NEW ZEALAND
Hipkins sworn in as PM
Chris Hipkins was yesterday sworn in as the nation’s 41st prime minister, following the unexpected resignation last week of Jacinda Ardern. Hipkins, 44, has promised a back-to-basics approach focusing on the economy and what he described as the “pandemic of inflation.” He has less than nine months before contesting a tough general election, with opinion polls indicating that his Labour Party is trailing its conservative opposition. Governor-General Cindy Kiro officiated the swearing in ceremony after earlier accepting Ardern’s resignation. Hipkins was education and police minister under Ardern. He rose to public prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he took on a kind of crisis management role.
THE PHILIPPINES
Plane crash kills two
An air force plane yesterday crashed on a farm northwest of Manila, killing the two people on board, while a search was continuing for a private aircraft carrying six people that went missing the previous day in the mountainous north. The SF-260 plane was on a training flight from Sangley Point Airport in Cavite province south of Manila when it plummeted into a rice field in Bataan province, air force spokesperson Colonel Maria Consuelo Castillo said. Separately, a single-engine Cessna plane carrying six people lost contact with airport tower personnel about four minutes after takeoff on what was to be a 30-minute flight on Tuesday in northern Isabela province, the Civil Aviation Authority said. A full-scale search and rescue was continuing yesterday, the agency said. It did not identify those who were on the plane.
THAILAND
Bangkok pollution worsens
Authorities on Tuesday urged Bangkok residents to work from home and wear respirator masks outdoors as air pollution level worsens in one of the world’s most-visited cities. Residents in the city of more than 10 million should work from home if possible, or switch from personal vehicles to public transportation options if they need to commute, Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said in a statement. Authorities are attempting to control activities causing dust particles such as outdoor burning, construction and combustion from truck engines, he said. Air quality in the capital has been mostly at unhealthy levels since the weekend with authorities warning that the hazardous dust particles, known as PM2.5 — airborne particles measuring 2.5 micrometers or less — might exceed safe levels again later this week.
INDIA
New Delhi reaches out
New Delhi has invited Pakistan’s foreign minister to a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that it is hosting in May, Indian media reported yesterday, signaling a possible thaw in relations between the nuclear-armed rivals. The invitation came days after Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif called for talks with India over all outstanding issues, including the disputed Kashmir region. Just a month ago, there were street protests in India over comments Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Bilawal Bhutto Zardari made about Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting. India called Zardari’s comments “uncivilized.” Foreign ministry spokespersons for the two countries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the media reports that Zardari had been invited to the SCO foreign ministers meeting being hosted in Goa.
UNITED KINGDOM
Two war volunteers die
Two British volunteers who had been reported missing in eastern Ukraine have been killed, a family statement released on Tuesday said. Andrew Bagshaw, 48, and Christopher Parry, 28, went missing earlier this month while heading to the town of Soledar, in the eastern Donetsk region, where heavy fighting took place. Parry’s family confirmed in a statement released through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that both men were killed. “It is with great sadness we have to announce that our beloved Chrissy has been killed along with his colleague Andrew Bagshaw whilst attempting a humanitarian evacuation from Soledar, eastern Ukraine,” it said. Ukrainian police on Jan. 9 said that they lost contact with Bagshaw and Perry after they headed for Soledar. Bagshaw, a resident of New Zealand, was in Ukraine to assist in delivering humanitarian aid, New Zealand media reports said.
MEXICO
Court rules on army arrests
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the armed forces do not have to advise civilian police when they make an arrest. The issue is a sensitive one, because the military is supposed to be participating in civilian law enforcement only to “support” police. However, the court said that soldiers can make an arrest without telling police, as long as they eventually register the arrest in a computer system that civilian agencies use. The armed forces have frequently been accused of breaching human rights, but the nation’s underpaid, antiquated police forces cannot handle the country’s well-armed drug cartels alone. Some civilian police forces complain that the armed forces, and the largely militarized National Guard, are not trained in proper arrest procedures and filling out standardized crime reports. A broader criticism is that the armed forces and National Guard do little investigation, and thus cannot build strong cases except when they catch suspects in the act of committing a crime.
UNITED STATES
Rocket Lab launches mission
Rocket Lab on Tuesday launched its first mission from US soil, kicking off an expansion of the company’s launch business that adds to a surge in private rocket activity at US space ports. The California-based firm’s workhorse Electron rocket, an expendable launcher 12m tall, lifted off at 6pm from its new launch pad at the NASA-operated Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. The mission marked Rocket Lab’s first outside its flagship launch site on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, where the company has carried out all 32 previous Electron missions since the rocket’s debut in 2017.
UNITED STATES
Dallas Zoo probes death
What mysterious forces are at work at the Dallas Zoo? In recent days, the largest zoo in Texas has been the scene of suspicious incidents, most recently the death of a beloved vulture — and police are on the case. “Everything is under suspect at this point — internal, external — we’re looking at every single option,” zoo president Gregg Hudson told reporters on Monday. The 35-year-old endangered lappet-faced vulture named Pin was found dead over the weekend and the zoo said “the death does not appear to be from natural causes.” The zoo offered a US$10,000 reward for any information that helps the investigation. On Jan. 13, a clouded leopard, Nova, escaped from her enclosure after a section of fencing had been cut. Nova was later discovered safe on zoo grounds, but staff found that the langur monkey enclosure had also been breached.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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