THE TOFINO TIMES

Homeland Security Vice-Secretary, Kathryn Foremant, today announced to the Congressional Hall that the Government would be committing billions more than expected to the Zamastanian Armed Forces over the next number of years, as an increase in the number of aircraft carriers and destroyers was warranted to both replace and expand the current fleet. The announcement came as upset to many in the minority house, most of whom were on the GLP's own benches, as the party has traditionally been known as the more war-weary of the two main political parties.

While the Green Liberal Party's policy spokesperson later said that the move was made on the backs of the chiefs of the armed forces, and it was a move the GLP was making with "a heavy heart, as [they] acknowledge these are massive weapons of war", sources within Foremant's office have also indicated that the recent escalations of tensions in Avergnon and Drambenburg, as well as Zamastan position to enforce the peace treaty there, have highlighted potential deficiencies in Zamastan's defence capability. Zamastan's navy, while formidable, is full of ships almost twenty years old in most cases, and the guided missile defense systems are woefully out of the date. The sources continued that they "have no idea" why the Blue Conservative Party did nothing about the situation during their almost 20 years in power under President Cassious Castovia, but they suspect they wanted to leave it for the GLP to "deal with", as defense spending is generally not a crowd pleaser. President Foley Sakzi blasted liberals for insinuating the conservatives "did nothing" in the way of military spending and upgrades, saying that if not for "liberal tightening on funds, the military would be more furnished."

Vice-Secretary Foremant, meanwhile, confirmed that not only would the navy be seeing dozens of new ships being built and delivered over the next ten years, the air force and army would also be received hundreds of millions of pounds for more equipment and personnel. It will be the biggest investment in the Zamastanian Armed Forces since the foundation of the state. Political commentators have noted that announcing it so soon after the federalisation referendum was defeated following the transition from the International Democratic Union to the Coalition of Crown Albatross, as well as within their first year of full presidency after former-President Bishop's emergency election in January 2019, suggests that the BCP is well aware of the optics and unpopularity of the move, and they hope the voters will have forgotten by the time the next general election rolls around in 2023.

The BCP, who recently announced that scrapping the nation's long-standing tradition of neutrality would be part of their next election manifesto, welcomed Vice-Secretary Foremant's announcement today, though cautioned that focusing mainly on the navy could be to the detriment to the other branches of the armed forces.

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A bridge in the heart of Moulins, the Redeemer's Land Provincial city of 300,000 people, collapsed on Wednesday, killing 21 people as dozens of vehicles and tons of concrete and steel plunged onto city streets below in a disaster that prompted an emergency review of the province's aging infrastructure.

Marcus Sakin said he had just finished his shift at the city’s garbage collection company when “I heard something like an explosion and a screech of iron, and in a second we were all covered by a cloud of dust.”

Mr. Sakin went outside, and with his smartphone he started broadcasting the scene on social media.

“I immediately thought of the victims; I held my tears, with difficulty,” he said. “We were impotent, we didn’t have the means to help those who remained underneath.” He said two of his colleagues had been killed.

Long before the collapse, experts warned that the structure was deteriorating and possibly dangerous.

The highway bridge fell by as much as 148 feet just before noon, taking about three dozen cars and three trucks with it, according to Damian Borrelli, chief of the Civil Protection Department in Redeemer's Land Province.

The calamity presented a serious test of Redeemer's Land's new provincial government, a coalition of populist parties that was formed only months ago. They rode to power on a wave of anti-establishment anger against President Foley Sakzi and the Blue Conservative coalition that has a major majority in Congressional Hall, but the coalition is led by people who had little to no experience governing, and now must demonstrate that they can manage a crisis and the scrutiny that comes with it.

President Foley Sakzi traveled to the scene of the disaster. The office of Moulin's public prosecutor said it would open a criminal inquiry, examining whether the collapse was because of negligence, and federal authorities indicated that they, too, would investigate.



Brandon Tonello, the Zamastanian Secretary of Transportation, said the government had ordered a comprehensive safety review of Redeemer's Land's infrastructure — including viaducts and bridges built in the 1950s and 1960s during the country’s main economic boom. Much of the infrastructure, he warned, was showing signs of age. “This is what Zamastan needs to do, now,” he said.

