Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said US authorities tried to confiscate his supply of Vegemite as he entered the US. It is the second time this year that Australia’s signature yeast extract spread has sparked high-level — if lighthearted — diplomatic disagreement.
Rudd tweeted on Sunday that airport authorities in New York had questioned his bringing in the dark brown paste, a byproduct of brewing beer that is popular among many Australians on sandwiches, toast and crackers, but is widely recognized as an acquired taste.
“Only problem traveling to NY is that they tried to confiscate our Vegemite at the airport. Needed Foreign Ministerial intervention,” Rudd tweeted from New York.
“Airport staff were surprised when I said it is good for you and I ate it for breakfast. They then waved me through,” he added.
Vegemite was also a source of disagreement when Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard made her only visit to the US as prime minister in March. She and US President Barack Obama visited a high school in Virginia, where an 11th grade student asked what Vegemite was.
“It’s horrible,” Obama said.
“I love Vegemite,” Gillard said, noting that their opinions of the spread serves as a “little bit of division” between the two of them.
The Australian invention, introduced in 1923, has a high Vitamin B content and is marketed heavily on its health benefits for children. Australians abroad commonly bemoan how difficult Vegemite is to find outside Australia.
Rudd arrived in New York from Mexico on Saturday. He will address the UN General Assembly before he is scheduled to leave New York on Friday.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not