke’s rulings went beyond what’s normally allowed—detailing motive, opportunity, intent or a common scheme or plan—and essentially put the ex-studio boss on trial for crimes he wasn’t charged with and hadn’t had an opportunity to defend himself against. That evidence would have served “only to make the jury hate Weinstein,” his lawyers said.

    Rules vary by state on calling witnesses to testify and allowing prosecutors to present evidence about “prior bad acts” aside from the actual charges. New York’s rules are among the more restrictive.

    Read More: So This Is How Men Like Weinstein Get Away With It For So Long

    They also challenged Burke’s refusal to remove a juror who had written a novel involving predatory older men, as well as his decision to allow prosecutors to have an expert on victim behavior and rape myths testify while rejecting testimony on similar subjects from defense experts.

    A five-judge panel in New York’s intermediate appellate court ruled unanimously in 2022 that Burke had “providently exercised” his discretion, though some of the judges had previously raised doubts about his conduct. During oral arguments, Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels said that Burke had let prosecutors pile on with “incredibly prejudicial testimony” from additional witnesses.

    Aidala said he wants the Court of Appeals to remind the state’s trial courts “that a defendant cannot be tried based on his character—but must be tried based on the conduct for which he has been accused.”

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    Michael R. Sisak / AP

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  • Oregon Confirmed a Human Case of the Bubonic Plague

    Oregon Confirmed a Human Case of the Bubonic Plague

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    A case of the bubonic plague has hit Oregon, and the likely cause was a cat.

    Health officials in Deschutes County announced last week that a resident, who has not been identified, had been diagnosed with the plague, in the state’s first human case in eight years. The individual was likely infected by their cat, the department says.

    “All close contacts of the resident and their pet have been contacted and provided medication to prevent illness,” said Dr. Richard Fawcett, the Deschutes County Health Services Officer.  

    The disease is often spread through a bite from an infected flea or contact with an infected animal. Human to human transmission can occur, but is rare. 

    The Oregon case was identified early and the person was treated swiftly, according to officials. They added the case doesn’t pose a significant risk to the community, and no other cases have been reported in the state, according to health officials. The last case of the plague in Oregon was reported in 2015.

    Though the plague is infamous for killing more than a third of Europe’s population—about 25 million people—from 1347 to 1351, it’s now easily treatable with modern antibiotics. However, if not treated quickly, the disease can progress to infection in the bloodstream and lungs and cause serious illness and death.

    In humans, symptoms usually appear between two to eight days after exposure to an infected animal or flea. Symptoms can include a sudden onset of fever, nausea, weakness, chills, muscle aches, and, most commonly, visibly swollen lymph nodes called buboes.  

    In the U.S. plague infections continue to occur in rural parts of the West—particularly in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. Between 1900 and 2012, 1006 confirmed or probable human plague cases occurred in the United States, over 80% of which have been the bubonic form. In recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases are reported each year in the U.S., the CDC says, though the number is much higher worldwide.

    Deschutes County Health Services recommended several plague-preventing measures—including keeping pets on a leash when outdoors, and refraining from feeding squirrels, chipmunks, or other wild rodents. 

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    Simmone Shah

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  • King Charles III Makes First Public Outing After Cancer Reveal

    King Charles III Makes First Public Outing After Cancer Reveal

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    King Charles III has made his first public appearance since his cancer diagnosis was announced on Monday, Feb. 5.

    With his wife of 19 years, Queen Camilla, at his side, the King attended a Sunday service at St Mary Magdalene Church, nearby the Sandringham estate house where Charles has been resting. He was pictured being greeted by Reverend Canon Dr. Paul Williams.

    The outing comes shortly after Buckingham Palace released the first statement from the King since the diagnosis was disclosed. In the message shared late Saturday night, local time, the King expressed gratitude for the “many messages of support and good wishes I have received in recent days.”

    His Majesty noted: “As all those who have been affected by cancer will know, such kind thoughts are the greatest comfort and encouragement.” He said that it is “heartening” that his diagnosis had highlighted organizations that support cancer patients and their families.

    The Palace did not disclose what type of cancer the King has, but said it was discovered after he was treated for a benign enlarged prostate. The King began cancer treatment on Monday. In an interview Tuesday, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the cancer was “caught early.”

    The King will postpone public-facing duties during his cancer treatment, the Palace said.

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    Tara Law

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  • How the Lunar New Year Is Being Celebrated Around the World

    How the Lunar New Year Is Being Celebrated Around the World

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    Billions of people have begun their 15-day celebration of the Lunar New Year, marked by the many red paper cuttings, Chinese lanterns, and paper door banners adorning homes and businesses.

    The Lunar New Year is one of the most popular holidays in China, though it’s celebrated all across the Asian continent and in pockets of ethnic communities across the globe. The holiday marks the arrival of spring and the start of a new year under the lunisolar calendar in a celebration that dates back to the Chinese agrarian tradition. 

    Every year, the holiday, also known as the Spring Festival, begins on the second new moon after the winter solstice. In 2024, the celebration falls on Saturday, Feb. 10. and marks the year of the dragon. (There are 12 different animals in the Chinese zodiac—rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig—each of which will mark the personality and fortune of those born during that year).

    Dragons have a special significance in China. They are the only animal of the zodiac that is mythical, and the creature largely symbolizes luck, strength, ambition, and charm. 

    Here’s how communities across the world are celebrating.   

    How China is celebrating Lunar New Year

    In the second most populous country of the world, Chinese locals, along with tourists, gathered to observe the holiday by setting off firecrackers and fireworks.

    Ancient legend dictates that the tradition wards of evil spirits, specifically scaring the mythical monster of Nian who would allegedly leave its home at the bottom of the sea to feast on people and livestock in villages at the start of the new year. That is, until an elderly man realized that he could scare Nian away by burning bamboo (which is similar to a firecracker), lighting candles or having any bright lights, and pasting red decorations on doors.  

    The tradition has since stuck, prompting people to light red candles across temples and host colorful fireworks shows on the eve of the Chinese New Year. Some of the celebrations have been stifled by firework bans across hundreds of urban communities in China, with legislators citing pollution and safety hazards as the reason for the ban.

    Residents and tourists set off fireworks to welcome the Chinese New Year at Luoma Lake in Suqian, East China’s Jiangsu province, on Feb 9, 2024.CFOTO/Future Publishing—Getty Images

    Read more: 5 Things to Know About Lunar New Year

    How the U.S. is marking Lunar New Year

    A continent away, Asian communities in the U.S. are also commemorating the joyous occasion. 

    Celebrations are especially prominent in California, the state with the largest number of Chinese immigrants, though New York also has a large population. 

    The Golden State marks their holiday with festivals featuring lion dances, and floral arts displays in San Marino, and the highly-anticipated Golden Dragon Lunar New Year Parade in Los Angeles. More than 100,000 spectators are expected to attend the aforementioned parade, which has been happening for 124 years. 

