Category: World

After President Joe Biden’s shaky performance at the debate with former President Donald Trump on Thursday night, some Democrats openly questioned whether he should be replaced as their candidate for the 2024 election.
There is a process for doing so, but it would be messy.
For answers on how that would work, Reuters spoke to Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) member, and author of the book “Primary Politics” about the presidential nominating process.

This explainer is based largely on interviews with her.
Q: WHAT OPTIONS DO DEMOCRATS HAVE?
A: The Democratic Party has had no real Plan B for Biden as its presidential candidate. He ran virtually unopposed for the party’s presidential nomination this year.
He will not be nominated officially until later this summer, so there is still time to make a change and a handful of scenarios to enact one: Biden could decide himself to step aside before he is nominated; he could be challenged by others who try to win over the delegates he has accrued; or he could withdraw after the Democratic convention in Chicago in August, leaving the Democratic National Committee to elect someone to run against Trump in his place.

Q: SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
A: Right now, the process largely depends on Biden. He would have to agree to step down or face a challenger this late in the process who would try to force him to do so. So far Biden has shown no indications of wanting to step aside and no opponents have challenged him directly.
In fact some of his top potential replacements – Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom – spoke passionately in his defense after the debate, serving in a surrogate role that showcased their support but also contrasted their smooth delivery with his faltering one on the Atlanta debate stage.

Q: WHAT HAPPENS IF BIDEN STEPS DOWN?
A: Biden has spent the last several months accruing nearly 4,000 Democratic delegates by winning primary elections in U.S. states and territories.
Those delegates would normally vote for him, but the rules do not bind or force them to do so; delegates can vote with their conscience, which means they could throw their vote to someone else.
If Biden “releases” his delegates by stepping aside, there could be a competition among other Democratic candidates to become the nominee.
Q: WHO WOULD REPLACE BIDEN?
A: Several candidates could step into the fray, but there is no obvious number one.
Vice President Harris would almost certainly be at the top of the list, but she has had her own problems after a rocky start in the job and poor polling, opens new tab numbers. The U.S. Constitution dictates that the vice president becomes president if the president dies or becomes incapacitated, but it does not weigh in on an inter-party process for choosing a nominee.

California Governor Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker have all been floated as possible replacements, but they are Biden supporters and campaign surrogates who are working to help get him elected now.
Q: HOW WOULD A NOMINEE BE CHOSEN?
A: There would likely be a free-for-all of sorts between the Democratic heavyweights vying for the job.
Candidates would have to get signatures from 600 convention delegates to be nominated. There are expected to be some 4,672 delegates in 2024, including 3,933 pledged delegates and 739 automatic or superdelegates, according to Ballotpedia, opens new tab.
If no one gets a majority of the delegates, then there would be a “brokered convention” in which the delegates act as free agents and negotiate with the party leadership to come up with a nominee.
Rules would be established and there would be roll call votes for the names placed into nomination.
It could take several rounds of voting for someone to get a majority and become the nominee. The last brokered convention when Democrats failed to nominate a candidate on the first ballot was in 1952.
Q: WHAT HAPPENS IF BIDEN STEPS DOWN AFTER THE CONVENTION?
A: If Biden steps down after the August convention, the 435 members of the Democratic National Committee would choose a new candidate. The members would meet in a special session to select a nominee.
Q: WHO ARE THESE 435 DNC MEMBERS?
A: They are divided equally between men and women as well as various constituency groups including labor leaders, LGBTQ representatives, and racial minorities. Of the total, 75 are appointed at-large by the chair, while the rest are elected in their respective states.
Q: WHO COULD NOMINATE AN ALTERNATIVE IN THAT CASE?
A: To nominate a candidate to replace Biden on the ballot, that person would have to have the support of a minimum number of DNC members — perhaps around 60, though the exact number would be determined by the DNC’s rules committee, which would lay out the rules for the proceedings before they started.
There would likely be nominating speeches and seconding speeches. Multiple candidates could be nominated before the list is whittled down.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-democrats-could-replace-biden-presidential-candidate-before-november-2024-06-28/

The gun – a 9-milimeter pistol – blazed a violent trail even by the standards of one of Ecuador’s most dangerous neighborhoods, the Nueva Prosperina precinct of Guayaquil.
Shell casings from bullets fired by the weapon, recovered at the scenes of 27 separate violent incidents, were linked to 34 deaths, according to a police forensic unit. And a police forensic official told Reuters the authorities believe the pistol remains on the streets.

But it is slow work.

Of the more than 40,000 guns seized since 2019, just 900 have been traced, Major Efrain Arguello, who heads a national forensic investigations unit, told Reuters.

The weapon used in Nueva Prosperina may belong to, or have been rented out, among five rival drug gangs fighting for control of the precinct, Arguello said.

Police are investigating killings, robberies and other violent incidents in connection with the same gun.

“A gun connected to 30 crimes means there isn’t just an increase in trafficking, but in the circulation or internal sales of illicit guns,” said Renato Rivera, the director of the Ecuadorean Organized Crime Observatory research group.

The Pacific port city of Guayaquil is a hub for drug trafficking and the scene of turf wars between Mexican, Albanian and other foreign cartels that have led to a sharp rise in homicides.

Noboa in January designated 22 gangs – including the five operating in Nueva Prosperina – as terrorist organizations.

Since taking office last November, after he was elected to finish out his predecessor’s term, Noboa has increased funding for security forces by 6.6% to $3.52 billion.

EQUIPMENT SHORTAGES

But two senior police officials told Reuters that Ecuador is struggling to choke off gun trafficking routes from the United States, Peru and other countries in the region because of a lack of funding, forensic equipment and trained personnel.

Ecuador has just eight microscopes in a country of 17 million for bullet tracing, police said, and 247 trained technicians.

“We are tracing with what we have,” Arguello said.

In a small room in Quito’s police forensic building, technician Jhony Tapia peered through the only ballistic microscope in the city at shell casings and bullets from five guns used to kill four people at a bar in the Amazon.

Distinctive markings from the firing pins of individual firearms, visible under a high power microscope, allow technicians to match bullets to guns or to other bullets fired from the same weapon.

“The firing pin leaves a mark that is more effective (for tracing) than a fingerprint,” said Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Molina, head of the national police arms and explosives trafficking unit.

Tapia will spend the next several hours studying 126 shell casings of varying sizes, he told Reuters.

His findings will be checked against a national police database of bullets and shell casings.

Finding a match is simpler if police also recover the gun, allowing technicians like Tapia to compare markings on the barrel, called rifling, with the marks left on bullets.

Seized guns are checked against international databases run by the United States and Interpol.

Forensic staff did not say whether the guns in the Amazon case had been recovered.

Unlike neighboring Colombia, which has fought drug trafficking networks for decades, Ecuador until recently was considered one of Latin America’s safest countries – a popular destination for foreign tourists and retirees.

But after increased drug interdiction along Colombia’s Pacific Coast, traffickers shifted their route to Ecuador and violent crime soared.

Ecuador’s police have identified seven gun trafficking routes, Noboa’s office said.

Three run overland through Peru while a fourth route enters northern Ecuador near the border with Colombia, though police did not specify if the weapons came from there.

GUN-TRAFFICKING ROUTES FROM THE U.S.

Three more gun-trafficking routes originate in the United States: one by air from Miami to coastal Manta, another through Lima and then overland, and a third by sea via the storied Galapagos Islands, police and Noboa’s office said.

Police said they have also found gun parts shipped by courier services from Miami or produced using 3-D printing.

In April police seized a 3-D printer in coastal Manabi province which they said was used to make up to 20 gun parts.

Police would not share estimates for the prices of illegal guns but the Ecuador Organized Crime Observatory said that Glocks and other pistols go for up to $4,000 new and $500 used.

Rifles can cost between $8,000 and $15,000, the research group said, while guns made with 3-D printers go for $3,000. There is also a market for homemade guns, it said.

Police seized nearly 10,000 guns across Ecuador last year, according to police data, more than half of them revolvers or pistols, close to double the number of seizures in 2019.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/one-gun-34-dead-inside-ecuadors-war-black-market-weapons-2024-06-29/

With tens of millions from his own pocket and a movie star’s ego on the line, what will this lengthy theatrical gamble cost the ‘Yellowstone’ star?

A covered wagon’s worth of ink has been spilled in recent weeks on “Horizon: An American Saga,” the potentially ruinous three-hour dice roll that writer, producer, director and star Kevin Costner makes this weekend when the first of four planned films about the American West opens in theaters.

You’ve probably heard that the films — long-gestating passion projects from a movie icon who in recent years reclaimed his cultural relevance with the hit series “Yellowstone” – are pricey. The first cost $100 million to produce and will be followed only weeks later by its sequel. You’ve also likely seen headlines where Costner bluntly revealed he spent $38 million of his own cash to get the movies made, an unusually candid disclosure from an A-lister who has been forced to bet on himself. Maybe you’ve seen the box office projections, predicting that the film will take home a troubling $10 to $15 million in its opening weekend, or the reviews, which averaged to a dismal 40% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.

What you might not know is the backstory that led him to this moment. It comes at an inflection point in traditional moviemaking in Hollywood – where directors like Costner and Francis Ford Coppola (with his lightning rod “Megalopolis”) have had to go it alone to fulfill bold visions that were not seen as commercially viable by studios or streamers.

As it stands, the “Dances With Wolves” Oscar-winner mortgaged prime undeveloped real estate in Santa Barbara, Calif. to cough up his piece of the action, and raised additional financing for the films through mysterious investors. His longtime studio partner Warner Bros. is in the mix as a distributor for hire. However, the company isn’t spending any of its own money on “Horizon,” not even for marketing.

But Costner’s saga was originally shopped as two films. Warner Bros. came in as an interested party prior to a 2022 merger with Discovery. Then known as WarnerMedia, its CEO Jason Kilar had given a mandate to his studio chief at the time, Toby Emmerich: release one “quality movie” per month exclusive to streaming, according to three sources familiar with that regime. HBO Max was the fledgling service now known as Max, and millions were being spent in pursuit of content that would help lure subscribers to compete with the likes of Netflix (what a difference three years makes, as streaming budgets today couldn’t be tighter while corporations scramble to monetize their platforms).

Emmerich and his team were approaching the project as package acquisition, insiders said, meaning Warner Bros. would be on board to finance both films. Costner would be a splashy get for a straight-to-streaming movie, and the actor was a company man. Warner Bros. has released some of Costner’s career-defining films, including “JFK” and “The Bodyguard.” He was also recruited for franchise properties like DC’s “Man of Steel,” playing the adoptive father of Superman. But after AT&T ended its disastrous marriage with WarnerMedia and Discovery merged with the studio, the game changed. Costner went to its new leaders Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy with a different vision – not only to give “Horizon” a wide theatrical release but to make two additional films, bringing the count to four movies. The films unfold over a 12-year span, before and after the American Civil War, as a large ensemble of characters seek better lives in new terrain.

Max’s streaming mandate for movies had changed overnight, but De Luca and Abdy wanted to honor the studio’s relationship with Costner, sources said. The package was briefly developed under the Warner Bros. Label, New Line, but the economics soon became troubling (the New York Times reported this week that the studio has a small financial stake in the first two chapters of “Horizon.” A representative for the studio wouldn’t comment, but one source close to the film said those costs would have been related to development expenses at New Line).

Source: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/kevin-costner-horizon-stakes-box-office-career-1236056644/

Party donors and congressmen have called on the 81-year-old to abandon his run for re-election to the presidency after appearing frozen and muddling his words multiple times during the first head-to-head debate of the 2024 election campaign.

Trump was widely acknowledged the winner of the debate.

However, the President has clapped back at criticism and taken to the stand at a rally in North Carolina.

Mr Biden was met with chants of “four more years” – less than 24 hours after his presidential debate had been labelled ‘disastrous’.

He had been told he has a week to win over the Democrats before they try and get rid of him in the first presidential debate.

Former President Barack Obama has also weighed in on the matter saying “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know.”

In a tweet, the Mr Obama said: “Bad debate nights happen.

“Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.

“Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit.

“Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November. http://joebiden.com“

However, multiple high-profile democrats have voiced their concerns over Mr Biden’s position in the party.

One congressman told Matthew Yglesias, a US political blogger: “I think the president has one week to prove he is not dead.”

David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, told CNN: “It’s kind of a Defcon 1 moment…they are three years apart, but they seemed about 30 years apart tonight.”

David Axelrod, another Obama adviser, said: “There are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”

Mark Buell, a well-known Democratic donor, said: “Do we have time to put somebody else in there?”

Addressing Thursday’s debate, Mr Biden immediately went on the offensive as he told the crowds: “I don’t know what you did last night, but I spent 90 minutes on a stage debating with a guy who has the morals of an alley cat.

“Did you see Trump last night? My guess is he set, and I mean this sincerely, a new record for the most lies told in a single debate.”

He then hit out at Mr Trump’s conviction from last month’s hush money trial, as he said: “Donald Trump isn’t just a convicted felon, Donald Trump is a one-man crime wave.”

