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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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