The world is a busy place ...
A person is seen walking up to Kawam, who lay motionless, and using a lighter to set her ablaze.
The first officers who arrived on the scene found her fully engulfed in flames. She was extinguished, but pronounced dead at the scene.
During an unrelated press briefing Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged Kawan had “a brief stint” in city homeless shelters, but didn’t disclose when. Her next of kin, he said, had been notified.
“Hearts go out to the family, a horrific incident to have to live through,” Adams said at an unrelated press briefing. “It impacts on how New Yorkers feel. But it really reinforces what I’ve been saying: People should not be living on our subway system, they should be in a place of care. No matter where she lived that should not have happened.”
Oh, I'll say.
Why even hide it or shuffle along?
An emboldened North Korea for the new year:
North Korea fired off an apparent intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) on Monday in its first launch of the year, the South Korean military said, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Seoul for what was likely his final visit to the region as top diplomat.
South Korea's military said in a statement that the North had fired off what it believed was an IRBM toward the Sea of Japan from the Pyongyang area at around noon, with the weapon traveling some 1,100 kilometers (683 miles).
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said that allied intelligence authorities had monitored the North's preparations for the missile launch and "immediately detected and tracked" it, sharing relevant information with Japan.
A South Korean military official said that the weapon was believed to be similar to North Korea's IRBMs tipped with hypersonic warheads that were launched in January and April last year, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Missiles carrying hypersonic warheads are seen as more capable of evading defenses than conventional ballistic missiles thanks to their ability to change direction midflight.
If confirmed to be a hypersonic missile, Yonhap reported, it would be the farthest distance covered by a North Korean missile of its kind.
Japan's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, also confirmed the launch of an unspecified ballistic missile, saying, too, that it had traveled about 1,100 km at an altitude of about 100 km before splashing down just outside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The ministry said in a statement that Japan was working closely with the U.S. and South Korea to analyze the launch.
"The series of actions taken by North Korea, including the repeated launches of ballistic missiles, threaten the peace and security of our country, the region and the international community," the ministry said in the statement, adding that Tokyo had "strongly protested and condemned" the move.
The launch came as Blinken visited Seoul for a meeting with his counterpart and South Korea's acting president as part of a bid to encourage stability in the U.S. ally — including in its much-improved relations with Japan.
Nearly 9-in-10 people in 165 countries around the world have experienced declining freedom in recent years, according to the latest Human Freedom Index by Canada’s Fraser Institute and the U.S.-based Cato Institute.
“During the COVID pandemic, governments enacted extremely restrictive measures as a means to fight the spread of the disease and these measures clearly reduced most peoples’ freedom, which is a critical ingredient for a better life,” said Matthew D. Mitchell, Fraser Institute senior fellow and co-author of this year’s report.
The index measures the degree to which people are allowed to make their own personal and economic choices. To do so, it uses 86 indicators grouped into twelve areas including the rule of law, safety and security, identity and relationships (i.e. the freedom to choose your relationship partner), freedom of movement, speech, assembly, religion, freedom from taxes, regulations, and freedom to trade internationally.
On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 represents more freedom, the average human freedom rating for 165 jurisdictions fell from 6.98 in 2019 to 6.76 in 2020 and to 6.73 in 2021, and then increased in 2022 to 6.82. This means 87.4% of the world’s population saw a fall in human freedom from 2019 to 2022, with many more jurisdictions decreasing (130) than increasing (28) their ratings and 7 remaining unchanged.
"The sharp decline in freedom that began in 2020 comes after years of slow descent following a high point in 2007. In the third year of the pandemic, global freedom remained at a level far below what it was in 2000," the report explained.
The countries that took the top 10 places, in order, were Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, Luxembourg, Ireland, Finland, Australia and Iceland and Sweden (tied at 7), and Estonia.
Selected jurisdictions rank as follows: Canada (11), Japan (12), Germany (14), United Kingdom and United States (tied at 17), Taiwan (19), Chile (31), South Korea (32), France (34), Brazil (70), South Africa (73), Argentina (80), Mexico (94), India (110), Ukraine (122), Nigeria (126), Russia (139), Turkey (142), China (150), Saudi Arabia (155), Venezuela (159), and Iran (163).
The five least-free countries are (in descending order) Sudan, Myanmar, Iran, Yemen and Syria. Hong Kong, which was the third freest jurisdiction on Earth as recently as 2010, now ranks fiftieth on the Index.
Canada ranked sixteenth in personal freedom, with its lowest score coming in the rule of law at 7.2. Economic freedom was eighth, with size of government scoring the lowest among categories at 6.4. The subcategory of government consumption scored just 3.6 and the top marginal tax rate, 5.0.
People in freer jurisdictions are more prosperous than those in less-free jurisdictions. For example, the average per-capita income for the top-quartile on the index was US$56,366 compared to US$15,826 for the least-free quartile in 2022. They are also more tolerant and charitable. They file more patents and publish more scientific papers. And they report that they are more satisfied with their lives.
“The evidence is clear—on average, freer people lead happier, healthier and wealthier lives,” Mitchell said.
In 695 years, Japan will be left with only one child if its birthrate continues on its current trajectory, an expert on the graying of society has warned.
The forecast by Hiroshi Yoshida, a professor at Tohoku University’s Research Center for Aged Economy and Society, shows that by Jan. 5, 2720, the nation would have only one child age 14 and below.
Yoshida, who maintains a counter that provides an estimated date for when the number of children in the country is reduced to just one, has been releasing estimates every April since 2012.
And now for something completely uplifting:
A soccer-loving nun from Brazil is believed to have become the world's oldest living person at nearly 117 following the recent death of a woman from Japan.
Sister Inah Canabarro was so skinny growing up that many didn't think she would survive childhood, Cleber Canabarro, her 84-year-old nephew, told The Associated Press.
LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks supercentenarians around the globe, released a statement on Saturday declaring the wheelchair-bound nun the world's oldest person validated by early life records.
In a video shot by the organization last February, the smiling Canabarro can be seen cracking jokes, sharing miniature paintings she used to make of wild flowers and reciting the Hail Mary prayer.
The secret to longevity? Her Catholic faith, she says.
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