CHISINAU (AP) – Several thousand protesters rallied in Moldova’s capital Sunday to demand that the country’s new pro-Western government fully cover citizens’ winter heating bills amid a cost-of-living crisis and skyrocketing inflation. The protest was organized by a recently formed group called Movement for the People and supported by members of Moldova’s Russia-friendly Shor Party, which holds six seats in the former Soviet republic’s 101-seat legislature. Some of the demonstrators who converged on Chisinau called for the resignation of the country’s president, chanting “Down with Maia Sandu!” Others held placards with the faces of some Moldova’s leaders and politicians placed next to photographs of large homes and fancy cars. “They have millions. We are dying of hunger,” they said. A series of anti-government protests initiated by the Shor Party rocked Moldova during the fall as a severe energy crisis gripped the country after Russia dramatically reduced natural gas supplies. Around the same time, Moldova’s government asked the country’s Constitutional Court to declare the Shor Party illegal.  

 

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BEIJING (Reuters) – China warned the United States on Sunday it would “bear all the consequences” if it escalated the controversy over a Chinese balloon that the U.S. military shot down this month. Beijing will “follow through to the end” in the event “the U.S. insists on taking advantage of the issue”, the foreign ministry said in a statement. A U.S. military jet on Feb. 4 shot down what Washington calls a Chinese spy balloon after it had crossed North America. Beijing says it was an errant weather-monitoring craft. China’s statement followed a meeting between top diplomat Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

 

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LONDON (The Daily Mail) – Gun crime across England and Wales almost doubled in the space of one year according to shocking new offence statistics which highlighted an astonishing 2533% increase in London alone. Analysis of Home Office open crime data from the first two quarters of 2021-2022 and 2022-23 show that there were 850 gun offences logged across the two countries - a 49% increase on the year before which saw 570. This number includes 237 London incidents - a 2533% increase from the previous year which saw 9 incidents across the same period. By contrast, knife possession across the capital dropped by 13% - although stats show there were still 1281 incidences. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said its own figures on gun offences were “vastly different” from the Home Office’ police recorded crime open data.  The authority said that according to their own regular updated figures the number of offences committed from April to September 2022 was actually 768 compared to 699 committed in the same period in 2021 - a 14% rise. 

 

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ADDIS ABABA (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for solidarity with Africa to address the multifaceted challenges engulfing the continent and its peoples. Addressing the press, Guterres said terrorism, violence, insecurity, and conflict are arising across the continent, jeopardizing human lives and rights while democratic gains are disappearing in some countries of the continent. “A cost of living crisis - with rising food and energy costs, climate chaos that is causing floods and deadly droughts and complex peace and security threats - including rampant terrorism are jeopardizing people’s lives across the continent,” Guterres said. Guterres has urged for remedial measures to a dysfunctional and unfair global financial system that denies many African countries debt relief and concessional financing. “We must draw on the continent’s natural, human, cultural and entrepreneurial richness to make this a reality. I call on the world to act for Africa, act for Africa’s economy,” he said.

 

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AUCKLAND (Al Jazeera) – At least 11 people have died and thousands are missing in New Zealand after Cyclone Gabrielle hit the North Island last week. The cyclone hit the northern part of the island on February 12 and tracked down the east coast, inflicting widespread devastation. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has called Gabrielle New Zealand’s biggest natural disaster this century. On Sunday, police reported two more cyclone-related deaths in hard-hit Hawke’s Bay. More fatalities are possible, Hipkins told reporters in the capital, Wellington because more than 6,400 people are missing. Lives had been “turned upside down” and recovery was a “steep mountain ahead”, he said, pointing to disrupted telecommunications, shortages of freshwater and damaged roads still restricting access to some areas. Supply chains have been disrupted, causing problems moving goods; crops had been destroyed; and 28,000 homes are still without power, Hipkins said. Last week, he warned that recovery would take time with power not expected to be restored to some areas for weeks and the cleanup likely to take much longer than that.

 

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LONDON (Reuters) – Scottish Health Minister Humza Yousaf said on Saturday he would run in the leadership contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon as Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and first minister. Yousaf becomes the first to publicly announce his intention to stand in the race after Sturgeon’s surprise resignation earlier in the week saying she had become too divisive and too tired to carry on. “I have decided to put myself forward as a candidate to become Scotland’s next First Minister, and Leader of the SNP,” the 37-year old, who has been a member of the Scottish parliament since 2011 and has also held several ministerial roles, said on Twitter. Yousaf, who is of Pakistani origin, is the first non-white and first Muslim cabinet minister in the Scottish Government.