Three things for January 25
1. 11 of 22 trapped miners rescued Sunday
Rescuers have freed 11 of the 22 miners trapped nearly 2,000 feet underground at a gold mine in the Shandong province of northern China. Rescue teams managed to lift two workers out of the mine around 3:18 p.m., bringing the number of rescued workers to 11.
Before Sunday, rescuers had established contact with only 10 of the miners. One miner is reported to have died in the initial blast. The miners became trapped last week when an explosion shut a tunnel entrance at the Hushan mine on Jan. 10. The cause of the blast has not been reported yet.
The first rescued miner was lifted from the mine at 11:13 a.m. on Sunday. The worker, said to be extremely weak, was rushed to a hospital for treatment. Currently, 633 people and 407 pieces of equipment are at the site for rescue operations.
According to Axios, China’s safety record has improved but is still poor. The New York Times notes coal mining accidents in the southwest killed at least 16 people in September and 23 in the same city, Chongqing, last December.
2. Texas man charged with trespassing and threatening to assassinate Rep. Ocasio-Cortez
This week, the Justice Department brought charges against Texas man Garret Miller, who allegedly stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and threatened on social media to kill U.S. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Miller is one of many charged for trespassing at the Capitol. AP News reports he faces five criminal charges in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, including one for making death threats and multiple trespassing offenses.
Prosecutors said Miller made numerous threatening remarks on social media, including the comment “next time we bring the guns” on a Twitter video showing rioters leaving the Capitol building.
Miller was arrested on Wednesday, and a detention hearing is planned for today, Jan. 25.
3. Crowd pelts police with snowballs at protest in Russia, thousands arrested
People clash with police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Tens of thousands of Alexei Navalny supporters protested across Russia in one of this decade’s largest demonstrations against Vladimir Putin’s rule. On Saturday in Moscow, protestors pelted police cars with snowballs.
Russian police arrested more than 3,000 people attending the unsanctioned protests on Saturday, reports AP News. In Moscow, an estimated 15,000 demonstrators gathered in and around the city center, where clashes with police broke out, and riot officers dragged demonstrators off to police buses and detention trucks.
Some of the protestors were beaten with batons. Navalny’s wife, Yulia, was among the arrested protestors.
Navalny’s allies hope to fight for Navalny’s release by demonstrating a show of strength to the Kremlin, but it is unclear whether the protests will break the government’s resolve.
