NEPAL
Lake caused flood: expert
The deadly flood in the Bhote Koshi that killed at least nine people and left more than two dozen missing this week was triggered by the draining of a supraglacial lake in the Tibet region of China, a regional climate monitoring body said on Wednesday. Floodwater on Tuesday also washed away the Friendship Bridge to China. The Kathmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development said that satellite imagery showed the flood originated from the draining of the lake north of Nepal’s Langtang Himal range. “This is based on the preliminary analysis based on the available satellite images,” said Sudan Maharjan, a remote sensing analyst and glacier expert at the center. A supraglacial lake is formed on the surface of a glacier, often beginning as small meltwater ponds.
Photo: AP
ISRAEL
Missile from Yemen blocked
The army yesterday said that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, days after carrying out strikes on Houthi rebel targets in the country. “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the army wrote on X.
COLOMBIA
Mule used in attack
A soldier was killed and two others were wounded on Wednesday when explosives carried by a mule exploded in a rural area, authorities said. Antioquia Governor Andres Julian Rendon confirmed the soldier’s death and blamed the National Liberation Army. Rendon said that “an equine armed with explosives” targeted soldiers patrolling near Valdivia. The army later confirmed that the animal was a mule and condemned “the cruel and macabre use of animals to carry out terrorism.”
EL SALVADOR
Mexican envoy recalled
President Nayib Bukele on Wednesday recalled his ambassador to Mexico and asked the country to clarify Mexican Secretary of Security Omar Garcia Harfuch’s claim that an intercepted plane loaded with cocaine had originated in El Salvador. Harfuch on Tuesday said that authorities had detected a small plane “originating in El Salvador” carrying 428kg of cocaine and that they had arrested three people. Bukele called the claim “FALSE” in a post on X and said he was recalling Ambassador to Mexico Delmy Canas. “We demand an immediate clarification and rectification from the Mexican government,” Bukele said separately at a news conference.
UNITED STATES
Tunnel in LA collapses
Thirty-one construction workers inside a huge industrial tunnel in Los Angeles made it to safety after a portion of it collapsed on Wednesday evening. The cave-in appears to have occurred between the tunnel boring machine 8km in from the sole entrance and the construction workers who were working 9.6km in, said Michael Chee, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, which is in charge of the nearly US$700 million wastewater project. The workers were about 121m underground. Authorities were still investigating the cause, Chee said. The workers scrambled over loose soil to reach the boring machine and then were transported back to the opening. None of those rescued had major injuries, authorities said.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
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