JAPAN
West braces for floods
Nearly 200,000 people in western Japan were urged to evacuate yesterday as authorities warned of landslides and floods, while the remnants of Typhoon Kong-rey trickle over the country. The Japan Meteorological Agency said “warm, moist air ... was causing heavy rainfall with thunderstorms in western Japan” partly due to Kong-rey, which was downgraded to an extratropical low-pressure system. Matsuyama “issued the top-level warning, urging 189,552 residents in its 10 districts to evacuate and immediately secure safety,” a city official said. Forecasters said that landslides and floods could affect western Japan yesterday and eastern Japan today.
Photo: courtesy of Mark Longo via AP
UNITED STATES
Celebrity squirrel euthanized
A squirrel named Peanut who was propelled to the heights of Internet celebrity has been euthanized, New York authorities said on Friday, biting a government staffer on the way out. With 537,000 followers on Instagram, the domesticated black squirrel had fans around the world who delighted in his exploits, such as nibbling on waffles and doffing tiny costumes. New Yorker Mark Longo said he rescued the animal after seeing its mother killed by a car, going on to bottle feed the baby squirrel before attempting to release him into the wild. The animal lost part of its tail and returned to Longo, living with him for seven years and starring in posts on the Instagram account peanut_the_squirrel12. “Internet, you WON. You took one of the most amazing animals away from me because of your selfishness. To the group of people who called [the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation], there’s a special place in hell for you,” Longo wrote in an Instagram post. He said he was “in shock, disbelief, and disgusted ... for the last seven years, Peanut has been my best friend.” The Chemung County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said in a statement that Peanut, along with a raccoon living with Longo, were possessed illegally, and had been euthanized to test for rabies.
Photo: AFP
PAKISTAN
Lahore air pollution soars
Air pollution in Lahore yesterday soared to more than 40 times over the level deemed acceptable by the WHO, data from IQAir showed. The level of deadly PM2.5 pollutants —particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller — peaked at 610, with a reading above 15 considered unhealthy by the WHO. The air quality index, which measures a range of pollutants, also spiked at 1,067. “We have never reached a level of 1,000,” Punjab Department of Environment Protection and Climate Change Secretary Jahangir Anwar said. For days, Lahore has been enveloped by smog, a mix of fog and pollutants caused by low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning and winter cooling.
Photo: EPA-EFE
AUSTRALIA
Record-holding croc dies
A 5.48m crocodile that held the world record as the largest crocodile in captivity has died, a wildlife sanctuary said yesterday. He was thought to be more than 110 years old. Cassius, weighing in at more than 1 tonne, had been in declining health since Oct. 15, Marineland Melanesia Crocodile Habitat wrote on Facebook. “He was very old and believed to be living beyond the years of a wild croc,” said the organization, based on Green Island near the Queensland tourist town of Cairns. “Cassius will be deeply missed, but our love and memories of him will remain in our hearts forever.” The group’s Web site said he had lived at the sanctuary since 1987.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
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