8 NEWS The world at a glance ...
Ok, Iceland
Goodbye, glacier: Iceland is mourning the passing
of a 700-year-old glacier that has now melted away.
Icelandic leaders and scientists this week unveiled a
bronze memorial plaque on the soggy former site
of Okjokull—now just called Ok, because “jokull,”
which means glacier, has been dropped—that reads,
in part: “In the next 200 years, all our glaciers are
expected to follow the same path.” The loss of ice will
hurt tourism in Iceland, where glaciers cover 11 per-
cent of the land and attract travelers for ice climbing,
hiking, and cave tours. Writing in The New York Times, Prime
Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said the world must fight climate
change “to prevent future farewells to all the world’s glaciers.”São Paulo
Smoke-cloaked city: São Paulo,
the Western Hemisphere’s largest city, was plunged into daytime
darkness this week because of a freak weather phenomenon that
brought a dense cloud of smoke from wildfires burning thousands
of miles away. By 3 p.m., the sky was almost pitch-black and
cars crept along with their headlights on. On social media, many
people tweeted—some only half-jokingly—about the impend-
ing Apocalypse, while others speculated that Brazil had entered
“the Upside-Down” dimension from the Netflix drama Stranger
Things. In fact, the smoke came from fires raging in the Amazon
in the northwestern state of Rondonia and neighboring Bolivia.
Much of the Amazon was once considered fireproof, but human
activity and droughts related to climate change have made large
areas of the rain forest vulnerable to blazes.Caracas
Russian navy ahoy: Russia is sending an unspecified number
of warships to Venezuela, after Venezuelan Defense Minister
Vladimir Padrino signed a new defense agreement in Moscow last
week. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Padrino that
the Kremlin opposed the “unprecedented pressure from
Washington aimed at destabilizing” Venezuela,
and pledged to support President Nicolás
Maduro in “counteracting
U.S. attempts to change the
legitimately elected government.”
President Trump, who has rec-
ognized opposition leader Juan
Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful president, is
reportedly considering sending U.S. Navy
ships to blockade the Venezuelan coast.
Ciudad Delgado, El Salvador
Miscarriage is not murder: A Salvadoran woman who was
accused of inducing an abortion after suffering a stillbirth had
her homicide conviction overturned on appeal this week,
ending a case that brought international attention to El
Salvador’s strict anti-abortion laws. Evelyn Hernández,
21, was raped by a gang member and says she did not
know she was pregnant until she gave birth to a stillborn
in a bathroom in April 2016. Doctors could not deter-
mine whether the fetus had been alive at the birth. Prosecutors
charged her with murder because in El Salvador abortion is illegal
under all circumstances—including rape and incest—and in 2017
she was sentenced to 30 years in prison. “Thank God, justice was
done,” Hernández said. “There are many women who are still
locked up, and I call for them to be freed soon, too.”
London
Catastrophic Brexit? The U.K. will face shortages of food and
medicine and at least three months of chaos at its ports if it leaves
the European Union on Oct. 31 with no withdrawal agreement
in place, according to government reports leaked to The Sunday
Times. The documents, which set out the most likely consequences
of a no-deal Brexit, say imported medical supplies will be “vulnera-
ble to severe extended delays,” while food prices will soar. Officials
said the leaked documents did not reflect additional funds that the
government had allocated to mitigate a catastrophic Brexit. Prime
Minister Boris Johnson says he wants a deal, but only one that
eliminates the Irish backstop, the provision that keeps the U.K.
closely tied to the EU until checkpoint-free trade between Northern
Ireland, part of the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland, an EU mem-
ber, can be arranged. The EU says that is impossible.
London
Royal flight-shaming: The British tab-
loids have been pillorying Prince Harry
and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,
for taking so many flights on private jets
despite their professed concern about
climate change. The Daily Mail branded
the couple “hypocrites” for enjoying
four private flights in 11 days, while The
Sun railed against their use of NetJets,
or “Uber for billionaires.” Rock icon Elton John sprang to Harry
and Meghan’s defense this week, tweeting that he had ferried the
pair to and from his French vacation home on his private jet but
“ensured their flight was carbon neutral” by making a donation
to an environmental charity. John said the press was hounding the
young couple just as they did Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, who
died in a 1997 car crash fleeing the paparazzi in Paris.
Getty, AP, Newscom (2)HernándezFrequent fliers
In mourningPadrino and Shoigu