UNITED STATES
NRA sues to block bill
Soon after Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a school-safety bill that puts new restrictions on guns, the National Rifle Association (NRA) filed a federal lawsuit to block it. Three weeks of pressure from relatives and students slain in the in the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, school massacre provided momentum for the legislation. The governor said the bill balances individual rights with need for public safety. The new law raises the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, extends a three-day waiting period to include long guns and bans bump stocks. The NRA said the age limit is unfair to law abiding 18-to-20-year-olds.
UNITED STATES
Breadfruit whiskey distilled
A Virginia distillery is seeking approval to become the first commercial distiller of whiskey made from breadfruit. The company hopes using the tropical food will help the economy of hurricane-devastated St Croix. The Virginian-Pilot said Chesapeake Bay Distillery owner Chris Richeson last month completed the distillation process using breadfruit and is awaiting government approval for labeling to sell it. He said a former Virginia chef who is now a restaurateur in the Virgin Islands, Todd Manley, contacted him about crafting the spirit. Breadfruit is a food staple in the Caribbean that has been touted as a “superfood.” Richeson said the whiskey raises the profile of breadfruit and provides “value-added agricultural products for St Croix.”
MEXICO
Hippo ‘Tyson’ roams loose
Authorities said they are worried about a hippopotamus that is roaming loose in a swampy area of southern Mexico. Nobody knows where the animal came from, but hippos are not native to the country. The hippo appears to have been living in a pair of ponds near Las Chopas, Veracruz. The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said that experts are looking for the best way to trap and move the three-year-old, 600kg mammal. The hippo was first spotted by local media near a garbage dump in January. Residents of the town have come to love the animal so much they have nicknamed it “Tyson.”
UNITED STATES
Horse spooked on dance floor
Florida partiers who packed a Miami Beach nightclub on Thursday night were keen to see an actual party animal — a snow-white horse complete with a half-naked model as its rider. However, in events apparently unforeseen, the horse became spooked on the dance floor, throwing off its rider and making a break for it as partygoers screamed in fear. Mokai Lounge in South Beach is now saddled with a police investigation — and the wrath of social media users. The bar’s page on reviewing site Yelp has been shut down following a flood of posts outraged over the horsing around.
UNITED STATES
Doctor jailed over kickbacks
Jerrold Rosenberg, a doctor who admitted he accepted financial kickbacks for prescribing a highly addictive opioid spray was on Friday sentenced to 51 months in prison. Prosecutors said the Rosenberg bullied patients who complained about the effects of the fentanyl spray Subsys, telling one to “stop crying, you’re acting like a child.” He received US$188,000 in kickbacks. Two patients survived after overdosing. Rosenberg’s lawyer disputes the number of people hurt and said there is no evidence the overdoses were caused by Rosenberg’s prescriptions.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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