World News Briefs For Sunday, 30 June 2019
Hello Australia!! - The world marks 50 years since Stonewall - Trump teases a surprise in Korea - The Rescue Ship taking Desparate Measures - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
Pride parades around the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising (not "riots", as some news sources are saying) which marked the beginning of the modern LGBTQ movement. In 1969, a group of New York City police set out to roust and harass people at The Stonewall Inn gay bar; but instead, the people fought back, pelting the cops with rocks, bricks, and bottles, and forcing them to seek shelter inside the bar. The gains since then have mostly been in the cities of the Western world, where same sex marriages are often legalized, discrimination is outlawed, and pride parades are an accepted part of the landscape. Not always so much in other places, but progress is progress.
The G20 Summit in Osaka has wrapped up, and there's not exactly a lot to show for it. It "could" be that PM Scott Morrison talked a little sense into Donald Trump, who said he wouldn't impose any more trade sanctions on China and would restart talks with Beijing. Morrison reportedly used his pre-G20 sidebar with Trump to stress that the harm the US-China trade war is being beyond US borders. However, Trump also used his sidebars to meet with despots who oversee gross human rights in their countries, or in their embassies elsewhere. Trump then went to South Korea, teasing a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Panmunjom peace village on the border.
Italy arrested the captain of a Dutch-flagged migrant rescue ship who put in the Mediterranean port of Lampedusa despite being warned off by authorities. Far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini (who seems to run that government despite not being PM) accused 31-year old captain Carola Rackete of the Sea-Watch 3 of trying to ram a police boat. The Sea Watch was carrying 53 migrants rescued earlier in the month from a sinking raft; several required immediate medical attention. Ms. Rackete could face a 10-year jail term if convicted of Salvini's assertion - Sea Watch chairman Johannes Bayer expressed support for her actions and tweeted that he was "proud of our captain".
German Chancelor Angela Merkel gave vague reassurances after she was seen shaking uncontrollably at two public functions in recent weeks. "This reaction will disappear just as it has arisen," she told reporters in Osaka at the G20, and claimed replied there was "nothing in particular to report" when asked if she has seen a doctor. In the episodes last week and the week before the chancellor, who turns 65 next month, gripped her arms until she became steadier.