RUSSIA
Presidential race closes
Registration of candidates for next month’s presidential election has closed, TASS reported yesterday, with a list including President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to win, and three politicians who all support Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The list did not include the anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin after the Central Election Commission on Thursday barred him from running, saying it had found flaws in the collection of signatures required for the support of his candidacy. The commission registered Vladislav Davankov, deputy chair of the Russian Duma and a member of the New People caucus; Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the Kremlin-loyal ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party; and the Communist Party nominee, Nikolai Kharitonov.
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
Oil spill after shipwreck
Emergency workers were on Saturday scrambling to clean up a massive oil spill after a mystery vessel ran aground near the Caribbean island, casting a pall over Carnival tourism. At least 15km of coastline have been affected in Tobago and authorities were poised to declare a national emergency, Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Farley Augustine told reporters. Environmental officials said the spill has damaged a reef and Atlantic beaches, boding ill for the island’s resorts and hotels. The government might elevate the accident to a Level 3 disaster, Augustine said, adding: “Everything indicates that we are going in that direction.” The mystery vessel, identified as The Gulfstream, capsized on Wednesday off the coast of the Cove Eco-Industrial Park in southern Tobago, and currents have dragged the boat shoreward. When sighted on Wednesday, the ship was sailing under an unidentified flag and made no emergency calls. Emergency Management Agency said there were no signs of life on the vessel, whose cargo was initially believed to consist of sand and wood.
UNITED KINGDOM
King thanks well-wishers
King Charles III on Saturday expressed his “heartfelt thanks” to well-wishers, in his first statement since being diagnosed with cancer. In a message to the public on X, the 75-year-old monarch added that it was “equally heartening” to hear how sharing his diagnosis has helped promote understanding of the condition. “I would like to express my most heartfelt thanks for the many messages of support and good wishes I have received in recent days,” Charles wrote. “As all those who have been affected by cancer will know, such kind thoughts are the greatest comfort and encouragement.”
UNITED STATES
Reward for dead wolves info
A federal agency is offering a US$50,000 reward for information about the deaths of three endangered gray wolves from the same pack in southern Oregon. The collars from two gray wolves sent a mortality signal on Dec. 29. State wildlife officials responded and found three dead wolves, two with collars and one without, the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement. The collared wolves were an adult breeding female and a subadult from the Gearhart Mountain Pack. The other wolf killed was also a subadult. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said it is aware of seven wolves remaining in the pack, including a breeding male. Officials did not indicate in the statement how the wolves died. A phone message left Saturday seeking more information was not immediately returned.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home