    Other communities, like that of Monterey Park, are healing from the heartache of tragedy as they commemorate the one year anniversary of the shooting that left 11 dead and injured another nine at a local ballroom dance studio during Lunar New Year celebrations.

    Lunar New Year celebration in Philadelphia
    People celebrate the Lunar New Year of the Dragon in the streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., on February 10, 2024. Wolfgang Schwan—Getty Images

    Indonesia’s Lunar New Year festivities 

    In Indonesia, families traditionally go to their local temple to mark the beginning of the Lunar New Year. Some temples have been in place for centuries, like the Yin De Yuan Temple in the capital of Jakarta, which was built in 1650. Religious centers are usually decorated with red lanterns and large red candles. 

    There are other fun cultural events like lion dances, music, and creative performances in the city of Semarang. Other festivals are a blend of Chinese and Javanese culture, such as the Grebeg Sudiro festival in Solo, located in the Central Java Province. Gregbeg celebrations have large cone-shaped displays of fruits, vegetables, or cakes that are “fought over” by the spectators, according to Indonesia’s tourist site. The custom stems from a Javanese teaching that emphasizes that people have to earn what they eat.

    INDONESIA-CULTURE-LUNAR-NEW YEAR
    A dragon dance team performs during the first day of the Lunar New Year in Denpasar on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Feb. 10, 2024. Sonny Tumbelaka—Getty Images

    How the U.K. is celebrating the Lunar New Year 

    The London Chinatown Chinese Association is hosting a parade in honor of the holiday, set to take place on Sunday, Feb. 11. The festivities will move through Chinatown, bringing traditional dragon dancers to Trafalgar Square to start things off. Onlookers will also be able to enjoy delicious food, opera, and martial arts performances.

    “As the Year of the Dragon begins, I want to thank London’s East and South East Asian communities for everything they contribute to our city,” wrote London Mayor Sadiq Khan in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Wishing you all—and everyone celebrating across our capital and around the world—a very Happy Lunar New Year.”

    BRITAIN-CHINA-CULTURE-LUNAR-NEW YEAR
    A Chinese Lion Dance team performed for spectators during celebrations for the Lunar New Year of the Dragon in Chinatown, London, on Feb. 10, 2024.Henry Nicholls—Getty Images



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    Solcyré Burga

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  • Why the Philippines Is Increasingly Keeping an Eye on Taiwan

    Why the Philippines Is Increasingly Keeping an Eye on Taiwan

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    The Philippines has been butting heads with China for years over the disputed South China Sea, but increasingly the Southeast Asian country appears to be preparing for another potential battleground: Taiwan.

    Earlier this week, defense chief Gilberto Teodoro visited a naval detachment and ordered a military buildup on Mavulis, the northernmost island of the province of Batanes, which Teodoro described as the “spearhead of the Philippines.”

    China wasn’t pleased with the development: in a press conference Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin warned that the Philippines must “tread carefully and don’t play with fire on this [Taiwan] question to avoid being manipulated and eventually hurt.”

    Given the Philippines’ proximity (Mavulis is only 88 miles from the southern tip of Taiwan), President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said last year that it’s “very hard to imagine” a scenario in which his archipelagic nation remains untouched by any conflict over the self-governed island that China claims sovereignty over.

    The Philippines does not have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognizes Beijing as the government of “One China,” but under Marcos it has strengthened its military ties with Taiwan allies, including the U.S. and Japan, and it could play a key role in assisting those countries should China launch a surprise invasion of the island.

    Read More: ​The U.S. Military’s Legacy in the Philippines: Thousands of Children Left Behind

    “In an event of invasion, the first 48 hours are extremely important, because that’s the window within which China will take advantage of its geographic proximity, and it will take some time before the American Navy Indo-Pacific Command, whether it’s in Hawaii or Guam, or in Japan, can respond to a major contingency,” Richard Heydarian, a senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines’ Asian Center, tells TIME. “That’s where the Philippines comes in.”

    The Philippines need not even commit its own troops to such a war to act as a deterrent, Heydarian explains. It can significantly change the calculus for China by simply keeping a close eye on Taiwan and acting as an outpost for its allies. “If the Philippines and Japan and the U.S. cooperate, there’ll be sufficient amount of preparation, sufficient amount of American forward deployment presence, and sufficient amount of interoperability and potential coordination among U.S. and its allies, should that invasion happen.”

    But it’s not just out of deference to its allies that the Philippines has an interest in preventing a Chinese takeover of Taiwan. More than 160,000 Filipinos work overseas in Taiwan, and Marcos has said allowing the U.S. access to Philippine bases would be “useful” in achieving their rescue, which he described as “of primordial importance.”

    Lucio Pitlo III, research fellow at the Manila-based thinktank Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, also tells TIME that Taiwan’s future is inextricably linked to the ongoing South China Sea dispute with China that the Philippines seems to prioritize: “If the mainland took over Taiwan, then that means that the pressure on the Philippines coming from Beijing would not only emanate from the west, but also from the north,” Pitlo said. “The status quo works for the Philippines.”

    China “likes the Philippines in a weak position in order to consolidate its grip in its perceived backyard,” Joshua Espeña, vice president of the Manila-based think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, tells TIME. But contrary to how Beijing spins it, Espeña argues, the Philippines is no provocateur, instead acting as an equalizer in the Indo-Pacific: “We are trying to stabilize the balance of power.”

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    Chad de Guzman

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  • Singapore’s PM Urges Reproduction During Year of Dragon

    Singapore’s PM Urges Reproduction During Year of Dragon

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    Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged young couples to have more babies as the city state battles with a declining birth rate.

    “Now is as good a time as any for young couples to add a ‘little dragon’ to your family,” the premier said in his annual Lunar New Year message. The lunar year of the dragon starts Feb. 10.

    Read More: Why the Dragon Is a Big Deal in Chinese Culture

    The dragon is a “symbol of power, strength and good fortune,” Lee said, while acknowledging that having a baby is a personal decision.

    Singapore eased egg freezing rules and doubled government-paid paternity leave to four weeks after its birth rate dropped to a record low of 1.05 babies per woman in 2022. Countries including South Korea, China and Japan have also been battling falling fertility rates and an aging population.

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    Yi Wei Wong / Bloomberg

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  • Iceland’s Blue Lagoon at Risk as Nearby Volcano Erupts Again

    Iceland’s Blue Lagoon at Risk as Nearby Volcano Erupts Again

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    A volcanic eruption has started again in Iceland close to an already severely damaged fishing town and the country’s top tourist attraction, the Blue Lagoon spa.

    It’s the third time in recent months that lava is gushing out of cracks on the ground on the Reykjanes peninsula, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the country’s capital.

    The eruption started at about 6 a.m. local time northeast of the Blue Lagoon, according to Iceland’s Met Office.

    Read More: Why Iceland’s Volcano Eruption Was a ‘Black Day’ for the Country

    Lava is bursting out from a 3-kilometer crack and flowing west, according to the authorities. The flows are directed away from Grindavik, a town that’s had to be abandoned — potentially permanently — due to damage from the lava outbursts and seismic activity.