He then added he has “more trials coming up”.

“The thing that bothers me maybe most about him, he has no respect for women or the law,” Mr Biden added.

The US president also addressed concerns expressed by voters about his age after some of his recent appearances.

Source: https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/joe-biden-donald-trump-barack-obama-usa-election-politics/

As hundreds of thousands of people took to London’s streets on Saturday to celebrate LGBT+ pride, politicians were accused of using the community for political point scoring.

Politicians were accused of “deeply shameful” “point-scoring” over LGBT+ issues as London’s Pride parade took over the centre of the capital today.

1.5 million LGBT+ people and supporters were expected to take to the streets for the annual parade, with community groups, sports clubs, performers and companies taking part.

Ginger Johnson, the most recent winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK, was performing on one and spoke to Sky News before going on stage.

“It is deeply shameful that politicians think they can use LGBT+ issues to score points against each other,” said Ginger.

“It’s easy for them to rile people up with conversations like that [whether trans people should be allowed into single sex bathrooms],” she said.

“I don’t think they understand the danger that puts especially the trans community in.”

Dr Who star David Tennant was called “the problem” by Rishi Sunak this week after he told Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch to “shut up” because of her views on trans rights.

Morgan Freeman shared a note giving thanks to his fans Friday morning, expressing gratitude for users’ efforts calling out unauthorized AI imitations of the actor’s recognizable voice.

The celebrated 87-year-old actor has become legend for his narration in films such as “March of the Penguins,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Million Dollar Baby.” The sterling reputation of Freeman’s voice has made him a particularly popular target of AI-generated voice imitations, including in a recent viral series of TikToks created by a woman posing as the actor’s “nepo niece.” Freeman is not a fan of the practice.

“Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.I. voice imitating me,” the actor wrote. “Your dedication helps authenticity and integrity remain paramount. Grateful. #AI #scam #imitation #IdentityProtection”

Freeman’s representation had no further comment.

The actor’s comments come at a time where AI imitations have faced scrutiny in the entertainment industry. Scarlett Johansson’s legal team recently called for OpenAI to disclose how it created its AI personal voice assistant, Sky, and to pull the chatbot down for sounding extremely similar to her own voice. Johansson said she was approached by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last September with a request to use her voice for a conversational form of ChatGPT, but she declined for “personal reasons.” The actor said last month that she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” that the AI company went ahead and used a voice extremely similar to hers after she refused to work with them.

Altman also allegedly contacted her agent two days before the voice assistant demo was released asking her to reconsider. The company paused the use of the voice assistant, but stated that the voice was not an imitation of Johansson.

In April, Drake also came under fire from Tupac Shakur’s estate for using an AI imitation of the West Coast rapper on his song “Taylor Made Freestyle” dissing Kendrick Lamar. Howard King, who reps Shakur’s estate, sent a cease-and-desist to Drake, stating that the song was a “blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time.”

Source: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/morgan-freeman-slams-ai-voice-imitations-tiktok-1236057405/

Dua Lipa did not come to mess around.
The pop star stormed through her first ever headline slot at Glastonbury with an ambitious and dynamic performance that was stacked with smashes from beginning to end.
She took to the Pyramid Stage shortly after 10pm, opening with a flawless run of five songs: Training Season, One Kiss, Illusion, Break My Heart and Levitating.
Each one had the breathless choreography of an award show performance – and the pace didn’t let up all night.

Almost 100,000 people watched her play, with fans stretching all the way back to Rowmead, an area that used to be reserved for campers, but which has been opened up in 2024 to allow bigger crowds to the Pyramid Stage.
“It’s a lot, innit? A lot to take in,” Lipa said.
“Little me would just be beside herself right now.”
It was a tiny moment of vulnerability in an armour-plated set. No song was left unpolished, no vocal left unharmonised, no hair left untossed. Dua hit every mark with the precision of someone who’d been building towards this moment for years.
But if that makes it sound clinical and sterile, it wasn’t the case.
Take the moment she ran down to the barriers to join the crowd as they sang along to her early hit Be The One.
It wasn’t entirely spontaneous (in fact it riffed on a moment from her last Glastonbury performance in 2017) but the joy on the star’s face as she climbed the fences and stood face to face with her fans was genuine.

Shortly afterwards, she brought out Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker – a collaborator on her new album Radical Optimism – to sing the band’s song The Less I Know The Better.
Freed from the iron grip of choreography, she simply vibed out with him on stage, giving a glimpse of the person behind the tightly-controlled public persona.
“Tonight I get to pretend I’m in Tame Impala,” she beamed.
If there was a criticism of her set, it was that such moments were few and far between.
The show sometimes felt aimed at the global TV audience as much as the people in front of her, and the aerobic dance routines – while undoubtedly impressive – didn’t allow for much spontaneity.
But the audience’s attention never wavered. Even the less familiar new material was cleverly sequenced, so that you were never more than 3 minutes away from a certified banger.

New Rules mash-up
Before the show, Lipa said her goal was to turn Glastonbury “into a nightclub” and she kept to her word.
All the songs were given a sonic overhaul – adding sounds from the 90s rave scene or beefing up her beats with trunk-rumbling sub bass.
Her breakout hit, New Rules, was even combined with the festival staple Glue, by Northern Irish dance act Bicep.
The result was a show that felt like the VIP room of a gritty European nightspot, only delivered on a gigantic scale.

Even the outfits were planned to complement the club theme, with Dua’s fashion choices blending in with (rather than standing out from) those of her dancers – from a chunky studded belt, to red-and-black flamed hotpants.

Notably, she also wore flat shoes to facilitate the dancing – enhancing the feeling that we were joining her on a night out, rather than watching an untouchable pop icon.

With fireworks and confetti throughout the set, it felt like she was staking a claim on Glastonbury immortality. And, watching from the front row, she more than succeeded.

The other acts at the top of this weekend’s bill – including five-time headliners Coldplay – have their work cut out to match her ambition.

Dua Lipa’s Glastonbury setlist

1. Training Season
2. One Kiss
3. Illusion
4. Break My Heart
5. Illusion
6. These Walls
7. Be The One
8. The Less I Know The Better (Tame Impala cover)
9. Be The One
10. Falling Forever
11. Love Again
12. Pretty Please
13. Hallucinate
14. New Rules
15. Electricity
16. Cold Heart
17. Happy For You
18. Physical
19. Don’t Start Now
20. Houdini

Other sets on Friday came from dance collective Jungle, rock band Idles and Jamie xx – who packed out the Woodsies tent, and rewarded fans by reuniting with his bandmates Romy and Oliver from The xx for an emotional performance of You’ve Got The Love.
He was also joined on stage by Swedish pop star Robyn, playing their new collaboration Life.
Surprise guests were the order of the night, in fact.
Anne-Marie introduced Aitch to The Other Stage to perform Psycho, and Bombay Bicycle Club were joined by Damon Albarn to play Blur’s Tender and Heaven – which featured on Bombay Bicycle Club’s 2023 album My Big Day.
Albarn also urged people to vote in next week’s general election, and appeared to criticise Thursday night’s debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, saying: “Maybe it’s time we stopped putting octogenarians in charge of the world.”

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgl8xxnegeo

The only thing connecting each tiny room at the Happiness Factory to the outside world is a feeding hole in the door.

No phones or laptops are allowed inside these cells, which are no bigger than a store cupboard, and their inhabitants have only bare walls for company.
Residents may wear blue prison uniforms but they are not inmates – they have come to the centre in South Korea for a “confinement experience”.
Most people here have a child who has fully withdrawn from society, and have come to learn for themselves how it feels to be cut off from the world.

Solitary-confinement cell
Reclusive young people like these residents’ children are referred to as hikikomori, a term coined in Japan in the 1990s to describe severe social withdrawal among adolescents and young adults.
Last year, a South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare survey of 15,000 19- to 34-year-olds found more than 5% of respondents were isolating themselves.
If this is representative of the wider population of South Korea, it would mean about 540,000 people were in the same situation.
Since April, parents have been participating in a 13-week parental education programme funded and run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) the Korea Youth Foundation and the Blue Whale Recovery Centre.
The aim of the scheme is to teach people how to communicate better with their children.
The programme includes three days in a facility in Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon Province, where participants spend time in a room that replicates a solitary-confinement cell.
The hope is isolation will offer parents a deeper understanding of their children.

Beryl grew into a hurricane Saturday as it churned toward the southeastern Caribbean, with forecasters warning it was expected to strengthen into a dangerous major storm before reaching Barbados late Sunday or early Monday.

A major hurricane is considered Category 3 or higher, with winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph). On Saturday night, Beryl was a Category 1 hurricane, marking the farthest east that a hurricane formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.

A hurricane warning was issued for Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A tropical storm warning was posted for Martinique and Tobago and a tropical storm watch for Dominica.

“It’s astonishing to see a forecast for a major (Category 3+) hurricane in June anywhere in the Atlantic, let alone this far east in the deep tropics. #Beryl organizing in a hurry over the warmest waters ever recorded for late June,” Florida-based hurricane expert Michael Lowry posted on X.

Beryl’s center was forecast to pass about 26 miles (45 kilometers) south of Barbados, said Sabu Best, director of the island’s meteorological service. Forecasters then expect the storm to cross the Caribbean on a path toward Jamaica and eventually Mexico.

Late Saturday, Beryl was centered about 595 miles (955 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados, and its maximum sustained winds had risen to 85 mph (140 kph). It was moving west at 20 mph (31 kph).

“Rapid strengthening is now forecast,” the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Atmospheric science researcher Tomer Burg noted that Beryl was just a tropical depression with 35 mph winds Friday.

“This means that according to preliminary data, Beryl already met rapid intensification criteria before even becoming a hurricane,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

Warm waters were fueling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher.

Beryl also is the strongest June tropical storm on record that far east in the tropical Atlantic, according to Klotzbach.

“We remain absolutely vigilant and need to take every precaution that is possible for ourselves, for our family and for our neighbors,” Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a public address Saturday night, asking that all businesses close by Sunday evening. “We do not want to put anybody’s life at risk.”

She noted that thousands of people are in Barbados for the Twenty20 World Cup cricket final, with India beating South Africa on Saturday in the capital of Bridgetown. It is considered cricket’s biggest event.

Some fans, like Shashank Musku, a 33-year-old physician who lives in Pittsburgh, were rushing to change their flights to leave before the storm.

Musku said by phone that he has never experienced a hurricane: “I don’t plan on being in one, either.”

He and his wife, who were rooting for India, found out about Beryl thanks to a taxi driver who mentioned the storm.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in a public address Saturday that shelters would open Sunday evening and he urged people to prepare. He ordered officials to refuel government vehicles and asked grocery stores and gas stations to stay open later before the storm.

“There will be such a rush … if you keep limited hours,” he said as he apologized ahead of time for government interruptions on radio stations with storm updates. “Cricket lovers have to bear with us that we’ll have to give information … this is life and death.”

Beryl is the second named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto came ashore in northeastern Mexico with heavy rains that resulted in four deaths.

Lowry noted that in records dating back to 1851 only five named storms had ever formed in June in the tropical Atlantic east of the Caribbean, and only one of those was a hurricane. He said that one was the first hurricane of 1933, which was the most active hurricane season on record.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/tropical-system-beryl-caribbean-0a61043f36a9439f8037147d60e3c9e3

America’s adversaries didn’t just think President Biden got pummeled in Thursday’s debate, they claim the United States was the real loser.

Russia, China, Iran and others weighed in after Biden’s faltering performance left viewers stunned. Media outlets in those countries, many of which are government-run, seized on the debate debacle to criticize the U.S.

“Every outlet, big and small, carries a piece describing what happened,” Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Fox News Digital. “Some have more than one. Most of them, if not all, are derogatory of both candidates and mocking America.”

“What [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is seeing is that the American Society is deeply fractured and consumed by its own problems,” Koffler said. “Putin likely believes that Russia wins either way, no matter who wins, because he expects the U.S. to plunge into chaos in the aftermath of the elections, because the country is so divided and polarized.”

“Bottom line, Moscow feels confident that the societal crisis that has engulfed the U.S. is good for Russia,” she added.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Putin “was too bored to wake up and watch the U.S. debate,” but that “we have seen media reports about these debates.”

Peskov added that the Kremlin has made no attempt to “assess this debate” or make “official conclusions” and insisted that Russia has “never interfered in the election campaigns of the United States.”

Outside the Kremlin, Russian media have reportedly touted the debate as a victory for Russia, with Putin positioned to dictate terms in the war in Ukraine – especially if Donald Trump were to win the White House.

They highlighted Biden’s “half-open mouth, unblinking eyes” and “blank expression on his face.”

“This is how Joe Biden appeared before an audience of millions,” Russian state TV New York bureau chief Valentin Bogdanov said on Kremlin-backed RT.

The news report especially focused on the reaction from CNN, calling the anchors “powerless” and the Democratic Party in the throes of a “deep panic,” according to East2West.

