NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Democracy advocate barred: The Hong Kong government on Friday disqualified a democracy advocate from running for a seat on the local legislature in November, the latest in a series of moves that have undermined the political power of the opposition camp in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Lau Siulai, a community college lecturer, had previously been elected to the seat in 2016. But the government disqualified her for reading her oath of office very slowly in an act of protest. Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to China in 1997, has its own local government. While half of the local legislature is directly elected, efforts to expand democracy beyond that have met with little success.
_2 Lethal mudslides: At least 34 people have died in mudslides triggered by torrential rains in a mountainous area of eastern Uganda that is prone to such disasters, a Red Cross official said Friday. More victims were likely to be discovered when rescue reams access all the affected areas in the foothills of Mount Elgon, said Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasiita. People were killed by boulders and chunks of mud rolling down hills following a sustained period of heavy rains Thursday in the district of Bududa. Efforts by Uganda’s government over the years to relocate all residents away from steep slopes have not succeeded. There also have been calls for people to plant more trees on steep hillsides.
_3 Mall disaster: Emergency personnel are using cranes and abrasive cutters to remove slabs of concrete at a collapsed shopping mall in northern Mexico in hopes of finding the last missing construction workers. Three levels of the mall collapsed Thursday, killing at least seven men. Nuevo Leon state civil defense official Miguel Perales says, “They literally sandwiched.” Perales said Friday that rescuers using sonar equipment, dogs and heat-image cameras had detected signs of a person or a body at three different sites in the rubble in the industrial hub of Monterrey. Fifteen people were injured, and all the victims are believed to be construction workers. Work on the three-story structure was being carried out without the necessary licenses.
_4 Asteroid landing: Japan’s space agency is delaying a spacecraft touchdown on an asteroid because scientists need more time to find a safe landing site on the extremely rocky surface. The spacecraft Hayabusa2 left Earth in 2014 and traveled 170 million miles to the area of asteroid Ryugu, which it reached in June. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to attempt three brief touch-and-go landings on Ryugu to collect samples in hopes of gaining clues to the origin of the solar system and life on Earth. JAXA Hayabusa2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda said Friday that the rockierthan-expected asteroid hardly has any flat spaces for landing. He said his team needs at least a month to revise the landing plan.
_5 Royal wedding: Britain’s Princess Eugenie married tequila brand ambassador Jack Brooksbank in a star-studded royal wedding Friday at St. George’s Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle. It was the second wedding extravaganza of the year for the royal family, which seems to be riding a wave of popularity as the younger generation comes to the fore and the widely-respected Queen Elizabeth II cuts back slightly on her public appearances. The 28-year-old bride, the queen’s granddaughter, is ninth in line to the British throne. The 92-year-old queen and her husband, Prince Philip, 97, attended the wedding, along with other senior royals.