ESTONIA
NATO expansion welcomed
Sweden and Finland joining NATO would increase the security of the Baltic region, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eva-Maria Liimets said. “When we see that in our neighborhood also other democratic countries belong to NATO, it would mean that we could have broader joint exercises and also ... more defense cooperation,” she said on Saturday in Berlin, where she joined a meeting with other NATO counterparts. She said that Estonia would like allies to move from enhancing their presence in the region to enhancing their defense.
ISRAEL
Russia is a threat: author
Polish Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk on Sunday called Russia a threat to the “free world.” Tokarczuk, known for her humanist themes and playful, subversive streak, spoke at a writers’ festival in Jerusalem. “The Poles share the Ukrainian feeling of danger that Russia presents to the free world,” Tokarczuk said, adding that the Polish government had warned about the risk presented by Russian aggression for years. “Nobody could imagine that this war would be so cruel so anachronistic, and this war brings to mind the horrible images of World War Two,” she said. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018 for The Books of Jacob.
HOLY SEE
Pope proclaims 10 saints
Pope Francis on Sunday created 10 new saints, rallying from knee pain that has forced him to use a wheelchair to preside over the first canonization ceremony at the Vatican in more than two years. The Catholic Church’s newest saints include a Dutch priest-journalist who was killed by the Nazis, a lay Indian convert who was killed for his faith and a half-dozen French and Italian priests and nuns who founded religious orders. Francis told the crowd of more than 45,000 that the saints embodied holiness in everyday life. “Holiness does not consist of a few heroic gestures, but of many small acts of daily love,” he said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Thatcher statue egged
Warnings that a new statue of Margaret Thatcher would attract egg throwing protests came true within two hours of it being installed in her home town of Grantham on Sunday. The bronze statue was, without ceremony, placed on a 3m high plinth to make it more difficult for protesters to inflict any damage. Shortly afterward, a man was seen throwing eggs from behind a temporary fence and when one connected, a cry of “oi” could be heard. The egg throwing came as a surprise to nobody in Grantham, where there is pride, but also heightened awareness of how divisive a figure she remains. After it was installed, a number of people stopped to take selfies, but loud booing could also be heard from passing motorists.
PERU
Eleven dead in bus crash
At least 11 people, including two children, were killed and 34 injured after a bus crashed into a ravine, authorities said on Sunday. The accident happened on Saturday afternoon when a bus overturned and rolled 100m down a ravine in the Ancash region to the north of Lima, the National Institute of Civil Defense said. “We have registered 34 injured and 11 dead after an accident in the Ancash region,” a Civil Defense statement said. Police and local residents worked until Sunday morning to try to free bodies from the wreckage. Authorities said they were investigating what provoked the accident.
NEW ZEALAND
Population grows by 0.4%
The country recorded its weakest population growth in 30 years in the 12 months through March, underscoring labor market tightness that is driving faster inflation and forcing aggressive interest rate increases. The population advanced by just 19,200 people, or 0.4 percent, to 5,127,000 as of March 31, Statistics New Zealand said yesterday in Wellington. That is less than the 25,100 people gained in the previous year and the lowest since the agency began providing estimates in 1992. The pace of expansion has decelerated markedly due to the closure of the border to foreigners since March 2020. There were 26,400 more births than deaths in the year through March, while migration fell by 7,300.
CHINA
Shanghai awaits June 1
Shanghai aims to reopen broadly and allow normal life to resume from June 1, Deputy Mayor Zong Ming (宗明) told a news briefing yesterday, after declaring that 15 of the city’s 16 districts had eliminated cases outside quarantine areas. Ming gave the clearest time table yet for a return to normal for the city’s 25 million people. Officials declared the city’s epidemic under control, but they also said that their goal until Saturday would be to prevent a rebound in infections, meaning that many curbs are to remain in place at least until then.
IRAQ
Briton, German deny charge
A British and a German tourist accused of smuggling ancient shards out of the country appeared in a Baghdad court in yellow detainee uniforms on Sunday, telling judges they had not acted with criminal intent and had no idea they might have broken local laws. The trial of Jim Fitton, 66, is grabbing international attention at a time when the country seeks to open up its nascent tourism sector. The session also revealed a second defendant, identified as Volker Waldmann of Germany. The three-judge panel at the city’s felony court scheduled the next hearing for Sunday. The court must determine whether the defendants sought to profit by taking the 12 items, which were found in their possession as they attempted to fly out of Baghdad International Airport on March 20.
ISRAEL
Palestinian gunman dies
A Palestinian gunman who is the brother of a prominent Palestinian militant died on Sunday after being wounded in clashes with local soldiers, the hospital where he was being treated said. Daoud Zubeidi was on Friday wounded in clashes with the military in the West Bank city of Jenin. Zubeidi is the brother of Zakaria Zubeidi, a jailed Palestinian militant who briefly became one of the country’s most wanted fugitives after tunneling out of a prison last year. He was eventually caught and returned to prison. Daoud Zubeidi was taken to Rambam Hospital where he was sedated and placed on a respirator.
ALGERIA
Officer gets death sentence
A military officer and close ally of the former army chief has been sentenced to death over charges of “high treason,” El Watan reported on Sunday. Guermit Bounouira, who was known to be close to late chief of staff of the army Ahmed Gaid Salah, appeared on Thursday in front of an appeals court where he was found guilty of a roster of charges, including disclosing classified information to third parties or states. Bounouira, who served as Gaid Salah’s private secretary for a time, was extradited to the country by Turkey in 2020.
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