- Japan’s surge in bear encounters is pushing tourist spots and local governments to step up countermeasures. Reporting this year has described drones blaring dog barks and fireworks to drive bears away, new rules letting police shoot bears with rifles, subsidies for electric fences around outdoor baths at ryokan inns, and removal of fruit trees that attract bears. https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20260424/p2a/00m/0na/030000c
- The jury tasked with picking the architect for the Louvre’s “Nouvelle Renaissance” renovation is now set to meet around May 13, after earlier delays linked to staff unrest and the French municipal elections. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/architectural-competition-for-louvre-project-set-to-relaunch-in-may/ar-AA21uHqh?ocid=BingNewsVerp
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the Pentagon that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and ships near the Strait of Hormuz will continue “as long as it takes,” and described it as “growing and going global.” CENTCOM has reported that no ships have made it past the blockade since it began on April 13, and it has posted footage of the seizure of the Iranian container ship M/V Touska. https://aje.news/zji0ro?update=4518733
- Israeli strikes continued across Gaza despite the nominal October ceasefire. Gaza’s Health Ministry said six Palestinians were killed over the past day, including three children reported killed in a drone strike on a mosque in the north, and Hamas called the strikes a “criminal escalation” of ceasefire commitments. https://aje.news/zji0ro?update=4518716
- Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled preview versions of DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash, a year after DeepSeek-R1 shook the global tech industry. The company says V4-Pro beats all rival open-source models in math and coding and trails only Google’s Gemini 3.1-Pro on world knowledge, while V4-Flash offers similar reasoning at faster speeds and lower cost. Both remain open-source. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/4/24/chinas-deepseek-unveils-latest-model-a-year-after-upending-global-tech
- UN special envoy Carlos Ruiz Massieu told reporters that the new UN-backed international force meant to combat Haiti’s gangs has attracted more troop pledges than the 5,500 personnel it’s seeking, with Chadian troops already on the ground in Port-au-Prince. Full deployment is expected between fall and year’s end, and Haiti’s government is aiming for a first round of elections late this year and a runoff in early 2027, security permitting. https://apnews.com/article/un-haiti-gangs-force-deployment-chad-elections-018012db35203b8f4e26e0383f9cbbc4
- Saint Lucia’s government will, for the first time, pay school cooks and janitors during the August vacation. Education Minister Kenson Casimir told the House of Assembly that roughly $407,000 has been allocated for cooks and $558,000 for janitors, a combined total of just under $1 million, mirroring the 2025 move to pay temporary teachers year-round. https://stluciatimes.com/180021/2026/04/government-to-pay-school-cooks-janitors-in-august/
- Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy says Russian strikes on energy infrastructure have left parts of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Sumy, and Kharkiv oblasts without electricity, while bad weather has knocked out power to more than 100 settlements across another batch of regions, including Zhytomyr, Donetsk, Kyiv and others. Consumption is up roughly 3.5% day-over-day thanks to cold, cloudy weather dragging down solar output. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/04/24/8031614/
- Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodríguez announced that the country’s Amnesty Law has reached “its end” after benefiting 8,616 people with full release. She argued the process was faster than comparable efforts in South Africa or Spain, and said remaining cases excluded from the law will be funneled through the Programa de Convivencia Democrática y Paz and a new commission on criminal justice reform. https://alertas24.com/delcy-rodriguez-anuncio-que-la-ley-de-amnistia-llega-a-su-fin/
- Norway announced it will introduce legislation this year banning social media accounts for anyone under 16. Tech companies, not children or parents, will be on the hook for age verification. PM Jonas Gahr Støre framed it as protecting childhood from “algorithms and screens.” The bill goes to Parliament later this year and is expected to take effect in 2027. https://www.thelocal.no/20260424/norway-to-ban-social-media-for-under-16s
- Cook Islands environmental groups, including Ocean Ancestors and Te Ipukarea Society, sharply criticized the recent merger of American Ocean Minerals Corporation with Odyssey Marine Exploration, calling it “an industrial colonial takeover of our ocean.” They argue US corporations, backed by state interests, are shaping decisions about Cook Islands seabed minerals externally, sidestepping precautionary standards and local consent. https://islandsbusiness.com/pacnews/pacnews-one-24-april-2026/
- Israel continued strikes in southern Lebanon even as the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire was extended by three weeks through White House talks. A Hezbollah politician called the extension “meaningless,” and the UN human rights office said it has documented patterns of attacks on civilians in Lebanon and Israel that may amount to serious violations of international humanitarian law, with nearly 2,500 killed in Lebanon since the March 2 escalation. https://aje.news/zji0ro?update=4518899
Evening World News Summary
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