Snake on a bullet train causes rare railway delay in Japan


Almost nothing stops Japan’s famous high-speed bullet trains from running exactly on time – but a tiny snake slithering through a passenger carriage will do the trick, albeit for just 17 minutes.

On Tuesday, a commuter reported to station staff in Tokyo that a 40-centimeter (16-inch) snake had been spotted in the carriage of a train arriving from Nagoya, according to the Central Japan Railway Company.

The train had been scheduled to depart for the city of Osaka, but was instead put out of service as a precaution. Another train had to be assigned to the route, causing a delay that, while brief by many other national railway standards, was relatively significant for Japan’s relentlessly punctual service.

No injuries were reported. Over 600 passengers were affected by the delay.

The breed of the snake is unknown, and a review is underway to determine how the snake got on board, the railway company told CNN.

Sudan on brink of collapse and starvation as country marks one year of civil war


As Sudan marks the grim anniversary of a year-long conflict, aid agencies have warned that the country teeters on the edge of collapse, facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that has been largely ignored by the rest of the world.

Islamic Relief, a humanitarian and development agency, painted a stark picture of Sudan’s situation, warning that it is on the brink of mass famine, with young children facing the prospect of starving to death.

The situation in Sudan is dire, with over 8.4 million people, including 2 million children under the age of 5, forced to flee their homes in the wake of the conflict, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Despite these alarming figures, the international response has been woefully inadequate, with only 5% of the 2024 humanitarian response plan for Sudan funded thus far, Islamic Relief said in a statement.

Cornel West and running mate Melina Abdullah refuse to condemn Hamas’ actions in first joint TV interview


Independent presidential candidate Cornel West and his running mate, Melina Abdullah, defended their pro-Palestinian views Thursday night in their first joint television interview since Abdullah joined West’s campaign this week.

In an interview with CNN’s Abby Phillip, the pair declined to call on Hamas to release hostages taken from Israel in exchange for a ceasefire, repeatedly refused to criticize Hamas for its actions in the war and opted not to condemn the group for the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.

Abdullah, a board member for Black Lives Matter Grassroots, said she “absolutely” stands behind a statement her group put out two days after October 7, which framed the terrorist attacks as “a desperate act of self-defense.”

“I think it’s really important to understand where uprisings come from, even when we may disagree with tactics that are used,” Abdullah said.

California just hiked minimum wage for fast food workers. Some restaurants are replacing them with kiosks


California just raised the minimum wage for the state’s fast food sector workers by $4 to $20. As if on cue, it raised a familiar refrain that those workers would be replaced by technology, such as self-service kiosks.

That’s likely to happen in some instances where business who haven’t yet done so will look to technology to help offset higher labor costs, industry experts said.

But the reality is that automation in the services industry is already on a roll, and the restaurant industry has been embracing it for a while now, even in states where the minimum wage hasn’t increased.

“There are two things in play. One, already in motion for a while is robotics and automation at the store level,” said Rob Dongoski, global lead for food and agribusiness at Kearney, a strategy and management consulting firm. Examples in what is known in the industry as the “quick service restaurant” space include auto-refill technology and automated frying machines.

The Biden administration will require thousands more gun dealers to run background checks on buyers

Thousands more firearms dealers across the United States will have to run background checks on buyers when selling at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores, according to a Biden administration rule that will soon go into effect.

The rule aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who don’t perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.

It’s the administration’s latest effort to combat gun violence. But in a contentious election year, it’s also an effort to show voters — especially younger ones for whom gun violence deeply resonates — that the White House is trying to stop the deaths.

“This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “And my administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”

Billions of cicadas are set to appear in a rare ‘double brood emergence,’ scientists say


In a matter of weeks, they will dig their way out from underground, red eyes shining, deafening song filling the air. It will be a confluence of creatures the likes of which hasn’t been seen in the United States since Thomas Jefferson was president — and won’t happen again until 2245. It’s a rare emergence of insects some are referring to as cicadapocalypse.

Billions of cicadas are set to surface this spring as two different broods — one that appears every 13 years, and another every 17 years — emerge simultaneously. The 13-year group, known as Brood XIX, or the Great Southern Brood, is the largest periodical cicada brood, stretching across the southeastern United States. The Northern Illinois Brood, or Brood XIII, emerges every 17 years.

“It’s rare that we see this size of double brood emergence,” said Dr. Jonathan Larson, an extension entomologist and assistant professor at the University of Kentucky. “We’re talking about an absolute oddity of nature, one of America’s coolest insects.”

Though the idea of a cicadapocalypse may seem foreboding, experts predict that the two broods won’t overlap significantly, and the bugs themselves, while loud and numerous, are harmless. Here’s what you need to know going into cicada season.

Chicago police fired 96 shots after gunfire broke out at a fatal traffic stop, agency says. Here’s what bodycam footage shows


Newly released bodycam footage reveals the chaotic moments before and after 26-year-old Dexter Reed was fatally shot during a traffic stop by Chicago police.

The deadly encounter happened in a residential neighborhood on March 21. In one video, an officer approaches the driver of a white vehicle with dark-tinted windows. “Roll the window down. Roll the window down,” she tells the driver. But he keeps rolling the window up.

“What are you doing?” the officer asks. “Don’t roll the window up. Do not roll the window up!”

The officer pulls on the driver’s locked door handle and draws her gun.

“Unlock the doors now! Unlock the doors now!” she screams, as another officer shouts the same demands.

Condemned inmate could face ‘surgery without anesthesia’ if good vein is elusive, lawyers say

Missouri’s execution protocol allows for “surgery without anesthesia” if the typical process of finding a suitable vein to inject the lethal drug doesn’t work, lawyers for a death row inmate say in an appeal aimed at sparing his life.

Brian Dorsey, 52, is scheduled for execution Tuesday for killing his cousin and her husband at their central Missouri home in 2006. His attorneys are seeking clemency from Gov. Mike Parson and have several appeals pending.

A federal court appeal focuses on how Missouri injects the fatal dose of pentobarbital. The written protocol calls for insertion of primary and secondary intravenous lines. But it offers no guidance on how far the execution team can go to find a suitable vein, leaving open the possibility of an invasive “cutdown procedure,” Dorsey’s attorneys say.

The procedure involves an incision that could be several inches wide and several inches deep. Forceps are used to tear tissue away from a vein that becomes the injection point.