22/06/2026

MONDAY | JUNE 22, 2026

7

Starmer quit poser

Iceland resumes whale hunt

REYKJAVIK: One of Iceland’s two remaining whaling ships set out this week to hunt the giant mammals after a two-year hiatus. Iceland is one of only three countries that still openly permit whaling, alongside Norway and Japan – despite international criticism from the public and animal welfare organisations. A protester chained himself to the mast of the vessel before it left the port of Reykjavik on Friday. He climbed down in the evening and was escorted away by police, RUV media said. “It is so disheartening to see Iceland’s whaling boat leave port to begin another season of whale slaughter despite overwhelming evidence that there is no humane way to kill a whale,” Joanna Swabe of the Humane World for Animals NGO said after the second vessel headed out to sea. “These ocean giants will very likely endure an agonising death for meat that virtually no one in Iceland wants to eat,” she said. Iceland cancelled its whale hunt in 2024 and 2025, partly because economic woes had cut demand and the industry was not deemed sufficiently profitable. The International Whaling Commission banned the commercial killing of whales in 1986 amid alarm at the declining stock of the marine mammals. Iceland and Norway are the only two countries still openly practising commercial whaling in defiance of the moratorium. Japan hunts the ocean giants for what it claims is “scientific” purposes, even if most of the meat ends up on the market for consumption. Iceland’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute has recommended a reduction in the number of whales harpooned this season, which runs from mid-June to mid-September. The 2026 annual number of fin whales killed should not exceed 150 animals, a 28% drop on the recommended annual catch for the period 2018-2025, it said. The fin whale is the second largest animal on Earth after the blue whale. The Institute set an annual quota of 168 animals for the minke whale hunt this year, a 23% drop. The government is due this autumn to table a Bill on banning whaling altogether. – AFP Bolivia deploys military to quell protests LA PAZ: Bolivia’s president declared a state of emergency on Saturday and deployed soldiers and bulldozers to demolish road blockades that have paralysed the Andean nation. For more than six weeks, unions, indigenous groups and coca farmers have marched through cities and blocked roads across the country with rubble, logs and debris in protest against the conservative government. Major cities have suffered acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine, the economy has lost billions of dollars, and the protests have threatened to topple Bolivia’s first non-socialist government in two decades. President Rodrigo Paz appeared in a predawn televised address on Saturday to warn protesters they would face “the full force of the law” as he moved to end the crisis. He declared a 90-day state of emergency, which curbs the right to protest and allows the military to be deployed domestically. Hours after his address, AFP reporters in the city of El Alto saw squads of soldiers and armed police moving in a convoy as bulldozers moved in to clear road blockades. Some residents clapped as they passed. One man handed a bag of bread to a police officer riding in the back of a pickup truck. “I’m very happy,” said Carla Butron, a 39-year old shopkeeper. “Everything has been difficult here in El Alto during these 50-odd days.” In La Paz, military police and navy personnel guarded the presidential palace and police were stationed on main squares. – AFP

LONDON: British Business Minister Peter Kyle said yesterday he has no reason to believe that Prime Minister Keir Starmer is planning to announce his resignation. Speaking to Sky News, Kyle said he had a “frank” conversation with Starmer on Friday. Britain’s Observer newspaper said Starmer was expected to resign today and set out a timetable for his departure, although a government source said the prime minister remained focused on getting on with the job of governing. Asked about reports that Starmer was preparing to resign, Kyle said: “I have nothing to believe that they are true. I am seeing a lot of speculation out there.” “Today, as in every other day I’ve ever o No reason to think Starmer will resign: Minister

known Keir, he is out there working hard. At the same time, he is also trying to create the space where he can think and reflect on the political realities and challenges, and the opportunities that are before us.” Kyle declined to go into detail about the details of his Friday conversation with Starmer, beyond saying that it was lengthy. “Not once did he ever ask about self-interest. It was always about the country.” The threat to Starmer’s position, which has been building for months, increased sharply on Friday when leading party rival Andy Burnham won a seat in parliament that would allow him to launch a formal leadership challenge. The Observer report said Starmer was discussing the matter with his wife at his Chequers country residence before making a final decision, and that senior Labour figures expected a clear statement on his future as soon as today. – Reuters

Kyle said he is ‘seeing a lot of speculation’. – AFPPIC

Los Angeles declares emergency LOS ANGELES: The second-largest city in the United States was under a state of emergency on Saturday as fire crews fought a days-long battle against a stubborn warehouse blaze that has filled the air with acrid black smoke. “This is a major, multi-jurisdictional incident,” said Mayor Karen Bass. The declaration will “ensure the city has the resources it needs”. “The smell of smoke has reached most of the city, and we encourage everyone to limit exposure as much as possible,” said the Los Angeles Fire Department. The fire has been contained to the warehouse but continues to burn, spewing fumes that smell of burning plastic. A thick cloud of smoke engulfs the area where the fire was burning in Los Angeles. – GETTY IMAGES/AFPPIC

But fire officials have since lifted those orders, saying the smoke is not toxic or different from a normal structure fire. Air quality officials have issued warnings for people in affected areas to avoid going outdoors. City Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, who represents the district where the fire is burning, raised concern over long-term health impacts in Boyle Heights. “Residents have lived through days of smoke, shelter-in-place orders, disruptions to daily life and questions about what this means for their health and wellbeing,” she said. – AFP protest last year, is calling for a test area to be set up, to be followed by further spots if possible. It argues that water quality is good enough for safe swimming more than 80% of the time. The city’s water regulations prohibit swimming in the Spree in central Berlin. The Berlin Senate, the top municipal authority, has so far seen no reason to amend the rules or allow exceptions. – Bernama

Earlier, residents of the area surrounding the warehouse in Boyle Heights, a diverse neighbourhood in east Los Angeles, were warned to shelter in place, close windows and avoid outdoor activities. Authorities opened 24-hour relief centres for people unable to escape the smoke.

The fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon in a 46,400sq m frozen food warehouse, where burning foam insulation, suspected ammonia leakage and melting solar panels have complicated the firefight, officials said.

Spree River swimmers lobby to end Berlin ban BERLIN: Several hundred people in Berlin took part in a swim-in protest on Saturday against the century-old ban on swimming in the city’s Spree River. Among them was Steffen Krach, the Social Democratic Party lead candidate for Berlin’s September state election. “Vote out 101 years of the ban!” the association demanded.

A spokesman for the Flussbad Berlin Association said there were 500 swimmers and 500 people demonstrating on the banks. With temperatures nearing 30ºC, swimmers entered the Spree River in central Berlin around midday.

Swimming in the inner-city stretch of the Spree in Berlin has not been allowed since May 20, 1925. Pollution and associated health risks were the reason at the time. The association, which held a similar