PHILIPPINES
Meteor lights up Luzon
A small, bright meteor lit up skies over the nation’s north early yesterday as it burned up entering the atmosphere, the European Space Agency (ESA) and witnesses said. The 1m rock, named 2024 RW1, entered the atmosphere shortly after midnight and caused a “harmless,” but “spectacular fireball” over Luzon island, the ESA said. The meteor, discovered through the Catalina Sky Survey, is only the ninth meteor that humans have ever spotted before impact. Businessman Allan Madelar, 28, told reporters that he waited an hour in Gonzaga, a municipality in Luzon, to watch the meteor with a friend. “It was mesmerizing, the color was beautiful. The sky went from black to blue-green to orange and black again,” he said. Video clips posted on Facebook showed an orange-tailed fireball that briefly illuminated the night sky over Luzon. Audie de la Cruz, 65, set up a camera on a bridge in Tuguegarao city to photograph the celestial spectacle, but the fireball died out before he could press the shutter. “It was like a tadpole with a very big head, and its head was very bright,” De la Cruz told reporters. “I might have failed to photograph it, but seeing it was a very unforgettable experience.”
JAPAN
Fukushima work planned
The operator of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant yesterday said that it aims to carry out a trial removal of highly radioactive debris next week, after a previous attempt was suspended. Thirteen years after a tsunami wrecked the plant, about 880 tonnes of extremely hazardous material remain inside. Late last month, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) suspended a removal procedure after a technical problem involving the installation of equipment. “It will take several days for us to prepare for a resumption ... and we will be able to resume next week if all goes well as scheduled,” a TEPCO spokesman told reporters. In three units of the Fukushima plant, fuel and other material melted and solidified into highly radioactive “fuel debris.” The new operation aims to remove a sample of the debris and study it to decide on the next steps. TEPCO deployed two mini-drones and a “snake-shaped robot” inside in February as part of the preparations for removal. The debris has radiation levels so high that it had to develop specialized robots able to function inside.
INDIA
Police seek ‘cow vigilantes’
Police yesterday said that they were compiling lists of Hindu “cow vigilantes” after a young man falsely accused of smuggling beef was shot dead. The killing last month of 19-year-old Aryan Mishra in northern Haryana state has sparked unusual outrage — much of it because the young man was a Hindu. Cows are venerated as sacred by the country’s Hindu majority, and their slaughter is illegal in many Indian states. The authorities are often accused of failing to rein in people who form gangs of “cow vigilantes” to attack people accused of involvement in cattle slaughter — with several deaths reported each year. Many of those accused of transporting or killing cows are from the nation’s 220-million-strong Muslim community, with social media awash with videos boasting of vigilante attacks. Mishra was killed on a highway on Aug. 24 after an armed mob chased his car for 50km, believing he was transporting beef. Five people have been arrested in connection with the killing, and senior Haryana police officer Aman Yadav said the force was preparing a “list of cow vigilantes” to track their movements.
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
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