TURKEY
Mayor’s X account blocked
Authorities yesterday blocked access to the social media account of Istanbul’s jailed opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who has nearly 10 million followers on X. Imamoglu, who was detained on March 19 on corruption charges he strongly denies, is seen as the biggest rival to longtime President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was not possible to access Imamoglu’s X account yesterday morning. A message read: “Account Withheld -- @ekrem_imamoglu has been withheld in TR (Turkey) in response to a legal demand.” A spokesperson for the Istanbul municipality also confirmed the access was blocked, without giving further details. Watchdog group EngelliWeb, which reports Internet censorship and blocked Web sites in Turkey, wrote on X that access to Imamoglu’s account had been blocked on national security grounds.
Photo: REUTERS
PERU
Journalist assassinated
A journalist on Wednesday was gunned down by hitmen as he was traveling to work in the Amazon city of Iquitos, the second such murder this year, prompting global condemnation. Raul Celis Lopez, the 70-year-old host of a news show on Radio Karibena who was a well-known voice in the Peruvian Amazon, was killed as he was heading to work by motorbike taxi at about 5:30am, the National Association of Journalists wrote on X. Lopez had regularly discussed the violence of the armed gangs that plague Iquitos on his popular daily program. In January, the owner of a regional TV channel, Gaston Medina, who also had reported on the country’s extortion epidemic, was shot and killed as he was leaving his house in the south-central city of Ica.
NEW ZEALAND
People gaining on sheep
The vast number of sheep in New Zealand relative to the country’s scant human population has long been the subject of jokes aimed at New Zealanders abroad. The country is one of a handful in the world that is still home to more sheep than people, but humans are catching up, new figures released on Tuesday showed. With a population of 23.6 million sheep and 5.3 million people, there are about 4.5 sheep for each New Zealander, Statistics New Zealand data showed. That is down from 22 sheep per person in 1982, when farming sheep for meat and wool was the country’s biggest earner. Australia — the source of most of the sheep jokes about New Zealanders — is also home to more sheep than people, but the national flock is shrinking there, too. The gap is slimmer: There are about three sheep per Australian.
AUSTRALIA
Dog stuck on island returns
Valerie, a miniature dachshund lost for 18 months — or about half her life — on an island, has been reunited with her owners, her rescuers said on Wednesday. Owner Georgia Gardner said her pet approached without hesitation when they were reunited by Kangala Wildlife Rescue on Kangaroo Island off South Australia on Tuesday for the first time since November 2023. “She ran straight up to me — I just burst into tears,” Gardner said in a statement. “She was wagging her tail, making her little happy sounds and wiggling around with joy. I held her and cried and cried,” she added. The almost three-year-old dog was trapped on April 25 in remarkably good condition after 529 days spent living like a feral animal. She had weighed 4kg when she was lost and now weighs 6.8kg. There is speculation that she survived on roadkill and animal droppings.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
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