    “It is farther away from Grindavik than last time so it is better for the town,” Kristin Jonsdottir, a seismologist at the Met Office, said by phone. “What’s at stake now is rather the infrastructure further to the north, like Svartsengi, where the power plant and Blue Lagoon sit, and the road between Keflavik and Grindavik.”

    The vast majority of tourists visiting Iceland pass through the hot springs of the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa near Grindavik, photographed above in 2021.Sergio Pitamitz—VW Pics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

    Hotels at the Blue Lagoon spa site were evacuated overnight, according to newspaper Morgunbladid. Other infrastructure in the area include the power plant owned by HS Orka hf and a number of businesses centered around geothermal heat and power. Earth barriers have been built to protect the area from lava flows.

    As in previous volcanic incidents recently, flights in and out of the country are operating as normal and they’re expected to continue without interruption.

    Read More: A Volcano in Iceland Is Spewing Lava From a Miles-Long Crack. Here’s What to Know

    The Reykjanes peninsula had lain dormant for about 800 years until seismic activity started in 2020. There have since been six eruptions, including the current one. The first three that occurred from 2021 were in uninhabited areas and posed little risk to people and infrastructure.

    Iceland is one of the most geologically active places on earth due to its position between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates on the mid-Atlantic ridge. It has about 30 volcanic systems and more than 600 hot springs.  

    In Grindavik, thousands of tremors, several earthquakes and two volcanic eruptions have ripped up roads, power lines and water pipes, and caused potentially deadly cracks and crevasses that put those treading on the ground above in jeopardy.

    While authorities in Iceland had already built barriers that helped keep lava mostly out of town, the area has entered an era of volcanic activity that is hard to predict but expected to continue for years, scientists at the Met Office have warned.

    Grindavik’s destruction represents the worst volcanic damage in 50 years in Iceland, given most eruptions happen in the wilderness. In 1973, part of a 5,000-person fishing town was buried under lava in the Westman Islands, off the country’s southeastern coast.

    Fissure eruptions on land, such as the current one, produce little ash and usually wreak no havoc on air travel. 

    One of the most disruptive eruptions in Iceland’s recent history happened in 2010 when volcano Eyjafjallajokull in the southern part of the country released a plume of ash so vast that it grounded air traffic across Europe for weeks, resulting in the cancellation of 100,000 flights and affecting over 10 million people.

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    Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir / Bloomberg

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  • Pakistan Suspends Mobile Phone Services on Election Day

    Pakistan Suspends Mobile Phone Services on Election Day

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    Pakistan has temporarily suspended mobile phone services nationwide as voters in the fifth most-populous nation in the world head to the polls for a tumultuous general election.

    A statement from the Ministry of Interior posted on X Thursday morning said in Urdu that, in response to “recent incidents of terrorism” in the country, cellular networks had been cut off “to maintain the law and order situation and deal with possible threats.” (More than two dozen people were killed in a pair of bombings on candidates’ offices in the southwestern region of Balochistan on Wednesday; the Islamic State claimed responsibility for those attacks.)

    Read More: The Ultimate Election Year: Half of World Heads to Polls in 2024

    Global online freedom watchdog NetBlocks said it detected internet blackouts in multiple regions across the country and that the disruptions follow “months of digital censorship targeting the political opposition.” The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party lambasted the mobile service shutdown on X, calling it a “severe assault on democracy” and a “cowardly attempt by those in power to stifle dissent, manipulate the election’s outcome, and infringe upon the rights of the Pakistani people.” The party also urged people with WiFi to remove password protection on their personal network so that others in the vicinity could access the internet on polling day.

    Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time, and are set to close at 5 p.m. (7 a.m. Eastern). The Election Commission said in a press release hours after the mobile services suspension that its monitoring remains fully operational and that the polling process is “going on peacefully” with “no complaints from anywhere.”

    Some 128 million Pakistanis are registered to vote, and about 650,000 security personnel have been deployed to ensure a peaceful process, with the country also closing its borders with Iran and Afghanistan as an added security measure. But the election, already marred by violence, is hardly free or fair.

    Read More: Pakistan’s Elections Are Being Brazenly Rigged. Why Doesn’t the U.S. Seem to Care?

    Pakistan’s most popular politician, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has been jailed and barred from the ballot, and his PTI party has been systematically cracked down on by the country’s military kingmakers, paving the way for an expected victory for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

    The election comes at a critical time for the South Asian country of some 243 million people, which on top of its political unrest struggles with an ongoing economic crisis. Results are expected Friday.



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  • Bernie Sanders on How to Take on Big Pharma

    Bernie Sanders on How to Take on Big Pharma

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    Senator Bernie Sanders is preparing to grill the CEOs of three major pharmaceutical companies. 

    On Thursday, Joaquin Duato of Johnson & Johnson, Robert Davis of Merck, and Chris Boerner of Bristol Myers Squibb will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee over why the U.S. pays the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. 

    “Whether you’re Democrat, Republican, independent, conservative, progressive, you know that the pharmaceutical industry is ripping us off,” Sanders, an independent from Vermont, says. 

    The HELP majority staff released a report on Tuesday that revealed that the median launch price of innovative prescription drugs sold by Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Merck have increased by more than $220,000 from $14,000 in the years 2004-2008 to $238,000 in the past five years. The report also found that Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb spent more money on stock buybacks, dividends, and executive compensation than they did on research and development in the year 2022.

    Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) spokesperson Sarah Ryan says Sanders is engaging in a “shaming exercise.”

    “A small number of senators are focused on a political shaming exercise instead of what will help lower what Americans pay for medicines at the pharmacy. The United States is the only country that allows middlemen to profiteer on medicines, leading to higher costs for patients,” Ryan said in a statement.

    TIME spoke to Sanders on Feb. 7 ahead of the hearing about what Congress can do to lower drug prices, what Americans don’t understand about Big Pharma’s business model, and why the Biden Administration should be doing more.

    The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

    TIME: The HELP Committee just released a report on Big Pharma’s business model. And one of the key findings was that for some of the most popular drugs, pharma makes more money off of Americans than the rest of the world combined. Why is that?

    Sanders: The reason is that the pharmaceutical industry is an extremely greedy industry. Their goal is simply to make as much money as they possibly can. Every other major industrialized country has—in one form or another—national healthcare programs, which, among other things, guarantees healthcare to all of their people, but also puts them in a position to negotiate the prices of drugs with the companies.

    In the United States, up until very recently, the drug companies could charge any price they want for any reason. The result of that is that in some cases, we are seeing the same exact prescription drugs sold in America for more than 10 times what they are sold in Canada, or Europe, or Asia.

    Pharmaceutical companies frequently make the argument that they need to charge these high prices in order to fund the research and development of new drugs. What would you say to pharmaceutical executives who argue that lowering drug prices will hurt innovation? 

