UNITED KINGDOM
Sunak-Xi meeting canceled
A planned G20 meeting between British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has been canceled due to “scheduling issues,” a Downing Street spokesperson said yesterday. The schedule at the summit on the Indonesian island of Bali has been disrupted by an emergency meeting called after a missile killed two people in Poland near its border with Ukraine. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) said she had no information to offer on the cancelation of the meeting.
UNITED STATES
Thousands of mink escape
Vandalism freed thousands of mink at a rural northwest Ohio farm, leaving an estimated 10,000 of the small carnivorous mammals unaccounted for on Tuesday evening, the local sheriff said. So many minks were killed crossing a nearby road that a plow was brought in to help clear the carcasses away, Van Wert County Sheriff Thomas Riggenbach said. A farm manager told WANE-TV that someone left a spray-painted message of the letters “ALF” and the phrase “We’ll be back.” A group known as the Animal Liberation Front had previously claimed credit for releasing a much smaller number of mink at the farm in a previous incident years ago.
FRANCE
Bullfighting ban mulled
Lawmakers were set to begin debating a ban on bullfighting yesterday, with a vote due later this month that has enraged lovers of the blood sport in the south of the country. The issue has split the ruling coalition of President Emmanuel Macron and the biggest opposition party, the far-right National Rally, which is led by animal-lover Marine Le Pen. Despite having widespread public support, most observers expect the bid to fail, as a majority of lawmakers fear a backlash in rural areas and bullfighting heartlands where the practice is a cherished cultural tradition. A full vote is scheduled for Thursday next week, which would be the first time the national assembly has pondered outlawing the tradition.
MEXICO
Beloved rescue dog dies
A rescue dog that gained international fame sniffing through earthquake rubble in her protective goggles and booties died on Tuesday of age-related illness, prompting an outpouring of tributes. Frida, a Labrador retriever, stole hearts searching for survivors in a school in Mexico City that collapsed after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2017 that killed 370 people. A member of the marines’ canine unit, Frida also took part in emergency response efforts abroad, including earthquakes in Haiti and Ecuador.
ARGENTINA
Jaguar cubs to be released
Two jaguar cubs and their mother were set to be released into an Argentine national park on Tuesday after a successful effort at breeding them in captivity to help protect the feline species from the threat of extinction. Mother Mbarete was returning to Ibera National Park in Argentina’s northeastern Corrientes Province, this time with her cubs following eight months in the El Impenetrable National Park in Chaco, where she mated with their father. The new cubs bring important genetic diversity to the population of 12 jaguars living in the park near Argentina’s borders with Brazil and Paraguay. The continent’s largest cat, only 200 to 250 jaguars live in Argentina today, occupying just 5 percent of the territory they once roamed in.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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