SAMOA
UN warns on climate
Some Pacific territories face “annihilation” from climate-induced cyclones, ocean heat waves and rising sea levels, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in Apia yesterday. The fate of Pacific islands depends on limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, he said. “High and rising sea levels pose an enormous threat to Samoa, to the Pacific and to other small island developing states, and these challenges demand resolute international action,” Guterres said.
AUSTRALIA
Passenger walks on wing
A passenger was arrested at an airport yesterday after he left a stationary airliner through an emergency exit, walked along a wing and then climbed down a jet engine to the tarmac, officials said. Jetstar Flight JQ507 had arrived at Melbourne Airport from Sydney and had parked at a terminal gate when the man left the plane by the right-side exit, officials said. Opening the exit automatically deployed a slide from the back of the wing at the fuselage to the ground, a Jetstar statement said. However, the man instead walked along the wing and climbed down one of the Airbus A320’s two engines, an official said.
RUSSIA
Putin meet’s China’s Li
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Moscow. “Our trade relations are developing, developing successfully... The attention that the governments of the two countries on both sides are paying to trade and economic ties is yielding results,” Putin said at the meeting in the Kremlin. Moscow and Beijing have developed “large-scale plans” for economic and other projects, he said.
BOTSWANA
Large diamond found
One of the world’s largest diamonds ever unearthed — a rough 2,492-carat stone — has been found by a Canadian mining company. The diamond was found in the Karowe Diamond Mine, about 430km from the capital, Gaborone, Lucara Diamond Corp said in a statement yesterday. It did not give a value for the find or mention its quality. In terms of carats, the stone appears to be not far behind the largest gem-quality diamond ever mined, the 3,016.75-carat Cullinan Diamond discovered in South Africa in 1905. The find was “one of the largest rough diamonds ever unearthed” and detected using the company’s Mega Diamond Recovery X-ray technology, the firm said.
UNITED STATES
Lionsgate recalls trailer
Lionsgate on Wednesday recalled its new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis as critics’ quotes in it were fabricated. “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.” The trailer, released earlier on Wednesday, included quotes from critics such as Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert of other Coppola films that did not actually appear in their reviews. The intent was apparently to highlight the critical divisiveness of now-classics such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, leaning into some of the more negative reactions to Megalopolis, a self-financed US$120 million epic that is to open next month.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing
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