CANADA
Parliament speaker resigns
Anthony Rota resigned as parliament speaker on Tuesday, days after publicly celebrating a Ukrainian veteran who fought for the Nazis during World War II. During a visit to parliament by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, Rota hailed an elderly Ukrainian immigrant named Yaroslav Hunka from his district as a hero, prompting a standing ovation. However, it was later revealed that the veteran had served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. “It is with a heavy heart that I rise to inform members of my resignation as speaker of the House of Commons,” Rota said on the parliamentary floor. He expressed his “profound regret for my error” and the pain he caused to Jewish communities.
UNITED STATES
Asteroid canister opened
NASA scientists on Tuesday pried open a space probe carrying the largest asteroid samples ever brought back to Earth, finding black debris. Researchers “found black dust and debris on the avionics deck of the Osiris-Rex science canister when the initial lid was removed today,” NASA said, without specifying whether the material definitely belonged to the asteroid. The bulk of the sample requires “intricate disassembly” of the probe. Osiris-Rex launched in 2016, landing on the asteroid Bennu and collected about 250g of material from its surface.
UNITED STATES
Mass thefts reported
Groups of teenagers on Tuesday swarmed into stores in Philadelphia’s Central City, stuffing plastic bags with merchandise and fleeing, although police made several arrests, authorities and witnesses said. An Apple Store was hit at about 8pm and police chased fleeing teenagers, recovering dropped iPhones and a “pile of iPads” at one spot, a police statement said. More than 100 people looted a Lululemon store, NBC10 Philadelphia reported, citing a police officer. Video posted on social media showed masked people in hoodies running out of Lululemon and police officers grabbing several and tackling them to the sidewalk, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. A security guard was assaulted at a Foot Locker store, it reported. The thefts occurred on the same day that Target announced it would close nine stores in four states, including one in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood, and three in the San Francisco Bay Area, saying that theft and organized retail crime have threatened the safety of its workers and customers.
BRAZIL
Organ flight succeeds
Firefighters said they took a helicopter to the top of a mountain in Rio de Janeiro state this month to tell Ricardo Medeiros de Oliveira that they had found him a much-awaited new kidney. Oliveira, a 48-year-old tourist guide who has been waiting for a transplant for nine years, was hiking in a remote mountain area when he received a notification informing him that there was a compatible organ for him, but without immediate communication with Oliveira, firefighters decided to pick him up directly. “He would have lost this organ if he had not gotten to the hospital in time,” firefighter spokesperson Major Fabio Contreiras said. Oliveira arrived in time to the hospital and his surgery succeeded. “It was a huge mix of emotions, I didn’t know whether to laugh, whether to cry, whether to believe,” Oliveira said. That was “the greatest adventure of my life.”
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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