Amna Nawaz:
Also today, investigators sent the plane’s flight data recorder to France for analysis. The aircraft was manufactured there.
In Brazil, the prosecutor general filed the first charges overnight in the riot at the national capital complex. Police arrested more than 1,000 people on January 8 after they ransacked government buildings. They were trying to overturn the presidential election results. The initial 39 defendants are accused of staging a coup, among other charges.
Mexico’s former top security official, Genaro Garcia Luna, has gone on trial in New York today for allegedly protecting the Sinaloa drug cartel. Officially, he led a war on cartels between 2006 and 2012. But prosecutors say, in fact, he took millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa gang. Garcia Luna later moved to the U.S. and was arrested in 2019.
China reports its economy grew by 3 percent last year, one of its lowest rates in decades. The slowdown reflects strict COVID measures and a real estate slump. It’s also part of a longer-term decline since China’s growth peaked in 2007. At the same time, official data suggests an improved outlook for 2023 now that the pandemic rules have eased.
The European Union has unveiled a sweeping new industrial plan to promote green technology. It also aims to forcefully counter unfair trading practices from China. E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
