April 20:
SpaceX launched Starship, a fully reusable and the world’s most powerful rocket. The rocket was initially scheduled to take off on April 17 before it was scrubbed due to a frozen valve. Several engines failed before and after lift-off. After around four minutes of airtime, the rocket lost control, and the automated flight termination system destroyed the rocket. SpaceX still sees this event as a success. (BBC, New York Times)
April 22:
On this day, the wreckage of a Japanese World War II ship, Montevideo Maru, was discovered in a recovery effort by the Australian government. The ship sank in 1942 off the coast of the Philippines when a US submarine sank the ship without knowing that there were around one thousand prisoners of war on board. (Reuters)
April 23:
In Malindi, a Kenyan coastal town, at least 110 people were found dead in a mass grave after being instructed to starve themselves for salvation. Most of the dead were children. Around 34 were rescued. (Reuters)
In the London Marathon, Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum finishes first with a course record of 2:01:25. (BBC)
Retail chain store Bed Bath & Beyond files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (New York Times)
April 25:
Harry Belafonte died at the age of 96.
April 30:
Chinese Ding Liren defeated Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi in tiebreaks, earning him the title of World Chess Champion.
Santiago Peña was elected President of Paraguay. (El Pais)
May 1:
The struggling First Republic Bank was sold to JPMorgan Chase. (Reuters)
Belgian Luca Brecel defeated English Mark Selby to win the World Snooker Championship.
May 5:
The World Health Organization ended its designation of the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency. (Wall Street Journal)
May 6:
King Charles III and Queen Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey, London.
The thoroughbred horse Mage won the Kentucky Derby.
May 7:
Arab League reinstated Syria’s membership after an 11-year absence due to the Syrian Civil War. (Al Jazeera)
May 9:
Former President Donald Trump is found liable by a jury for abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages. Trump repealed the verdict two days later.
Imran Khan, the former Pakistani prime minister, is arrested for corruption. This sparked nationwide protests.
May 10:
At Google I/O, an annual developer conference, Google announced updates to its many services and new phones. However, the most significant announcements were on AI; the company announced image editing AI, a music model, and its newest large language model (LLM), Pathways Language Model 2 or PaLM 2. The company claims that the new model, in some cases, beats GPT-4, the model powering ChatGPT, and published a paper similar to the GPT-4 paper to support its claims. The company has started integrating the model into Google Search, Docs, and Gmail, which will be soon available to the public. (New York Times, Google AI)
May 14:
In the pivotal Turkish presidential election, incumbent Erdoğan won 49.23% of the vote against Kılıçdaroğlu in the closest race in Erdoğan’s two decades in power. The runoff election will take place on May 28.
In Thai elections, Social democratic party Move Forward won a majority of Thailand’s House of Representatives. During the 2019 House election, a similar party was dissolved due to it performing unexpectedly well in the wake of the 2014 coup d’etat. The electoral committee has 60 days to certify the result. (BBC)
Russian invasion of Ukraine:
The head of the Wagner group, Prigozhin, once threatened to withdraw all his troops from Bakhmut if he didn’t receive any ammunition from the Russian government. Around the same time, Ukraine made various victories on the battlefield. At another point, Prigozhin offered to supply the positions of Russian troops to Ukraine if they withdrew from Bakhmut, and Ukraine refused. Prigozhin had promised to take Bakhmut before Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, but clearly he hasn’t finished his objective.
Sudan:
Various peace proposals have fallen through. The death toll has risen to around 700 as of May 15. (Al Jazeera)Global News Update