The United States has Air Force One, a plane that can refuel in midair and act as a presidential command center.
New Zealand has Betty, an aging Boeing 757 that officials on Monday acknowledged was so prone to breakdowns they had sent an empty backup to ensure Prime Minister Chris Hipkins didn't get stranded in China, where he is leading a trade delegation.
Officials were quick to point out they had sent the plane's twin only as far as Manila, about 80% of the distance from Wellington to Beijing.
Back in New Zealand, acting Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni was left to explain.
“If we didn’t have a backup plan and something did happen, and of course we hope it won’t, then not only would they be stranded in China, but the cost that that would incur — in terms of accommodation and trying to, at the last minute, organize some kind of plan to get them back — would outweigh having a backup aircraft waiting somewhere just in case,” she said.
The twin Royal New Zealand Air Force planes that transport the prime minister are about 30 years old and are due to be replaced by 2030. Over the years, they have regularly broken down. In 2016, then Prime Minister John Key was on his way to India with a delegation when they got stuck in Australia until a backup plane was sent from New Zealand. Key was forced to cancel the Mumbai leg of his trip, a situation he described as “suboptimal.”
Sepuloni said she didn't think the plane, which is sometimes affectionately called Betty, posed a physical danger to Hipkins and the 80 people traveling with him.
“My understanding is there hasn’t been any event midair, or whilst in transit, that should cause any concern,” she said.
Political rivals were quick to jump on the situation.
“This government declared a climate emergency and says we need to deal seriously with China,” said David Seymour, leader of the opposition ACT party. “This one gesture has made a joke of both the government's climate emergency and its will to be taken seriously by a country that has an expanding blue-water navy in our backyard.”
Sepuloni acknowledged the situation wasn't OK.
“We recognize, yes, our kit needs to be updated," Sepuloni said. "And so there’s a plan in place for doing that. We’re just not at the point where that’s happening right now.”
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
