INDONESIA
Clouds seeded amid flooding
Authorities yesterday seeded clouds, trying to prevent further rain and flash floods after deluges that hit Sumatra Island over the weekend left at least 58 people dead and another 35 missing. Monsoon rains triggered a landslide of mud and cold lava from Mount Marapi, causing rivers to breach their banks. The deluge tore through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday. Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency head Dwikorita Karnawati said that more downpours were forecast. Karnawati said that an air force plane was sent up to shoot salt flares into the clouds in an attempt to get the clouds to release water and break up before they reach the devastated areas, a technique known as cloud seeding. Three rounds of cloud seeding were conducted, Karnawati said, adding that more would take place as needed.
HONG KONG
YouTube blocks song
YouTube has blocked access to videos of a protest song in the territory, days after a court approved an injunction banning the song. Glory to Hong Kong was an anthem of protests in 2019. YouTube said that it would comply with a removal order and block access to more than 32 videos of the song that were deemed to be “prohibited publications” under the injunction. Attempts to access the YouTube videos from the territory yesterday showed that they were unavailable. A message showed saying that “This content is not available on this country domain due to a court order.”
ITALY
‘Mona Lisa’ linked to Lecco
More than 500 years after Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, an academic believes she has unraveled the mystery about its backdrop. Geologist and Italian Renaissance specialist Ann Pizzorusso said she has pinpointed the location depicted in the scene to Lecco. “When I came to Lecco, I realized he had painted the Mona Lisa here,” Pizzorusso said, speaking of the small town on the shores of Lake Como. The arched bridge depicted in the painting would correspond to the 14th-century Ponte Azzone Visconti, even though previous theories had related it to similar structures in other Italian cities, such as Arezzo and Bobbio. Pizzorusso cites her knowledge of geology to back her claim. “The bridge to me was not the important aspect of painting,” Pizzorusso said. “In the other hypotheses the geology was just incorrect.” Rock formations in Lecco were limestone, which matched what is depicted behind the noblewoman, she said. “When you look at the Mona Lisa, you see this part of the Adda River and you see another lake behind it, which are perfectly shown underneath these sawtooth mountains,” she said from the spot where the scene could have been painted.
UNITED STATES
Sun produces big flare
The sun yesterday produced its biggest flare in nearly two decades, just days after severe solar storms pummeled Earth and created dazzling northern lights in unaccustomed places. “Not done yet,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. It is the biggest flare of this 11-year solar cycle, which is approaching its peak, the agency said. However, Earth should be out of the line of fire this time because the flare erupted on a part of the sun rotating away from it. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flash of the X-ray flare. It was the strongest since 2005, rated as an X8.7 event.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant