UNITED STATES
NRA sues to block bill
Soon after Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a school-safety bill that puts new restrictions on guns, the National Rifle Association (NRA) filed a federal lawsuit to block it. Three weeks of pressure from relatives and students slain in the in the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, school massacre provided momentum for the legislation. The governor said the bill balances individual rights with need for public safety. The new law raises the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, extends a three-day waiting period to include long guns and bans bump stocks. The NRA said the age limit is unfair to law abiding 18-to-20-year-olds.
UNITED STATES
Breadfruit whiskey distilled
A Virginia distillery is seeking approval to become the first commercial distiller of whiskey made from breadfruit. The company hopes using the tropical food will help the economy of hurricane-devastated St Croix. The Virginian-Pilot said Chesapeake Bay Distillery owner Chris Richeson last month completed the distillation process using breadfruit and is awaiting government approval for labeling to sell it. He said a former Virginia chef who is now a restaurateur in the Virgin Islands, Todd Manley, contacted him about crafting the spirit. Breadfruit is a food staple in the Caribbean that has been touted as a “superfood.” Richeson said the whiskey raises the profile of breadfruit and provides “value-added agricultural products for St Croix.”
MEXICO
Hippo ‘Tyson’ roams loose
Authorities said they are worried about a hippopotamus that is roaming loose in a swampy area of southern Mexico. Nobody knows where the animal came from, but hippos are not native to the country. The hippo appears to have been living in a pair of ponds near Las Chopas, Veracruz. The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said that experts are looking for the best way to trap and move the three-year-old, 600kg mammal. The hippo was first spotted by local media near a garbage dump in January. Residents of the town have come to love the animal so much they have nicknamed it “Tyson.”
UNITED STATES
Horse spooked on dance floor
Florida partiers who packed a Miami Beach nightclub on Thursday night were keen to see an actual party animal — a snow-white horse complete with a half-naked model as its rider. However, in events apparently unforeseen, the horse became spooked on the dance floor, throwing off its rider and making a break for it as partygoers screamed in fear. Mokai Lounge in South Beach is now saddled with a police investigation — and the wrath of social media users. The bar’s page on reviewing site Yelp has been shut down following a flood of posts outraged over the horsing around.
UNITED STATES
Doctor jailed over kickbacks
Jerrold Rosenberg, a doctor who admitted he accepted financial kickbacks for prescribing a highly addictive opioid spray was on Friday sentenced to 51 months in prison. Prosecutors said the Rosenberg bullied patients who complained about the effects of the fentanyl spray Subsys, telling one to “stop crying, you’re acting like a child.” He received US$188,000 in kickbacks. Two patients survived after overdosing. Rosenberg’s lawyer disputes the number of people hurt and said there is no evidence the overdoses were caused by Rosenberg’s prescriptions.
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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