China also took an unfavorable view of the debate. Official media appeared to generally ignore it, but the state-run Global Times labeled it “the most chaotic presidential debate ever” and “like a reality show” while also highlighting the times Biden and Trump talked about China, according to the BBC.

The Global Times most specifically took issue with Trump blaming Beijing for “the raging COVID-19 epidemic and U.S. economic woes.”

BIDEN AIMS TO CHANGE NEGATIVE NARRATIVE AFTER ROUGH DEBATE WITH TRUMP

State-owned Beijing News claimed that the debate exposed both candidates’ shortcomings, with a “habitually confused” Biden and Trump spreading “rumors” instead of answering questions directly.

The Xinhua news agency framed the debate within the context of an America “weary of another Biden-Trump match-up” and focusing on Biden’s “several verbal slips” and “unclear” speech, while hitting Trump for failing to answer questions directly while providing statements that “contained many exaggerations and falsehoods.”

Chinese social media personalities were even more pointed. Former state media editor Hu Xijin on social media platform X mocked the U.S. presidential debate for proving “very entertaining for many Chinese people,” according to Newsweek.

“Objectively speaking, the low-quality performance of these two old men was a negative advertisement for Western democracy,” he wrote.

Other social media users described the debate as a “disaster,” “train wreck” and “waste of time, though it should be noted that Chinese media has regularly tried to paint the U.S. as a country in turmoil with an uncertain political future.

Iran’s Republic News Agency did not appear to focus much on the debate as the country holds its own presidential elections this weekend, which dominated coverage, but Middle East expert and The Foreign Desk editor-in-chief Lisa Daftari warned that the mediocre showing at the debate will interest all of America’s rivals.

“Any American adversary may look at President Biden’s performance as a reminder that the leader of the free world is currently less than competent,” Daftari said. “It’s always been the case that the United States has the ability to defend its interests and bring about stability throughout the world just through deterrence and proper rhetoric and positioning.”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/world-reaction-us-presidential-debate-mockery-china-russia-concern-allies

Emmanuel Macron has taken many risks in a political career marked by countless crises but his decision to call snap elections may be one too many, marring his legacy and ushering in an era of extremes.

The tremors from Macron dissolving the National Assembly after his centrist party suffered a drubbing in European polls remain strong, with even figures close to the president acknowledging unease over the political turmoil.

“It was the president who killed the presidential majority,” said former prime minister Edouard Philippe, an ally of Macron.

The far-right National Rally (RN) is tipped to win, potentially giving the party of Macron’s longtime rival Marine Le Pen the post of prime minister for the first time in a tense “cohabitation”.

Macron’s popularity has sunk to the extent that allies suggested he take a back seat in the campaign, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal leading the way.

For one of Macron’s most loyal supporters, some of the resentment stems from his unexpected rise to the presidency.

“There’s a desire for revenge on the part of politicians who resent his success,” said Francois Patriat, head of the pro-Macron deputies in the upper house Senate.

Born in Amiens to two doctors, Macron met his future wife Brigitte when she was a teacher and 25 years his senior.

“He fell in love with his drama teacher when he was 16, and he said he was going to marry her, and then he married her. That’s pretty strong stuff,” said a former classmate from the elite graduate school ENA.

With that same self-confidence, he quit the government of former president Francois Hollande in August 2016 to prepare his run for the presidency, a risky move at the time.

He went on to create En Marche (On the Move), a political movement with the same initials as its leader and won the presidential election in 2017 at the age of 39.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia should resume production of intermediate and shorter range nuclear-capable missiles and then consider where to deploy them after the United States brought similar missiles to Europe and Asia.
Putin’s move finally kills off all that remains from one of the most significant arms controls treaties of the Cold War amid fears that the world’s two biggest nuclear powers could be entering a new arms race together with China.

In Russia’s far northeastern Yakutia region, local scientists are performing an autopsy on a wolf frozen in permafrost for around 44,000 years, a find they said was the first of its kind.
Found by chance by locals in Yakutia’s Abyyskiy district in 2021, the wolf’s body is only now being properly examined by scientists.
“This is the world’s first discovery of a late Pleistocene predator,” said Albert Protopopov, head of the department for the study of mammoth fauna at the Yakutia Academy of Sciences.

“Its age is about 44,000 years, and there have never been such finds before,” he said.
Sandwiched between the Arctic Ocean and in Russia’s Arctic far east, Yakutia is a vast region of swamps and forests around the size of Texas, around 95% of which is covered in permafrost.

Winter temperatures in the region have been known to drop to as low as minus 64 degrees Celsius (-83.2°F)
“Usually, it’s the herbivorous animals that die, get stuck in swamps, freeze and reach us as a whole. This is the first time when a large carnivore has been found,” said Protopopov.

President Joe Biden said on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would consider dropping out of the race after a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” an ebullient Biden said at a rally one day after the head-to-head showdown with his Republican rival, which was widely viewed as a defeat for the 81-year-old president.

“I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he said, as the crowd chanted “four more years.”
“I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul that I could do this job. The stakes are too high,” Biden said.
Biden’s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses in the debate heightened voter concerns that he might not be fit to serve another four-year term and prompted some of his fellow Democrats to wonder whether they could replace him as their candidate for theNov. 5 U.S. election.

Campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said there were no conversations taking place about that possibility. “We’d rather have one bad night than a candidate with a bad vision for where he wants to take the country,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The campaign held an “all hands on deck” meeting on Friday afternoon to reassure staffers that Biden was not dropping out of the race, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

Though Trump, 78, put forward a series of falsehoods throughout the debate, the focus afterward was squarely on Biden, especially among Democrats.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Party leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, avoided answering directly when asked whether he still had faith in Biden’s candidacy.
“I support the ticket. I support the Senate Democratic majority. We’re going to do everything possible to take back the House in November. Thank you, everyone,” he told reporters.
Some other Democrats likewise demurred when asked if Biden should stay in the race. “That’s the president’s decision,” Democratic Senator Jack Reed told a local TV station in Rhode Island.
But several of the party’s most senior figures, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, said they were sticking with Biden.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and somebody who only cares about himself,” former Democratic President Barack Obama wrote on X.
The New York Times editorial board, which endorsed Biden in 2020, called on him to drop out of the race to give the Democratic Party a better chance of beating Trump by picking another candidate. “The greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election,” the editorial said.

TRUMP TARGETS VIRGINIA

Jan and Els were married for almost five decades. In early June, they died together after being given lethal medication by two doctors. In the Netherlands, this is known as duo-euthanasia. It’s legal, and it’s rare – but every year, more Dutch couples choose to end their lives this way.

Some people might find this article upsetting.

Three days before they voluntarily take their last breath, Jan and Els’ campervan sits on a sunlit marina in Friesland, in the Netherlands’ north. They’re a couple who love being mobile, and have lived most of their marriage in a motorhome, or on boats.
“We tried sometimes [to live] in a pile of stones – a house,” jokes Jan, when I visit them, “but it doesn’t work.”
He’s 70, and sits in the swivel driving-seat of the van, one leg bent underneath him in the only position that eases his continuous back pain. His wife, Els, is 71 and has dementia. Now, she struggles to formulate her sentences.
“This is very good,” she says, standing up easily and pointing to her body. “But this is terrible,” she says, pointing to her head.
Jan and Els met in kindergarten – theirs was a lifelong partnership. When he was young, Jan played hockey for the Netherlands’ national youth team, and then became a sports coach. Els trained as a primary school teacher. But it was their shared love of water, boats, and sailing that defined their years together.
As a young couple they lived on a houseboat. They later bought a cargo boat and built a business transporting goods around the Netherlands’ inland waterways.
Meanwhile, Els gave birth to their only son (who asked not to be named). He became a weekly boarder at school and spent weekends with his parents. During school holidays when their child was onboard too, Jan and Els looked for work trips that would take them to interesting places – along the river Rhine, or to the Netherlands’ islands.
By 1999, the inland cargo business had become very competitive. Jan was experiencing serious back pain from the heavy-duty work he had been doing for more than a decade. He and Els moved on land, but after a few years they were again living on a boat. When that became too much to manage, they bought their spacious campervan.
Jan had surgery on his back in 2003, but it didn’t improve. He had halted a heavy regime of pain killers and could no longer work, but Els was still busy teaching. Sometimes they talked about euthanasia – Jan explained to his family he didn’t want to live too long with his physical limitations. It was around this time the couple joined NVVE – the Netherlands’ “right to die” organisation.
“If you take a lot of medicine, you live like a zombie,” Jan told me. “So, with the pain I have, and Els’ illness, I think we have to stop this.”
When Jan says “stop this”, he means – stop living.

She’s quite literally rocking the vote.

Dr. Jill Biden sent a strong message to Americans at husband President Joe Biden’s post-debate rally in Raleigh, NC on Friday, clad in a navy blue silk crepe Christian Siriano dress with an all-over “Vote” print.

“Dr. Biden wearing my dress sends a clear message to us all. A vote for Biden is a vote for human and civil rights,” the designer tells Page Six Style in a statement.

“As a young American brand and designer, what we can do is give our clothes a voice and I hope this speaks to you. Now let’s get to work!”

The first lady, 73, accessorized with pearl drop earrings, a dainty necklace, several bracelets and coordinating navy pointed-toed pumps.

The designer’s “Vote” print has become a Hollywood favorite in recent years, with similar styles popping up on the likes of Lizzo, Julianne Moore, Julia Roberts and Sarah Hyland.

Siriano has dressed Dr. Biden in the past, as well as other White House women like former first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“When you get to dress those people, it definitely feels really great because the whole world sees them,” the “Project Runway” alum told Business Insider last week.

“You feel so great because a person who everyone’s looking up to chose to wear something. It’s kind of like the ultimate compliment.”

The Bidens had traveled to North Carolina from Atlanta, where the 81-year-old president debated former POTUS and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, 78.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/06/28/style/first-lady-jill-biden-makes-a-statement-in-vote-dress-after-debate/

He might not have two thumbs — but he’s getting nearly $2 million.

A jury awarded a Long Island man $1.9 million in damages after he had part of his thumb chopped off in 2016 by the motorized — and ironically named — “soft close” door of his BMW.

Godwin Boateng, a now-68-year-old software engineer from Valley Stream, was “giddy” over the verdict in Brooklyn federal court Thursday — which came nearly a decade after the life-changing amputation, his lawyer told The Post.

“We’re very happy with the award,” said Boateng’s lawyer, Avi Cohen.

Cohen added he and Boateng were happy they held out on BMW’s last settlement offer weeks before trial, which amounted to “peanuts.”

Iranians voted for a new president on Friday (Jun 28) following the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, choosing from a tightly controlled group of four candidates loyal to the Supreme :eader at a time of growing public frustration and Western pressure.

The election coincides with escalating regional tension due to war between Israel and Iran’s allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its fast-advancing nuclear programme.

Khamenei called for a high turnout to offset a legitimacy crisis fuelled by public discontent over economic hardship and curbs on political and social freedom.

“The durability, strength, dignity and reputation of the Islamic Republic depend on people’s presence,” Khamenei told state television after casting his vote. “High turnout is a definite necessity.”

The next president is not expected to usher in any major policy shift on Iran’s nuclear programme or support for militia groups across the Middle East, since Khamenei calls all the shots on top state matters.

However, the president runs the government day-to-day and can influence the tone of Iran’s foreign and domestic policy. A hardline watchdog body made up of six clerics and six jurists aligned with Khamenei vets candidates, and approved only six from an initial pool of 80. Two hardline candidates subsequently dropped out.

THREE HARDLINE CANDIDATES, ONE RELATIVE MODERATE

Three candidates are hardliners and one is a low-profile comparative moderate, backed by the reformist faction that has largely been sidelined in Iran in recent years.

Critics of Iran’s clerical rule say that low and declining turnouts in recent years show the system’s legitimacy has eroded. Just 48% of voters participated in the 2021 presidential election and turnout plumbed a record low of 41% in a parliamentary election in March.

State television showed queues inside polling stations in several cities. Polling was extended two times for a total of four extra hours until 18:30 GMT because “people wanted to vote, state TV said. Voting in Iran is usually extended as late as midnight. Authorities said the result would be announced on Saturday.

If no candidate wins at least 50% plus one vote from all ballots cast, including blank votes, a run-off between the top two candidates is held on the first Friday after the result is declared.

Prominent among the remaining hardliners are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, parliament speaker and former commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, and Saeed Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator who served for four years in Khamenei’s office.

All four candidates have vowed to revive the flagging economy, beset by mismanagement, state corruption and sanctions re-imposed since 2018, after the United States ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers.

“I think Jalili is the only candidate who raised the issue of justice, fighting corruption and giving value to the poor. Most importantly he does not link Iran’s foreign policy to the nuclear deal,” said Farzan, a 45-year-old artist in the city of Karaj.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iran-votes-new-president-amid-voter-apathy-4444151

Eagles singer Don Henley filed a lawsuit in New York on Friday seeking the return of his handwritten notes and song lyrics from the band’s hit “Hotel California” album.

