World briefs

CHINA’s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen (pictured) issued a report yesterday blaming the United States for the countries’ trade dispute and said it won’t back down on “major issues of principle,” but offered no clarification about what additional steps it might take to up the ante.

HONG KONG said it would make further amendments to scale back a proposed extradition law that has raised concerns over the city’s autonomy and risks undermining its status as an international trade hub.

USA President Donald Trump has waded into the most contentious issue in British politics by urging the U.K. government to leave the EU without a deal if it can’t get better terms from the union leaders. Trump told the Sunday Times that Britain should “walk away” from talks and refuse to pay a 39-billion pound divorce bill. 

USA The victims of America’s latest mass shooting had been dead for less than a day when police and city officials released a detailed presentation with their names, photos, job titles and the cities or towns in which they lived. In all, 12 people — 11 of them city employees — were killed by the shooter who opened fire inside a municipal building.

ROMANIA Pope Francis warned that new ideologies were threatening Romanian families today — an apparent reference to gender issues, gay marriage and other secular trends that Francis has previously blasted as Western “ideological colonization” over others. He was in Romania for the beatification of seven bishop martyrs of the old communist regime.

ITALY A towering, out-of-control cruise ship rammed into a dock and a tourist river boat on a busy Venice canal yesterday. Italian media reported that at least five people were injured in the crash. The collision happened about 8:30 a.m. on the Giudecca Canal, a major thoroughfare that leads to Saint Mark’s Square in the city.

HUNGARY A judge ordered the formal arrest of a captain whose Viking river cruise ship collided with a sightseeing boat on the Danube River, sinking the tourist boat and leaving seven South Koreans dead and 21 other people missing.