DENMARK
Bee species drop by 25%
The number of wild bee species recorded by an international database of life on Earth has declined by one-quarter since 1990, a global analysis of bee declines found. Researchers analyzed bee records from museums, universities and citizen scientists collated by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, a global, government-funded network providing open-access data on biodiversity. They found that about 25 percent fewer species were reported between 2006 and 2015 than before the 1990s. Although this does not mean these species are extinct, it might indicate that some have become so scarce that they are no longer regularly observed in the wild. “With citizen science and the ability to share data, records are going up exponentially, but the number of species reported in these records is going down,” said Eduardo Zattara, the lead author and a biologist from the Universidad Nacional del Comahue and Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council. “It’s not a bee cataclysm yet, but what we can say is that wild bees are not exactly thriving.”
UNITED STATES
Nukes ‘priority for NK’
The top intelligence officer for North Korea on Friday said that the country sees diplomacy only as a means to advance its nuclear weapons development, even as President Joe Biden’s administration said that it would look for ways to bring Pyongyang back to talks. National Intelligence Officer for North Korea Sydney Seiler told the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank that Pyongyang’s weapons development had been a consistent policy for 30 years. “Every engagement in diplomacy has been designed to further the nuclear program, not to find a way out... I just urge people not to let the tactical ambiguity obstruct the strategic clarity about North Korea that we have,” he said. “So we should not be overly encouraged if suddenly [North Korea leader Kim Jong-un] proposes dialogue tomorrow, nor should we be overly surprised, or discouraged, if there’s an [intercontinental ballistic missile] launch by Sunday.”
UNITED STATES
Taliban pact to be reviewed
President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday said that it would review a landmark deal with the Taliban. Washington struck a deal with the Taliban in Qatar last year, to begin withdrawing its troops in return for security guarantees from the militants and a commitment to begin peace talks with the Afghan government, but violence across Afghanistan has surged despite the two sides engaging in those talks since September last year. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with his Afghan counterpart, Hamdullah Mohib, and “made clear the United States’ intention to review” the deal, US National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said.
BRAZIL
Rio calls off carnival
Rio de Janeiro has canceled its famous carnival this year due to a deadly revival of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, city Mayor Eduardo Paes announced. Rio’s samba schools, which organize the parades, had hoped to hold the signature event in July after it was postponed from its usual slot in February or March, but this depended on a national vaccination campaign being well under way. Brazil’s inoculation drive only started on Monday with an initial 6 million doses available for the country’s 212 million inhabitants. Brazil has been in the grips of a second wave of infections since November last year, with more than 1,000 daily deaths and an overall of more than 215,000 deaths.
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
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
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
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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