NEW ZEALAND
Auckland braces for storm
Air New Zealand yesterday canceled dozens of flights as Aucklanders braced for a deluge from Cyclone Gabrielle, two weeks after a record-breaking storm swamped the nation’s largest city and killed four people. The airline said it was canceling all domestic flights to and from Auckland through midday tomorrow, as well as many international flights. The storm is today expected to dump up to 250mm of rain on the city. Weather forecaster MetService said it was expecting a “widespread and significant” weather event, with heavy rain, strong winds and large waves. “Please do take this seriously, we do expect severe weather is on the way,” New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told reporters. “So please make sure that you’re prepared. Make sure that you’ve got preparations in place for either if you have to stay put for a period of time, or if you have to evacuate.”
MYANMAR
‘Loyal’ allowed guns: report
The government is set to allow civilians “loyal to the state” to apply for licenses to carry firearms, media reports and an unverified government document showed. The leaked document, purported to originate from the Ministry of Home Affairs, was reviewed by Reuters and other media. It set out criteria for those seeking a gun license. Experts worry that allowing civilians to carry guns would empower pro-junta groups and only serve to escalate the violence and near-daily clashes between the military and armed resistance forces that have raged nationwide. The conditions that figured in the document included an age threshold of 18 and a demonstrable need for a gun for security purposes, in addition to the loyalty requirement.
RUSSIA
ISS ship leaking coolant
An uncrewed Russian supply ship docked at the International Space Station (ISS) has leaked coolant, the Russian space corporation and NASA reported on Saturday, saying that the incident does not pose any danger to the station’s crew. Roscosmos said the hatch between the station and the Progress MS-21 had been locked so the incident did not affect the orbiting outpost. “Officials are monitoring all International Space Station systems and are not tracking any other issues,” NASA said. “The crew, which was informed of the cooling loop leak, is in no danger and continuing with normal space station operations.”
UNITED KINGDOM
McCrispy ad ‘tasteless’
The US fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s has pledged to remove an advertisement for its new McCrispy chicken sandwich that was placed across from a crematorium in England. The ad was placed at a bus stop in Cornwall next to a road sign pointing toward the Penmount Crematorium, Cornwall Live reported. “Although I can see the funny side [of the ad], it is tasteless, and I’m sure some grieving family members won’t like to see it when visiting Penmount for the funeral and cremation of a loved one,” said a woman whose mother-in-law was cremated at the crematorium last year. A McDonald’s representative told Business Insider that it would pull the ad. Some online users found the ad’s placement to be darkly comical. “I only recently lost 2 loved ones & to be honest if I’d seen that sign near the crematorium I would have smiled,” a person wrote on Facebook. “Thank God [it] wasn’t advertising Burger King and being ‘flame grilled,’” another user wrote.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
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