MEXICO
South braces for hurricane
Puerto Angel and Punta Maldonado yesterday were bracing for the impact of Hurricane Erick, which was upgraded to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm, the US National Hurricane Center said. The major storm threatens to unleash destructive winds near where the eye crashes ashore, flash floods and a dangerous storm surge, forecasters said. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 230kph and was moving northwest at 15kph. President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a video message on Wednesday night that all activities in the region were suspended and she urged people to stay in their homes or to move to shelters if they live in low-lying areas.
UNITED STATES
SpaceX Starship explodes
One of Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) Starships late on Wednesday exploded during a routine test in Texas, law enforcement said, in the latest setback to the billionaire’s dream of turning humanity into an interplanetary species. The Starship 36 underwent “catastrophic failure and exploded” at the Starbase launch facility shortly after 11pm, a Facebook post by Cameron County authorities said. A video shared with the post showed the megarocket attached to the launch arm, and then a flash and a towering, fiery explosion. Space X said the rocket was preparing for its 10th flight test when it “experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase,” without elaborating on the nature of the complication.
ARGENTINA
Nurse sentenced to life
A nurse was sentenced to life in prison for killing five babies and attempting to murder eight others at a hospital, local media reported. Brenda Cecilia Aguero injected potassium and insulin into newborns between March and June 2022, taking doses from emergency medical carts without inventory control, prosecutors said. Aguero would not be eligible for parole before serving 35 years. The court clerk read out the sentencing in footage broadcast on local media on Wednesday. The babies, all born healthy, died under initially unexplained circumstances at the neonatal ward of the maternal and child hospital in Cordoba province. Eight others survived due to swift medical intervention.
UNITED STATES
Bear free from large lid
Michigan wildlife experts finally trapped a black bear and removed a large lid that was stuck around his neck for two years. “It’s pretty incredible that the bear survived and was able to feed itself,” state bear specialist Cody Norton said on Wednesday. “The neck was scarred and missing hair, but the bear was in much better condition than we expected it to be.” The bear first turned up on a trail camera as a cub in 2023 in the northern Lower Peninsula. After that, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources was on the lookout for the elusive animal with a hard plastic lid around the neck, Norton said. The bear appeared again on a camera late last month, still wearing the barrel lid, and the department responded by setting a cylindrical trap and safely luring him inside. The bear was immobilized with an injection and the lid was cut off in minutes on June 3. The bear eventually woke up and rambled away. Norton said it was not precisely known how the lid got stuck on the bear’s neck. “We were pleasantly surprised. It was still able to make a living like a pretty typical bear,” he said.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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