The civil complaint filed in Manhattan federal court comes after prosecutors in March abruptly dropped criminal charges midway through a trial against three collectibles experts accused of scheming to sell the documents.

The Eagles co-founder has maintained the pages were stolen and had vowed to pursue a lawsuit when the criminal case was dropped against rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski.

“Hotel California,” released by the Eagles in 1977, is the third-biggest selling album of all time in the U.S.

“These 100 pages of personal lyric sheets belong to Mr. Henley and his family, and he has never authorized defendants or anyone else to peddle them for profit,” Daniel Petrocelli, Henley’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement Friday.

According to the lawsuit, the handwritten pages remain in the custody of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which declined to comment Friday on the litigation.

Lawyers for Kosinski and Inciardi dismissed the legal action as baseless, noting the criminal case was dropped after it was determined that Henley misled prosecutors by withholding critical information.

Queen Camilla has said Britain’s armed forces are “a source of inspiration, reassurance and pride” to mark Armed Forces Day – as the monarch’s latest portrait is released.

A new portrait of King Charles has been released to mark Armed Forces Day, as Queen Camilla gave a rare national statement praising servicemen and women.

“Our armed forces support and strengthen our nation. You are a source of inspiration, reassurance and pride – and I salute you all,” she said in a message filmed in Clarence House’s morning room.

In his new portrait released at the same time as the Queen’s message, the King is wearing his Field Marshal Number 1 ceremonial frock coat with medals, sword and decorations.

The photo was taken in the Grand Corridor at Windsor Castle last November by Hugo Burnand, a favourite photographer of the Royal Family who took the official coronation photographs.

The King and Queen travelled to Normandy on 6 June to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings with world leaders.

In her message, Camilla remembered the “incredible bravery” of the forces that liberated Europe from Hitler’s regime.

“Eight decades later, I know that same spirit and those same qualities remain much in evidence throughout our armed forces, as you undertake your duties in the face of a multitude of challenges and dangers.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/new-portrait-of-king-released-as-queen-camilla-issues-rare-statement-in-support-of-armed-forces-13160689

The private funeral will take place on 7 July, the day each year the club celebrates Rob Burrow Day because of the iconic number seven shirt he wore.

Details of Rob Burrow’s funeral have been released to allow fans of the former Leeds Rhinos star to pay their respects.

Burrow died aged 41 earlier this month, four years after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND).

A private funeral will take place on 7 July, the day each year the club celebrates Rob Burrow Day because of the iconic number seven shirt he wore during his illustrious career.

The details of his funeral procession have been released so members of the public can pay their respects to Burrow and his family.

The cortege will travel along the A656 (Park Road) passing the Xscape leisure complex on their right as it travels towards the M62 junction.

The cars will continue along the A639 towards Pontefract passing Pontefract Racecourse before turning onto Park Lane (B6134) near Pontefract Tanshelf train station.

The cortege will follow along Ackton Lane into Ackton before turning left onto Sewerbridge Lane and Common Side Lane (B6133) heading towards Featherstone.

At the War Horse sculpture, the cars will turn left, slowing for a moment at Featherstone Lions ARLFC’s ground on Wakefield Road (A645).

The cortege will slow again as it passes through Featherstone and near to where Rob played his junior rugby.

The cars will continue along Pontefract Lane towards the crematorium

However, members of the public are asked to leave at this part of the journey so the Burrow family can have a few moments to themselves before arriving at the crematorium for the service.

A joint statement from the family and Leeds Rhinos, said: “Entry to the crematorium and service will be for invited guests only and the purpose of publishing the route is to give the public the chance to pay their respects before allowing Rob’s family and friends to grieve his loss in private.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/rob-burrow-funeral-plans-revealed-with-poignant-date-set-13160575

New court documents show the dire financial situation the King of Pop was in when he died aged 50 of acute propofol intoxication

Michael Jackson was more than $500m (£395.3m) in debt when he died in 2009, new court documents allege.

The King of Pop was in a deep financial hole when he died aged 50 of acute propofol intoxication, according to a petition the executors of his estate filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and seen by Sky’s US partner network NBC News

“At the time of Michael Jackson’s death, Michael Jackson’s most significant assets were subject to more than $500 million of debt and creditors’ claims, with some of the debt accruing interest at extremely high interest rates, and some debt in default,” the filing said.

The pop superstar had been preparing for a 50-show concert residency called This Is It at London’s O2 Arena before he died on 25 June 2009 – 18 days before the first performance had been scheduled.

His death left his estate financially liable for $40m (£31.6m) to the tour promoter, AEG, the filing said.

The filing requests that money from Jackson’s estate be used to reimburse the executors’ lawyers for legal services and other expenses.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/singer-michael-jackson-500m-in-debt-when-he-died-13160334

A private jet at the centre of a mysterious fake gold smuggling case belongs to a well-connected Egyptian tycoon, Ibrahim Al Organi, Sky News can reveal.

Last August, authorities in Zambia raided a private jet, which had landed at the African country’s largest airport after flying more than 3,000 miles from Cairo.

Acting on a tip, Zambia’s Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) found $5.7m in cash, five pistols and 127kg of what appeared to be gold.

Zambian authorities later tested the pieces and discovered they were mostly made up of copper and zinc.

“This has been a clear case of scamming, gold scamming,” said DEC director Nason Banda at a news conference after the operation.

Zambian authorities seized the jet and detained 10 people on board, including six Egyptian nationals. For almost a year, however, the owner of the jet has remained a mystery.

Documents obtained by Sky News, in collaboration with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), show that the plane is owned by prominent Egyptian businessman Ibrahim Al Organi.

In an affidavit filed to Zambia’s High Court in December, Al Organi identified himself as the owner of the aircraft.

Who is Al Organi?

The Egyptian businessman is chairman of the Organi Group, a sprawling network of companies in construction, real estate, travel, and security. In January 2023, Al Organi became an official sponsor of Al Ahly, the most successful football team in Africa.

Al Organi’s affidavit, submitted in a bid to regain possession of the aircraft, says he is the “sole director” of the company World Aviation Sinai International Mountain Limited, which is registered with the aviation authority in San Marino, a tiny landlocked country surrounded by Italy.

President Joe Biden delivered a shaky, halting performance while his Republican rival Donald Trump battered him with a series of often false attacks at their debate on Thursday, as the two oldest presidential candidates ever exchanged personal insults ahead of the November election.
The two men traded barbs on abortion, immigration, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, their handling of the economy and even their golf games as they each sought to shake up what opinion polls show has been a virtually tied race for months.

Biden’s allies tried to put a brave face on the evening, and two White House officials said Biden had a cold.
But the president’s poor performance rattled his fellow Democrats and will likely deepen voter concerns that the 81-year-old is too old to serve another four-year term.
One top Biden donor, who did not want to be identified while criticizing the president, called his performance “disqualifying” and said he expected a fresh round of calls for him to step aside ahead of the party’s national convention in August.

Vice President Kamala Harris, appearing on CNN after the debate, acknowledged what she called Biden’s “slow start” but argued that voters should judge him and Trump based on their years in office.
“I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three-and-a-half years of performance,” she told CNN host Anderson Cooper.
A hoarse-sounding Biden stumbled over his words on several occasions during the debate’s first half-hour. But he found his footing at the halfway mark when he attacked Trump over his conviction for covering up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, calling him a “felon.”

In response, Trump brought up the recent conviction of Biden’s son, Hunter, for lying about his drug use to buy a gun.
Moments later, Biden noted that almost all of Trump’s former cabinet members, including former Vice President Mike Pence, have not endorsed his campaign.
“They know him well, they served with him,” he said. “Why are they not endorsing him?”
Trump, meanwhile, unleashed a barrage of criticisms, many of which were well-worn falsehoods he has long repeated, including claims that migrants have carried out a crime wave, that Democrats support infanticide and that he actually won the 2020 election.
Biden and Trump, 78, were both under pressure to display their fitness for office. Biden has been dogged by questions about his age and sharpness, while Trump’s incendiary rhetoric and sprawling legal woes remain a vulnerability.
“Obviously, the biggest factor is that Biden still seemed old and raspy and less coherent than when he ran last time,” said Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University. “I don’t think Trump really did anything to help himself beyond his existing supporters, but I think it’s eclipsed by people’s impressions of Biden on his biggest vulnerability.”
Asked about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, the former president refused to accept any responsibility and claimed that many of those arrested were innocent.
“This guy has no sense of American democracy,” Biden scoffed in response.
Biden also blamed Trump for enabling the elimination of a nationwide right to abortion by appointing conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court, an issue that has bedeviled Republicans since 2022.
Trump countered that Biden would not support any limits on abortions and said that returning the issue to the states was the right course of action.
Trump said Biden had failed to secure the southern U.S. border, ushering in scores of criminals.

“I call it Biden migrant crime,” he said.
Biden replied, “Once again, he’s exaggerating, he’s lying.”
Studies show immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
NAME-CALLING
The televised 90-minute clash on CNN took place far earlier than any modern presidential debate, more than four months before the Nov. 5 Election Day.
The two candidates appeared with no live audience, and their microphones automatically cut off when it was not their turn to speak – both atypical rules imposed to avoid the chaos that derailed their first debate in 2020, when Trump interrupted Biden repeatedly.
The two men – who have made little secret of their mutual dislike – did not shake hands or acknowledge each other before or after the debate.
But there were plenty more moments in which their bad blood was evident. Each called the other the worst president in history; Biden referred to Trump as a “loser” and a “whiner,” while Trump called Biden a “disaster.”
At one point, the rivals bickered over their golf games, with Trump bragging about hitting the ball farther than Biden and Biden retorting that Trump would struggle to carry his own bag.
The first question focused on the economy, as polls show Americans are dissatisfied with Biden’s performance despite wage growth and low unemployment.
Biden acknowledged that inflation had driven prices substantially higher than at the start of his term but said he deserves credit for putting “things back together again” following the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump asserted that he had overseen “the greatest economy in the history of our country” before the pandemic struck and said he took action to prevent the economic freefall from deepening even further.
The debate took place at a time of profound polarization and deep-seated anxiety among voters about the state of American politics. Two-thirds of voters said in a May Reuters/Ipsos poll that they were concerned violence could follow the election, nearly four years after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Trump took the stage as a felon who still faces a trio of criminal cases, including for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The former president, who persists in falsely claiming his defeat was the result of fraud, has suggested he will punish his political enemies if returned to power, but he will need to convince undecided voters that he does not pose a mortal threat to democracy, as Biden asserts.
Biden’s challenge was to deliver a forceful performance after months of Republican assertions that his faculties have dulled with age.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-trump-face-off-first-debate-with-age-fitness-focus-2024-06-27/

Satellite images showing much of the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab in ruins after months of Israeli air strikes offer a glimpse of the scale of damage in one of Hezbollah’s main bastions in south Lebanon.
The images from private satellite operator Planet Labs PBC, taken on June 5 and analysed by Reuters, show at least 64 destroyed sites in Aita al-Shaab. Several of the sites contain more than one building.

The number of days reaching a sizzling 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in 20 of the world’s largest capitals – from Delhi to Jakarta to Buenos Aires – has risen 52% over the past three decades, a think tank analysis found on Friday.
More than 300 million people live in the world’s 20 most populous capital cities, where they are uniquely vulnerable to rising temperatures fueled by climate change, as asphalt and buildings absorb and retain heat.

Capital cities including Delhi, Dhaka and Manila already this year have been plagued by dangerous heatwaves – leading to a spate of heat-related deaths and school closures.
Delhi alone documented its longest and most severe heatwave in 74 years, registering 39 consecutive days with maximum temperatures at or above 40 C (104 F) from May 14 to June 21, according to weather station data.
Now, an analysis by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), quantifies the growing threat of extreme heat in some of the world’s largest urban centers.

Using surface temperature data from airport weather stations, the researchers found that from 2014 to 2023, there were nearly 6,500 cumulative days, or instances, when one of the 20 cities reached temperatures of 35 C or higher. In the decade from 1994 to 2003, there were just 4,755.
“We know that hot weather is not felt evenly across cities,” said Tucker Landesman, a researcher with IIED. “Pockets of extreme heat are more likely in certain types of neighborhoods and commercial districts. This is tied to inequality and how we design buildings and public infrastructure.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/number-days-over-35-c-surges-worlds-scorching-capitals-2024-06-28/

About 4,000 years ago, the last of Earth’s woolly mammoths died out on a lonely Arctic Ocean island off the coast of Siberia, a melancholy end to one of the world’s charismatic Ice Age animals. But what doomed this last mammoth population on Wrangel Island? A new genomic analysis deepens the mystery.
The study offers the fullest account to date of the inbreeding, deleterious mutations and low genetic diversity experienced by this population during 6,000 years of isolation on the island but concluded that, despite previous suggestions, these factors are unlikely to have doomed the Wrangel mammoths.

