Briefly

CANADA

PM taps ally Freeland as finance minister

Chrystia Freeland, who helped negotiate Canada's free-trade deal with the United States and Mexico, was named the country's first female finance minister on Tuesday. Her elevation came a day after her predecessor resigned after reportedly butting heads with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Freeland, a former journalist who had been Canada's foreign minister, is a trusted ally of Trudeau and will keep her job as deputy prime minister. Trudeau named her to the job after Bill Morneau stepped down on Monday amid reported differences with Trudeau's administration, which has been spending heavily to shore up the pandemic-hammered economy.

AUSTRALIA

Govts condemned over ill-fitting masks

Australia's peak medical body has accused state and federal governments of an "appalling" approach to ill-fitting face masks for healthcare workers. Omar Khorshid, the president of the Australian Medical Association, or AMA, on Wednesday said that it was "baffling" that frontline medical workers caring for COVID-19 patients have not been fitted properly for N95 masks to create an effective seal around the face. State health departments are responsible for providing hospitals with personal protective equipment but have often only provided one size of N95 mask, leaving young female health workers particularly vulnerable. As of Monday, about 14 percent of Victoria's active cases of COVID-19 were healthcare workers.

UNITED STATES

California declares emergency over fires

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency to mobilize resources to fight wildfires burning across the state. Newsom noted in a proclamation that there are hundreds of fires actively burning during the extreme weather conditions throughout California, and they had scorched tens of thousands of hectares. As the other US Western states were all struggling with the wildfires, it is increasingly difficult for authorities to obtain the necessary in-state and out-of-state firefighting resources to respond to the aggressive wildfires, the proclamation said, adding extremely high temperatures and dry conditions were expected to continue and exacerbate the fire threat in California.

MIDDLE EAST

Gaza's power plant shuts amid tensions

Gaza's sole power plant shut down on Tuesday, leaving the territory's 2 million residents with only around four hours of electricity a day after Israel cut off fuel supplies in response to incendiary balloons launched by Palestinian militants. Tensions have risen in recent weeks between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007. The balloons, launched across the frontier by Hamas-affiliated groups, have set farmland ablaze, prompting retaliatory strikes by Israel.

Xinhua - Agencies