BRAZIL
Attack on Bachelet’s past
President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday criticized UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, a former Chilean president, by praising the 1973 military coup that led to her father’s death. Bolsonaro mentioned Bachelet’s father Alberto, an air force officer who opposed General Augusto Pinochet’s coup, and was imprisoned and tortured. He died in captivity in 1974. “If Pinochet’s people had not defeated the left in 1973 — among them, your father — today Chile would be a Cuba,” Bolsonaro told reporters. Among those arrested were Michelle Bachelet, who said she was tortured, and her mother, although they were later released and went into exile. Bolsonaro spoke after Michelle Bachelet raised concerns about an increasing rate of killings by police in Brazil, as well as alleged restrictions on civil liberties. Without naming Bolsonaro, Michelle Bachelet criticized his stated wish to celebrate Brazil’s 1964 military coup, as well as his denial of past state crimes.
INDIA
Three killed in flooding
Three people were killed and dozens of flights were canceled or delayed after severe flooding in Mumbai, with authorities yesterday warning of more heavy monsoon rains. Mumbai — home to 20 million people — has been hit by torrential downpours over the past two months amid the annual monsoon deluge. Nonstop rain over several hours on Wednesday paralyzed traffic, halted trains and delayed airport operations. Residents spoke of being trapped in traffic for several hours amid chaotic scenes. Maharashtra State Minister Ashish Shelar said that schools were to be closed yesterday “as a precautionary measure.”
THAILAND
Bangkok tops visitor list
Bangkok last year ranked first for the fourth straight year as the city with the most international visitors, Mastercard said in a report released on Wednesday. With almost 23 million international visitors last year, Bangkok outpaced Paris and London, which were second and third with just more than 19 million visitors each. Other top cities in order were Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Singapore; Kuala Lumpur; New York; Istanbul, Turkey; Tokyo; and Antalya, Turkey. The report pointed to broad increases in international travel, with the total number of international visits up 76 percent since 2009. Nine of the top 10 cities saw increases compared with 2017. London was the exception, with a drop of 4 percent. Dubai topped the list as far as consumption, with travelers spending an average of US$553 per day and visitors spending a total of nearly US$31 billion.
AUSTRALIA
Wreck foils drug smugglers
An alleged plot to smuggle A$1 billion (US$681.9 million) of drugs on a yacht unraveled when a Frenchman and a Briton ran the boat aground on a remote reef, police said yesterday. The two men — 51-year-old Antoine Dicenta and 34-year-old Graham Palmer — on Monday became stranded in the Albrolhos Islands off Western Australia after their yacht Zero ran into a reef. Police said the pair unloaded about 1 tonne of drugs from their yacht onto a smaller boat and ferried it to a nearby island where they took refuge. Local fishers alerted authorities, sparking a search that resulted in the alleged smugglers being discovered late on Tuesday along with 40 bags filled with drugs. Western Australian Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said that the men had made a “pretty poor attempt” to cover the bags of drugs with seaweed before they were arrested.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
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