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.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home