    We want innovation, we want research and development to address many of the terrible illnesses which are afflicting the American people today, whether it is cancer or Alzheimer’s or heart disease. But in instance after instance, what you find is that despite what they say, these companies put more money in stock buybacks and dividends to their shareholders than they do into research and development. 

    Even when you talk about what we refer to as “research and development,” the average person might assume that they’re working on Alzheimer’s or cancer. Sometimes they are, but often they’re not. They are also working on what we call “me-too” drugs, which are modest modifications of existing drugs so they can get a new patent to extend their monopoly. So it’s not all that it seems to be.

    The bottom line is, in the last year, 10 major pharmaceutical companies earned over $110 billion dollars in profit. Year after year these are some of the most profitable companies in America. So I don’t accept the argument that they desperately need these high prices just for research and development.

    What can Congress realistically do here? 

    Congress can do what every other major country on Earth does. And that is, among other things, negotiate prescription drug prices with the industry and not let them charge us anything they want. 

    Now, we have made a modest step forward with the Inflation Reduction Act. And by the way, all these companies are suing the Biden Administration for having done this.

    There are many other things that we can do. The United States government spends tens of billions of dollars in helping to develop new prescription drugs through the NIH. What we have done in the past is simply give the drug companies the money, and after a good drug is developed, passes FDA approval, then they charge us outrageously high prices. 

    What we can and must do—what we call ‘reasonable pricing’—is that if the federal government provides assistance to a company to develop a drug, and it’s a successful drug, then the price of that drug must be reasonable here in the United States.

    The pharmaceutical industry, which is next to Wall Street, is the most powerful political force in the country. They have right now as we speak 1800 well paid lobbyists here in Washington, D.C., to make sure that Congress does nothing to impact their profit margin. 1800 for 535 lawmakers. On top of that they contribute huge amounts of money to multiple political parties in terms of campaign contributions. 

    Given the level of power that the pharmaceutical industry has, and given how divided Congress has been, what are you hoping to get out of the Senate hearing on Thursday?

    We’re hoping to get two things. Number one, to continue to raise public consciousness on the greed of the industry, and the pain that they are causing so many Americans. 

    Number two, up until now, since I’ve been chairman, we had managed to get some commitments out of the pharmaceutical industry. Moderna, the manufacturer of one of the two major COVID-19 vaccines in the country, promised to provide that vaccine free at drugstores and community health centers for people who could not afford it, and they’ve kept that commitment. So now there are many people getting free vaccines because we brought the CEO of Moderna before the committee. In another hearing, Eli Lilly, a major manufacturer of insulin products, promised not to raise their insulin prices, after having lowered their prices. And they have kept that commitment as well. 

    At the end of the day, you’re right. This is a divided Congress, and a divided nation politically. But there is one issue where the American people are not divided. Whether you’re Democrat, Republican, independent, conservative, progressive, you know that the pharmaceutical industry is ripping us off. 

    Do you think that the Biden Administration is doing enough in terms of lowering drug prices?

    Well, let me just say this: they’re doing more than any other administration in history. What we have seen now is for the first time, Medicare is beginning to negotiate prescription drug prices.   Is it happening as fast or as extensively as I would like? No, but it is a significant, significant start. 

    Number two, working with President Biden, we are now moving towards making sure that no senior citizen in Medicare will pay more than $35 a month for insulin. That’s a big deal. And within a couple of years, there will be a cap on what seniors can pay for out of pocket costs. So I answer your question in two ways. One, is that the Biden Administration has done more than any other administration in taking on the pharmaceutical industry. That’s the good news. The bad news is I think they should be doing a lot more than that. 

    How much credit should President Biden get for the reductions that we’ve seen in insulin prices?

    A couple of years ago, when I was running for President, I took some folks from the Midwest to purchase insulin. We left from Detroit and went to Ottawa. And we purchased insulin in Ontario, Canada for 1/10th of the price that they were paying here in the United States. 

    So I think it’s a combination of factors. I’m proud of what the HELP committee has done on this, proud of what the Biden Administration has done, and I’m proud of what the grassroots organizations have done. 

    Do you think that’s going to resonate with voters in November?

    I hope it does. 

    Is there anything you think that Americans are misunderstanding when it comes to how their drugs are priced and how that process happens?

    I think most people don’t know that we are paying literally for the same exact bottle of prescription drugs, sometimes 10 times more than other people around the world. Number two, they may not know that the pharmaceutical industry is enormously profitable. They may not know that these companies pay their CEOs exorbitant compensation packages of $20, $30, $50 million a year. And they may not know that one out of four people walk into a drugstore to fill the prescription that their doctor prescribed cannot afford to do that. So you have a major, major healthcare problem in terms of the high cost of prescription drugs.

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  • What to Know About the Rizo-López Listeria Outbreak

    What to Know About the Rizo-López Listeria Outbreak

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    Rizo-López Foods, a California-based cheese and dairy company, is recalling more than 60 products sold nationwide following a listeria outbreak that has killed two people and caused more than 20 hospitalizations. 

    The CDC previously investigated a listeria outbreak of the same strain in 2017 and 2021, but was unable to trace it back to a specific brand. Last month, they reopened the case after new illnesses were reported in December and the same strain was found in a cheese sample from Rizo-López Foods.

    What foods have been recalled? 

    The recalled products include cheese, yogurt, and sour cream sold under the brand names Tio Francisco, Don Francisco, Rizo Bros, Rio Grande, Food City, El Huache, La Ordena, San Carlos, Campesino, Santa Maria, Dos Ranchitos, Casa Cardenas, and 365 Whole Foods Market, according to the FDA. 

    The FDA has advised consumers to throw away any recalled products and clean and sanitize any surfaces or containers they touched.

    What are the first signs of listeria? 

    Symptoms of listeria, a bacteria that can contaminate many kinds of food and cause severe illness, usually appear within two weeks of exposure, and are most common in people who are pregnant, newborns, adults aged 65 or older, and people with weakened immune systems—though other people can be infected with listeria, they rarely become seriously ill, according to the CDC. 

    Symptoms among people who are pregnant are typically mild and include fever, and flu-like symptoms, such as muscle aches and fatigue. However, a listeria infection while pregnant can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature delivery, or life-threatening infection in the newborn.

    In those who are not pregnant, symptoms include fever, flu-like symptoms, such as muscle aches and fatigue, headaches, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and seizures. 

    How common is listeria in food?

    A few outbreaks of Listeria infections occur every year, according to the CDC.

    The CDC urges those with high risk to avoid specific foods likely to be contaminated with the bacteria — including unpasteurized soft cheeses, raw or lightly cooked sprouts, and unheated deli meats. Listeria is easily killed by heating food to a safe minimum internal temperature. 

    How do you treat listeria?

    Listeria must first be diagnosed through a lab test of body tissue or fluid. Most infections can be treated with antibiotics—but specific treatment plans will vary based on the severity of illness.

