ITALY
Venice’s waters turn green
The waters in Venice’s main canal on Sunday turned fluorescent green in the area near the Rialto bridge and authorities are seeking to trace the cause, the fire department said. The regional environmental protection agency has received samples of the altered waters and is working to identify the substance that changed their color, the department said on Twitter. The Venice prefect has called an emergency meeting of police forces to understand what happened and study possible countermeasures, ANSA news agency reported. The incident echoes recent episodes in the nation where environmental groups have been coloring monuments, including using vegetable charcoal to turn the waters of Rome’s Trevi Fountain black in a protest against fossil fuels. However, no activist group has come forward to claim responsibility for what happened in Venice.
LIBYA
Drone strikes kill two
A lawmaker said drone strikes killed at least two people and wounded others, including his nephew, days after he accused the Tripoli-based government of targeting his home. The strikes near the city of Zawiya were part of an operation that the authorities said was targeting smuggling networks, but lawmakers in the nation’s eastern-based parliament accused the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) of hitting the home of Zawiya MP Ali Bouzribah. Al-Ahrar channel on Sunday broadcast a video of a boat on fire at the port with a thick column of black smoke rising from it. Bouzribah said on Facebook that his nephew had been injured and two other men killed in the strikes. Images and video circulated on social media of both those killed and the lawmaker’s injured nephew in a hospital bed.
MALAYSIA
Salvage ship detained
The Maritime Enforcement Agency (MEA) yesterday said cannon shells believed to be from World War II have been found on a China-registered bulk carrier ship detained at the weekend for anchoring in its waters without permission. The discovery comes amid reports this month that scavengers have targeted two UK World War II wrecks off the coast of Malaysia — the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse — which were sunk by Japanese torpedoes in 1941. The British National Museum of the Royal Navy last week said it was “distressed and concerned at the apparent vandalism for personal profit” of the two wrecks. A ship registered in Fuzhou, China, carrying 32 crew failed to present anchoring permits during a routine inspection in waters off Johor state on Sunday, the MEA said, adding that it was working with the National Heritage Department and other agencies to identify the ammunition found.
ITALY
Four die in Lake Maggiore
Four people died when a boat carrying tourists overturned on Lake Maggiore in strong winds, the fire brigade said yesterday. The boat tipped over on Sunday off Lisanza, at the southern end of the lake after the weather suddenly turned stormy. “The bodies of four people have been recovered,” fire brigade spokesman Luca Cari said. Lombardy President Attilio Fontana, said a “whirlwind” had caused the 16m-long boat to overturn. About 20 survivors were rescued by passing boats or swam to shore, local media said. The boat had been carrying local and foreign tourist, and it sank quickly, taking one of the victims with it, reports said. A firefighters’ video showed a search-and-rescue helicopter flying over choppy waters, where chairs and other debris could be seen floating.
FRANCE
Migrants rescued from sea
The country rescued 63 migrants from the Channel over the weekend as they tried to reach Britain in makeshift boats, maritime authorities said on Sunday. The country’s Channel rescue center coordinated two rescue operations in the waters of the Pas-de-Calais region from Saturday night. A boat “having lost its engine in the water” was rescued off the Pas-de-Calais region by a vessel belonging to the National Society for Sea Rescue, which brought 46 people ashore, the maritime authorities said in a statement. Meanwhile, a support ship chartered by the state last month to reinforce search-and-rescue operations picked up 17 shipwrecked on board a second boat off Oye-Plage in the north.
CANADA
Halifax declares emergency
The eastern city of Halifax declared a state of local emergency late on Sunday after a wildfire caused evacuations and power outages. “Emergency responders are working around the clock to keep people safe and reduce the threats posed by the fires,” the municipal authority in the capital of Nova Scotia province said in a news release. The fire sent a huge pall of smoke over the port city. The state of emergency would be in effect for seven days, unless lifted or extended, the municipality said. Nova Scotia Power had temporarily disconnected power in the affected area, it said on Twitter.
UNITED STATES
Shooting suspect arrested
A suspect has been arrested in connection with five separate shootings in the Phoenix metro area that left four people dead and a woman wounded, authorities said on Sunday. Mesa police said 20-year-old Iren Byers was taken into custody on suspicion of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder. A motive for the shootings was not immediately clear, but police said Byers took responsibility for the shootings, and told officers where they could find the clothes and gun used in the crimes. Police said video surveillance footage showed the suspect wearing the clothing reported by witnesses at multiple shooting scenes. Police said officers were dispatched at about 10:30pm on Friday to a Mesa park and found a 41-year-old man dead at the scene. While still at the park, police reported hearing shots being fired nearby and searched the area and later found a 36-year-old woman with serious injuries. She remains in stable condition at a hospital.
UNITED STATES
Texas bill prompts concerns
Texas would expand what is considered an illegal public performance of sexual conduct, under a bill approved late on Sunday by state lawmakers that drag artists fear would be used to criminalize their shows. The bill approved by the Republican-controlled state legislature is part of a broader effort in Texas and other conservative states to crack down on drag shows and limit LGBTQ rights. Texas earlier this month became the largest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors, and state lawmakers also approved another measure that would restrict transgender athletes in college sports. The Texas bill on sexual content in performances was initially meant to bar children from attending drag shows. It was changed to remove specific references to drag shows, but it also broadened the scope of what would be illegal. The bill would ban real or simulated groping, real or simulated arousal and display of a sex toy, if done in a “prurient” manner in front of a minor or on public property.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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