“This suggests that something else, and very sudden, caused the population to collapse,” said evolutionary geneticist Marianne Dehasque of Uppsala University in Sweden, lead author of the study published on Thursday in the journal Cell, opens new tab.
The researchers examined genome data obtained from the remains of 14 Wrangel mammoths and seven mammoths from a Siberian mainland population ancestral to the island dwellers, dating to up to 50,000 years ago.

As the Ice Age eased, the dry steppe tundra where mammoths long had thrived transformed, gradually from south to north, into wetter temperate forests amid rising global temperatures, confining these animals to Eurasia’s northernmost reaches.
“This is probably also how mammoths eventually ended up and became isolated on Wrangel Island, which lost its connection to the mainland around 10,000 years ago due to rising sea levels. It may have even been a single herd that populated the island,” Dehasque said.

The genome data indicated that the population isolated on mountainous Wrangel originated with at most eight individuals, then grew to 200 to 300 mammoths within about 20 generations – around 600 years – and remained stable.
The study detected reduced diversity in a group of genes crucial to the immune system. But while the mammoths slowly accumulated moderately harmful mutations, the most deleterious defects were disappearing from the population, apparently because individuals carrying these were less likely to survive and reproduce.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/science/genome-study-deepens-mystery-what-doomed-earths-last-mammoths-2024-06-27/

The ‘Espresso’ and ‘Please Please Please’ singer is true at every turn to the sly, witty persona she’s crafted.

The pop rollout is a tricky thing to nail. And few, lately, have done it better than Sabrina Carpenter.

The 25-year-old is preparing to release her sixth album, “Short n’ Sweet,” next month, but it’s already a breakthrough — this week, she notched her first Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Please Please Please.” Some of the song’s success may be owed to its video, which stars Carpenter and her rumored real-life boyfriend, the much-memed Irish actor Barry Keoghan, as a mismatched pair, a ne’er-do-well and a regretful partner: He robs banks, as she looks on with sorrowful recognition that she’s in love with a criminal. This follows on the remarkable success of “Espresso,” which — though not quite topping the charts, peaking at No. 3 — managed to carve a phrase into the zeitgeist in a manner that recalls “Hollaback Girl” or “Wrecking Ball.” If the song gets stuck in your head at some point this summer — well, that’s that Sabrina espresso.

The songs are strong. But songcraft alone isn’t quite enough in the age of virality, and few have lately proven themselves as adept at surfing the waves of public attention as Carpenter. An early sign, perhaps, was her late-2023 and early-2024 booking as the opening act for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Latin America, Australia, and Asia; the mere fact of the gig was one thing, but Carpenter cannily turned each night into an event. Her single “Nonsense” ends with a slightly blue, rhyming three-line joke, and each night of the tour, she came up with a new one, referencing the language and culture of wherever she was visiting. (To wit, in Buenos Aires: ​​“When I’m in the bedroom I feel sexy / He’s having a ball, he call me Messi / Argentina, will you be my bestie?”) This was showmanship designed less for the stadium crowd than for PopCrave. And it worked, continuing up to her “Saturday Night Live” performance, in which she joked about a guy being “30 Rock hard.”

Something, here, recalls what Katy Perry once referred to as her own “soft-serve sexiness”: It’s a gleefully innocent raunch, delivered with a wink that brings everyone, Carpenter included, in on the joke. (The “Nonsense” outros are either stupidly intelligent or brilliantly dumb, and they’re always delivered with slyness and control.) A key difference with Perry, though, is the overarching sense of strategy and cohesion. Perry, when launching an album — as she’s currently doing, showing up in Paris in a dress with a 100-yard-train bedecked with the lyrics sheet for her next single — will try just about anything. (Most notably, perhaps, was her 96-hour “Big Brother”-style livestream promoting the 2017 album “Witness”: It was a can’t-look-away spectacle that seemed, ultimately, to do little for the music.)

And it’s hard to blame her: For those with lower profiles than Taylor Swift — which is to say, for every other working musician — figuring out the right angle of approach on an album rollout is tricky. In recent months, Dua Lipa pumped out content, live performances, and various pre-launch singles ahead of her new album “Radical Optimism”; Billie Eilish, by contrast, withheld any singles ahead of “Hit Me Hard and Soft.”

Source: https://variety.com/2024/music/columns/sabrina-carpenter-short-n-sweet-album-rollout-campaign-1236049669/

When Americans choose their next president, the contest is always closely watched around the world.
There are countless ways US foreign policy – and the actions of the White House – has an impact on different parts of the globe.
American influence abroad is sure to play a part in the first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on Thursday.
But it’s not just in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza that this election matters.
Eight of the BBC’s foreign correspondents explain why this election rematch is making waves where they are.

Midnight in Paris looks a little different when you’re a multi-millionaire.

Kendall Jenner went barefoot during a private late-night tour of the Louvre earlier this week, causing a stir online.

Between Paris Fashion Week shows, the 28-year-old model spent most of her time exploring the City of Love alongside rumored boyfriend Bad Bunny.

In fact, the lovebirds seemingly rented out the famous Parisian museum on Tuesday for a lavish date night.

“The Louvre at midnight,” Jenner captioned photos standing in front of some of the most famous art pieces in the world — including the Mona Lisa.

Although the “Kardashians” star ditched her shoes for the late-night escapade, she wore a long black skirt with an asymmetrical hemline and a backless black top.

While the “Me Porto Bonito” singer, 30, was not pictured in the Instagram carousel, fans joked that they knew “who took these pics.”

Meanwhile, other users couldn’t help but comment on the model’s lack of footwear in the famed art gallery.

“We get it. You’re so filthy rich you can get the louvre to open at midnight just for you to walk barefoot around the historic halls 😭😩,” one user commented.

“Where are your shoes girl 😭,” another asked, which a third dittoed, “I’m so thrown off by barefeet at the Louvre.”

While wearing footwear is typically an unspoken rule at most indoor facilities, the Louvre doesn’t state that shoes are required anywhere on its website.

Before their stop at the famous art museum, the duo made separate cameos at Vogue World: Paris on Sunday, where Jenner arrived on horseback while Bad Bunny put on a short performance.

They were also spotted at an event for Fwrd, where Jenner serves as a creative director, and at celeb-loved restaurant Ferdi.

For their romantic date night, the couple coordinated in matching light gray looks, with the hitmaker rocking a slightly oversized suit and the model showing off her svelte physique in a skintight set from sister Kylie Jenner’s brand Khy.

The reality TV star and the Puerto Rican rapper first sparked dating rumors in February 2023. Although things briefly fizzled around the holidays, the two were linked again in May 2024.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/06/27/celebrity-news/kendall-jenner-goes-barefoot-on-late-night-tour-of-empty-louvre/

The collapse happened above a mine, according to local media, and all activities at the sports facility have been cancelled while investigations continue. Footage shows a huge light pole swallowed by the sudden opening.

A sinkhole said to be up to 100ft deep and just as wide opened up in the middle of a field of football pitches in the US, swallowing a huge light pole.

The collapse, in the centre of Gordon Moore Park in Alton, Illinois, happened above a limestone mine on Wednesday morning, according to local reports.

No injuries have been reported and all sports and events have been cancelled for a second day, Alton City Hall said in a post on Facebook, while investigations continue.

“No one was on the field at the time and no one was hurt, and that’s the most important thing,” said Alton Mayor David Goins.

According to local media, the mine is operated by New Frontier Materials, which said in a statement there was a “surface subsidence”.

Locals are counting their blessings that the incident did not happen while the pitch was being used. Only last week the Marquette Explorers Soccer Camp was being held there between 9am and 11am every day.

Lucky break

“Last week at that time, we had 60 to 70 people out there on the field for our soccer camp,” Marquette Catholic High School athletic director Brian Hoener told the Alton Telegraph. “This could have been much worse.”

Officials locked down the entire area and closed nearby roads, the Alton Telegraph reported.

A spokesman added: “The impacted area has been secured and will remain off limits for the foreseeable future while inspectors and experts examine the mine and conduct repairs.

“Safety is our top priority. We will work with the city to remediate this issue as quickly and safely as possible to ensure minimal impact on the community.”

Video footage shows a light pole in the middle of the field sink suddenly into the opening.

‘It all went’

“At the surface, it was all at once,” said director of Alton Parks and Recreation Michael Haynes, according to local broadcaster Fox 2.

“It all went. Actually, one of our lights was in the middle and it’s all gone.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/huge-sinkhole-100ft-deep-opens-up-in-middle-of-illinois-football-pitch-13159803

Simon Harris said the intimidation of politicians and their families cannot be allowed to continue.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris has said a hoax bomb threat made to his home on Wednesday night is “utterly unacceptable”.

“I have young children. I have a wife,” said Mr Harris.

He added the intimidation of politicians and their families cannot be allowed to continue.

Three men were arrested last week over the alleged harassment of an elected official after they gathered outside Mr Harris’ home.

People are increasingly gathering outside the homes of Irish ministers, sometimes wearing masks and erecting anti-migrant banners.

Migration has become a heated debate in Ireland as the government struggles to accommodate record numbers of refugees and occasionally violent protests have been held outside accommodation centres where migrants are living.

“This is an utterly unacceptable situation,” Mr Harris told reporters at a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday.

“Even the word “hoax” I’m not sure is a fair word, with respect, because I’ve no doubt these things are done to intimidate, to upset,” he said.

“I do think all of us in our discourse, including [the] media, need to reflect on how we comment on these matters.

“If masked men turned up outside your house, it wouldn’t be described as [a] protest,” said Mr Harris.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/i-have-young-children-irish-pm-condemns-hoax-bomb-threat-made-to-his-home-13160106

A senior Russian diplomat says Putin is reviewing the country’s nuclear doctrine – and warns the West it is “playing with fire”. Meanwhile, a Russian navy missile cruiser carries out drills in the Mediterranean. Listen to a Sky News podcast on Putin and North Korea while you scroll.

Two killed in Russian shelling
Two people have been killed and two more are wounded as a result of Russian shelling in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, an official has said.

Vadym Filashkin, head of the regional military administration, said Russian forces struck the centre of Kurakhove city, killing a woman and a 40-year-old man.

Two injured people were taken to hospital, he said.

He added that the extent of the damage in the attack was being assessed.

Zelenskyy and Hungarian PM appear to have animated chat ahead of summit
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had a seemingly lively chat ahead of a meeting of European leaders in Brussels today.

It’s not known what that the two men discussed – but relations between Budapest and Kyiv have become more strained since the Russian invasion in 2022.

Hungary is Russia’s closest ally in the EU and Mr Orban has maintained a friendship with Vladimir Putin while criticising the EU’s strategy on Ukraine.

In December, Mr Orban blocked a €50bn aid package for Ukraine in a move that frustrated other EU leaders. He lifted the veto several months later.

Two injured in Kherson drone attack
Two people have been injured in a Russian drone attack on southern Ukraine, an official has said.

The Kherson regional administration said Russian forces launched an attack on the village of Novodmytrivka, leaving a 66-year-old man and 71-year-old woman hurt.

Both have blast injuries and have been taken to hospital for treatment, it said on Telegram.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-latest-russia-putin-north-korea-soldiers-12541713

More than 100 people were on board the Eurocity service when the accident happened shortly after 5pm local time (4pm BST), railway company ZSSK says.

Six people have been killed after a train and a bus collided in Slovakia.

A further five were injured in the southern town of Nove Zamky, 68 miles east of the capital, Bratislava, officials said.

Six people have been killed after a train and a bus collided in Slovakia.

A further five were injured in the southern town of Nove Zamky, 68 miles east of the capital, Bratislava, officials said.

The injured were treated at hospitals in nearby towns and cities because the local one was closed after parts of it were flooded following heavy rain overnight.

The train driver, a Czech national, escaped with light burns, Czech Railways said. The other four injured were railway passengers.

Authorities are investigating, while the crossing where it happened is protected by gates.

More than 100 people were on board the Eurocity service when the accident happened shortly after 5pm local time (4pm BST), ZSSK added.

It was travelling from the Czech capital, Prague, to the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

Dozens of stranded passengers were being taken by bus to the town of Sturovo on the Hungarian border, ZSSK said.

The main railway track linking Bratislava and Budapest has been closed.

Interior minister Matus Sutai Estok is heading to the crash site, police said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/slovakia-four-people-killed-after-train-and-bus-collide-13160090

EU leaders have nominated current European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen for a second five-year term in the bloc’s top job at a summit in Brussels.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was picked as the EU’s next foreign affairs chief and former Portuguese prime minister António Costa was chosen as the next chairman of EU summits.
All three candidates are from centrist, pro-EU factions.
The European Parliament is due to vote on the nominations next month.