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    Simmone Shah

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  • Chile’s Sebastian Pinera Dies in Helicopter Crash at 74

    Chile’s Sebastian Pinera Dies in Helicopter Crash at 74

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    Sebastián Piñera, the billionaire who brought Chile’s political right wing out from the shadow of former dictator Augusto Pinochet to win two separate terms as president, died in a helicopter crash in the south of the country. He was 74.

    The helicopter went down in a lake in the Region de Los Lagos, Interior Minister Carolina Toha told a press conference on Tuesday. Three people were injured and managed to swim to the shore, while Piñera was trapped in the wreckage. His body was later recovered by rescue services.

    “So goes the most important and successful right-wing leader in the history of Chile,” Mauricio Morales, a professor of political science at Chile’s Universidad de Talca, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “His governments left more lights than shadows.”

    Piñera became president in 2010 and again in 2018, overseeing two periods of growth, though the second was overshadowed by the worst social unrest in a generation that paralyzed much of the country.

    One key to Piñera’s early political success was distancing his right-wing coalition from Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship, which ended in 1990, enabling it to unseat the center-left parties that dominated the country for 20 years. One of the few on the right who voted against Pinochet in a 1988 plebiscite, Piñera helped mold a new right wing that focused more on economic liberalism than Catholic conservatism and authoritarianism.

    “Piñera was a controversial figure,” said Kenneth Bunker, a professor at Universidad San Sebastian in Santiago. “He was a figure that even within his own sector never had broad support. For the conservative right, he was disruptive.”

    Still, many voters just backed him for his apparent economic Midas touch, hoping it would rub off on the country in general.

    Economic growth averaged 5.4% during his first term as the country was flooded with revenue from soaring copper prices. His second term was less successful, with expansion averaging 3%. The nation was also convulsed by street protests over inequality in late 2019 that only ended with the arrival of the Covid pandemic.

    Condolences 

    Regional leaders including Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentina’s Javier Milei sent their condolences.

    “I will always value ex-President Piñera’s commitment to our country and its democracy, as well as his tireless work and service for the nation,” former president and political opponent Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

    Mourners stand next to a photo of Piñera with a Chilean flag during a memorial service at Renovación Nacional headquarters in Santiago on Feb. 6, 2024.Sebastián Vivallo Oñate—Agencia Makro/Getty Images

    President Gabriel Boric said Piñera would receive a state funeral and declared three days of national mourning.

    “He was a democrat from the first hour and genuinely looked for what he believed was best for the country,” Boric said in televised comments. 

    Piñera may best be remembered on the international scene for overseeing the rescue of 33 workers trapped in a copper mine in northern Chile for 69 days. Locally, he will also be recalled for managing the rebuilding efforts after a devastating earthquake in 2010. An aftershock of that quake had interrupted his inauguration ceremony.

    Business empire

    Born Dec. 1, 1949, in Santiago, Piñera attended the Catholic University of Chile, studied economics at Harvard University and then returned to Chile to teach at a university.

    Over the subsequent decades he became a billionaire. At one time, he owned 27% of the airline LAN Chile—now Latam Airlines—plus 90% of the Chilevision television station and 13% of the Colo Colo soccer club. He sold those holdings before the 2009 presidential campaign.

    By the time he took office for a second time in 2018, most of his family’s wealth was in blind trusts.

    Still, his business career was marked by several controversies. In 1982, while he was chief executive at Banco de Talca, he was accused of violating the nation’s banking laws and disappeared for 24 days. The Supreme Court later acquitted him of the charges. In 2007, Piñera was fined $700,000 for insider trading. He didn’t appeal.

    Piñera is survived by his wife, Cecilia Morel, and their four children.



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  • King Charles’ Cancer Diagnosis: How the World Is Reacting

    King Charles’ Cancer Diagnosis: How the World Is Reacting

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    Leaders around the world have been sharing messages of support for King Charles III after Buckingham Palace announced Monday that he had been diagnosed with cancer. The 75-year-old King, who recently underwent treatment for an enlarged prostate, was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer during diagnostic tests.

    “The King is grateful to his medical team for their swift intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement. “He remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible.”

    Political leaders have been reacting to the news, sharing their support and hopes for recovery.

    U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that he was “concerned” about the King and hoped to speak with him soon. 

    In a social media post, former U.S. President Donald Trump shared his wishes for a quick recovery. “He is a wonderful man, who I got to know well during my presidency, and we all pray that he has a fast and full recovery!”

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he was “ hoping for a fast and full recovery” for the King in a social media post. “I, like Canadians across the country and people around the world, am thinking of His Majesty King Charles III as he undergoes treatment for cancer.”

    New Zealand Prime Minister Christoper Luxon shared his country’s support for the King in a post on X. “Kia Kaha King Charles. On behalf of all Kiwis I wish His Majesty all the very best for a speedy recovery.”

    Politicians within the U.K., have also been sharing messages of well wishes. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak posted on X saying, “Wishing His Majesty a full and speedy recovery.”

    “I have no doubt he’ll be back to full strength in no time and I know the whole country will be wishing him well,” he added.

    Labour Party leader Keir Starmer wished the monarch “all the very best”. “We look forward to seeing him back to swift full health.”

    Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf sent his “thoughts and prayers” for the King, adding, “My thoughts are also with Her Majesty The Queen and other Members of the Royal Family at what I know will be a worrying time for them all.”

    The King has begun treatment, Buckingham Palace says, and will postpone all public-facing duties for the time being. 



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    Simmone Shah

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  • King Charles III Has Been Diagnosed With Cancer

    King Charles III Has Been Diagnosed With Cancer

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    King Charles III has been diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer, Buckingham Palace said Monday.

    While the 75-year-old King recently underwent treatment for an enlarged prostate, the Palace said his diagnosis was not prostate cancer in a statement on Monday. The cancer was, however, discovered during subsequent checks that took place as a result of prostate treatment. 

    The statement adds that the monarch began receiving cancer treatment on Monday.   

    “The King is grateful to his medical team for their swift intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure. He remains wholly positive about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible,” the statement said. 

    The King’s royal engagements have been postponed, with other senior members of the family expected to stand in on his behalf. The Palace added that the King has chosen to share details of his illness to “prevent speculation” and further public understanding for others who have been diagnosed with cancer.

    The BBC reported Monday that Prince Harry has spoken to his father following the cancer diagnosis and will travel to the U.K. to see him in the upcoming days. The King has returned from Sandringham, in Norfolk, to London for his first treatment. 

    The King’s health has been a public focus this month since he was admitted to a private London clinic hospital on Jan. 26 for a pre-planned procedure to correct his enlarged prostate, otherwise known as a benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). 

    Ahead of his hospitalization, Buckingham Palace announced on Jan. 17, that the King would undergo prostate treatment in efforts to encourage other men to have their prostate checked. His approach was successful, causing a surge in people checking the NHS website’s page about the condition 11 times more than usual, according to The Guardian.  

    “In common with thousands of men each year, the King has sought treatment for an enlarged prostate,” a statement read. Confirming that His Majesty’s condition was benign, the Palace added that “the King’s public engagements will be postponed for a short period of recuperation.”

