POLAND
Five die in escape room
Five teenage girls died and one man was seriously injured on Friday when a fire broke out in a room where they were playing an escape game in the city of Koszalin, officials said. “The victims of this tragedy are 15-year-old children, girls celebrating a birthday,” Minister of the Interior Joachim Brudzinski told broadcaster TVN24. Fire brigade spokesman Tomasz Kubiak could only confirm that the dead were women, telling reporters that “one man with severe burns was taken to an intensive care unit.” The injured man was thought to be 25 years old, local police told reporters. Police and fire officials said they did not yet know what started the blaze in the escape room.
PERU
Maduro urged to step down
A dozen Latin American governments and Canada on Friday delivered a blistering rebuke to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, questioning the legitimacy of his soon-to-begin second term and urging him to hand over power as the only path to restoring democracy in his crisis-wracked South American country. The sharp criticism came at a meeting in Lima of foreign ministers from countries including Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, all of which have been weighing how to confront the increasingly authoritarian Maduro while absorbing a growing exodus of Venezuelans fleeing economic chaos. In a statement, the Lima Group urged Maduro to refrain from taking the presidential oath on Thursday and instead cede power to the opposition-controlled congress until new, fairer elections can be held.
BRAZIL
Bolsonaro mulls US base
The country is open to hosting a US military base to counter Russian influence in the region, President Jair Bolsonaro said. Bolsonaro, who took office on Tuesday, is a fan of US President Donald Trump and a fierce critic of Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has close ties with Russia. In an interview with the SBT network Thursday night, Bolsonaro said that “my approximation with the United States is economic, but it could also be warlike,” adding that the base would be “symbolic,” as US military power can reach any part of the globe.
MEXICO
Police close migrant shelter
Police on Friday took steps to close a migrant shelter in Tijuana, sparking protests from some of the dozens of US-bound people who had been staying there after traveling in a caravan from Central America. The arrival of several thousand migrants in the past few months has challenged the country’s new president to make good on pledges to protect migrants. Tijuana officials cited sanitary reasons for closing the shelter, a two-story warehouse in a zone known for crime and prostitution near the US border.
UNITED NATIONS
New envoy to be appointed
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday agreed to appoint a new envoy to Somalia after its president refused to reverse a decision to expel a representative for raising human rights concerns. Guterres on Friday spoke by telephone with Somalian President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed — his second call to the Somalian leader in three days — to once again urge him to change his mind, diplomats said. However, the president dug in his heels and said envoy Nicholas Haysom would remain persona non grata and would not be allowed to return to Somalia, they said.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
Ugandan wildlife authorities have reintroduced rhinos into a remote protected area where they were once poached into extinction, an event seen by conservationists as a milestone in efforts to support the recovery of a species threatened by poaching. On Tuesday, two southern white rhinos from a private ranch in the East African country were reintroduced into Kidepo Valley National Park in the country’s northeast. Two more rhinos in metallic crates arrived on Thursday. There have been no rhinos in the park since 1983, the result of poaching. However, a private ranch in central Uganda — the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary — has been
RSS