Ursula von der Leyen is from Germany’s centre-right, António Costa is a socialist and Kaja Kallas a liberal.
There had been resistance from Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Before the summit she said the plans ignored the successes of hard-right parties like her own in the recent elections for the European Parliament.
Ms Meloni abstained from the vote for Ms von der Leyen and voted against Mr Costa and Ms Kallas.
Approval from the European Parliament could be a trickier challenge.
“I would plain and simply like to express my gratitude to the leaders who endorsed my nomination for second mandate as president of the European Commission,” Ms von der Leyen said after the vote.
Kaja Kallas said she was “really honoured by the support of the Council” and described the role as an “enormous responsibility”.
“My aim is definitely to work for European unity, protect European interests.”
António Costa praised Ms Kallas and Ms von der Leyen, saying: “I’m sure our collaboration will be very successful to serve Europe and European citizens.”
“Europe and the world are facing challenging moments, yes,” he said after his nomination.
“But the European Union has demonstrated its resilience in the past, always finding strengths in the unity, and building unity between member states will be my main priority when I take up my position in December focused on putting on track the strategic agenda which European Council has approved today.”
Mr Costa, who resigned as prime minister last year, will replace Belgium’s former prime minister Charles Michel. Ms Kallas will take over from Spain’s Josep Borrell.
Ms Meloni, who heads the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) bloc in the European Parliament, was notably not included in talks on the nominations despite the fact that the ECR became the third largest group in the parliament following the European elections.
Addressing the Italian parliament on Wednesday, she said angrily that European voters had asked the EU to “take a different path to the one it has travelled on so far”.
Without naming names, she criticised “those who argue that citizens are not mature enough to take certain decisions, and [who believe] that oligarchy is essentially the only acceptable form of democracy”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4vyg6jq6yo

When Alessandra Ferri, one of the most celebrated dramatic ballerinas of this or any time, takes the stage Friday at the Metropolitan Opera House to channel Virginia Woolf, logic dictates it will be her last dance appearance.

It’s not merely that she’s now 61 — albeit dancing exquisitely — and sharing a stage with dancers one-third her age. It’s also that she’s about to embark on an exciting new chapter as artistic director of the Vienna State Ballet, and plans to devote herself “200%” to the task.

But back to that logic thing: It hasn’t played much of a role in Ferri’s rather astounding career.

After all, she’s retired before — in 2007, from American Ballet Theater — with fanfare and glittery confetti and countless bouquets. Logic would have dictated she stay retired, but there she was in 2015, creating the Woolf role in Wayne McGregor’s “Woolf Works,” which she’s reprising this week with ABT. And there she was in 2016 dancing Juliet, her signature role, at ABT for a night, somehow making a lovesick teenager believable at age 53.

So it’s understandable if Ferri will not, even now, say “never again.”

“I’m not going to think about it!” the dancer said laughingly (but firmly) in an interview last week, taking a break between rehearsals. ”I mean, I do THINK this is it, because I know what’s coming next.” But life, she adds, can be very surprising.

Like that time she ran into choreographer Martha Clarke on the street, six years after retiring, feeling “like I was missing what I loved.” That led to a dance-theater piece called “Cheri” at New York’s Signature Theater, opposite soulful ABT principal Herman Cornejo (who rejoins her onstage this week.)

In the audience one day was choreographer Wayne McGregor, of the Royal Ballet in London, where Ferri began her career. He’d arrived with a major proposal about a new ballet he was mounting. “Will you please be my Virginia?” he asked.

“There’s always a little voice inside me who recognizes when I have to do something,” Ferri says. But still, she had to ask McGregor: “Wayne, are you really aware of how old I am?”

“And he said yes, that he needed a dancer who can embody (Woolf’s) soul, her essence,” Ferri says. “So I thought, okay. We can lead each other in this.”

In an interview, McGregor expressed wonder at how Ferri, a petite dancer, can project ripples of emotion across a vast opera house in such an effortless way.

“What’s amazing about the world’s greatest performers, of which Alessandra is one, is that they bring the audience to them, they don’t need to project OUT,” McGregor said. “Alessandra is tiny, right? But there’s this ability, this magnetism, to be able to bring the audience to her.”

Both dancer and choreographer also note how rare it is for classical ballet, a world of fluttering swans and dainty princesses, to feature a fully fleshed-out female character of a certain age.

“Alessandra is about the age of Virginia Woolf was when she died,” McGregor notes (the writer took her own life, walking into a river at age 59.) “We’re so accustomed to seeing or thinking about dance as a young person’s game. We’re not used to seeing the power and expressivity of older bodies, inhabiting roles that reflect much more clearly our living in a contemporary world.” Ferri can do that, he says, and people respond.

“Alessandra is still dancing so beautifully,” adds ABT artistic director Susan Jaffe, herself a former ABT principal of the same generation. “As well as her incredible dramatic ability — she knows how to make the moment so alive, so electric and so authentic. In a way, the movements become sort of an extended gesture of what she’s doing emotionally.”

That phenomenon was clear at a recent studio rehearsal. Many young dancers there had never met Ferri in person. As she practiced the death scene, surrounded, lifted and carried by dancers representing waves, all eyes were on Ferri’s Virginia and the tortured yet determined look in her eyes. At the end of her duet with Cornejo, she lay down in watery death. The room erupted in applause.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/alessandra-ferri-last-dance-woolf-works-8faf583b8cd640da21ccfed3b680d071

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Idaho doctors to give emergency abortions, for now, reopening the constitutional question following the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that emergency abortions in Idaho can go ahead.

When a patient’s health is at serious risk, hospitals in the northwestern state, for now, are allowed to perform emergency abortions.

This comes almost exactly two years after the landmark overturning of Roe v Wade, after which Idaho was among 14 states that outlawed abortion at all stages of pregnancy with incredibly limited exceptions.

The US justices found they had pre-emptively got involved in the case, and a 6-3 majority reinstated a lower court order that had allowed hospitals in the state to perform emergency abortions to protect a patient’s health.

The opinion, coming during an election year, means the Idaho case will continue to play out in lower courts, and could end up before the Supreme Court once again.

The same justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right to abortion could soon be again considering when doctors can provide abortion in medical emergencies – meaning the issue is still far from settled.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said: “Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is delay.

“While this court dawdles and the country waits, pregnant people experiencing emergency medical conditions remain in a precarious position, as their doctors are kept in the dark about what the law requires.”

Conservative judge Samuel Alito, who was key in the initial decision overturning Roe v. Wade, also disagreed with the decision to dismiss the case – though for different reasons than Justice Jackson.

Joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, he suggested the court should side with Idaho

The limited ruling seemingly attempts to sidestep putting the issue centre stage during an election year where abortion rights have been a contentious topic.

The court ruling is expected to have a significant effect on emergency care in other states with strict abortion bans.

The Supreme Court previously allowed the ban, which does permit abortion to save a pregnant patient’s life, to go into effect.

But since then, several women have needed medical airlifts out of state in cases where abortion is a routine treatment to avoid infection, haemorrhage and other dire health risks, Idaho doctors have said.

It was previously reported by Bloomberg that the Supreme Court briefly posted the opinion on the court’s website, before taking it down.

The Supreme Court acknowledged a document was inadvertently posted before the decision was confirmed Thursday.

President Joe Biden, in a statement, said: “Today’s Supreme Court order ensures that women in Idaho can access the emergency medical care they need while this case returns to the lower courts.

“No woman should be denied care, made to wait until she’s near death, or forced to flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs.

“This should never happen in America. Yet, this is exactly what is happening in states across the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/us-supreme-court-allows-emergency-abortions-in-idaho-13160012

The Henley and Marlow River Action Group tested the water 27 times over the last month at the spot where racing at the world famous rowing festival takes place, finding it failed to reach DEFRA’s safe for swimming quality standard.

There is an “alarmingly high” level of the E.coli bacteria in the section of the River Thames used for next week’s Henley Royal Regatta, making it unsafe for swimming, an anti-pollution campaign group has warned.

Around 4,000 rowers will try to qualify for the regatta, which has taken place along the waterway since 1839, with the first of around 400 races taking place on Tuesday.

Henley and Marlow River Action Group tested the water 27 times between 23 May and 25 June, finding an average of 1,213 E.coli colony forming units (CFUs) per 100ml of water.

Anything higher than 900 CFUs per 100ml fails the Environment Agency’s inland bathing water quality standards, meaning it is unsafe for swimming.

River Action Group said the highest figure, recorded on 19 June, was 25,000 CFU, more than 27 times the acceptable limit and it was not included in their report.

The second highest reading reached 8,001 on 16 June.

River Action said that almost half (47%) of its measurements taken in Fawley Meadows, where effluent from the Henley sewage treatment works enters the river and where racegoers can hire hospitality chalets to watch the races, were above 900 CFU/100 ml.

Thames Water, the water company responsible for sewage along the Henley stretch of the Thames, says its monitoring has found E.coli levels in the Henley area at a level the Environment Agency would deem as “good” when the conditions are dry and said spikes only occurred on four days in May and June after rainfall.

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “What these laboratory tested results show so far is that E.coli levels in the Henley stretch of the Thames are consistently achieving levels the Environment Agency would deem as ‘Good’ for bathing waters, during dry conditions.

“There have been two days in May and two days in June where there were spikes in the readings following rainfall. Notably, our Sewage Treatment Works in the area have not released untreated effluent since 14 May, demonstrating that multiple sources are likely to have contributed to these elevated readings, which could include farming, industry, road runoff and wildlife.”

It accused River Action of taking “an alarmist approach that tries to apportion blame”.

The warning comes three months after rowers on the Oxford University crew complained of feeling sick and seeing “poo in the water” as they lost the Boat Race, further along the Thames, in London after warnings about pollution levels in the river before the event.

Regatta organisers have advised rowers to cover cuts, grazes, and blisters with waterproof dressings, try not to swallow river water, wear suitable footwear when launching or recovering a boat, and clean all equipment thoroughly.

E.coli, which is found in faeces and can survive in the environment, can cause a range of infections including urinary tract infection, cystitis, intestinal infection, stomach cramps, bloody diarrhoea, and vomiting.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/henley-royal-regatta-alarmingly-high-ecoli-levels-found-in-thames-days-before-event-13160004

Prince Harry has been ordered by a High Court judge to explain how messages between him and the ghostwriter of his memoir, Spare, came to be “destroyed”.

There is a suggestion they may be relevant to his legal action against the publisher of The Sun newspaper, News Group Newspapers (NGN).

Mr Justice Fancourt said the apparent deletion of the duke’s exchanges with John Moehringer on the Signal messaging platform, as well as drafts of Spare prior to its publication, was “not transparently clear”.

He also said there was evidence that a “large number of potentially relevant documents” and “confidential messages” between Harry and his ghostwriter “were destroyed some time between 2021 and 2023, well after this claim was under way”.

He ordered the duke’s lawyers to carry out further searches of his laptop and examine his texts, Whatsapp and Signal messages from 2005 to January last year.

Harry has also been ordered to make an interim payment of £60,000 in legal costs to NGN, as the judge ruled largely in favour of the publisher’s request for a wider search for evidence.

Earlier, the prince was accused of creating an “obstacle course” in his legal battle against NGN.

Lawyers for the publisher also claimed the Duke of Sussex had to be dragged “kicking and screaming” into disclosing more than 11,000 emails from a now-closed account.

Anthony Hudson KC, representing NGN, said it appeared that “all documents relating to the writing of Spare [the duke’s memoir] were destroyed before publication and after the commencement of these proceedings”.

Legally, the purpose of disclosure is to ensure all parties are aware of any documents that have a bearing on the case, the government website says.

NGN wants Harry to disclose information that could relate to when he knew he could bring a potential case against the publisher.

NGN also wants to know whether the filing of the prince’s claim, in September 2019, was made within a legal time limit, the court was told.

The publisher is asking Mr Justice Fancourt to order Harry’s current and former solicitors to carry out searches of various communications.

The duke’s legal team accused the publisher of embarking on a “classic fishing expedition” that was “entirely unnecessary and disproportionate”.

Harry, 39, alleges he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for NGN, which also published the News Of The World, which folded in 2011.

He is one of a number of people bringing cases against the publisher. A full trial of some of those cases is due to be held in January.

NGN has previously denied unlawful activity took place at The Sun.

Mr Justice Fancourt heard that 11,570 emails from the duke’s now-closed ha@sjpkp.com email account were being reviewed for potential disclosure by his lawyers.

Mr Hudson said: “We’ve had to drag those out of the claimant kicking and screaming,” adding that the disclosure process is “incredibly simple but for the obstacle course created by the claimant”.

“He doesn’t want to have to do this for whatever reason,” Mr Hudson added.

In written arguments, he said conversations Harry had on messaging service Signal with the ghostwriter of Spare, John Moehringer, had been “wiped” before the memoir was published, adding: “It therefore appears that a substantial source of relevant documents in the claimant’s control has been deleted during the currency of these proceedings.”

