Thousands of people in Indonesia release lanterns to mark Vesak Day at Borobudur Temple, the world's largest Buddhist temple.
"Vesak", which falls on the day of May's full moon, is a sacred holiday to Buddhists around the world. The day celebrates the birth, enlightenment, and death of Buddha.
original sound - npr
1 comment
You may like
Former Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter responds to event cancelations following President Trump's election as chair of the Kennedy Center. #NPR
npr
7328
·20h ago Is your dog your significant other? The Dogist knows how much you love your dog. He's photographed over 50,000 dogs for his 7 million Instagram followers. #NPR
npr
201
·20h ago A humpback whale briefly swallowed a kayaker off Chilean Patagonia before quickly releasing him unharmed. It happened in Bahía El Águila last Saturday near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan. Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell Simancas, when the massive whale suddenly surfaced, trapping the young man and his yellow kayak in its mouth for a few seconds before letting him go. Dell, just meters away, captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to stay calm. "Stay calm, stay calm," he can be heard saying in the footage, which has become one of the most striking and terrifying images in Chile in recent years. "I thought I was dead," Adrián told the Associated Press. "I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me." He described the "terror" of those few seconds and explained that his real fear set in only after resurfacing. Despite the terrifying experience, Dell remained focused, filming and reassuring his son while grappling with his own worry. "When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia," Adrián added. After a few seconds in the water, Adrián managed to reach his father’s kayak and was quickly assisted. Despite the scare, both returned to shore uninjured. "I thought it had swallowed me," Adrián told his father in the video, still in disbelief.
npr
149
·1d ago The State Department said Thursday it is abandoning plans of purchasing $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles after a public document detailing federal contracts for fiscal year 2025 gained wide attention. That expected purchase of Teslas, which was slated for September of this year, is now on hold, according to the State Department, which now says it has no plans of fulfilling the contract. NPR’s original video on the contract can be found on our Instagram page. The potential federal purchase drew scrutiny since Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk is also a top White House official who has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency, a unit focused on shrinking the federal workforce and ferreting out corruption.
npr
27.9K
·1d ago Comedian Ronny Chieng’s original path wasn’t to become a correspondent on “The Daily Show.” Plan A was to be a lawyer in Australia. But when he couldn’t get a job in law, he turned to comedy as a backup. He talks to Rachel about his path to success and how he's more like his parents than he realized. His new stand-up special is “Ronny Chieng: Love to Hate It.” To hear the full interview, click the link in our bio or search "Wild Card" wherever you get your podcasts. #NPR
npr
94
·1d ago Gaza, devastated after more than a year of war, still has urgent shortages of food and medicine. Jordan has begun flying helicopters into Gaza with medical supplies. NPR joined one of the flights. #NPR
npr
606
·2d ago President Trump met with Marc Fogel at the White House Tuesday night, after making a deal with Russia to release Fogel from one of its jails. He was a teacher in Russia and was arrested in August 2021 after customs agents found medical marijuana in his luggage. Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Russia to bring Fogel home. After landing in the U.S., Fogel, 63, met with Trump and his administration with an American flag draped around his neck. He told the president, "I'm in total awe, and my thanks is for you and your administration, and these amazing people that have brought me home, and I just will spend the rest of my life indebted to you ... I'm so excited."
npr
101
·3d ago President Donald Trump said he is banning federal use of paper straws. Instead he wants the government to exclusively move to plastic. “It’s a ridiculous situation. We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump said as he signed an executive order to reverse federal purchasing policies that encourage paper straws and restrict plastic ones. The order directs federal agencies to stop buying paper straws “and otherwise ensure that paper straws are no longer provided within agency buildings.” The move by Trump targets a Biden administration policy to phase out federal purchases of single-use plastics, including straws, from food service operations, events and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. While plastic straws have been blamed for polluting oceans and harming marine life, Trump said that he thinks “it’s OK” to continue using them. “I don’t think that plastic is going to affect the shark very much as they’re eating, as they’re munching their way through the ocean,’' he said at a White House announcement on Monday.
npr
638
·4d ago If you give a rat a car…will there be life lessons for humans? Follow the link in our bio to hear the full episode from Short Wave. Reporter: Regina Barber/NPR Producer: Sofia Seidel/NPR
npr
261
·4d ago