CANADA
Defense minister apologizes
Minister of Defense Harjit Sajjan apologized in Parliament on Monday for claiming to have been the “architect” of the country’s largest battle in Afghanistan. Sajjan repeatedly said sorry for what he called a “mistake” while being grilled by opposition lawmakers about his remark last month during a speech in India. The battle involving Canada’s Operation Medusa was planned and executed in 2006 by Major General David Fraser, who was responsible for all NATO forces in southern Afghanistan. At the time of the operation, Sajjan was a major in Afghanistan, a much lower rank.
BRAZIL
Indigenous tribe attacked
More than a dozen members of an indigenous tribe were injured in a dispute over land in the north, including at least one whose hands were hacked off, according to reports from indigenous rights groups on Monday. The Indigenous Missionary Council said members of the Gamela community were leaving land recently reclaimed from cattle ranchers in Maranhao State when they were attacked on Sunday afternoon by dozens of men armed with guns, knives and clubs. No deaths were reported. Three remained hospitalized in the state capital, Sao Luis, with severe bullet wounds from the violence, according to the council and the Pastoral Land Commission.
UNITED STATES
Hearse full of dope found
Border Patrol agents working an immigration checkpoint in southern Arizona said they stopped a hearse last weekend and found 30kg of marijuana inside a mahogany coffin. The multiple bricks of marijuana had an estimated street value of more than US$33,000, Border Patrol officials said on Monday. The hearse carrying the casket was stopped on Saturday evening on State Route 80 near Tombstone. Agents said the driver — a 28-year-old US citizen — gave inconsistent information and a canine unit was brought in to check the hearse. Drug-smelling dogs alerted agents despite several bags of manure that had been placed inside the casket in an attempt to conceal the marijuana odor.
UNITED KINGDOM
Missing surfer found
A surfer who went missing off the coast of Scotland has been found 21km from land after spending more than 30 hours in the water, coast guard officials said on Monday. The man, named by the BBC as 22-year-old Matthew Bryce from Glasgow, was reported missing after he set off to go surfing on Sunday morning from a beach near Campbeltown off the Scottish west coast, sparking a large search operation. He was finally located on Monday evening, still with his surfboard after being spotted by a rescue helicopter.
UNITED STATES
Jailers charged over death
A US jury on Monday recommended that seven jail employees be charged for cutting off water for seven days to an inmate who later died of dehydration. After deliberating for about two hours, the six jurors concluded that there was “probable cause” to charge the seven jail officers, NBC TV affiliate WTMJ reported. The death of Terrill Thomas, 38, dates to April 24 last year, in a Milwaukee County jail, where he was in a mental health unit. Thomas was deprived of water because the guards wanted to punish him for his behavior, according to testimony heard by the jurors. The man was held at the jail for opening fire on the highway and in the air in a casino, seriously injuring one person.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate