AZERBAIJAN
Protesters seek road access
Thousands rallied yesterday in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, demanding that Baku reopen the enclave’s sole land link with Armenia. About 6,000 people gathered at the central square of Karabakh’s main city, Stepanakert, after Baku closed the road to Armenia. “We ask to ensure unimpeded movement, transportation of people and cargo along the corridor connecting Artsakh with Armenia,” said Gurgen Nersisyan, a state minister in the separatist government said on Thursday, using the Armenian name for the region. “The situation is terrible, in a few days we will have irreversible consequences.”
JAPAN
Rocket engine explodes
A rocket engine exploded during a test yesterday, an official said, in the latest blow to the country’s space agency. The Epsilon S — an improved version of the Epsilon rocket that failed to launch in October last year — blew up “roughly 50 seconds after ignition,” Ministry of Science and Technology official Naoya Takegami told reporters. “So far we have received no reports of injuries” from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which was investigating the cause of the explosion, Takegami said.
CHINA
Former teacher executed
A former kindergarten teacher was executed in central China this week after killing one child and injuring 24 others by poisoning their porridge with sodium nitrite four years ago, state media reported yesterday. Wang Yun (王雲), 39, had unsuccessfully appealed the sentence, initially handed down in September 2020 by the Jiaozuo City Intermediate People’s Court in Henan Province. On Thursday, the same court verified Wang’s identity, escorted her to the execution ground and carried out the death sentence, a court statement said. In March 2019, Wang purchased sodium nitrite after being involved in a dispute with a fellow teacher. The next morning at the kindergarten she added some of the chemical compound into the children’s “eight treasures porridge,” the court said. In January 2020, one of the children died of multiple organ failure caused by the poisoning.
UNITED STATES
Man catches 6m python
A Florida man caught a nearly 6m Burmese python, believed to be a record for the state. Jake Waleri, 22, nabbed the snake on Monday at Big Cypress National Preserve while out hunting for the invasive species. Waleri is seen in a video grabbing the snake by the tail at the side of a road. The snake then lunges for Waleri and tries to bite him as he grabs it by the neck. They wrestle for a while on the ground, until a friend helps Waleri subdue the creature, which weighed 56.6kg. Waleri took the snake to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples. The organization measured and weighed the beast, and declared it a record for Florida. The state pays hunters to catch and kill such snakes to protect the local ecosystem.
UNITED STATES
Cocaine case closed
No fingerprints or DNA turned up on a baggie of cocaine found at the White House last week despite a FBI analysis, while surveillance footage of the area did not identify a suspect, a summary of a Secret Service investigation said. There were no leads on who brought the drugs into the building, it said. “Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered,” it said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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