BRAZIL
Environmentalist criticized
Environmentalist Gisele Bundchen is responding to criticism from Minister of Agriculture Tereza Cristina Dias, who accused Bundchen of tainting the country’s image abroad. Speaking in a radio interview on Monday, the minister called the former supermodel a “bad Brazilian” for denouncing deforestation. Bundchen responded on Wednesday with a statement saying she would “be happy to announce positive actions” taken toward sustainable development. In her post, Bundchen said that she is surprised her name was mentioned negatively and that her criticisms of deforestation have been based on science. Bundchen cites a government report saying deforestation in Brazil rose nearly 14 percent from August 2017 to July last year. She said that those behind illegal land occupation are the “bad Brazilians.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Prince Philip in car crash
Buckingham Palace said that the 97-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, has been in a car accident, but was not injured. The palace said the two-car accident happened on Thursday afternoon near Sandringham Estate, the queen’s country retreat in eastern England. The Norfolk Constabulary said officers responded to a reported collision and two people in one of the vehicles were treated for minor injuries. The palace said a doctor examined Philip as a precaution and confirmed he was not hurt. The Press Association quoted a palace spokeswoman as saying that the Duke of Edinburgh, the title he received on his wedding day, was driving one of the cars. He had a passenger in the car, but the spokeswoman would not reveal who it was, the Press Association reported.
UNITED STATES
Supermoon to be eclipsed
The moon, Earth and sun will line up this weekend for the only total lunar eclipse this year and next. At the same time, the moon will be ever so closer to Earth and appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual — a supermoon. The eclipse starts on Sunday night or early Monday, depending on location. Totality — when Earth’s shadow completely blankets the moon — will last just over an hour. That is when the moon will look red because of sunlight scattering off Earth’s atmosphere. If the skies are clear, the entire eclipse will be visible in North and South America and parts of Europe.
VENEZUELA
Cuban doctors to arrive
The nation is to receive 2,000 Cuban doctors who left Brazil following a dispute between the island and the government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who ordered an end to their stay after taking office this year. Bolsonaro said that about 11,000 doctors were being used as “slave labor” and demanded that the Cuban government, which took 75 percent of their salaries, allow them to be paid in full and have their families join them. Cuba refused and pulled the doctors out. “Next week, we’re going to have a special event that celebrates the arrival of 2,000 new community doctors that Cuba is sending us. They are coming from Brazil,” President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised broadcast. “Brazilian fascism ended the health plan and the 2,000 doctors are coming to Venezuela.” Clinics run by Cuban doctors were a signature program of former Cuban leader Hugo Chavez, who enjoyed an oil windfall during his 14-year rule that ended with his 2013 death from cancer.
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