NORTH KOREA
US, SK accused of spying
Pyongyang yesterday accused the US and South Korea of conducting more aerial espionage around the Korean Peninsula, saying it would take “immediate action” if its sovereignty was breached. The US has deployed dozens of military planes “in air espionage against the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] from May 13 to 24,” Vice Minister of Defense Kim Kang-il said in a statement, referring to his country by its official name. The espionage activities observed over the 12-day time frame were “at a level beyond the wartime situation,” he said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. He also lashed out at the South Korean navy for what he called “enemy intrusion across our maritime border.”
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Landslide death toll spikes
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) yesterday increased its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide to more than 670. Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the IOM Mission in Papua New Guinea, said the revised death toll was based on calculations by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials that more than 150 homes had been buried by Friday’s landslide. “They are estimating that more than 670 people [are] under the soil at the moment,” Aktoprak said.
BANGLADESH
Thousands flee cyclone
Tens of thousands of people yesterday left their coastal villages for concrete storm shelters further inland as the low-lying nation prepared for the expected landfall of an intense cyclone, officials said. Cyclone Remal is set to hit the country and parts of neighboring India between 6pm and midnight, with the Meteorological Department predicting crashing waves and howling gales with gusts of up to 130kph. “Our plan is to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from unsafe and vulnerable homes to the cyclone shelters,” Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief Kamrul Hasan said.
THE NETHERLANDS
Nicki Minaj detained
A concert by US rapper Nicki Minaj in England was called off at the last minute on Saturday night, after the superstar was detained at Amsterdam’s main airport on suspicion of possessing “soft drugs.” The artist was due to perform in Manchester on Saturday, but wrote on X that authorities “said they found weed” in her luggage before briefly taking her into custody. Minaj said the “pre-rolls” belonged to her security guard and that her bags had been searched “without consent.” Police said that they had detained a 41-year-old American woman on suspicion of trying to export soft drugs. Military police spokesman Robert Kapel later said that the suspect had been released after the payment of a “reasonable” fine. Transporting drugs from the Netherlands to another country is illegal.
UNITED STATES
Richard Sherman dies
Richard Sherman, 95, a man behind famed Disney songs that delighted generations, such as It’s a Small World (After all) and Mary Poppins’ songs Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Chim Chim Cher-ee and Spoon full of Sugar died on Saturday, the Walt Disney Co announced on its Web site. He passed at a Beverly Hills California, hospital. The cause was only listed as an “age-related illness,” a Disney obituary said. Sherman was one half of the famed songwriting team “the Sherman Brothers” along with his late brother Robert Sherman, and was regarded as part of Walt Disney’s inner creative circle.
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
‘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
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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