CHINA
New hotel condemned
A hotel built around a central polar bear enclosure for the non-stop viewing pleasure of its guests on Friday opened to immediate condemnation from conservationists. At “Harbin Polar Land” in the country’s northeast, the hotel bedrooms’ windows face onto the bears’ pen, with visitors told the animals are their “neighbors 24 hours a day.” A video shows the bears — a threatened species — photographed by crowds of guests under harsh warm lights, in a space consisting of fake rocks and icicles, and a white painted floor. Animal rights organizations reacted with outrage, urging customers to stay away from establishments profiting “from animals’ misery.”
PHILIPPINES
Virus variant detected
The country yesterday reported its first case of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant first identified in Brazil, while confirming nearly 100 infections of a new variant discovered locally. A Filipino returning from Brazil tested positive for the P.1 Brazil variant after 752 samples were sequenced at a genome center, the Department of Health said in a statement. It also reported that 98 cases were of the similar P.3 variant first detected in the Southeast Asian country early this month. “At present, the P.3 is not identified as a variant of concern, as current available data are insufficient to conclude whether the variant will have significant public health implications,” the department said.
JAPAN
Regenerating slug found
Researchers have shown that a type of sea slug can self-decapitate and regrow their bodies, a discovery that could have ramifications for regenerative medicine. The mechanism is believed to be an extreme method for the organism to rid itself of parasites, researchers Sayaka Mitoh and Yoichi Yusa wrote in a study published this week in Current Biology. The green slugs have algae cells in their skin, so they can feed off light like a plant until they develop a new body, which takes about 20 days.
IRAN
Killing sparks protest
Protesters attacked a coast guard station in the country’s south after a patrol from the force shot and killed a fuel smuggler, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported yesterday. The attack happened on Friday, when coast guard patrols shot at vessels smuggling fuel to neighboring countries, killing at least one smuggler, the report said. Fars did not identify the person killed, but said he was a 31-year-old man aboard one of the vessels allegedly smuggling fuel. General Hossein Dehaki, chief of the coast guard in Hormozgan Province, was quoted in the report as saying that an undetermined number of people later attacked the coast guard station in the Kouhestak District. He said several coast guard members were inured and the crowd damaged vehicles, vessels and equipment.
UNITED STATES
Police boast of beating man
Louisiana State Police troopers joked in a group text about beating a black man after a high-speed chase last year, saying the “whoopin’” would give the man “nightmares for a long time,” according to new court filings. “He gonna be sore tomorrow for sure,” former trooper Jacob Brown, who was charged in the case and resigned on Wednesday, texted three of his colleagues. “Warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.”
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
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