BAHAMAS
Storm death toll rises to 43
The death toll from Hurricane Dorian has risen to 43, media reported late on Friday, and was expected to grow “significantly.” US network CNN and local newspaper the Tribune cited Minister of Health Duane Sands as confirming the new toll, up from 30. “Forty-three is the official count, many missing and this number is expected to grow significantly,” Erica Wells Cox, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, told NBC News. Dorian was a Category 5 hurricane — the highest on the five-level wind scale — when it slammed into northern areas on Sunday last week, leaving a trail of immense destruction. UN relief officials said that more than 70,000 people are in need of assistance after the storm reduced homes to matchsticks and destroyed people’s livelihoods. Hundreds are missing and officials have said that the final toll could be “staggering.”
CANADA
People protest Chick-fil-A
Dozens of protesters on Friday crowded a Toronto sidewalk to voice their opposition to the opening of the first franchised Chick-fil-A restaurant in the nation because of the owner’s record on LGBTQ issues. The company has funded anti-LGBTQ initiatives, while CEO Dan Cathy has voiced his opposition to same-sex marriage, the protesters said. The company promotes hate and is not welcome in Toronto, protester Justin Khan said. Chick-fil-A operator Wilson Yang said in an e-mailed statement that everyone is welcome at the restaurant. The Atlanta, Georgia-based company has faced opposition in the US as well, but disputes the characterization of the 2017 donations, saying that it donated US$1.6 million to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a group that is overtly against gay marriage, for sports camps for inner-city youth.
PHILIPPINES
Market blast wounds seven
An explosion at a public market in the south early yesterday wounded at least seven people, the fourth blast in that area in 13 months, the military said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but a militant group operating in the mostly Christian city of Isulan in Sultan Kudarat Province was among the suspects, military said. The latest blast came amid heightened tensions in the volatile region after three incidents in the past year that authorities said were suicide bombings by militants linked to the Islamic State. Video footage showed that yesterday’s blast occurred in a parking space for motorcycles. A suspected improvised explosive device was placed beside a parked motorcycle, regional military spokesman Major Arvin Encinas told reporters.
UNITED STATES
Lombard could be tolled
Thousands of tourists could soon be forced to make reservations and pay to drive famed, crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco. California lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill granting San Francisco the power to establish a toll and reservation system for Lombard Street. The bill still needs California Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority has recommended US$5 per vehicle on weekdays and US$10 on weekends and holidays. Residents have said that the scenic street has become more like an overcrowded amusement park than a neighborhood street. They have been calling for years for officials to address traffic jams, trash and trespassing. Tourism officials have estimated that 6,000 people daily visit the 183m-long street in the summer, creating lines of vehicles stretching for blocks.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion