Around the world

 

So as a new adjunct to Martin World News, I present you with Around The World, where we will start at a random country and mention their big news- because you can get all the Inauguration news on your regular news sites!  Stop #1:

Vanuatu, which is having a "Western North Carolina" moment of its own.  Over a month since a 7.3 earthquake hit the capital of Port Villa, the central business district is still abandoned- since most of the buildings have been declared unsafe.  "The Recovery Operations Centre (ROC) yesterday  (January 16th our time) confirmed that they approved the work that will be carried out by New Zealand, Australia, and Japan engineers.  200+ businesses in 90+ buildings, along with hundreds of employees, are out of luck.

Trying to make moves of around 3,000 miles, we land next in:

Indonesia, where newly-elected President Prabowo Subianto is doing something no US President has matched since 2001- he has an 81% approval rating.  One reason why-

The so called “Nutritious Meals Program” is recognised as a flagship initiative of the newly elected President Prabowo Subianto which has been prioritized among the eight most important priorities for the current government. The program aims to fight against malnutrition and promote healthy eating via the delivery of high-quality school meals prepared with locally sourced ingredients, with a special attention to nutrition education, and food waste reduction activities. On its opening day, the program has served over 500,000 meals.

The program is meant to reach out to nearly 60 million schoolkids.  Among those other 8 goals is 8% annual economic growth.  Next up, as I try to maintain the same direction:  

Pakistan, where the big news concerns textbooks in the province of Punjab, which will for the first time contain stories of prominent women in the history of Pakistan.  Which, you might think given Pakistan's Muslim majority, would be controversial.  But apparently the controversy to THEM was that when a Punjabi politician announced it on social media, they ONLY mentioned a pair of Punjabi women- at which a journalist questioned why it was ONLY these two and not several others as well.  So the particular news site I went to did a fact check and found that the books would include- in addition to the two who got pictures in the book- at least 12 other women.  Tempest in a teapot time there.

Next on our journey...

Germany, where their ambassador to the US, Andreas Michaelis, was embarrassed by a leaked cable in which he was quoted:

Michaelis voiced serious concern about the future of US democracy, writing, "Fundamental democratic principles, along with checks and balances, will be largely undermined, the legislature, law enforcement and media will be robbed of their independence and misused as a political arm, and Big Tech will gain co-governing authority."

At this point the German foreign office has been silent other than saying that the US "is one of our most important allies".  But with their envoy quoted with such bon-mots as:

 ...Trump's policy "of maximum disruption, the breaking up of the established political order and bureaucratic structures as well as his plans for revenge ultimately mean a redefinition of the constitutional order..." 

I have few doubts that Ambassador Michelis will soon be seeing his credentials "revenged".

Meanwhile, we move on to...

Ghana, where I found that something that's all the rage in South Africa is hot there too- illegal mining.  An illegal (according to the government) group of 60 such cut through a security fence and engaged troops of Operation Halt II with "locally manufactured rifles, pump-action guns, gas cylinders, knives, heavy duty bolt cutters, axes, and machetes".  7 (or perhaps 8) of the invaders were killed.  A lot quicker solution than in South Africa, where the plan is, 'Let them go down the mine, then block them in until they are dead, starved out and arrested, or flooded out'.

We hop our next plane to:

Brazil, here the news gave President Lula a 'check-up'-

President Lula (PT) reached the halfway mark of his term having fulfilled 28% of the 103 promises he made during the 2022 electoral campaign, as cataloged by Folha. In 2023, this number was 20%.

Additionally, 29% of the promises are in progress, 25% have started but are advancing slowly, and 17% are stalled (the total doesn’t reach 100% due to rounding).

For context, Politifact currently lists the Biden scoreboard on 99 promises: 33% fulfilled (+5), 32% "compromised", 34% broken (Wondering if this included the "Not issuing pardons" promise he made to Jake Tapper and shattered beyond all recognition today), with 0s for "stalled" and "in the works".  I guess just under a third is all you can expect from leftist politicians.  And most of them, we really don't want anyway.  Moving on...

As we are now close enough to the Pacific, we have to suspend the 3,000 mile limit and jump 7.888 miles to...

Tonga, just 1,200 miles from our starting point.  So Tonga is dealing with a two-headed monster in the area of roads and traffic.  I guess that you have to declare how many vehicles you have, and then you also have to register them as well.  Problem #1:  There are almost 18,000 vehicles declared, but only about 3,300 registered.  An officer from the department of roads and traffic, said, "One possible explanation for this discrepancy could be the presence of unregistered vehicles..."

Ya think?

The second problem is that the roads are "broken".  So much so, every taxi is averaging one replaced (second hand) tire a month, and are refusing to make fares in the worst areas.  In a burst of typical Government action...

Matangi Tonga (the news site) asked officials at the Ministry of Infrastructure on 6 January 2025, for an interview about the state of the main roads in Nuku’alofa.

The CEO of MOI, Mr, Lopeti Heimuli required our questions to be sent in prior to the interview, which was then set for 7 January. However, on the day of the interview, the CEO sent us to the Director of the Department of Roads and Traffic, Mr Tevita Lavemai, who declined the opportunity to talk about the roads.

So, how is it in your world?