Mr Hudson continued: “It appears that all documents relating to the writing of Spare were destroyed before publication and after the commencement of these proceedings, a matter which gives rise to real concern as to whether the claimant has complied with his obligation to preserve potentially relevant documents.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/prince-harry-ordered-by-judge-to-explain-why-messages-destroyed-as-he-battles-publisher-of-the-sun-13160023

Bolivian armed forces pulled back from the presidential palace in La Paz on Wednesday evening and a general was arrested after President Luis Arce slammed a “coup” attempt against the government and called for international support.
Earlier in the day, military units led by General Juan Jose Zuniga, recently stripped of his military command, had gathered in the central Plaza Murillo square, home to the presidential palace and Congress. A Reuters witness saw an armored vehicle ram a door of the presidential palace and soldiers rush in.

Inside the presidential palace, Arce swore in José Wilson Sanchez as the military commander, Zuniga’s former role. He called for calm and order to be restored.

“I order that all personnel mobilized on the streets return to their units,” Sanchez said. “We entreat that the blood of our soldiers not be spilled.”

The United States said it was closely monitoring the situation and urged calm and restraint.

Tensions have been building in Bolivia ahead of general elections in 2025, with leftist ex-President Evo Morales planning to run against former ally Arce, creating a major rift in the ruling socialist party and wider political uncertainty.

Many do not want a return of Morales, who governed from 2006-2019 when he was ousted amid widespread protests and replaced by an interim conservative government. Arce then won election in 2020.

Zuniga said recently that Morales should not be able to return as president and threatened to block him if he attempted to, which led Arce to remove Zuniga from his post.

Ahead of the attack on the presidential palace, Zuniga had addressed reporters in the square and cited growing anger in the landlocked country, which has been battling an economic slump with depleted central bank reserves and pressure on the boliviano currency as gas exports have dried up.

“The three chiefs of the armed forces have come to express our dismay,” Zuniga told a local TV station, calling for a new cabinet of ministers.

“Stop destroying, stop impoverishing our country, stop humiliating our army,” he said in full uniform, flanked by soldiers, insisting the action being taken was supported by the public.

Zuniga told reporters later on Wednesday that Arce had on Sunday asked him to “raise something up” to boost his popularity, without offering evidence.

Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo later said Zuniga was seeking to court popular support and that the nine people injured in the attempt proved “this was not a drill.”

‘STRONGEST CONDEMNATION’

Morales, head of the ruling MAS socialist party, said that his supporters would mobilize in support of democracy.

“We will not allow the armed forces to violate democracy and intimidate people,” Morales said.

Bolivia’s public prosecutor’s office said it would launch a criminal investigation against Zuniga and others involved in the attempted coup.

Public support for Arce and Bolivia’s democracy has poured in from regional leaders and beyond.

“We express the strongest condemnation of the attempted coup d’état in Bolivia. Our total support and support for President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on X.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bolivias-president-slams-irregular-mobilization-army-units-2024-06-26/

As the temperatures rose in southern Pakistan, so did the body count.
The Edhi ambulance service says it usually takes around 30 to 40 people to the Karachi city morgue daily.
But over the last six days, it has collected some 568 bodies – 141 of them on Tuesday alone.
It is too early to say exactly what the cause of death was in every case.
However, the rising numbers of dead came as temperatures in Karachi soared above 40C (104F), with the high humidity making it feel as hot as 49C, reports said.
People have been heading to hospitals seeking help.
Civil Hospital Karachi admitted 267 people with heatstroke between Sunday and Wednesday, said Dr Imran Sarwar Sheikh, head of the emergency department. Twelve of them died.
“Most of the people who we saw coming into the hospital were in their 60s or 70s, although there were some around 45 and even a couple in their 20s,” Dr Sheikh told the BBC.
Symptoms including vomiting, diarrhoea and a high fever.
“Many of those we saw had been working outside. We’ve told them to make sure they drink plenty of water and wear light clothes in these high temperatures.”
The high temperatures – described as a “partial heatwave” by one meteorologist – began at the weekend.
Heatwave centres and camps were set up to try to provide relief to the public.
Pictures show children playing in fountains as they tried to cool off.
“Look at me! My clothes are totally drenched in sweat,” Mohammad Imran told Reuters news agency as he struggled to keep cool on Monday.
Not all those who needed help made it to hospital.
Wasim Ahmed knew he wasn’t feeling well when he arrived home.
The 56-year-old security guard had just finished a 12 hour overnight shift outside. Even then, he had found the temperatures too much.
“He came through the door and said I can’t deal with this hot weather,” Adnan Zafar, Wasim’s cousin, told the BBC. “He asked for a glass of water. Soon after he finished it, he collapsed.”
By the time Wasim’s family got him to hospital, the medics said he had already died of a suspected heart attack.
He had an existing heart condition, Adnan says, but he hadn’t suffered in the heat before.
Karachi’s struggle to cope with the high temperatures is, some fear, being made worse by regular power cuts which cut off the fans and air conditioning many rely on to keep cool.
Muhammad Amin was among those who was suffering with loadshedding – where the electricity supply was cut off; a common practice across Pakistan by the electricity board to try to preserve supply.
His relative says their flat experienced consistent constant power cuts.
According to his family, Muhammad who was in his 40s suddenly became sick, then died.
Cause of death has not been established, but his family suspect it was heat-related.
According to Dawn newspaper, almost 30 people have been found dead by emergency services on the city’s streets.
Many are suspected drug addicts, Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed told the newspaper. They did not, however, have any signs of injury.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn05rz3w4x1o

An aircraft mechanic who was contracted to repair Boeing planes has alleged he was labelled a “snitch” and then sacked for speaking up over safety concerns.
Richard Cuevas claimed he witnessed substandard manufacturing and maintenance work on a crucial section of Boeing 787 aircraft.
Boeing, which has been dogged by questions over whether its safety culture is rigorous enough, said the issues had been investigated and “did not present a safety concern”.
Lawyers representing Mr Cuevas alleged he reported critical issues that could create a serious public safety risk and have filed complaints with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
Mr Cuevas, who has worked in the aviation industry for 40 years, was contracted to Spirit Aerosystems, to work on Boeing’s 787 forward pressure bulkhead, a dome at the nose of the aircraft which serves as a barrier.
“He recognised the substandard work and expressed concern,” Mr Cuevas’ lawyers said. “But Spirit and Boeing failed to stop the faulty manufacturing processes.”
According to the legal filings a colleague then remarked: “We’ve got a snitch among us.”
Mr Cuevas said he was sacked by Spirit Aerosystems in March 2024.
Boeing told the BBC: “A subcontractor’s employee previously reported concerns to us that we thoroughly investigated, as we take seriously any safety-related matter.”
However, the issues raised were found not to present a safety concern and had been addressed, Boeing said.
Spirit Aerosystems spokesperson Joe Buccino, said the firm was “looking into the matter”.
“We encourage all Spirit employees with concerns to come forward, safe in knowing they will be protected,” he said.
Mr Cuevas’ lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks have previously represented another Boeing whistleblower, Sam Salehpour, who earlier this year told US Congress he had been harassed and threatened after he alleged there were quality problems at Boeing.
Mr Salehpour’s concerns were also focused on production of the Boeing 787 model.
That is a different model to the 737 Max which was involved in mid-air cabin blow out in January.
That incident prompted heightened scrutiny of Boeing’s safety standards.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce4q55gvde2o

Bill Cobbs, the veteran character actor who became a ubiquitous and sage screen presence as an older man, has died. He was 90.

Cobbs died Tuesday at his home in the Inland Empire, California, surrounded by family and friends, his publicist Chuck I. Jones said. Natural causes is the likely cause of death, Jones said.

A Cleveland native, Cobbs acted in such films as “The Hudsucker Proxy,” “The Bodyguard” and “Night at the Museum.” He made his first big-screen appearance in a fleeting role in 1974’s “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.” He became a lifelong actor with some 200 film and TV credits. The lion share of those came in his 50s, 60s, and 70s, as filmmakers and TV producers turned to him again and again to imbue small but pivotal parts with a wizened and worn soulfulness.

Cobbs appeared on television shows including “The Sopranos,” “The West Wing,” “Sesame Street” and “Good Times.” He was Whitney Houston’s manager in “The Bodyguard” (1992), the mystical clock man of the Coen brothers’ “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994) and the doctor of John Sayles’ “Sunshine State” (2002). He played the coach in “Air Bud” (1997), the security guard in “Night at the Museum” (2006) and the father on “The Gregory Hines Show.”

Cobbs rarely got the kinds of major parts that stand out and win awards. Instead, Cobbs was an familiar and memorable everyman who left an impression on audiences, regardless of screen time. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding limited performance in a daytime program for the series “Dino Dana” in 2020.

Wendell Pierce, who acted alongside Cobbs in “I’ll Fly Away” and “The Gregory Hines Show,” remembered Cobbs as “a father figure, a griot, an iconic artist that me by the way he led his life as an actor,” he wrote on the social media platform X.

Wilbert Francisco Cobbs, born June 16, 1934, served eight years in the U.S. Air Force after graduating high school in Cleveland. In the years after his service, Cobbs sold cars. One day, a customer asked him if he wanted to act in a play. Cobbs first appeared on stage in 1969. He began to act in Cleveland theater and later moved to New York where he joined the Negro Ensemble Company, acting alongside Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.

Cobbs later said acting resonated with him as a way to express the human condition, in particular during the Civil Rights Movement in the late ‘60s.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/bill-cobbs-dies-obit-b5f5aa95370533c03b8558eac34c85ed#

Stars including Sabrina Carpenter, Katy Perry, Kendall Jenner, Cara Delevingne and more attended Vogue World: Paris at Place Vendome on Sunday, June 23. Ahead, see what all the celebrities wore in the front row (and on the runway).

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/06/23/style/vogue-world-2024-in-paris-sabrina-carpenter-katy-perry-kendall-jenner-and-more-attend/#27

Bill Gates’ daughter Phoebe finally confirmed she is dating Paul McCartney’s grandson Arthur Donald.

Eight months after sparking romance rumors, the 21-year-old referred to Donald as her “boyfriend” while documenting her Stanford University graduation for Nylon.

“My boyfriend, Arthur, giving me a lift post-ceremony,” Phoebe wrote alongside a sweet snap of her beau carrying her on his back on Friday.

She shared another shot with Donald, noting that her partner “cleans up nicely.”

The couple first made headlines in October 2023 when she posted a photo with Donald to her Instagram account from a trip to Paris.

She tagged the 25-year-old in the social media upload.

Later that month, the duo attended the “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans” premiere.

However, when Phoebe was interviewed by Bustle five months later, she declined to comment on their relationship status.

She is the youngest of Bill and Melinda’s three children, with the former couple also sharing daughter Jennifer, 28, and son Rory, 25.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/06/26/entertainment/bill-gates-daughter-phoebe-confirms-romance-with-paul-mccartneys-grandson/

French prime minister Gabriel Attal accused his far-right and leftwing political opponents of “promising the moon” in a three-way televised debate late on Tuesday ahead of next Sunday’s first round of early parliamentary elections.
In a muddled, confusing TV debate between leaders of the three top-polling blocs, Attal came under pressure from his far-right opponent, Jordan Bardella, who repeatedly interrupted him and accused him of “lecturing” and lacking credibility.

“The difference between my competitors and me is that, as prime minister, I don’t want to lie to the French. I don’t want to promise them the moon,” Attal said in the 90 minute debate that produced no major policy announcements.
Opinion polls show the far-right National Rally (RN) winning the two-round election on June 30 and July 7, but without an absolute majority, potentially sharing power with centrist President Emmanuel Macron, who surprised the country by calling snap elections earlier this month.

Reality TV star Paris Hilton called for greater federal oversight of youth care programs at a U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing on Wednesday as she described her traumatic experience in youth care facilities.
Hilton, 43, the great-granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, has spoken publicly about the emotional and physical abuse she endured when she was placed in residential youth treatment facilities as a teen.

Hilton said private equity firms that have taken a greater stake in the industry in recent years focus on maximizing profits, prompting them to hire unqualified workers.
“They’re caring more about profit than the safety of children,” she said.
Hilton first described her experience at a Utah facility – which she said has left her with post-traumatic stress disorder that she continues to suffer from – in 2021, and has been a vocal advocate for greater oversight of the system.

“These programs promised ‘healing, growth, and support,’ but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely, or even look out of a window for two years,” Hilton told the committee. “My parents were completely deceived – lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry – so you can only imagine the experience for youth who don’t have anyone checking in on them.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/paris-hilton-testify-us-house-hearing-youth-care-programs-2024-06-26/

U.S. President Joe Biden’s top aides told the visiting Israeli defense chief this week that Washington is maintaining a pause on a shipment of heavy bombs for Israel while the issue is under review, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.
The official, briefing reporters about national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, said the allies remain in discussions about the single shipment of powerful munitions, which was paused by Biden in May over concerns they could cause more Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza.
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Without providing specifics, the official said other U.S. weapons will continue to flow to Israel as it battles Hamas militants in Gaza and faces Lebanese Hezbollah fighters on its northern border, where increased hostilities have spurred fears of a wider regional conflict.
Gallant warned during his visit that Israel was capable of taking Lebanon “back to the Stone Age” in any war with Iran-backed Hezbollah but stressed that his government prefers a diplomatic solution being pursued by the United States.

