Globe Trot: American businesswoman released from China jail

CHINA: China deported U.S. citizen Sandy Phan-Gillis on Friday, and she was reunited with her husband in Los Angeles later that day. Few Americans were aware a middle-aged businesswoman and mother from Houston had been jailed—and tortured—for two years. Phan-Gillis was one of a growing number of foreigners held by Chinese authorities on spurious charges.

“If China State Security can arbitrarily detain and torture Sandy, they can arbitrarily detain and torture any American citizen,” her husband Jeff Gillis testified in March.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China now tracks cases with an online database.

MAY DAY: Traditional May Day worker marches have turned violent in turbulent cities, with police firing tear gas and hundreds arrested in Istanbul, Turkey. Tear gas also was used in Paris ahead of next week’s presidential runoff election.

AFGHANISTAN: Six years ago today, U.S. Navy SEALs killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and now the Marines are back in Afghanistan, as the Trump administration looks to renewed deployments there to fight ISIS and the Taliban.

VENEZUELA: President Nicolas Maduro is handing out homes and raising wages, as protests of his hardline regime and its hardships continue.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Heads are exploding, judging by the comments and tweets, over Bret Stephens’ debut column for The New York Times giving a reasoned case for skepticism on climate change predictions and prescriptions. Stephens shrewdly turned to veteran Times reporter Andrew Revkin in making that case.

CANADA: Twin earthquakes (magnitude 6.3 and 6.2) hit British Columbia and parts of Alaska early this morning. Scientists have warned that hydraulic fracking could lead to increased quake activity.

In the Stanley Cup playoffs, just watch Edmonton Oilers fans belt out the American national anthem after singer Brett Kissel’s microphone failed.

ENGLAND: At the risk of not playing fair, I can’t not post the just-released photo of Princess Charlotte (see above), whose second birthday is tomorrow.