CANADA
Parliament speaker resigns
Anthony Rota resigned as parliament speaker on Tuesday, days after publicly celebrating a Ukrainian veteran who fought for the Nazis during World War II. During a visit to parliament by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, Rota hailed an elderly Ukrainian immigrant named Yaroslav Hunka from his district as a hero, prompting a standing ovation. However, it was later revealed that the veteran had served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. “It is with a heavy heart that I rise to inform members of my resignation as speaker of the House of Commons,” Rota said on the parliamentary floor. He expressed his “profound regret for my error” and the pain he caused to Jewish communities.
UNITED STATES
Asteroid canister opened
NASA scientists on Tuesday pried open a space probe carrying the largest asteroid samples ever brought back to Earth, finding black debris. Researchers “found black dust and debris on the avionics deck of the Osiris-Rex science canister when the initial lid was removed today,” NASA said, without specifying whether the material definitely belonged to the asteroid. The bulk of the sample requires “intricate disassembly” of the probe. Osiris-Rex launched in 2016, landing on the asteroid Bennu and collected about 250g of material from its surface.
UNITED STATES
Mass thefts reported
Groups of teenagers on Tuesday swarmed into stores in Philadelphia’s Central City, stuffing plastic bags with merchandise and fleeing, although police made several arrests, authorities and witnesses said. An Apple Store was hit at about 8pm and police chased fleeing teenagers, recovering dropped iPhones and a “pile of iPads” at one spot, a police statement said. More than 100 people looted a Lululemon store, NBC10 Philadelphia reported, citing a police officer. Video posted on social media showed masked people in hoodies running out of Lululemon and police officers grabbing several and tackling them to the sidewalk, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. A security guard was assaulted at a Foot Locker store, it reported. The thefts occurred on the same day that Target announced it would close nine stores in four states, including one in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood, and three in the San Francisco Bay Area, saying that theft and organized retail crime have threatened the safety of its workers and customers.
BRAZIL
Organ flight succeeds
Firefighters said they took a helicopter to the top of a mountain in Rio de Janeiro state this month to tell Ricardo Medeiros de Oliveira that they had found him a much-awaited new kidney. Oliveira, a 48-year-old tourist guide who has been waiting for a transplant for nine years, was hiking in a remote mountain area when he received a notification informing him that there was a compatible organ for him, but without immediate communication with Oliveira, firefighters decided to pick him up directly. “He would have lost this organ if he had not gotten to the hospital in time,” firefighter spokesperson Major Fabio Contreiras said. Oliveira arrived in time to the hospital and his surgery succeeded. “It was a huge mix of emotions, I didn’t know whether to laugh, whether to cry, whether to believe,” Oliveira said. That was “the greatest adventure of my life.”
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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