    Politicians from across the U.K. have begun sharing well wishes for the monarch. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak posted on X saying, “Wishing His Majesty a full and speedy recovery.”

    “I have no doubt he’ll be back to full strength in no time and I know the whole country will be wishing him well.”

    The Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, shared a similar post, wishing the King “all the very best.” He added: “We look forward to seeing him back to swift full health.”

    Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf sent “thoughts and prayers” to the monarch, wishing him “the very best for a speedy recovery and return to public life.” Yousaf’s X post continued: “My thoughts are also with Her Majesty The Queen and other Members of the Royal Family at what I know will be a worrying time for them all.”

    Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford was also “saddened to hear the news” and sent thoughts from himself and people across Wales to the royal family. He also wished him “Gwellhad buan,” or “get well soon” in Welsh.

    Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s newly appointed First Minister Michelle O’Neill said she is “very sorry” to hear about the King’s illness. “I want to wish him well for his treatment and a full and speedy recovery,” she said. 

    This is a developing story, please check back for updates. 

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    Armani Syed

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  • Why Hong Kong Is Mad Over Messi

    Why Hong Kong Is Mad Over Messi

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    Hong Kong entered the weekend mad for Lionel Messi, with legions of soccer fans in the Chinese enclave highly anticipating the arrival of TIME’s Athlete of the Year as his MLS team Inter Miami were set to play an exhibition match against a local Hong Kong team on Sunday.

    But by the time the final whistle was blown, the 40,000 spectators at the sold-out stadium, along with sponsors including the Hong Kong government, were more mad at Messi as well as at organizers of the event, booing the Argentine player considered by many to be the greatest of all time after he remained on the bench for the full match.

    Before the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner arrived in Hong Kong as part of Inter Miami’s first-ever international tour, the city had already been steeped in days of Messi mania—the player’s face was plastered across giant screens as well as on a boat that sailed around the harbor for an eye-catching Adidas advertisement campaign, while pop-up stores modeled after the Inter Miami changing room sold Messi’s No. 10 jersey and other merchandise.

    A junk boat featuring a Messi ad sails across Victoria Harbour on Feb. 2, 2024.Peter Parks—AFP/Getty Images

    Messi arrived in Hong Kong on Friday ahead of the Tatler XFEST exhibition match to be held at Hong Kong Stadium. According to organizer Tatler, the match was meant to “elevate Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s World City.” It was also part of a tourism strategy by Hong Kong authorities, which had dedicated over HK$15 million ($1.92 million) in grants to the event.

    Tickets for the match were sold out within an hour of its announcement in December, according to Tatler. Klook, the event’s official ticketing partner, listed the prices as ranging between HK$880 ($113) and HK$4,880 ($624). Tickets for an Inter Miami open training session on Saturday, which cost HK$580 ($74) to HK$780 ($100), were also sold out.

    But despite the weekend’s lineup of activities, including performances by popular local acts like members of boyband Mirror, Hong Kongers’ hopes to see some of Messi’s magic on the field morphed into deep disappointment, with Inter Miami coach Gerardo Martino explaining later that he did not want to risk exacerbating a hamstring injury Messi is nursing by putting him on the pitch.

    Even without Messi—or his teammate, the famed Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez, who was similarly benched over injury concerns—Inter Miami won the friendly against Hong Kong XI 4-1.

    “We wish we could have sent Leo and Luis on for at least a while but the risk was too big,” Martino told reporters. “We understand a lot of fans are very disappointed and we ask for their forgiveness.”

    The fallout

    As spectators grew increasingly irate over the course of Sunday’s match, chants for Messi to get on the pitch transitioned into calls for ticket refunds, and a post-game speech by Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham was punctuated with loud booing.

    Hong Kong Soccer Inter Miami
    Fans react to Messi’s lack of playing time at the Hong Kong Stadium on Feb. 4, 2024.Louise Delmotte—AP

    After the match, anger continued to fester. The Hong Kong government, which had reportedly been in talks with Inter Miami last week about Messi’s promotional activities in the city, expressed its dissatisfaction in a statement: “Many Hong Kong fans looked forward to the match with enthusiasm, and a lot of tourists came to Hong Kong particularly for the match,” the statement said. “The Government, as well as all football fans, are extremely disappointed that Messi could neither play in the friendly match, nor explain to the fans in person upon request.”

    The statement also said the government would review the details of its contract with the organizer to see if a reduction of its funding would apply as a result of Messi not playing.

    The Hong Kong government has been actively courting international stars as part of its post-COVID economic recovery efforts. Messi’s arrival this month was eyed by authorities as a chance to boost the city’s global reputation—especially after criticisms of the city missing the opportunity to host Taylor Swift, whose concerts are known to revitalize local economies.

    Read More: How Singapore Has Become a Favorite Venue for Top Artists—and Why That’s Upsetting Some Asian Fans

    For its part, Tatler said that it “did not have any information about the non-participation of Messi or Suárez prior to kick off.”

    “We, alongside all football fans who attended that match, had been eagerly anticipating Messi’s and Suárez’s participation and share in the disappointment felt by everyone watching,” said a statement published by Tatler Hong Kong. 

    But explanations and apologies have done little to appease anger over the event. “This is not just a disappointment. This is humiliation to the entire HK community,” one fan commented in response to Tatler’s statement on Instagram. 

    This hasn’t been the only hiccup of Inter Miami’s 2024 preseason tour. Last week, Inter Miami faced off against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, in a match billed as the “last dance” between the two best players of their generation. But fans were similarly disappointed as Ronaldo sat out of the entire game due to a muscle injury while Messi only came on as a substitute for the last few minutes. 

    Inter Miami are scheduled to play against Japan’s Vissel Kobe in Tokyo on Wednesday—but there are growing speculations that match may be canceled amid reports of it having been removed from Apple TV’s streaming lineup.



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    Koh Ewe

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  • Forest Fires Rage On in Central Chile Killing at Least 64

    Forest Fires Rage On in Central Chile Killing at Least 64

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    SANTIAGO, Chile — Firefighters wrestled Sunday with massive forest fires that broke out in central Chile two days earlier, as officials extended curfews in cities most heavily affected by the blazes and said at least 64 people were killed.

    The fires have been burning with the highest intensity around the city of Viña del Mar, where a famous botanical garden founded in 1931 was destroyed by the flames on Sunday. At least 1,600 people were left without homes.

    Several neighborhoods on the eastern edge of Viña del Mar have been devoured by flames and smoke, trapping some people in their homes. Officials said 200 people have been reported missing in Viña del Mar and the surrounding area. The city of 300,000 people is a popular beach resort and also hosts a famous music festival during the southern hemisphere’s summer.

    Rodrigo Mundaca, the governor of the Valparaiso region, said Sunday that he believed some of the fires could have been intentionally caused, replicating a theory that had also been mentioned on Saturday by President Gabriel Boric.

    “These fires began in four points that lit up simultaneously,” Mundaca said. “As authorities we will have to work rigorously to find who is responsible.”

