Chron Briefs
U.S. military releases video of near-collision with Chinese destroyer in Taiwan Strait
The U.S. military released video showing the moment a Chinese navy ship sailed across the path of USS Chung-Hoon and Canada’s HMCS Montreal in the Taiwan Strait, forcing the American destroyer to slow to avoid collision.
The video, which was released Sunday and taken from the deck of USS Chung-Hoon, shows China’s Luyang III, a Type 052D destroyer, cutting sharply across the course of the U.S. ship before straightening out and sailing in a parallel direction.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the “unsafe” maneuver, which took place Saturday, brought the Chinese vessel within 150 yards of the U.S. and Canadian ships during a routine freedom-of-navigation exercise. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday that Beijing “firmly opposed relevant countries creating trouble” in the Taiwan Strait and that the United States had provoked trouble first.
China claims Taiwan, a self-governing democracy of 23 million people, as its own territory and maintains the Taiwan Strait is part of its economic zone. The United States said the strait is part of international waters, saying its exercise with HMCS Montreal “demonstrates the combined U.S.-Canadian commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The near miss in the Taiwan Strait came two weeks after what U.S. officials called an “unnecessarily aggressive” encounter between Chinese and American military aircraft over the South China Sea. A Chinese fighter jet flew just several dozen feet in front of an Air Force RC-135 surveillance plane, forcing the U.S. plane into turbulence.
Military jet sent to intercept plane over Washington, D.C., saw pilot slumped over
The pilot of a military jet that scrambled to intercept a private plane that flew over D.C. before crashing in rural Virginia saw that aircraft’s pilot slumped over, according to two people familiar with the situation.
The development, described by people speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, came as National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the scene Monday of a private jet crash linked to a sonic boom heard a day earlier across the Washington region.
Adam Gerhardt, the lead investigator, said he expects his team to be on the scene for three to four days, and that investigators will be contending with remote, mountainous terrain.
“The accident site will take us extensive time to get to,” Gerhardt told reporters near the scene Monday. “The wreckage is highly fragmented.”
Experts said publicly available flight data suggests the pilot had fallen unconscious – most likely because of a loss of pressurization – and that the plane was flying on autopilot until it ran out of fuel. The Federal Aviation Administration said preliminary information shows the pilot and all three passengers died, which it said occurred “under unknown circumstances.”
John Rumpel, 75, said authorities told him that all four people on the plane – including his daughter and 2½-year-old granddaughter – had died. Rumpel said police told him they were still investigating what caused the incident but that the plane was likely to have crashed after losing pressurization.
Supreme Court will decide whether T-shirt mocking Trump as ‘too small’ can be trademarked
The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether former President Donald Trump can be mocked as “too small” on a trademarked T-shirt. Usually, the trademark law does not allow for using someone’s name over his objection.
But in this instance, a federal appeals court said California lawyer Steve Elster had a free speech right to mock Trump as “too small” on T-shirts and hats.
Elster argued the trademark would be used as “political commentary” targeted at the former president by invoking a double entendre from a 2016 Republican debate. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., commented that Trump had small hands, “and you know what they say about guys with small hands.”
The Patent and Trademark Office denied Elster’s request for a trademark, but the federal circuit court disagreed and said the 1st Amendment protected his right to comment on the former president.
The Biden administration’s Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth Prelogar urged the Supreme Court to hear the government’s appeal and reject the trademark request. “For more than 75 years, Congress has directed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to refuse the registration of trademarks that use the name of a particular living individual without his written consent,” she said.
Pence files paperwork to launch 2024 presidential bid
Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork Monday to launch a 2024 presidential bid, joining a growing field of candidates seeking to challenge former president and front-runner Donald Trump for the Republican nomination – and creating a highly unusual showdown between Trump and the man who once served as his No. 2 in the White House.
Pence will formally launch his campaign Wednesday, according to a person with knowledge of his plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they have not yet been announced publicly. So far, seven Republicans have formally announced campaigns for the 2024 GOP nomination, including Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and Sen. Tim Scott ,S.C.
Two Republicans, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, are also planning to launch presidential campaigns this week.