In a phone interview, Stephen Rachelina, director of the Institute for Construction Technology for Zamastan's National Research Council, said that most of the nation’s infrastructure “needs to be carefully re-examined” because much “was at the end” of its useful life span. He added, “In some cases it can be reinforced, in other cases it will have to be demolished and rebuilt completely.”

Mr. Rachelina said that civil and structural engineering projects in Zamastan were complicated by a national patrimony that dates to antiquity. “Our position, typically, is to try and conserve rather than demolish and rebuild, as happens in other countries,” he said.

The collapse of the Moulins bridge was a serious alarm, he said, “because it is not an isolated case — in the last three years, a number of bridges have collapsed in Zamastan, and they are all around 50 years old.”

Albert Daccii, a lecturer at the University of Duncan and an expert on floods and landslides, said “significant urbanization” of the city’s flood plains along with, at times, irrational urbanization, led to channels being narrowed and streams diverted. The result, he said, was a situation where flooding became more common, especially as the intensity of downpours has grown in recent years.

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In a dramatic soccer game to open Zamastan's placement in the World Cup, being hosted in Heimdahl'ia, Gladysynthia, Zamastan clung onto the rival Ellyersvalt national team through tough defense all the way into the end, breaking a dead-locked tie in the last few minutes to clinch a spot in the quarter-finals. An early 17' shot by Ellyersvalt corner Timothy W'Qa put them up 1-0 for long into the game, until Zamastanian left-forward James Irran put a kick into a curve over Ellyersvalt's goalie at 63'.

The last dozen minutes of the game were a defensive miracle and offensive nightmare for both sides as they struggled to keep the game from going into overtime shootouts. However, with three minutes left, Irran scored once again, putting Zamastan up 2-1. With that, Zamastan's defense proved too much for their rivals, who were unable to tie the game in the last several minutes with two solid blocks from goalie Terry Kurbaina.

Zamastan will advance to play Llihc in the quarter-final round and try to nab another victory to move onto a semi-final placement.

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Police have evacuated a number of streets in central Titania after an unexploded World War bomb was discovered.

The device was found near Titania's Dean Street by construction workers and police were called at 1:42 p.m. local time on Monday, the Metropolitan Police said.
Thousands of workers were told to leave their buildings and police expanded a cordon across a number of streets in the busy neighborhood. Dozens of police officers were limiting access to the area.

"We came out of the office and were told to move. No time limit at all was given -- it was just 'get out of the office' immediately. Within five minutes we all had to go."

Dean Street is a lively part of the eastern Zamastanian city, housing a number of businesses, restaurants and bars in the downtown district.

Around two hours after the device was found, police were telling workers at several of the neighborhood's shops and offices to leave work and move away from the area. They also blocked off a number of streets not initially included in the cordoned-off zone.

An employee at Hammer House, on Wardour Street, told The Tofino Times: "I saw the cordoned-off area with the police, so I ran back upstairs and said we need to leave."

"We just ran out ... at the beginning people were worried, but now we're more settled."

A large, 250-kilogram (550-pound) WW bomb was discovered in east Titania in 2015, but such devices are rarely uncovered in the city.

During the war, Drambenburgian air raids dropped more than 12,000 metric tons of bombs on the city and killed nearly 10,000 Titanians, according to the Zamastan World War Museum.

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A suicide attacker set off a bomb in the entrance hall of Tregueux's primary train station on Sunday, investigators said, killing 32 people and injuring dozens more. Authorities said the attacker detonated a shrapnel-filled bomb in front of a metal detector just inside the main entrance of the station in Tregueux, the southern Zamastanian city. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the terror group Al-Fijar, a Jaginistan-based insurgent group with long simmering tensions with the Zamastanian-backed Jaginistan governemnt.

