INDONESIA
Mount Ruang erupts
A volcano erupted several times in North Sulawesi Province, forcing hundreds of people to be evacuated after it spewed lava and a column of smoke into the sky. Mount Ruang, a stratovolcano, first erupted at 9:45pm on Tuesday and twice again in the early hours of yesterday, the country’s volcanology and geological agencies said. There were no reports of any deaths or injuries, but more than 800 people were evacuated from two villages on Ruang Island to the nearby island of Tagulandang, state news agency Antara reported. The first eruption pushed an ash column 2km into the sky, with the second eruption pushing it to 2.5km, said Muhammad Wafid, the head of the geological agency.
JAPAN
Snake delays train
Even small delays in Japan’s much-vaunted bullet trains are rare and more unusual still are snakes on board holding up shinkansen services. On Tuesday evening, a passenger alerted security to a 40cm serpent lurking on a train between Nagoya and Tokyo, resulting in a 17-minute hold-up. It was unclear whether the animal was venomous or how it ended up on the train, a spokesman for Central Japan Railway Co said. “It’s difficult to imagine wild snakes somehow climbing onto the train at one of the stations. We have rules against bringing snakes into the shinkansen, but we don’t check passengers’ baggage,” he said. The train was originally scheduled to go on to Osaka, but the company used a different train for the trip, causing a delay of about 17 minutes, he said.
UNITED STATES
Scooter shooters kill one
Four people were shot — one fatally — on a street corner in the Bronx, New York, on Tuesday evening by people riding on mopeds, police said. About 10 shots were fired after two scooters pulled up to the intersection after 6pm and passengers on the back of each pulled out guns, Assistant Police Chief Benjamin Gurley said. Three people standing on the street corner, ranging in age from 23 to 37, sustained gunshot wounds to their legs. The fourth, a 29-year-old man, was hit in the legs and chest and later died, Gurley said. “The perpetrators wore masks and hoodies to block their identities and then they fled on the scooters northbound,” Gurley said. One person was taken into custody for questioning on Tuesday, but Gurley said police were unsure if that person was involved in the shooting.
UNITED STATES
Bob Graham dies
Former senator and Florida governor Bob Graham, who gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, has died. He was 87. Graham’s family announced the death on Tuesday in a statement posted on X by his daughter Gwen Graham. “We are deeply saddened to report the passing of a visionary leader, dedicated public servant, and even more importantly, a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather,” the family wrote. Bob Graham served three terms in the Senate and made an unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, emphasizing his opposition to the invasion of Iraq following the Sept. 11 attacks. He perfected the “workdays” political gimmick of spending a day doing jobs from horse stall mucker to FBI agent, and kept a meticulous diary, noting almost everyone he spoke with, everything he ate and the TV shows he watched.
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
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
‘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
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