NEWS OF THE DAY
Albino panda: A rare allwhite giant panda has been photographed for the first time, according to a nature reserve in southwestern China. Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province released a photo this past weekend showing the panda crossing through a verdant forest in the reserve.
Serbia on alert: Serbia put its troops on full alert Tuesday after heavily armed Kosovo police entered Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, firing tear gas and arresting about two dozen people in what they called an anti-organized crime operation. It was the latest flare-up in long-simmering tensions between Serbia and its former province, which declared independence from Belgrade in 2008 after a bloody 1998-99 war that ended only with NATO intervention. Serbs make up 90% of the population in northern Kosovo and they want to remain part of Serbia, not an independent Kosovo. Action by Kosovo special police there is rare but always triggers Serb anger.
Citizenship restored: Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia, has been given his Ukrainian citizenship back by the country’s new president. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the comedian who last week took power in Ukraine following his convincing election victory, signed a decree on Tuesday that gave back Saakashvili his Ukrainian citizenship. He had been stripped of it in 2017 by Zelenskiy’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko. Saakashvili, who was Georgia’s president between 2008 and 2013, got a new political life in Ukraine when Poroshenko appointed him governor of the Odessa region in 2015. Saakashvili, however, was pushed out of office a year later following a spat with Poroshenko, who was unhappy with the pace of reforms in the Black Sea port city of Odessa. Saakashvili, in turn, accused Poroshenko of helping some of Ukraine’s richest men keep their foothold in this notoriously corrupt region.
Macron portraits: Across France, activists have been taking down official portraits of President Emmanuel Macron to protest what they consider his “inaction” against climate change. Now they face up to 10 years in prison. The first of several trials targeting the activists opened Tuesday in the eastern town of Bourg-en-Bresse. Some 300 activists participated, chanting “We’re all portrait removers!” The six are accused of “group theft by deceit” and face potential prison terms and substantial fines for taking down Macron’s official presidential portrait from town halls around the country. Prosecutor Eric Sandjivy has requested fines of $2,240 against five of them for charges of theft and refusal to provide DNA samples. The other one, charged with theft, faces a $1,120 fine.
Tough talk: Iran’s influential Revolutionary Guard said Tuesday it doesn’t fear a possible war with the U.S. and claimed that America hasn’t grown in power in recent years — the latest tough talk from Tehran amid escalating regional tensions and a crisis with Washington. “The enemy is not more powerful than before,” said the Guard spokesman, Gen. Ramazan Sharif. Tensions between Washington and Tehran soared recently over Washington deploying an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf over a still-unexplained threat it perceives from Tehran. The U.S. also plans to send 900 additional troops to the Mideast and extend the stay of 600 others as tens of thousands more also are on the ground across the region. Chronicle News Service