AUSTRALIA
Progress slips on emissions
The government yesterday admitted that it is off track to meet the 2030 emissions targets agreed under the Paris Agreement. The Department of the Environment and Energy said that the country is on course to meet the more modest 2020 targets, but would struggle to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 percent by the end of the following decade. The nation was last month the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and is one of the world’s top coal producers. The conservative government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been tepid in its drive to tackle climate change and has prioritized the economy over reduction targets. He has claimed that investments in renewable energy sources mean that Australia would meet the targets “at a canter.” Although emissions forecasts have improved slightly, the government admitted that it is still a long way from the desired trajectory. The government has estimated that it would need to cut the equivalent of 695 to 762 megatonnes of carbon dioxide between 2021 and 2030. At the moment, it is forecast to miss that target by almost 20 percent. “The Morrison government has no policies to address Australia’s climate pollution problem,” the Australian Conservation Foundation said in a statement.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Coal mine blast toll up to 13
The death toll from an explosion at a coal mine has risen to 13, the Czech News Agency reported yesterday, citing company sources. State-run firm OKD said that a methane blast more than 800m underground on Thursday devastated areas of the CSM hard coal mine near the town of Karvina. An OKD spokesman was not immediately available for comment. The previously reported death toll was five and eight unaccounted for. The company said that most of the victims and injured were Polish miners provided by the firm ALPEX.
ISRAEL
Boycott fundraising halted
A US firm that makes fundraising software said that it has suspended the account of a Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel following a complaint by a pro-Israel group that the campaign has links to militant groups. Donorbox early yesterday confirmed that the BDS campaign’s account was temporarily blocked while it investigates the allegations. The decision came in response to a complaint from Shurat HaDin, an Israeli advocacy group that files lawsuits around the world against the nation’s foes, submitted in coordination with the Ministry of Strategic Affairs. San Francisco-based Donorbox said its decision does not mean that it considers BDS to be a “nefarious” organization, adding that it has merely suspended the account while it conducts a review. The BDS movement called the Shurat HaDin’s move “McCarthyite.”
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