The day died and was reborn a few minutes later on Monday in the southern US. There were hugs, tears and gasping as people watched the moon fully eclipse the sun and briefly plunge the world into darkness.
About 2,000 people flocked to Ingram, Texas, a small city in the “path of totality” where the solar eclipse could be observed in its entirety.
Spread on mattresses on the grass, sipping wine comfortably from folding chairs or peering into large telescopes, the viewers, their eyes covered by special protective glasses, celebrated each time the gray clouds parted, letting them enjoy the wonder.
Photo: AFP
“Three, two, one,” a man shouted, and there was the moon, a black orb completely covering the sun, with only tiny slivers of light escaping from the edges. It was 1:32pm.
Mary Elizabeth Fernandez, a 43-year-old librarian, said she traveled to Ingram because she wanted to observe the eclipse from Stonehenge II, a replica of the prehistoric stone monument the town is famous for.
“It was just so moving and spectacular. I tried to get pictures with my camera,” said Fernandez, who was accompanied by her boyfriend. “I cried a little bit because it’s just so beautiful and I’m just really glad that I was able to be a part of this with everybody here. It was really wonderful.”
A few meters away, a large family shared drinks and snacks.
Mary McClintock, a 77-year-old retired teacher, said her relatives converged on Ingram from three different states — California, Florida and Illinois.
“We were so happy to see the different stages that we got to see even though it was cloudy and we wanted to be together, and so we thought even if it’s cloudy, we’re happy to be here as a family and we’re going to enjoy every minute we have,” McClintock said.
Meanwhile, Jeni Lyn Hunter, 60, and her 57-year-old husband, Charles Guillory, gazed skyward, with large sorcerer’s hats balanced precariously on their heads.
“It means a lot to me because I have stage 4 cancer, but I’m not giving up, this is a rebirth of the sun of life,” Hunter said. “It’s the cycle between life and death and life again, and I’m going to live for him, and for me, and because I don’t want to go anywhere.”
Guillory was by his wife’s side.
“My hopes are for her to stay with me,” he said.
Further away, under the replicas of moai statues — the enormous stone human figures on Easter Island — Gary Christensen and his wife Elizabeth took photographs as they celebrated the husband’s 62nd birthday.
“For a year and a half, this is the only present we’ve given each other every Christmas, every Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthday: ‘Oh, we’re going to the eclipse,’” Elizabeth Christensen said.
Then there was Robb Guzman, 31, wearing a mask of a green extraterrestrial with large elongated eyes.
“I thought the aliens were going to come this time, but it was still fantastic,” he said.
More than 2,250km away at Niagara Falls in Canada, crowds of people observed the eclipse under the cries of gulls and the roar of the famous waterfall.
Debi Flamand, a member of the Manawan First Nations community, said witnessing a total solar eclipse “is very spiritual for us, because the sun for us is the grandfather and the moon is our grandmother.”
For several minutes, the skies above the waterfalls and Toronto’s distant silhouette grew dark as spectators shouted in excitement.
Madison, a young woman who made the trip from Boston, could not believe her eyes.
“Those things that feel so impossible in this vast universe and it is happening just here,” she said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to