UNITED STATES
Biden to host Albanese
President Joe Biden is to host Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House on Oct. 25, including a state dinner. Albanese is to visit from Oct. 23 to 26, where he is to meet Biden to discuss further progress on the two nations’ agreements on climate change, critical minerals and the AUKUS security partnership. Biden was planning to visit Australia in May, but canceled it due to protracted negotiations in Washington over the lifting the debt ceiling. In announcing the cancelation, Biden invited Albanese to visit the White House later this year.
POLAND
Border Guard to get 10,000
Warsaw is planning to move up to 10,000 additional troops to the border with Belarus to support the Border Guard, Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak said yesterday. “About 10,000 soldiers will be on the border, of which 4,000 will directly support the Border Guard and 6,000 will be in the reserve,” Blaszczak said in a public radio interview. “We move the army closer to the border with Belarus to scare away the aggressor so that it does not dare to attack us.” Deputy Minister of the Interior Maciej Wasik on Wednesday said 2,000 more troops would be stationed at the frontier with Belarus.
MALAYSIA
Australian cattle banned
The government has temporarily banned live cattle exports from Australia after Indonesia said it would not take animals from some of the nation’s shippers following the detection of lumpy skin disease. Kuala Lumpur’s decision was based on Indonesia’s advice that they would not accept cattle from four specific export establishments after the disease was detected, a statement from the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said. Australian Chief Veterinary Officer Mark Schipp said the disease has never been detected in the country, and that he had asked for the ban to “be lifted without delay.” The Malaysian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MYANMAR
Boat breaks, killing 17
At least 17 people drowned when a boat carrying Rohingya refugees fleeing Rakhine state broke up at sea this week, rescuers said yesterday. Byar La, a rescuer from the Shwe Yaung Metta Foundation in the town of Sittwe, said more than 50 people were thought to be on the boat heading for Malaysia when it got into trouble in heavy seas on Sunday night. The rescuers found eight men alive, and police had taken them for questioning, he said. Rescuers are still trying to find those unaccounted for, although the exact number on board is not known, he said.
JAPAN
Crowd control on Mt Fuji
Authorities are gearing up to impose crowd control measures for the first time on Mount Fuji this weekend for an expected holiday rush by thousands of sometimes ill-prepared trekkers, officials said yesterday. The famous snow-capped volcano outside Tokao is open to climbers from July to September, drawing hundreds of thousands who often trek through the night to see the sunrise. Authorities said the planned measures would not amount to an outright entry ban, but are meant to “guide” hikers on the trails, including temporarily halting their progress. Local police would be alerted and urged to weigh in if trails get busy enough to “heighten the risk of rocks falling and hikers tripping,” local authorities from the Yamanashi region said in a statement.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
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