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.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
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