While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 2
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Brazil's President elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva waves to supporters on the day of his swearing-in ceremony.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Lula takes office for third term as Brazil’s president
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil’s president on Sunday, delivering a searing indictment of far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro and vowing a drastic change of course to rescue what he called a ruined nation.
In a speech to Congress after officially taking the reins of Latin America’s biggest country, the leftist said democracy was the true winner of the October presidential vote, when he ousted Bolsonaro in the most fraught election for a generation.
Bolsonaro, who left Brazil for the United States on Friday after refusing to concede defeat, rattled the cages of Brazil’s young democracy with baseless claims of electoral weaknesses that birthed a violent movement of election deniers.
Blinken discussed US-China relationship in call with China’s Qin
REUTERS
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with incoming Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang over the phone on Sunday, Blinken said on Twitter, after China last week appointed its ambassador to the United States to be its new foreign minister.
Blinken said he discussed the US-China relationship and maintaining open lines of communication in his phone call with Qin.
China on Friday appointed Qin, its ambassador to the United States and a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, to be its new foreign minister, as Beijing and Washington seek to stabilise rocky relations.
Magnitude 5.4 earthquake strikes northern California
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck 15 km southeast of California’s Rio Dell region, an area still recovering from a powerful earthquake last month.
The latest earthquake was at a depth of 27.8 km, the US Geological Survey said on Sunday.
That same region of California, located in Humboldt County, was jolted by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on Dec. 20, which crumpled homes and roads, ruptured utility lines and left thousands of residents without running water and electricity.
Extinction Rebellion suspends ‘public disruption’ tactics
AFP
Environmental group Extinction Rebellion said on Sunday that it would no longer stage its infamous blockades of UK transport networks and will instead hold a major demonstration against government policy in April.
The activist network, formed in the UK in 2018, has regularly used civil disobedience to protest what it calls government inaction on climate change.
The activists gained notoriety for blockading train lines, airports and roads, causing chaos for commuters.
Football: Chelsea drop more points in top-four pursuit after draw at Forest
AFP
Chelsea dropped more points in their quest to climb back up the Premier League standings as Serge Aurier earned Nottingham Forest a 1-1 draw with Graham Potter’s side on Sunday.
Fresh from their first league win in six games last time out against Bournemouth, Chelsea started well in the Nottingham drizzle, with Raheem Sterlng firing them into the lead in the 16th minute.
Forest improved after the break and were desperately unlucky not to equalise early in the second half as Morgan Gibbs-White’s drilled half volley hit the underside of the crossbar but bounced on the goal line and away.
