AUSTRALIA
Lawmaker dangles salmon
A lawmaker yesterday dangled a floppy dead salmon in the Senate, accusing the government of falling hook, line and sinker for polluting industrial fish farms. Environmental advocates have questioned the practices of intensive salmon farms in Tasmania, accusing them of choking waterways with waste and fish feces. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she was fed up with a government that refused to enforce more stringent environmental standards. “On the eve of an election, have you sold out your environmental credentials for a rotten, stinking extinction salmon,” she said on a live feed of the proceedings, briefly pausing to heft the fish on to her desk. A fellow Greens senator sitting behind her cried out: “It stinks.” Hanson-Young was ordered to remove the fish — sheathed in a plastic bag.
Photo: Reuters
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Police unblock Facebook
Police yesterday said that they had unblocked Facebook after cutting off access in the nation because of a “counterterrorism” operation. Meta’s Facebook and Messenger platforms had been inaccessible since going offline on Monday. The police minister initially issued a statement praising a successful test of “innovative technology” to control misuse of Facebook content. Yesterday, the chief of police said that Facebook had been taken down as the force grappled with criminals abusing the social network. “A counterterrorism operation is under way to apprehend two men connected to attempts to incite an act of terrorism,” Police Commissioner David Manning said in a statement.
THAILAND
No-confidence vote fails
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra yesterday easily survived a no-confidence vote in parliament following a two-day debate in which rivals charged that she has mismanaged the country and let her father, a former prime minister, control her administration. Opposition lawmakers argued that she has been unduly influenced by her father, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Paetongtarn’s opponents said her administration has improperly favored the personal and financial interests of her family and her father. Paetongtarn received 319 votes, with 161 voting against her and seven abstaining.
PERU
President announces vote
President Dina Boluarte on Tuesday said that the country would hold general elections one year from now in an effort to end years of instability. The polls would elect a new president, 130 deputies and 60 senators, Boluarte said. The bicameral election system has not been used since the early 1990s. In a brief nationwide television address, Boularte did not say if she would be a candidate.
UNITED STATES
Voter ID ordered
President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered tighter controls on federal elections, including requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote. “Perhaps some people think I shouldn’t be complaining, because we won in a landslide [in November last year], but we’ve got to straighten out our election,” Trump said as he signed the executive order in the White House. “This country is so sick because of the election, the fake elections, and we’re going to straighten it out, one way or the other.”
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
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