NEW ZEALAND
Gas pumps hit by bug
Some pumps at gas stations yesterday stopped working due to a “leap year glitch” in payment software, fuel stations and the payment service provider said. Allied Fuel, Gull, Z Energy and BP all confirmed some self-service fuel pumps they operate across the nation were not working due to issues with the payment system used. John Scott, chief executive officer of Invenco Group, which provides the payment software solution, said the system had stopped working due to a “leap-year glitch.” This was now fixed and just needed to be rolled out to affected fuel pumps, Scott said. It was only an issue in New Zealand code and while Invenco was unsure how it had happened, it would investigate the glitch over the coming days, he said.
HAITI
Election timeline set
Caribbean leaders on Wednesday said that Haitian Minister Ariel Henry has agreed to hold general elections by the middle of next year as the international community pushes to raise money for a foreign armed force to fight gang violence there. Members of the Caricom regional trade bloc issued a statement at the end of a four-day summit in Guyana saying that Henry agreed there is a need to hold elections and work with the opposition and civil society groups to achieve that goal.
UNITED STATES
Funding deal advances
Congressional leaders on Wednesday said that they had reached a tentative agreement to prevent a government shutdown for now, days before the deadline. Under the new plan, Congress would temporarily fund one set of federal agencies through March 8 and another set through March 22. In the meantime, Congress would try to draft and pass packages of legislation to fund the government for the remainder of the budget year.
UNITED STATES
McConnell to step down
Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell on Wednesday said that he would step down this year from his leadership role, ending a record-setting tenure. McConnell has represented Kentucky in the Senate since 1985 and has been his party’s leader since 2007. “I turned 82 last week. The end of my contributions are closer than I prefer,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Father Time remains undefeated. I’m no longer the young man sitting in the back hoping colleagues remember my name. It’s time for the next generation of leadership.” His tenure of nearly 17 years as a Senate party leader is the longest on record.
UNITED STATES
Illinois removes Trump
A judge in Illinois on Wednesday ordered former president Donald Trump stricken off the state’s primary ballot over his role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The decision by Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter comes as similar measures have cropped up in several states, including a Colorado ruling now before the Supreme Court. The question before the nine justices is whether Trump, the presumed Republican presidential candidate, is ineligible to appear on the Republican presidential primary ballot in Colorado because he engaged in an insurrection. Trump said that the Illinois decision was politically motivated and unjust. “Democrat front-groups continue to attempt to interfere in the election and deny President Trump his rightful place on the ballot,” Trump’s campaign said, vowing to appeal the decision. Porter put her decision on pause until today to allow an appeal.
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