TUVALU
PM insists on sovereignty
Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to sink beneath the sea as a result of climate change, but that does not mean its statehood is up for discussion, Prime Minister Kausea Natano said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday. There had been “unnecessary” conversations in academic and diplomatic circles centered on the definition of a country under international law, Natano said. “Our sovereignty is not negotiable,” he said, adding that his country would be working with the international community to “bring a close to these distractions.” If the Pacific nation’s land becomes uninhabitable, a provision of the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States that says a state must have a permanent population would be undermined.
AUSTRALIA
Swiftposium announced
Melbourne University said it is to host an academic symposium on Taylor Swift, exploring her impact on gender, literature, the economy and the music industry. Academics are to gather at the university for Swiftposium 2024 from Feb. 11 to 13 to delve into a “broad range of academic disciplines” related to the 33-year-old pop icon. The university this week issued a call for academic papers to be submitted ahead of the meeting, which is being organized along with six other universities across Australia and New Zealand. “Swiftposium is a hybrid academic conference for scholars to engage in critical dialogue about Swift’s popularity and its profound implications for a range of issues,” it said.
UNITED STATES
Teens’ stunt goes wrong
A 19-year-old was rescued after a stunt went wrong and left him dangling by a rope from California’s tallest bridge, authorities said. Deputies responding on Monday to the Foresthill Bridge northeast of Sacramento determined that the teen and his 17-year-old friend had been shooting video of him swinging from the steel span, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said. “The 19-year-old became stuck, hanging approximately 30 feet [9.1m] from the underside of the catwalk when his equipment failed. His friend called [emergency services] after they determined he was stuck and needed assistance,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Rising 223m above the North Fork American River, it is the tallest bridge in the state and third-tallest in the US. Cal Fire’s Technical Rescue Team assisted sheriff’s deputies in pulling the teen to safety. He was not injured. Both teens, who were not identified, were cited for trespassing, officials said.
UNITED STATES
Toddler rescued with dogs
A two-year-old girl who walked away from her home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula alongside two family dogs was found in the woods hours later sleeping on the smaller dog like a furry pillow, state police said. “She laid down and used one of the dogs as a pillow, and the other dog laid right next to her and kept her safe,” Lieutenant Mark Giannunzio said on Thursday. “It’s a really remarkable story.” Troopers used drones and police dogs in the search while local police and people from Michigan and Wisconsin helped look for the girl in the remote wooded area. Troopers from Michigan State Police’s Iron Mountain post had been called to a home in the Faithorn area of Menominee County at about 8pm on Wednesday after the girl wandered away. At about midnight, a person on an ATV found the girl about 4.8km from her home, state police said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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