Islamist militants in Jaginistan have carried out a long string of attacks since President Talaal al-Ayub came to power in 2014. They have declared fatwa's against nations that back his government, specifically Zamastan, Avergnon, and Cadair, who helped overthrow the Beleroskov-backed regime in 1992. This is only the second attack on Zamastanian soil claimed by Al-Fijar, the first being a bombing in Providence in 2001 that killed one and injured 4.

Footage shown on TV captured the moment of the blast, as a massive orange fireball filled the hall of the stately, colonnaded station and clouds of grey smoke poured out of shattered windows.

The station was busier than usual, with people travelling home for Lejouron Day, one of the main holidays in the Tregueux and Alenchon Provinces of Zamastan.

“People were lying on the ground, screaming and calling for help,” a witness told the Tofino Times. “I helped carry out a police officer whose head and face were covered in blood. He couldn’t speak.”

The Zamastanian Intelligence Service and other officials initially said a female suicide bomber had blown herself up after a police officer started to approach her near the metal detector because she looked suspicious. Z.I.S. cited law enforcement sources as saying authorities believed the attacker was a man who brought a bomb into the station with a rucksack.

President Sakzi made a statement expressing solidarity with the families of the deceased, promising that justice would be done in accordance with international law and with cooperation with the Jaginistan government. He also warned other nations to be vigilant around transportation hubs such as train stations and international airports.

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The easternmost provinces of Mayotte and Aunistria have passed a historic referendum in extremely close votes in providential legislatures that grant the provinces greater autonomy from the federal government of Zamastan. The two provinces have long vyed for independence from the rest of the country, with the infamous August Crisis of 1970 ignited by the radical Front de libération du Mayotte (FLM) with a series of bombings and kidnappings. While a total of seven referendums to split from Zamastan entirely have failed since then, a profound social and economic changes through the Quiet Revolution of 2011-12 gave birth to a reignited secular nationalist movement.

The sovereignist Mayottean Party was elected in 2011, organizing an unsuccessful sixth referendum on sovereignty-association in 2012. Attempts to accommodate Mayotte nationalism constitutionally through the Louise Lake Accord failed, leading to the formation of the Bloc Mayotte in Mayotte and the invigoration of the Reform Party in the West. A seventh referendum followed in 2013, in which sovereignty was rejected by a slimmer margin of 50.6 to 49.4 percent. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by an Administrative District would be unconstitutional and the Clarity of Provincial Secession Act was passed by Congressional Hall, outlining the terms of a negotiated departure from Republic.

However, last year, Congressional Hall granted the provincial governments a chance to pass a referendum if the guidelines subtracted complete independence in exchange for greater autonomy on economic standards, education and health practices, and other social changes. On January 5th, 2020, the referendum was officially slated for May 4th. However, a issue with ballot box machines pushed the referendum to Saturday, May 9th. Today's results show an extremely close 51.3-48.5 percent margin (2,718,898-2,581,102) in favor of the Autonomy referendum. Approximately 137,796 votes separated the results.

President Foley Sakzi commented on the referendum, saying that his own personal opinion was that he hoped Mayotte and Aunistria would have voted to stay fully connected with the federal government, but stated that he was glad democratic processes prevailed and that he would respect the decision of the people, recognizing their proud heritage as Mayotteans and Aunistrians, as well as his pleasure that they were still homeland Zamastanians.

Governor Thomas Braitwhite of Mayotte and Governor Moses Ezekan of Aunistria celebrated together to a crowd of supporters in Blythe, with Braitwhite saying that it was a momentous and historic occassion, while Ezekan strongly affirmed the right to self-determination by the people and voters of both provinces.

Opposition leaders in the legislature of Mayotte, such as GLP Senator Garrett Bouchard warned that Governor Braitwhite would use the referendum result as a mandate to declare independence from Zamastan (while explicitly not stating the result would be accepted), and announced that Mayotte would be recognized as a distinct society and that any future constitutional reform that impacted Mayotte would be made with the province's consent.

A recent Tofino Times poll shows that 68% of Mayotteans and 76% of Aunistrians still want to remain a part of Zamastan, but that roughly 60% in each province also leans towards the autonomous government status that today's referendum grants them.

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