UNITED KINGDOM
Economy exits recession
The kingdom exited a shallow recession and beat growth forecasts in the first quarter, official data showed yesterday, in a boost to embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of this year’s election. GDP expanded 0.6 percent, bolstered by robust growth in service industries and auto manufacturing, the Office for National Statistics said. That beat market expectations of 0.4 percent growth and marked the strongest performance since the fourth quarter of 2021, helping send London’s stock market to yet another record peak. Sunak — whose governing Conservatives are trailing the Labour Party before a general election and suffered heavy losses in English local polls last week — has made economic growth one of his top priorities. The economy had suffered two successive quarters of slight contraction in the second half of last year on the back of elevated inflation and a cost-of-living crisis.
RUSSIA
Putin reappoints Mishustin
President Vladimir Putin yesterday reappointed Mikhail Mishustin as prime minister. In line with the law, Mishustin, 58, submitted his Cabinet’s resignation on Tuesday when Putin began his fifth presidential term. Mishustin’s reappointment was widely expected by political observers, who said that Putin has appreciated his skills and low political profile. Mishustin, the former head of the nation’s tax service, has steered clear of political statements and avoided media interviews during his tenure. Lower house Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin announced that Putin had submitted Mishustin’s candidacy to the State Duma, which was to hold a session later yesterday to consider it. Mishustin’s approval is a mere proforma in the Kremlin-controlled parliament.
ZIMBABWE
Official forex rate pushed
The government said it would fine businesses using inflated exchange rates as it battles to maintain the value of its newly introduced gold-backed currency, the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG). Any business using an exchange rate higher than the official rate of 13.5 ZiG per US dollar would be fined 200,000 ZiG (US$14,815), a government notice on Tuesday showed. Anyone offering “goods or services at an exchange rate above the prevailing interbank foreign currency selling rate” would be guilty of a civil infringement, it said. The government has been striving to keep the ZiG afloat since its launch early last month, with authorities launching a blitz on illegal foreign currency traders last month. Some businesses such as supermarkets have been charging a premium above the market rate for customers paying in the new currency, while the ZiG is being rejected by informal traders.
UNITED STATES
Scores of pelicans starving
Scores of sick and starving pelicans have been found in coastal California communities in recent weeks and many others have died. Lifeguards spotted a cluster of two dozen sick pelicans earlier this week on a pier in coastal Newport Beach and called in wildlife experts to assist. Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, said the birds are the latest group that they have tried to save after taking in more than 100 other pelicans that were anemic, dehydrated and weighing only half of what they should. “They are starving to death and if we don’t get them into care, they will die,” she said. “It really is a crisis.” It is not immediately clear what is sickening the birds. Some experts said the pelicans are malnourished even though marine life abounds off the Pacific Coast.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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