CHINA
Tianjin building fire kills 10
Ten people were killed yesterday morning in a fire that broke out in a residential building in northern Tianjin, local authorities said. Flames tore through the 38th floor of the apartment building, leaving 10 people dead and five people hospitalized with minor injuries, the city government said in a statement on social media. An unknown number of “responsible personnel” are in custody while the cause of the fire is being investigated, the statement said. A “rigorous probe” is to be conducted to find “hidden dangers” that could cause fires, it added. An area of about 300m2 was damaged, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local fire department.
CHINA
Man repaints lines on road
A man fed up with sitting in traffic during his daily bus commute came up with a brazen way of solving the problem — repainting the lines on the road. The man, identified only by his surname, Cai (蔡), was seen in surveillance footage painting his own arrows at a junction in eastern Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, to redirect the traffic as cars maneuver past him, regional newspaper Modern Express said. Police fined the 28-year-old 1,000 yuan (US$151.42) after he was spotted crouching in the middle of the busy road with a can of white paint, the newspaper said. “I take the bus to go home after work every day, passing by that place,” Cai said in what appears to be a police video obtained and published by the newspaper. “The traffic jam there is always pretty bad, but I saw there are only a few cars in the lane that turns left, so I just want to expand one driving lane by adding one straight arrow.” Authorities later ordered maintenance workers to remove Cai’s handiwork from the road, but police released him after fining him.
JAPAN
Explosion kills at least one
At least one worker was killed and 11 injured in an explosion and fire that broke out yesterday at a chemical factory just a few kilometers from Mount Fuji. Residents living within 100m of the factory were ordered to evacuate as 17 fire engines and nearly 60 firefighters battled the blaze. Plumes of thick black smoke billowed into the sky from the factory belonging to Arakawa Chemical Industries, which manufactures chemicals for the paper industry. “A 64-year-old worker, who had earlier been missing, was found dead,” Fuji fire service official Takahiro Suzuki told reporters. Eleven other workers were hurt, three seriously, he said, updating an earlier announcement that 14 people had been injured. The casualties were all male and aged in their 20s to 60s. Officials said it was not immediately clear exactly what was burning, but the factory operator denied risks of potential contamination or pollution.
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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