A very strong magnitude 6.2 earthquake occurred in the Banda Sea 142 km (88 mi) from Indonesia in the early morning of Friday, May 15, 2026 at 2.53 am local time (GMT +9). The quake had a moderate depth of 146 km (91 mi) and was felt widely in the area.
Earthquake details
Date & time May 14, 2026 17:53:14 UTC
Local time at epicenter Friday, May 15, 2026, at 02:53 am (GMT +9)
Status confirmed (manually revised)
Magnitude 6.20
Depth 146 km
Spring may have sprung in the lowlands - mostly - but winter is still clinging hard to the Highlands.
Visitors to Aviemore Mountain Resort could be forgiven for thinking it was deep in December, rather than the middle of May, after 40cm of snow fell overnight.
The thick snowfall comes as cold northerly winds from the Arctic continue to drive weather patterns in Scotland, with the Met Office reporting temperatures below average for this time of year.
However, the lack of warmer weather elsewhere has been a boon for the resort, with winter sports lasting beyond their usual cut-off date in April.
Located in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park, the resort offers a wide range of activities for visitors.
A yellow-bellied sea snake on Hōkawai Beach near Ōpōtiki.
A Bay of Plenty man got a surprise on his morning dog walk after mistaking a live yellow-bellied sea snake - the second to wash up in the region this week - for an eel on the beach.
Cre-amer Paul had been running his dogs between Hōkawai and Tīrahonga beaches near Ōpōtiki on Friday morning when he spotted what he thought was an eel lying near the shoreline.
"I see it move a little bit. I went down the beach and I thought, 'I will try and flick it back in on my way back,'" he told 1News.
"When I stopped and pulled up, I thought 'oh sh*t, that's not an eel, that's a sea snake."
His dog Prince came dangerously close to the animal before Paul intervened.
"He got pretty close to the bloody thing," he said.
A deceased Gray Whale washed ashore off West Beach Rd at North Sunset Beach.
Yet another dead gray whale has washed ashore on the Washington coast, marking the 19th case this year.
What we know:
The latest discovery was on the northern end of Whidbey Island, specifically Sunset Beach near Oak Harbor.
The Island County Sheriff's Office posted about the dead whale Wednesday afternoon.
The NOAA Marine Mammal Stranding Network has been notified and will be responding to the latest whale death, according to the Island County Sheriff's Office.
The incident involved a young man who was reportedly swept away by strong winds on Wednesday. He was carried nearly 300 metres before crashing into a field, suffering fractures in both his arms and legs.
A powerful storm swept through India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, killing more than 100 people and causing widespread destruction across several districts, officials said on Thursday.
The violent weather system brought intense rain, hail and strong winds, damaging homes, uprooting trees and disrupting daily life in India's most populous state.
According to state authorities, at least 104 people were killed in around a dozen districts, with the worst-hit areas located near the city of Prayagraj. Rescue officials said dozens more were injured as emergency teams responded to incidents across the region.
The storm also injured at least 59 people, damaged 87 homes and killed 114 livestock, adding to the scale of losses faced by affected communities.
Officials said many fatalities were caused by collapsing walls, falling trees and debris thrown by high-speed winds.
Keraunos puts the cold pool at 500 hPa at -32C (-26F) over western and central Europe on May 14.
For May, that ranks as the fourth-coldest such setup in 30 years of record-keeping. The benchmark remains May 2012, with ERA5 reanalysis coming up with -33C (-27F).
A deep upper-level trough is locked over the continent, with blocking over the North Atlantic allowing polar air to drive far south. That cold air aloft is steepening lapse rates, destabilizing the atmosphere, and turning mild spring air at the surface into showers, hail, thunder, mountain snow and frost risk.
The cold is already showing up.
In Croatia, Puntijarka on Zagreb's Medvednica has recorded May snow for only the sixth time since observations began in 1981.
A 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck near Tehran on Tuesday at a depth of 10 kilometres, Iranian state media reported. No casualties or damage were immediately reported in the Tehran-Mazandaran border region.
A 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck Iran's capital, Tehran on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported, citing the country's seismological centre. The quake hit at a depth of 10 kilometres, with tremors felt in the border region between Tehran and Mazandaran provinces. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Red Crescent teams in Tehran, Mazandaran, Qom and Alborz provinces were placed on alert following the earthquake. Iran's state broadcaster IRIB reported that no injuries or major financial damage had been recorded an hour after the tremor.
Comment: For all those jumping up and down about "Iran testing nukes":
Tavi Dhillon Global News Tue, 12 May 2026 11:11 UTC
A 27-year-old man was fatally attacked by a black bear in northeastern Saskatchewan on Friday, according to the province's Ministry of Community Safety.
Following the attack 85 kilometres northeast of Points North Landing, the province says the bear was euthanized by a civilian while waiting for officials to arrive at the scene. The bear's body was then transported hundreds of kilometres south to a Saskatoon veterinary college, where the bear was subject to a necropsy - a post-mortem exam.
"The investigation is in its early stages and there is no further information available at this time," the ministry said in a statement for Global News.
A wildlife human attack response team and conservation officer services are investigating the attack, alongside RCMP and the provincial coroners service, it added.
At least 12 people were injured after devastating flooding and torrential flows struck the Havza district following heavy rainfall in Samsun, Türkiye. (May 12, 2026 )
Torrential rains have triggered severe flooding in a district near Turkiye's Black Sea coast, inundating homes and businesses and sweeping away cars. At least 12 people were hospitalized with minor injuries, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The heavy rainfall late on Tuesday caused rivers in the Havza district of Samsun province to overflow, sending waters rushing down streets, carrying vehicles and debris.
Anadolu said the basement and ground floors of several properties were submerged. Video footage showed a driver standing on top of a truck waiting to be rescued from the flood.
Anadolu said none of the injured were in serious condition. Some reached the hospital on their own while others were assisted by medical teams.
Firefighters, police, and disaster teams were deployed to rescue stranded residents and to clear debris.
Comment: For all those jumping up and down about "Iran testing nukes":