Volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula erupts for the 7th time in a year
GRINDAVIK, Iceland (AP) — A volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland is spewing lava from a fissure in its seventh eruption since December. Iceland’s seismic monitors said the eruption started with little warning late Wednesday and created a long fissure but looked to be smaller than eruptions in August and May. Around 50 houses were evacuated after the Civil Protection agency issued the alert, along with guests at the famous Blue Lagoon resort, according to the national broadcaster. The repeated eruptions over the past year have caused damage to the town of Grindavík and forced people to relocate.
Australian tourist dies after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos, raising toll to 4 including American
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — An Australian teenager has died after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos in what Australia’s prime minister on Thursday called every parent’s nightmare. An American and two Danish tourists also died, officials said after reports that multiple people had been sickened in town popular with backpackers. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Parliament that 19-year-old Bianca Jones had died after being evacuated from Vang Vieng, Laos for treatment in a Thai hospital. Her friend, also 19, remains hospitalized in Thailand. “This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” Albanese said.
Pop star Ed Sheeran helps favorite soccer team sign player before getting on stage with Taylor Swift
It turns out British pop star Ed Sheeran is also good at recruiting soccer players. Sheeran is a minority shareholder at English soccer team Ipswich Town and it needed his help over the summer to get a player to join the club. Ipswich CEO Mark Ashton tells a Soccerex industry event in Miami: “Ed jumped on a Zoom call with him at the training ground, just before he stepped on stage with Taylor Swift. Hopefully that was a key part in getting the player across the line.” Ashton didn’t disclose the player in question, saying only: “He’s certainly scoring a few goals.”
Chris Stapleton wins 4 CMA Awards, but Morgan Wallen gets entertainer of the year
It was mostly Chris Stapleton’s night at the Country Music Association Awards. Stapleton won four times and took the stage to perform three times Wednesday night at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. But an absent Morgan Wallen won the biggest award, entertainer of the year. Stapleton’s wins included single of the year and song of the year for “White Horse,” and his eighth trophy as male vocalist of the year. Best female vocalist of the year went to Laney Johnson. An all-star ensemble including both Stapleton and Johnson performed in tribute to George Strait, who won the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award.
Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal take Cy Young Awards after both were pitching triple crown winners
Atlanta’s Chris Sale and Detroit’s Tarik Skubal have each won their first Cy Young Award. The left-handers were honored Wednesday night after sharing the MLB lead with 18 wins while leading their respective leagues in strikeouts and ERA. Sale went 18-3 and topped the National League with 225 strikeouts, while his 2.38 ERA in 29 starts was the best among all major league qualifiers in his first season with the Braves. The 35-year-old was an All-Star for the eighth time and won his first Gold Glove this year. Skubal, who turned 28 on Wednesday, went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and a big league-best 228 strikeouts in 31 starts to take the American League prize in a unanimous vote.
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Percival Everett and Jason De León win National Book Awards
NEW YORK (AP) — Percival Everett’s “James” has won the National Book Award for fiction. The book is a daring reworking of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” For nonfiction, Jason De León’s “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling” won. The prize for young people’s literature was given to Shifa Saltagi Safadi’s “Kareem Between.” And the poetry award went to Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s “Something About Living.” In the translation category, the winner was Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s “Taiwan Travelogue,” translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King.
Duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million at Art auction
NEW YORK (AP) — A piece of conceptual art consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall has sold for $6.2 million at an auction in New York. The piece is titled “Comedian,” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It went to auction at Sotheby’s on Wednesday night. It debuted to much fanfare in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach. At the time, festivalgoers tried to make out whether the single yellow piece of fruit affixed to a white wall with silver duct tape was a joke or cheeky commentary on questionable standards among art collectors. Sotheby’s describes Cattelan as “among Contemporary Art’s most brilliant provocateurs.”
$344 for a coffee? Scottish farm is selling UK’s most expensive cup
LONDON (AP) — A Scottish dairy is making the audacious bid to sell what it’s calling Britain’s most expensive cup of coffee. For the equivalent of $344, an investor in the farm gets a flat white. That’s a double shot of espresso topped with a layer of steamed milk and a fleeting work of foam art. The buyer also gets 34 shares in Mossgiel Organic Dairy, a farm once worked by Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns. The dairy’s owner Bryce Cunningham says the coffee costs about 80 times more than an average flat white but its helping to fund the growth of his sustainable operation.
At UN climate talks, “sewage” beer from Singapore highlights water scarcity and innovations
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — The Singapore pavilion at the United Nations climate talks offers attendees free beer with an ingredient that’s surprising to many — treated wastewater. NEWBrew, from Singapore, is made with NEWater, the name of treated wastewater that’s part of a national campaign to conserve every drop in one of the world’s most water-starved places. Some attendees jokingly call the drink “sewage beer.” It’s is one of many examples of climate- and environment-related innovations on display during this year’s climate talks, COP29, in Azerbaijan. Still, not everybody even knows they are drinking beer made with wastewater. “I was really surprised,” said one attendee, adding he liked it so much that, “I can even suggest that they make more and more.”
Has a waltz written by composer Frederic Chopin been discovered in an NYC museum?
NEW YORK (AP) — A previously unknown musical work written by composer Frederic Chopin appears to have been found in a library in New York City. The Morgan Library & Museum says the untitled and unsigned piece is the first new manuscript of the Romantic era virtuoso to be discovered in nearly a century. Robinson McClellan, the museum’s curator, says he stumbled across the work in May while going through a collection brought to the Manhattan museum years earlier. He worked with outside experts to verify the document’s authenticity. But there’s debate whether the waltz is an original Chopin work or merely one written in his hand.
