NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 American rapper: American rapper A$AP Rocky testified Thursday at his assault trial in Sweden that he did everything possible to avoid a confrontation with two men he said were persistently following his entourage in Stockholm, but one of those men picked a fight with one of his bodyguards. Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is accused along with two other men believed to be members of his entourage of beating a 19yearold man, Mustafa Jafari, on June 30. The rapper, 30, pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial Tuesday, saying he acted in selfdefense. The trial has created a stir in U.S.Swedish diplomatic relations after President Trump weighed in to support the Grammynominated recording artist.
2 Ebola outbreak: Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s state minister for foreign affairs, says his country has closed its border with Congo because of the deadly Ebola outbreak. Last week Saudi Arabia stopped issuing visas to people from Congo while citing the outbreak, shortly before the annual hajj pilgrimage there this month. More than 1,800 people have died, nearly a third of them children. It is now the seconddeadliest Ebola outbreak in history, and last month the World Health Organization declared it a rare global emergency.
3 Siberia fires: Hundreds of Russian towns and cities are shrouded in heavy smoke from wildfires in Siberia and the Far East on Thursday, and the blazes appear to be spreading in remote terrain. Avialesookhrana, Russia’s aerial forest protection service, said more than 11,850 square miles are on fire, with the vast majority in areas that are hard to reach and where potential damage is likely to be less than the cost of fighting them. Although the fires have not hit populated areas, heavy smoke from them is affecting about 800 communities, officials said, including the large cities of Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Chita.
4 “Childish” move: Iran’s president lambasted new U.S. sanctions by the Trump administration targeting the country’s foreign minister, describing the move on Thursday as “childish” and a barrier to diplomacy. Hassan Rouhani’s remarks came after the Trump administration announced Wednesday it had imposed financial sanctions on Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as part of its escalating campaign of pressure against the Islamic Republic. The highly unusual action of penalizing another nation’s top diplomat followed President Trump’s executive order placing sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The European Union expressed its regret at the U.S. sanctions levied on Zarif and said it would continue to keep contact with him regardless of Washington’s move.
5 Immolation protest: A 72yearold South Korean man was in critical condition after setting himself ablaze in downtown Seoul on Thursday, apparently to express his anger toward Japan amid worsening tensions between countries over trade and wartime history, a police official said. The incident came a day before the Japanese government was widely expected to remove South Korea from a 27country “white list” receiving preferential treatment in trade, which if carried out is likely to aggravate the dispute that sank bilateral relations to its lowest point in decades. The dispute erupted last month when Tokyo tightened controls on the exports of photoresists and two other chemicals to South Korean companies that use them to produce semiconductors and display screens for smartphones and TVs.
Chronicle News Services