Motive unclear after fatal warehouse
The United States and China will face a new test in their increasingly troubled relations when top officials from both countries meet in Alaska on Thursday.
Ties between the world’s two largest economies have been torn for years, and the Biden administration has yet to signal it’s ready or willing to back down on the hardline stances taken under President Donald Trump. Nor has China signaled it’s prepared to ease the pressure it has brought to bear.
Thus, the stage is set for a contentious first face-toface meeting, and no agreements are expected.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan will meet China’s top two diplomats, State Councilor Wang Yi and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi, in Alaska. Difficult discussions are anticipated over trade, human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong, China’s western Xinjiang region, Taiwan, Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea and the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are clear-eyed about Beijing’s consistent failure to uphold its commitments, and we spoke about how Beijing’s aggressive and authoritarian behavior are challenging the stability, security and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region,” Blinken said in South Korea before flying to Anchorage.
A man who opened fire at a Wisconsin grocery distribution center and the two co-workers he killed were longtime employees, but a motive for the attack remains unclear, authorities said Thursday.
The man who carried out the attack at the Roundy’s distribution center in Oconomowoc, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Milwaukee, on Tuesday night was 41-year-old Fraron Cornelius, of Wauwatosa, police said during a news conference Thursday. The men he killed were 39-year-old Kevin Schneider, of Milwaukee, and 51-year-old Kevin Kloth, of Germantown.
All three had worked for at least 20 years at the giant warehouse, Oconomowoc Police Chief James Pfister said. Authorities refused to speculate as to Cornelius’ motive, saying detectives were just beginning a lengthy investigation that will include poring over the facility’s surveillance footage and interviewing hundreds of Roundy’s employees.
Saying her past anti-Asian and homophobic tweets have overshadowed her work, Alexi McCammond said Thursday that she and publisher Conde Nast have decided to part ways at Teen Vogue.
“I should not have tweeted what I did and I have taken full responsibility for that,” the journalist said in a statement posted on social media. “I look at my work and growth in the years since, and have redoubled my commitment to growing in the years to come.”
McCammond, who is Black, was tapped as editor in chief to replace Lindsay Peoples Wagner, but the tweets from when she was a college student as recently as 2011 resurfaced after the appointment was announced.