INDIA
Capital braces for heat wave
Schools in New Delhi must ring regular bells to remind schoolchildren to drink water as the megacity gears up to face heat wave conditions, the city ordered on Tuesday. Temperatures yesterday were expected to reach 41°C to 43°C, and rise to 42°C to 44°C later in the week. The Delhi Directorate of Education issued guidelines asking schools to avoid “outdoor physical activities” and conduct “awareness sessions” to remind students of the importance of hydration. Schools were also asked to start a “water bell” initiative to prevent dehydration, with the bell rung every 45 to 60 minutes to remind students to drink water, and implement a “buddy system” for students to look out for each other.
Photo: AFP
SOUTH KOREA
State hackers behind heist
A notorious North Korean hacking group is likely behind the theft of nearly US$300 million in cryptocurrency over the weekend, online investment tool KelpDAO said, in the biggest known crypto heist this year. Digital currency news site CoinDesk said the heist on the vault of KelpDAO on Saturday was this year’s biggest crypto exploit so far. During the hack, two blockchain servers hosted by another crypto tech application called LayerZero were compromised, KelpDAO said on Tuesday. That allowed a cryptocurrency token linked to the major ethereum currency to be “drained” from KelpDAO, it said. “On April 18, 2026, KelpDAO was exploited for approximately US$290 million,” LayerZero said in a statement, adding that North Korea state-sponsored Lazarus Group was likely behind the attack.
AUSTRALIA
Salmon on cocaine studied
Salmon exposed to cocaine in the water swim longer distances than those who go without, a study released on Monday showed. Cocaine use is on the rise worldwide, with the UN reporting an estimated 25 million people used the stimulant in 2023 and the drug being increasingly found in waterways. Joint research by scientists at Griffith University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences studied how the drug affected the movements of wild fish in their natural habitats. Researchers took a hundred wild Atlantic salmon in Sweden’s Lake Vattern and exposed them to cocaine and benzoylecgonine — a metabolite created by the drug in the liver — and then tracked their movements. They found the river-dwellers living the high life traveled 1.9 times further per week than their clean-living control cousins. Those exposed to the byproduct also swam up 12.3km farther, the study found. “Any unnatural change in animal behaviour is a concern,” report coauthor Marcus Michelangeli of Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “We’re finding higher and higher concentrations of not just illicit drugs but all types of pharmaceuticals in our waterways.”
UNITED STATES
Eldest of The Osmonds dies
Alan Osmond, the eldest member of the chart-topping family act The Osmonds, died on Monday after decades with multiple sclerosis. He was 76. According to a family spokesperson, Osmond’s wife, Suzanne Osmond, and their eight sons were with him at his home in Lehi, Utah, at the time of his death. Prior to his passing, Alan Osmond used a wheelchair and spent a week in intensive care before returning home on Thursday last week on hospice. He helped write some of the Osmond Brothers’ biggest hits, including One Bad Apple, Crazy Horses and Are You Up There?.
