UK’s National Trust details historic sites’ links to slave trade

LONDON — Britain’s National Trust, which looks after hundreds of the country’s well-loved historic sites, has detailed how dozens of its properties have links to slavery and colonialism.

A report published Tuesday by the heritage and conservation organization said 93 of its sites have connections with aspects of the global slave trade or Britain’s colonial history. Some of the places were “partly or largely funded by the proceeds of slavery,” the trust said.

The survey included sites linked to leading officials in the East India Company, the hugely powerful corporation instrumental to British imperialism and involved in the African slave trade during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The National Trust report also listed colonial writer Rudyard Kipling’s home in Sussex, southern England, and Chartwell, the family home of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill led the administration of colonies and has been criticized for opposing Indian independence.

The trust said it commissioned the report as part of its commitment to ensure that Britain’s links to colonialism and historic slavery are “properly represented, shared and interpreted as part of a broader narrative.”

The report came amid a wider reckoning of the dark side of colonialism and slavery in Britain and elsewhere around the world.

President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden will face off on the Supreme

Debate topics:

Court, the coronavirus pandemic and race and violence in the nation’s cities next week when they meet for their first presidential debate.

The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates on Tuesday announced the six topics for the first face-to-face event scheduled for Sept. 29 in Cleveland. The topics were selected by the debate’s moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace, and will each be the subject of 15-minute “blocks” in the debate.

The topics are: “The Trump and Biden Records,” “The Supreme Court,” “Covid-19,” “The Economy,” “Race and Violence in our Cities” and “The Integrity of the Election.”

The topics are subject to change because of news developments, the commission said.

A woman who was captured on video throwing a bottle at a Black runner in New York City and yelling a racial slur at her has been charged with attempted assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment, authorities said Tuesday.

Lorena Delaguna, 53, was arraigned in Queens criminal court on charges stemming from the Aug. 17 confrontation with Tiffany Johnson.

“In addition to allegedly yelling the N-word, the defendant in this case is also accused of throwing a bottle in an attempt to strike the victim,” District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a written statement.

A message seeking comment was left with a Legal Aid attorney representing Delaguna.

Katz did not name the

Hate crime charges:

victim, but Johnson, 37, has identified herself as the person being accosted in a video that was recorded by a bystander and released last week by the police department.

Katz said that in addition to using the racial slur, Delaguna, of Woodside, Queens, followed the runner for a block and told her to “go back to Africa.”

Ricin letter: A Canadian woman accused of mailing a package containing ricin to the White House included a threatening letter in which she told President Donald Trump to “give up and remove your application for this election,” according to court papers filed Tuesday.

Pascale Ferrier, of Quebec, was arrested Sunday at the U.S.-Canada border and made her first court appearance Tuesday in federal court in Buffalo, New York. She faces a charge of threatening the president.

The envelope containing the toxic substance and the threatening letter was postmarked from Canada and addressed to the White

House but intercepted at a mail sorting facility Friday.

Ferrier, 53, appeared in court briefly and U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder entered a not guilty plea on her behalf.

Ferrier immigrated to Canada from France and became a Canadian citizen in 2015, according to her Facebook profile.

Bill targets forced labor:

A bipartisan bill aimed at keeping goods out of the U.S. that are made with the forced labor of detained ethnic minorities in China passed overwhelmingly Tuesday in the House of Representatives despite concerns about the potential effects on global commerce.

The House voted 406-3 to declare that any goods produced in the vast Xinjiang region of northwestern China are presumptively made with the forced labor of detained Uighurs and other ethnic minorities, and therefore banned from being imported to the U.S.

If enacted into law, it could have significant ripple effects in global trade by forcing companies to avoid a region that products 80% of the cotton in China, one of the world’s top producers of the fiber, as well as tomatoes and manufactured goods.

Members of Congress say the measure is needed to press China to stop a campaign that has resulted in the detention of more than 1 million Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups under brutal conditions.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

The Chinese government has portrayed its activities in Xinjiang as part of a campaign against a violent separatist movement and bristles at criticism of what it considers an internal manner. It says the camps are vocational training centers and denies allegations of what U.S. officials and human rights groups say amount to slavery in the region.

Vatican on euthanasia:

The Vatican on Tuesday reaffirmed its stance that euthanasia and assisted suicide are “intrinsically evil,” and told priests they should minister to those contemplating such deaths to try to change their minds but shouldn’t be present at the end if they don’t.

The Vatican’s doctrine office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a lengthy new document on end-of-life care for the terminally ill Tuesday. It takes into account medical advances, the advent of “do not resuscitate” orders and legal approval for assisted suicide, as well as new Vatican perspectives on palliative care, including for children.

Catholic teaching holds that life must be defended from conception until its natural death. It insists that chronically ill patients, including those in vegetative states, must receive “ordinary” care such as hydration and nutrition, but that “extraordinary” or disproportionate care can be suspended if it is no longer beneficial or is only prolonging a precarious and painful life.