INDONESIA
Clouds seeded amid flooding
Authorities yesterday seeded clouds, trying to prevent further rain and flash floods after deluges that hit Sumatra Island over the weekend left at least 58 people dead and another 35 missing. Monsoon rains triggered a landslide of mud and cold lava from Mount Marapi, causing rivers to breach their banks. The deluge tore through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday. Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency head Dwikorita Karnawati said that more downpours were forecast. Karnawati said that an air force plane was sent up to shoot salt flares into the clouds in an attempt to get the clouds to release water and break up before they reach the devastated areas, a technique known as cloud seeding. Three rounds of cloud seeding were conducted, Karnawati said, adding that more would take place as needed.
HONG KONG
YouTube blocks song
YouTube has blocked access to videos of a protest song in the territory, days after a court approved an injunction banning the song. Glory to Hong Kong was an anthem of protests in 2019. YouTube said that it would comply with a removal order and block access to more than 32 videos of the song that were deemed to be “prohibited publications” under the injunction. Attempts to access the YouTube videos from the territory yesterday showed that they were unavailable. A message showed saying that “This content is not available on this country domain due to a court order.”
ITALY
‘Mona Lisa’ linked to Lecco
More than 500 years after Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, an academic believes she has unraveled the mystery about its backdrop. Geologist and Italian Renaissance specialist Ann Pizzorusso said she has pinpointed the location depicted in the scene to Lecco. “When I came to Lecco, I realized he had painted the Mona Lisa here,” Pizzorusso said, speaking of the small town on the shores of Lake Como. The arched bridge depicted in the painting would correspond to the 14th-century Ponte Azzone Visconti, even though previous theories had related it to similar structures in other Italian cities, such as Arezzo and Bobbio. Pizzorusso cites her knowledge of geology to back her claim. “The bridge to me was not the important aspect of painting,” Pizzorusso said. “In the other hypotheses the geology was just incorrect.” Rock formations in Lecco were limestone, which matched what is depicted behind the noblewoman, she said. “When you look at the Mona Lisa, you see this part of the Adda River and you see another lake behind it, which are perfectly shown underneath these sawtooth mountains,” she said from the spot where the scene could have been painted.
UNITED STATES
Sun produces big flare
The sun yesterday produced its biggest flare in nearly two decades, just days after severe solar storms pummeled Earth and created dazzling northern lights in unaccustomed places. “Not done yet,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. It is the biggest flare of this 11-year solar cycle, which is approaching its peak, the agency said. However, Earth should be out of the line of fire this time because the flare erupted on a part of the sun rotating away from it. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flash of the X-ray flare. It was the strongest since 2005, rated as an X8.7 event.
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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