UKRAINE
Banker’s house destroyed
Police on Tuesday were investigating a fire that destroyed the house of a reformist former head of the central bank, who along with the bank called it an act of “terror.” Valeria Gontareva said her country home in a village north of Kiev was burned to the ground after being struck with a Molotov cocktail on Tuesday morning. “The terror continues,” Gontareva told Interfax Ukraine from London, where she now lives. Gontareva, who headed the National Bank of Ukraine for three years until 2017 when she resigned, was struck by a vehicle in Britain last month and had to undergo surgery. Earlier this month, her daughter-in-law’s vehicle was burned in Kiev. Gontareva resigned in 2017 after coming under intense pressure from tycoons and lawmakers who wanted to jail her for devaluating the currency.
NEW ZEALAND
Trademark plan dropped
Air New Zealand yesterday backed down on plans to trademark a logo of the Maori greeting kia ora after it was accused of cultural theft. The carrier justified the application last week saying it wanted to protect the masthead of its in-flight magazine. The magazine’s title is a greeting commonly used by all New Zealanders and the Maori Council said the carrier had no right to trademark it. The council threatened a boycott over the issue, saying the airline was trying to commercialize the Maori language. Air New Zealand said it had reconsidered after talks with Maori groups.
RUSSIA
North Koreans detained
Three coast guards were injured on Tuesday in a clash with North Korean fishing boats in the Sea of Japan, after which 80 fishers were detained, the FSB security service said. The FSB, which controls the border and coast guard, said in a statement that guards observed two fishing vessels and 11 motor boats while on duty in territorial waters. The larger boat’s crew attacked officers who boarded the vessel and three officers “received injuries of varying degrees of severity,” the FSB said. Both vessels were eventually detained. “Two fishing vessels and more than 80 North Korean citizens were detained,” the FSB told TASS news agency. “Activities of North Korean poachers has been thwarted.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the North Korean charge d’affaires over the incident, expressing “serious concern,” it said in a statement.
UNITED STATES
Janitor hailed as hero
A maintenance manager on Tuesday was credited with saving lives by evacuating a building before an explosion that gravely injured him, while investigators began examining the rubble to determine the cause and a firefighter who died was saluted. Larry Lord on Monday emptied the building in Farmington, Maine, of “at least a dozen or so employees” when the odor of propane gas was detected just minutes before a powerful blast destroyed the building and killed a firefighter, Police Chief Jack Peck said. “Without his quick actions, I think it would’ve been a much more horrific tragedy,” Peck told reporters. Lisa Charles, who worked in the building, but was not there at the time of the blast, said that she was grateful Lord got her colleagues to safety. “They got a warning from the maintenance guy,” she said, calling him a hero. Her colleagues told her that they were taken to a safe area, but that Lord went back inside with firefighters before the blast occurred. In addition to the death of Fire Captain Michael Bell, seven other people were injured in the explosion.
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