UNITED KINGDOM
Scots want independence
Scottish voters would vote for independence from the UK, according to a poll by Michael Ashcroft, the first major published survey to show a lead for independence since March 2017. Asked how they would vote in an independence referendum, 46 percent said they would vote for independence and 43 percent against. Excluding those who said they did not know or would not vote, this amounted to a lead of 52 percent to 48 percent for an independent Scotland. “In the wake of [Prime Minister] Boris Johnson’s visit to Edinburgh last week I polled Scots to measure support for a second independence referendum and to gauge opinion on independence itself,” said Ashcroft, a Conservative who opposed Johnson’s leadership. “I found a small majority in favor of a new vote — and the first lead for an independent Scotland for more than two years,” he said.
EGYPT
Fiery car crash kills 19
At least 19 people were killed when a speeding car driving against traffic crashed into three others, causing a huge explosion in Cairo, the Ministry of Health said yesterday. The crash happened just before midnight on Sunday outside the National Cancer Institute and injured 30 people, the ministry added. Between “three and four [of the injured] are in critical condition in the intensive care unit,” ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed told a news conference, adding that they have “several burns of varying degrees.”Body parts were also retrieved from the scene, he said. The prosecutor general has ordered an investigation to determine the cause of the crash.
INDONESIA
Activist walking backwards
A man is walking backwards from his home in East Java Province to the capital, Jakarta, to raise awareness of deforestation in a country with one of the highest rates in the world. The more than 700km trek would be arduous enough under any circumstances, but Medi Bastoni is drawing attention to his campaign by doing it walking backwards. Bastoni, 43, started on July 18 from his village on Mount Wilis, a 2,500m volcano in East Java that has been affected by deforestation. He hopes to meet President Joko Widodo when he arrives in Jakarta later this month. “I hope the government will start to care about the environment ... so the young generation will care about our environment,” the father of four told Reuters TV. As he passed through the town of Sragen in central Java, residents looked on with amazement. “I think this is crazy and it’s something impossible, to walk such a long distance backwards,” said Ambyar, who uses one name. “But, he has a noble mission ... and we support him. We just hope he will arrive in Jakarta.”
AUSTRIA
No perfume, please: poll
Vienna subway travelers have decided that they do not want their train rides to be scented. The capital’s transport authority tried out four scents, including hints of green tea, grapefruit, sandalwood and melon, in the ventilation systems of four trains on two of the network’s five lines last month. It asked subway users to deliver their verdict online. The authority yesterday said that 21,000 people decided they would prefer to live without scent as they commute, while 16,000 supported extending the project. It said that the air quality in subway cars has already been improved by a ban on eating on trains that was introduced on all lines in January.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
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