últimas notícias

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During a virtual summit China’s president told Joe Biden that China was prepared to take “decisive measures” if Taiwan made any moves towards independence that crossed Beijing’s red lines.

Xi Jinping also warned Biden that any support for Taiwanese independence would be “like playing with fire”, according to a Chinese state media account of the summit, adding that “those who play with fire will get burned”.

The language represented stock Chinese nationalist rhetoric, given extra potency by being delivered in person at the most extensive talks to date between the two leaders.

In response, Biden said the US remained committed to the “one-China policy” that recognises only one sovereign Chinese state, and that Washington “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.

• Was the rest of the conversation tense? No: in fact, the overall cordial tone of the video conference exchange, with Xi referring to Biden at one point as “my old friend”, gave an immediate boost to financial markets in Asia.

• What did Biden want to achieve? One of his aims in the summit was to establish regular dialogue between US and Chinese officials on a range of issues. It was unclear how far the two leaders had gone to achieve that, however.

Alex Jones liable for damages over Sandy Hook shooting claims, judge rules

The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was found liable on Monday for damages in lawsuits brought by parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, over Jones’s claim the massacre was a hoax.

Twenty first-grade children, aged five and six, and six adults were killed in the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. The 20-year-old gunman killed his mother before the shooting and killed himself as police arrived at the school.

The shooting was portrayed on Jones’s Infowars show as a hoax involving actors, aimed at increasing gun control. Jones has since acknowledged the shooting did occur.

Families of victims said they had been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’s followers because of the hoax conspiracy broadcast on Infowars. They sued Jones and his companies in courts in Connecticut and Texas, for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.

• Alex Jones was, in a rare step, defaulted by Judge Barbara Bellis for his and his companies’ failure to disclose information related to the defamation suit.

• The default means the judge found in favor of the parents and will hold a hearing on how much damages Jones should pay.

Ghislaine Maxwell jury selection begins in New York sex trafficking trial

The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell will come face-to-face with prospective jurors for her Manhattan federal court sex trafficking trial on Tuesday, as jury selection begins in earnest.

Fifty potential panelists are expected to appear in the New York courtroom to answer questions.

The process is meant to filter out possible jurors who might hold biases that could favor the defense or prosecution. Roughly 600 people completed pre-screening questionnaires earlier this month; of those, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that 231 should proceed to jury selection.

Maxwell, 59, was arrested in July 2020 at a secretive, luxury estate in the small New Hampshire town of Bradford. She was charged with sexual offences, conspiracy and perjury related to the actions of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell while awaiting sex trafficking charges.

• What is she accused of? Maxwell “played a critical role in helping Epstein to identify, befriend and groom minor victims” and “in some cases, Maxwell participated in the abuse”, Audrey Strauss, then the acting Manhattan US attorney, said after Maxwell’s arrest.

Biden signs hard-fought $1tn infrastructure deal into law

Biden has signed his hard-fought $1tn infrastructure deal into law before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn, declaring that the infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more would make life “change for the better”.

The president hopes to use the infrastructure law to build back his popularity, which has taken a hit amid rising inflation and the inability to fully shake the public health and economic risks from Covid-19.

“My message to the American people is this: America is moving again and your life is going to change for the better,” he said.

However, the prospects are tougher for further bipartisanship ahead of the 2022 midterm elections as Biden pivots back to more difficult negotiations over his broader $1.85tn social spending package.

• The $1.2n infrastructure bill cleared the Senate 69-13 with Republican support, but scraped through the House last week with just 13 Republican votes – who have been called “traitors” by members of the party.

• The deadlock over part two of Biden’s agenda, known as Build Back Better, is not helping his approval rating, hovering around the 40% mark despite jobs growth.

In other news …

• Prosecutors and defense attorneys delivered closing statements in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old who has been charged with homicide after fatally shooting two men during racial justice protests last August in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

• The Wyoming Republican party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in a rebuke over her vote to impeach Donald Trump over his role in the 6 January insurrection. The vote is the group’s second formal rebuke for her criticism of Trump.

• Several outbreaks of severe bird flu in Europe and Asia have been reported in recent days to the World Organisation for Animal Health, in a sign the virus is spreading quickly again. The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has put the poultry industry on alert.

• The US has accused Russia of “dangerous and irresponsible behavior” after it conducted an anti-satellite weapons test that threatened the lives of the seven astronauts. Russia fired a missile at one of its own satellites over the weekend, generating thousands of pieces of debris.

Stat of the day: Seattle records its third-wettest November in more than a century

Heavy rainfall and pounding storms are taking a toll on the US Pacific north-west, where flooding and mudslides in Washington state have forced evacuations and school closures. The National Weather Service warned that winds nearing hurricane strength were possible in the region, which has had nearly ceaseless rain for about a week. More than 158,000 customers were without power in western Washington at one point on Monday, the Seattle Times reported and less than halfway into the month it is already the third-wettest November that Seattle has recorded in more than a century. Communities in western Canada have also been forced to flee their homes.

Don’t miss this: ENO teams up with TikTok stars for opera based on Tiger King

It is being billed as the world’s first “TikTopera” – a collaboration between the English National Opera and Netflix – based on the hit documentary series Tiger King, created entirely on TikTok in the run-up to the second series this week. Each performer recaps a portion of the Tiger King story, including the battle between Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin. This is set to the music of George Bizet’s 1875 masterpiece Carmen, performed live in London by ENO’s 40-person professional chorus and full string orchestra. Stuart Murphy, the chief executive of ENO, said the project, which features TikTok stars cast in the lead roles, spoke to their “key value of trying to take opera out to everyone”.

… or this: Goop’s sex therapist on her radical approach to pleasure

Shandra Barrera, one of the participants on Sex, Love and Goop, the Gwyneth Paltrow-fronted Netflix series that aims to help couples “experience genuine arousal, desire and pleasure”, is using a mirror to look at her vagina. It’s a technique used by Darshana Avila, one of the show’s coaches, who is helping Barrera with the pain she experiences when she receives penetrative touch. This is all part of the buildup to the main event, when Avila will penetrate Barrera with her hand, hopefully without causing her pain. “I’ve learned that we have a major cultural bias against pleasure,” Avila says of her work, which is illegal in every US state except California.

Climate check: Indigenous environment activists denounce Cop26 deal

Indigenous communities facing a surge in land grabs, water shortages and human rights violations as a result of the Cop26 deal have accused world leaders of sacrificing them in order to postpone meaningful climate action and shield corporate profits. The Critics warn that the new global carbon-trading market will incentivize countries and corporations to offset – rather than cut – emissions responsible for global heating by investing in so-called green energy projects, which are linked to environmental destruction, forced displacement, arbitrary arrests and even murder.

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Last thing: New York billionaire seeks permission for ‘temple for a titan’

The billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman will on Tuesday attempt to convince New York’s powerful Landmarks Preservation Commission to allow him to build a “flying saucer” penthouse on top of a historic apartment building in the Upper West Side overlooking Central Park. Ackman, an activist investor, has been engaged in a years-long public relations battle with his merely millionaire neighbors to garner support for his planned Norman Foster-designed two-story penthouse that has been described as a “temple to a titan”.

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