SPAIN
Five separatists detained
Five Catalan separatists, including presidential candidate Jordi Turull, were on Friday placed in custody by the judge investigating Catalonia’s breakaway bid, the Supreme Court said. The judge detained former Catalan parliament president Carme Forcadell and three former regional ministers alongside Turull, who would not be able to attend a debate yesterday on his nomination to lead the region. The judge decided that the five pose a flight risk, after Catalonian lawmaker Marta Rovira became the latest leading pro-independence figure to flee abroad to escape charges. The court said a total of 13 Catalan separatists would be prosecuted, including former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont. The latest detentions could stir new tensions in Catalonia, where pro-independence movements called for protests on Friday night.
UNITED KINGDOM
Bomber gets life sentence
A teenage Iraqi asylum seeker who told police that he had been trained by the Islamic State group has been sentenced to at least 34 years in prison for bombing a London subway train and injuring 51 people. A judge on Friday gave 18-year-old Ahmed Hassan a life sentence, with a requirement that he serve a minimum term of 34 years. A jury last week convicted Hassan of attempted murder in the attack in September last year. Judge Charles Haddon-Cave called Hassan “a dangerous and devious individual” and said he plotted the subway bombing with “ruthless determination” while pretending to be a model asylum seeker. The homemade bomb he placed on a packed London Underground train only partially detonated at Parsons Green station. Prosecutors said there probably would have been fatalities if the device had functioned properly.
UNITED NATIONS
Number of starving surges
The head of the World Food Programme on Friday said the number of people around the world in danger of dying unless they get food urgently surged to 124 million last year — mainly because “people won’t stop shooting at each other.” Executive Director David Beasley told the Security Council that almost 32 million of those acutely hungry people live in four conflict-wracked countries — Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and northeastern Nigeria. Globally, 60 percent of the 815 million chronically hungry people who do not know where their next meal is coming from live in conflict areas, he said. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said that according to the latest data, northeastern Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan still face the risk of famine.
UNITED STATES
Stamp honors Mister Rogers
It is a beautiful day to honor Mister Rogers with a postage stamp. The Postal Service has released a stamp featuring Fred Rogers, the gentle TV host who entertained and educated generations of preschoolers on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The “forever” stamp, which went on sale on Friday, pictures Rogers in his trademark cardigan along with King Friday, a character from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe sketch. Postal officials held a dedication ceremony at the studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Rogers filmed his beloved Public Broadcasting Service show, which aired between 1968 and 2001. Rogers died in 2003 at age 74. Among those attending the ceremony were Rogers’ widow, Joanne, and David Newell, who played Mr McFeely, the deliveryman on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
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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