Pelosi: China cannot stop US officials from visiting Taiwan
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that China will not isolate Taiwan by preventing U.S. officials from traveling there. She made the remarks in Tokyo, the final leg of an Asia tour highlighted by a visit to Taiwan that infuriated China. Pelosi, the first House speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, said Wednesday in Taipei that the U.S. commitment to democracy in the self-governing island and elsewhere “remains ironclad.” Pelosi and five other members of Congress arrived in Tokyo late Thursday after visiting Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.
Polio fears rise in New York amid possible community spread
New York state health officials have issued a more urgent call for unvaccinated children and adults to get inoculated against polio, citing new evidence of possible “community spread” of the virus. Health officials said Thursday that the polio virus has now been found in seven different wastewater samples in two adjacent counties north of New York City. So far, only one person has tested positive for polio — an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County who suffered paralysis. But based on earlier polio outbreaks, Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said there may be hundreds of other people who have been infected, but have no symptoms yet.
Jury awards Sandy Hook parents $4M in Alex Jones trial
A Texas jury on Thursday awarded the parents of a child killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School more than $4 million in compensatory damages from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the first time he has been held financially liable for defaming the victims’ parents by spreading lies that they were complicit in a government plot to stage the shooting. On Friday the jury will consider evidence of Jones’ net worth to determine how much, if anything, to award the parents, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, in punitive damages. Two other trials by Sandy Hook parents seeking damages from Jones have been scheduled for next month.
Former Puerto Rico governor arrested on corruption charges
A former governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vázquez, 62, was arrested by the FBI on Thursday and accused of accepting bribes from a campaign donor while in office and naming a regulatory official of his choosing in exchange for financing her campaign. The donor, Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan banker, was also charged. Herrera, 50, owns Bancrédito, an international bank that faced scrutiny from Puerto Rico regulators over suspicious banking transactions. According to the Department of Justice, Herrera wanted the island’s top banking regulator to be replaced and, in return, offered to pay $300,000 to political consultants working on the governor’s campaign.
South Korean spacecraft launched to the moon, country’s 1st
South Korea is on its way to the moon. SpaceX launched the Asian nation’s first lunar explorer Thursday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite is taking a long, roundabout path and will arrive in December. It’s designed to orbit the moon for at least a year, collecting scientific data. It will also scout out potential landing spots for a spacecraft that South Korea plans to launch by 2030 or so. NASA is up next with the debut of its new moon rocket in late August. The space agency wants to send an empty crew capsule around the moon in a test flight before astronauts climb aboard.
As Iran talks of nuclear advances, negotiations with US restart
With Iran announcing this week that it now has the technical ability to produce a nuclear warhead, though denying that it plans to, negotiators from the United States and Iran arrived Thursday in Vienna for one more — and perhaps the last — effort to restore the 2015 nuclear deal that limited Iran’s nuclear program. Expectations for the talks, chaired by the European Union, were low. But the negotiations may also lead to a more serious round if the two sides are willing to move on what they have both described as their red lines and make some politically fraught concessions.
Chinese missiles strike seas off Taiwan, some land near Japan
At least 11 Chinese missiles struck seas north, south and east of Taiwan on Thursday, less than 24 hours after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrated the island as a bulwark of democracy next to autocratic China. The People’s Liberation Army declared that its missiles “all precisely hit their targets,” even as Japan said five landed in its waters. The Chinese military called the exercises a prelude to a bigger show of force intended to punish the island for a visit by Pelosi that challenged Beijing’s claims to Taiwan. The drills will give Chinese forces practice should they be ordered to encircle and attack the island.
By wire sources