    The fires around Viña del Mar began in mountainous forested areas that are hard to reach. But they have moved into densely populated neighborhoods on the city’s periphery despite efforts by Chilean authorities to slow down the flames.

    On Saturday President Gabriel Boric said that unusually high temperatures, low humidity and high wind speeds were making it difficult to control the wildlfires in central Chile, which have already burnt through 8,000 hectares of forests and urban areas.

    Officials are asking people in areas affected by the fires to evacuate their homes as quickly as possible, while those further from the fires are being told to stay at home in order to facilitate the transit of fire engines and ambulances.

    Curfews have been declared in Viña del Mar, and the neighboring cities of Quilpé and Villa Alemana as part of an effort to prevent looting.

    The fires broke out during a week of record high temperatures in central Chile. Over the past two months, the El Niño weather pattern has caused droughts and high temperatures in western South America that have also increased the risk of forest fires.

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    By PATRICIA LUNA and MANUEL RUEDA / AP

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  • ‘Houthi Attacks Must Stop’ U.K. Vows After Strikes With U.S.

    ‘Houthi Attacks Must Stop’ U.K. Vows After Strikes With U.S.

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    The U.K.’s top foreign official has said “the Houthi attacks must stop” after the U.K. and U.S. joined forces for the third time on Saturday to carry out strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have initiated a series of attacks in the Red Sea amid the Israel-Hamas war. 

    “We have issued repeated warnings to the Houthis,” foreign secretary David Cameron said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. “Their reckless actions are putting innocent lives at risk, threatening the freedom of navigation and destabilizing the region. The Houthi attacks must stop.” 

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak posted on X that the Royal Air Force “successfully took out specific Houthi military targets in Yemen, further degrading the Houthis’ capabilities. Recent attacks on U.K. and international vessels are unacceptable. It’s our duty to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom.”

    U.K. Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps commented on X that the Houthis’ attacks are “illegal and unacceptable and it is our duty to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of navigation,” and called the third wave of strikes “proportionate and targeted,” saying the U.S. and U.K. acted in “self-defense and in accordance with international law.” 

    “This is not an escalation,” he said in the statement. “We have already successfully targeted launchers and storage sites involved in Houthi attacks, and I am confident that our latest strikes have further degraded the Houthis’ capabilities.” 

    Ahead of the third round of joint strikes from the U.K. and U.S., Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani, in a statement on X, condemned military attacks on Yemen. He also criticized the U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria, which were in response to a fatal drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan. He said such strikes violate the sovereignty of the countries and would lead to “no result other than the escalation of tensions and instability in the region.” 

    In a follow-up post on Sunday, Kanaani condemned the most recent strikes from the U.S. and U.K. against Yemen, calling them a worrying threat to international peace and security.

    The Houthis were undeterred by the latest military action, instead vowing to respond. Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a spokesman for the group, which is also called Ansar Allah, said on X: “The American-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will meet escalation with escalation.” 

    The Iran-supported militant group––one side in Yemen’s yearslong civil war––began launching attacks on commercial shipping vessels it says are linked to Israel in solidarity with Hamas after the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, leading to the conflict in Gaza. The attacks have crippled global shipping, leading some companies to pause operating in the Red Sea and take longer, more expensive routes. 

    The barrage triggered a joint military response from the U.S. and U.K. on Jan. 11 and Jan. 22, while the U.S. has carried out additional smaller attacks. 

    President Joe Biden acknowledged in mid-January that the attacks were not yet working to stop the Houthis, but would continue. Experts questioned to TIME whether the attacks would deter the Houthis or could backfire if world powers underestimate the Yemeni group’s military might, while another observer said the Western superpowers’ attacks were instigating further responses that continue to destabilize shipping. 

    Al-Bukhaiti said on X that the latest bombing wouldn’t change the group’s position and its military actions against Israel would continue until “the crimes of genocide in Gaza are stopped and the siege on its residents is lifted, no matter the sacrifices it costs us.” 

    Israel is currently fighting accusations from South Africa in the International Court of Justice that it is committing genocide in its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 27,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The court ruled preliminarily in January that “at least some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the [Genocide] Convention,” and called on Israel to take steps to mitigate such acts, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. An Israeli government spokesperson had denied the accusations as “spurious and specious charges.” 

    As tensions escalate, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to travel again to the Middle East on Sunday. 



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    Mallory Moench

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  • An Irish Nationalist Will Lead Northern Ireland’s Government

    An Irish Nationalist Will Lead Northern Ireland’s Government

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    LONDON — An Irish nationalist made history Saturday by becoming Northern Ireland’s first minister as the government returned to work after a two-year boycott by unionists.

    Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O’Neill was named first minister in the government that under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord shares power equally between Northern Ireland’s two main communities — British unionists who want to stay in the U.K., and Irish nationalists who seek to unite with Ireland.

    Northern Ireland was established as a unionist, Protestant-majority part of the U.K. in 1921, following independence for the Republic of Ireland, so O’Neill’s nomination was seen as a highly symbolic moment for nationalists.

    “This is a historic day which represents a new dawn,” O’Neill said. “That such a day would ever come would have been unimaginable to my parents and grandparents’ generation. Because of the Good Friday Agreement that old state that they were born into is gone. A more democratic, more equal society has been created making this a better place for everyone.”

    O’Neill will share power with deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly from the Democratic Unionist Party. The two will be equals, but O’Neill, whose party captured more seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 2022 elections, will hold the more prestigious title.

    Neither side can govern without agreement from the other. Government business ground to a half over the past two years after the DUP walked out to protest trade issues related to Brexit.

    O’Neill, 47, who was born in the Republic of Ireland but raised in the north, comes from a family with links to the militant Irish Republican Army. Her father was imprisoned as an IRA member, an uncle raised money for the group and two of her cousins were shot — one fatally — by security forces.

    O’Neill has been criticized for attending events commemorating the IRA and told an interviewer there was “no alternative” to the group’s armed campaign during the Troubles, a period of about 30 years of violent conflict over the future of Northern Ireland, which ended with the Good Friday accords.

    “I don’t think any Irish person ever woke up one morning and thought that conflict was a good idea, but the war came to Ireland,” she said in 2022. “I think at the time there was no alternative, but now, thankfully, we have an alternative to conflict and that’s the Good Friday agreement.”

    At 15, O’Neill became pregnant and her mother quit work to help raise her granddaughter so O’Neill could stay in school. She said the Catholic school she attended had not been supportive and pregnancy had been a “very negative” experience.

    “You were nearly made to feel girls like you can’t be at school, that kind of a thing,” she said.

    As a member of Sinn Féin, the party affiliated with the IRA, O’Neill was elected in 2005 to the Dungannon Borough Council, replacing her father. She was elected to the Stormont Assembly in 2007.

    Both O’Neill and Little-Pengelly, 44, grew up under the shadow of the Troubles and pledged to work together to bridge divides that once seemed insurmountable.

    “The past with all its horror can never be forgotten, and nor will it be allowed to be rewritten but while we are shaped by the past, we are not defined by it,” Little-Pengelly said. “The experience of my childhood gave me the drive and desire to make a different future not just for myself, but to do all that I could and can to ensure a better future for all of us.”

    Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who helped broker the historic peace agreement, was in the gallery to witness O’Neill’s nomination along with her grown up daughter and son.

    “As an Irish republican, I pledge cooperation and genuine honest effort with those colleagues who are British, of a unionist tradition, and who cherish the Union,” O’Neill said. “This is an assembly for all — Catholic, Protestant and dissenter.”

    Clare Rice, an academic researcher in politics, said O’Neill’s new position was “hugely symbolic” and “hugely significant” despite there being no difference beyond semantics from her previous role as deputy first minister.

    “All eyes today will be on that symbolic nomination,” Rice told the BBC. “That is going to be the story that comes out of today, second only to the fact that we’re here at all.”

    The return to government came exactly two years after a DUP boycott over a dispute about trade restrictions for goods coming into Northern Ireland from Great Britain. Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people were left without a functioning administration as the cost of living soared and public services were strained.

    An open border between the north and the republic was a key pillar of the peace process that ended the Troubles, so checks were imposed instead between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.

    An agreement a year ago between the U.K. and the EU, known as the Windsor Framework, eased customs checks and other hurdles but didn’t go far enough for the DUP, which continued its boycott.

    The U.K. government this week agreed to new changes that would eliminate routine checks and paperwork for most goods entering Northern Ireland, although some checks will remain for illegal goods or disease prevention.

    The new changes included legislation “affirming Northern Ireland’s constitutional status” as part of the U.K. and gives local politicians “democratic oversight” of any future EU laws that might apply to Northern Ireland.

    The U.K. government also agreed to give Northern Ireland more than 3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) for its battered public services once the Belfast government is back up and running.

    “I believe that my party has delivered what many said we couldn’t,” DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said outside the assembly chamber in Stormont. “We have brought about change that many said was not possible, and I believe that today is a good day for Northern Ireland, a day when once again our place in the United Kingdom and its internal market is respected and protected in our law and restored for all our people to enjoy the benefits of our membership of the union.”

    Former DUP leader Edwin Poots was elected as speaker of the chamber.

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    BRIAN MELLEY / AP

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  • Hamas Shows Signs of Resurgence in Parts of Gaza

    Hamas Shows Signs of Resurgence in Parts of Gaza

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    RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas has begun to resurface in areas where Israel withdrew the bulk of its forces a month ago, deploying police officers and making partial salary payments to some of its civil servants in Gaza City in recent days, four residents and a senior official in the militant group said Saturday.

    Signs of a Hamas resurgence in Gaza’s largest city underscore the group’s resilience despite Israel’s deadly air and ground campaign over the past four months. Israel has said it’s determined to crush Hamas and prevent it from returning to power in Gaza, an enclave it has ruled since 2007.

    In recent days, Israeli forces renewed strikes in the western and northwestern parts of Gaza City, including in areas where some of the salary distributions were reported to have taken place.

    Four Gaza City residents told The Associated Press that in recent days, uniformed and plainclothes police officers deployed near police headquarters and other government offices, including near Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest. The residents said they saw the return of civil servants and subsequent Israeli airstrikes near the makeshift offices.

    The return of police marks an attempt to reinstate order in the devastated city after Israel withdrew a significant number of troops from northern Gaza last month, a Hamas official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

    The official said the group’s leaders had given directions to reestablish order in parts of the north where Israeli forces had withdrawn, including by helping prevent the looting of shops and houses abandoned by residents who had heeded repeated Israeli evacuation orders and headed to the southern half of Gaza.

    During Israel’s ground offensive, many homes and buildings were left half-standing or reduced to piles of scrap, rubble and dust.

    Saeed Abdel-Bar, a resident of Gaza City, said a cousin received funds from a makeshift Hamas office near the hospital that was set up to distribute $200 payouts to government employees, including police officers and municipal workers.

    Since seizing control of Gaza nearly 17 years ago, Hamas has been operating a government bureaucracy with tens of thousands of civil servants, including teachers, traffic cops and civil police who operate separately from the group’s secretive military wing.

    The partial salary payments of $200 for at least some government employees signal that Israel has not delivered a knockout blow to Hamas, even as it claims to have killed more than 9,000 Hamas fighters.

    Ahmed Abu Hadrous, a Gaza City resident, said Israeli warplanes struck the area where the makeshift office is located multiple times earlier this week, including Saturday morning.

    The strikes come roughly a month after Israeli military leaders said they had broken up the command structure of Hamas battalions in the north, but that individual fighters were continuing to carry out guerrilla-style attacks.

    Meanwhile, combat continued in southern Gaza on Saturday.

    At least 11 people were injured when Israel’s military fired smoke bombs at displaced people sheltering at the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent in the southern city of Khan Younis, the organization said. It didn’t elaborate, and the Israeli military had no immediate comment.

    The injuries followed a siege that the Israeli military has laid on the Red Crescent’s facilities for 12 days, the organization said.

    The charity also said it documented the killing of 43 people, including three staff members, inside the buildings by Israeli fire in those 12 days. Another 153 were injured, it said.

    At least 17 people, including women and children, were killed in two separate airstrikes overnight in Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, according to the registration office at a hospital where the bodies were taken.

    The first strike hit a residential building east of Rafah, killing at least 13 people from the Hijazi family. The dead included four women and three children, hospital officials said. The second strike struck a house in the Jeneina area of Rafah, killing at least two men and two women from the Hams family.

    “Two children are still under the rubble, and we don’t, still we don’t know anything about them,” relative Ahmad Hijazi said.

    The 17 bodies were taken to the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, the main health facility in Rafah, and were seen by an AP journalist.

    The Health Ministry in Gaza said Saturday that 107 people were killed over the preceding 24-hour period, bringing the wartime total to 27,238. More than 66,000 people have been wounded.

    More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has taken refuge in Rafah and surrounding areas. A United Nations official on Friday said Rafah was becoming a “pressure cooker of despair.”

    Israel’s defense minister warned earlier this week that Israel might expand combat to Rafah after focusing for the last few weeks on Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza. While the statement has alarmed aid officials and international diplomats, Israel would risk significantly disrupting strategic relationships with the United States and Egypt if it were to send troops into Rafah.

    International mediators continue to work to close wide gaps between Israel and Hamas over a proposed cease-fire deal put forth this week, nearly four month since Hamas and other militants captured about 250 hostages during their deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war.

    Hamas continue to hold dozens of captives, after more than 100 were released during a one-week truce in November. Those releases were in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

    The conflict has leveled vast swaths of the tiny coastal enclave, displaced 85% of its population and pushed a quarter of residents to starvation.

    Meanwhile, United States — which has negotiated tenants of the deal along with Israel, Egypt and Qatar — launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard late Friday, in the opening salvo of retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend.

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    NAJIB JOBAIN and SAMY MAGDY / AP

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