Wrapping up his trip, Gallant said on Wednesday that there had been significant progress on the issue of U.S. munitions supply to Israel, adding that “obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed.”
Gallant and U.S. officials sought to cool tensions following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent claims that Washington was withholding weapons, prompting Biden’s aides to express disappointment and confusion over the Israeli leader’s remarks

The United States in May paused a shipment of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs due to concern over the impact they could have in densely populated areas in Gaza in the war that began with Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 cross-border raid. But Israel is still due to get billions of dollars worth of other U.S. weaponry.
“We are in discussions ultimately to find a resolution,” the senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. “But I think the president has expressed his concerns about that one shipment, and those are very valid concerns.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/israeli-defense-chief-says-progress-made-munitions-supply-us-talks-2024-06-26/

The traffickers, who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders, say Hernandez protected the likes of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life prison term in the US.

Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez has been sentenced to 45 years in a US prison over charges he enabled drug traffickers to use his military and national police force to help get tonnes of cocaine over the border.

Hernandez was also fined $8m (£6.3m) by a federal court in Manhattan, New York, following a trial which saw him accused by traffickers of protecting some of the world’s most powerful cocaine dealers.

The traffickers, who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders, said he protected the likes of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life prison term in the US.

A jury convicted Hernandez, 55, in March after a two-week trial, which was closely followed in his home country.

“I am innocent,” he said at his sentencing. “I was wrongly and unjustly accused.”

The sentencing judge P Kevin Castel called Hernandez a “two-faced politician hungry for power”, who protected a select group of traffickers.

US prosecutors say Hernandez worked with drug traffickers as long ago as 2004, taking millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and then to the country’s highest office.

His brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman, was sentenced to life in a US prison in 2021 for his own conviction on drug charges.

Juan Orlando Hernandez served two terms as the leader of the central American nation of roughly 10 million people.

He was arrested at his home in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, three months after leaving office in 2022 and was extradited to the US in April that year.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/juan-orlando-hernandez-ex-honduras-president-who-protected-el-chapo-and-helped-traffickers-transport-tonnes-of-cocaine-jailed-in-new-york-13159517

Denmark wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by 2030.

Denmark will introduce the world’s first emissions tax on agriculture from 2030, requiring farmers to pay for greenhouse gases released by their cows, sheep and pigs.

The Danish government said the aim is to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by 2030.

“We will take a big step closer in becoming climate neutral in 2045,” Taxation Minister Jeppe Bruus said.

Bruus said he hoped other countries would follow suit and implement a similar tax.

Livestock farmers will be taxed $43 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2030. The tax will increase to $108 by 2035.

The agreement was reached on Monday between the center-right government and representatives of farmers, industry and unions.

New Zealand passed a similar law which was set to be implemented in 2025, but it was quashed on Wednesday, after criticism from farmers.

Livestock account for more than 30 percent of human-caused methane emissions.

Around 90 percent of the methane from raising livestock comes from the way they digest and is released as burps through their mouths. Cows contribute to most of this belched methane.

Maria Reumert Gjerding, Head of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation, said the tax was “a historic compromise.”

Source: https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/141514/gassy-cows-carbon-tax-denmark

The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder told Sky’s The World With Yalda Hakim that artificial intelligence would make innovation “far easier to do”. But he also warned of the dangers of the technology being used in cyber attacks and political interference.

Bill Gates has said artificial intelligence (AI) will accelerate innovation and make it easier to combat climate change – but also warned it must be “used by people with good intent”.

The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder made the comments during an interview with Sky News at the Breakthrough Energy Summit in London.

Gates told The World With Yalda Hakim that AI had so far “played a fairly modest role” in helping to combat climate change, but was going to make innovation “far easier to do”.

He said: “AI helps us model things in the sciences: understand materials better, and catalysts, and how to make proteins.

“AI, in every field of endeavour, will be accelerating innovation, whether that’s in medicine or helping with tutoring, education.

“[With] climate [change], some of the complex things like modelling fusion energy – thank goodness AI is going to make that far easier to do.”

When asked if he was worried about suggestions that such technologies could be used to overthrow governments, Gates said he had “not heard that particular scenario”.

“AI is so important that we have to make sure it’s mostly being used by people with good intent,” he said.

He added that “anytime you have a new technology” it is “mostly used by teachers, doctors and scientists to help them be more effective,” but said “AI could be used by” people engaged in cyber attacks or political interference.

“So you have to make sure the good guys are staying ahead in detecting and preventing that type of usage,” he said.

‘Penalties for fooling people’

Gates went on to say there was nothing “gigantic” about AI, adding: “Misinformation is there, but that’s nothing to do with AI.”

He said we have to “anticipate” that AI could be used in the making of fake videos, which he said should be marked as inauthentic.

“Because we know when something’s printed on a piece of paper, anybody could have typed it, but we still think of videos as somehow authentic because it used to be hard to fake,” he said, as he urged people to ask themselves: “Where did this come from?”

“There’ll be laws creating penalties for fooling people,” he added.

However, he remained optimistic for the future, adding: “The biggest thing is going to be advancing medical science, advancing education and taking this climate issue and getting that innovation to move even faster.”

Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists signed a letter on Tuesday warning that the U.S. and world economy will suffer if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in November.
The jointly signed letter, first reported by Axios, says the economic agenda of U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is “vastly superior” to Trump’s, the former Republican president seeking a second term.

The economists say Trump’s economic plans would reignite inflation, in part because of his pledge to impose stiffer tariffs on Chinese imports, which they say will hike prices on many goods bought by U.S. consumers.
“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we all agree that Joe Biden’s economic agenda is vastly superior to Donald Trump,” the economists state in their letter.

“We believe that a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the U.S.’s economic standing in the world, and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.’s domestic economy.”
The letter was signed by prominent economists including Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel prize for economics in 2001, and Sir Angus Deaton, an economic Nobel laureate in 2015.
Biden and Trump are locked in a close election race. The Nov. 5 contest will be decided by voters in a handful of battleground states which are closely contested because their voting preferences can swing to Republicans or Democrats.

While headline inflation has slowed in the past two years, many U.S. consumers are still unhappy with the higher prices they have to pay for food, gas and other goods, according to public opinion polls.
Trump has pledged to impose tariffs on foreign imports, and up to at least 60% on Chinese goods coming into the U.S., a cost the economists say will be passed on to U.S. consumers in the form of price hikes.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/16-nobel-prize-winning-economists-say-trump-policies-will-fuel-inflation-2024-06-25/

U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich will stand trial for espionage in Russia on Wednesday in a court whose proceedings are classified as a state secret.
No reporters, friends, family members or U.S. embassy staff will be allowed into the courtroom in the city of Yekaterinburg where Gershkovich, 32, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Russian prosecutors say the Wall Street Journal reporter, arrested in March last year, had collected secret evidence about a Russian tank manufacturer on the orders of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Gershkovich, his newspaper and the U.S. government reject the charges. U.S. President Joe Biden called his detention “totally illegal”.
Closed trials are standard procedure in Russia for cases of alleged treason or espionage involving classified state material. The Kremlin says the case, and the arrangements for it, are a matter for the court, but has stated – without publishing evidence – that Gershkovich was caught “red-handed”.

“The only people present in the court will be the judge, state prosecutor, the defendant, his lawyer and a clerk. Filming and audio recording are forbidden,” said lawyer Evgeniy Smirnov of Pervy Otdel (First Department), an association that specialises in helping defendants in such cases but is not involved in Gershkovich’s.
The nature of the proceedings imposes an additional psychological burden on the accused person, he said.

REPORTING ASSIGNMENT

POSSIBLE SWAP

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/behind-closed-doors-us-reporter-gershkovich-go-trial-russia-2024-06-25/

Jonathan Yeo painted the King’s first official portrait following his coronation, unveiled in May of this year, and he has now released a new work of beloved British icon, broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

The artist who painted King Charles’ first official portrait following his coronation has released a new work of Sir David Attenborough.

Jonathan Yeo’s new artwork was unveiled by the Royal Society and marks the broadcaster and naturalist’s four decades as a fellow there.

His portrait of the King became known for its striking use of colour – and his work of Sir David is no different.

As the King was represented in shades of red, Sir David is painted in greens – with the portrait going on public display at the Royal Society for five days from 2 July to 7 July as part of the Summer Science Exhibition.

Sir David, 98, said: “It was a tremendous honour to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society over 40 years ago, and that my portrait has now been painted by such a master as Jonathan Yeo for the society’s extensive and important collection is extraordinary indeed.

“To spend so much of my life looking at the natural world and attempting to convey to others its amazing complexity, beauty and, increasingly, its fragility, has been a great privilege.

“It has only been possible thanks to the extraordinary natural history filmmakers and the many dedicated scientists who have willingly shared their work with us.”

The painting was unveiled at a private event on Tuesday.

British artist Mr Yeo’s previous work includes the likes of Idris Elba, Nicole Kidman, Malala Yousafzai, and former prime ministers Lord David Cameron and Sir Tony Blair.

Mr Yeo described Sir David as a “personal inspiration” and said it had been a “huge honour” to paint his portrait.

He added: “It’s hard to imagine a public figure who has done more to engage and inspire all generations in the wonders of the natural world than Sir David.

“At a time when too many global leaders are failing to engage seriously in tackling threats to our climate and natural world, Sir David’s lifetime of work in communicating and sharing its wonders and importance has been a service to all humanity.

“It has been a thrill as well as a privilege to spend so much time with someone whose wisdom is so deep and broad, and who is also such brilliant and entertaining company.”

Source:https://news.sky.com/story/king-charles-portrait-painter-unveils-new-work-of-sir-david-attenborough-13158891

The captain of the 80m-long ship reported the “grounding” and video footage showed the vessel diagonally positioned in the river.

A cargo ship carrying timber has become stuck in a river in Cambridgeshire.

The Baltic Arrow became wedged in the River Nene, in Wisbech, at around 9am on Tuesday morning while on its way to the port.

In Cambridge, a small red tug boat was seen desperately trying to free the cargo ship by pushing or pulling it free from the river banks, with no success.

The incident has been likened to the blockage of the Suez Canal in 2021, when the gigantic Ever Given container ship held up billions in global trade after it was stuck in the vital waterway for nearly a week.

A Wisbech Port spokesperson told the Daily Mail the incident in Cambridge was a “rare situation” but because the tide had fallen the plan was to wait “until [the] vessel is afloat at next high water to free her from the banks”.

They added: “All berths at Wisbech port are NAABSA berths which stand for ‘not always afloat but safely aground’ so technically all vessels ground whilst moored here during low water.

“The river bed is very soft and sludgy here and the vessel is designed to safely ground so we are confident of no ongoing issues.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/cargo-ship-draws-suez-canal-blockage-comparisons-after-becoming-stuck-in-cambridge-river-13158846

In Afghanistan, cricket represents a rare moment of happiness for a country stricken by natural disasters, economic crisis and international restrictions as the Taliban limit the education and movement of women.

Afghans flooded the country’s streets in their thousands on Tuesday to rejoice in their men’s cricket team reaching the T20 World Cup semi-finals for the first time.

Celebrations erupted throughout the Taliban-run country as people in Kabul, Khost, Jalalabad and beyond enjoyed the dramatic victory over Bangladesh.

Rashedullah, a resident of the southeastern Khost province said: “This event has given reason for hope for the youth who were previously disappointed”.

That group of young people won’t include women, of course, whom the Taliban have forbidden from playing cricket.

The Taliban seized power again in 2021, becoming the entrenched leaders of Afghanistan and ending two decades of increased economic opportunities and freedom for women in the country.

Cricket represents a rare source of comfort for many male Afghans and has also been embraced by the Taliban administration.

The victory represents a welcome respite for a country that has suffered a series of natural disasters on top of an economic crisis exacerbated by international restrictions on the banking sector and a drop-off in aid since the Taliban seized power and limited women’s education and movement.

The Taliban administration’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi seized the moment to call the cricket team’s captain Rashid Khan and offer his congratulations, a foreign ministry statement said.

“Your victory has made everyone happy, you are a great inspiration for the youth,” he said.

After Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by a nervy eight runs in St. Vincent in the Caribbean, Shah Mohammad, 42, from Kabul, said: “I can’t find words to explain my happiness at this moment. It is a massive victory for all Afghans.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/afghans-celebrate-in-their-thousands-as-mens-cricket-team-reach-first-t20-world-cup-semi-finals-13158726

Declared male nine years ago by a vet, Ronaldo, the 6ft (1.8m) Brazilian rainbow boa gave birth to 14 baby snakes despite having had no contact with other snakes. Scientists say it is thanks to a rare phenomenon called parthenogenesis.

Ronaldo, the “male” snake, has given birth to 14 babies, shocking handlers.

The 6ft (1.8m) Brazilian rainbow boa was declared male nine years ago by a vet.

Since then “he” had had no contact with other snakes – spending the last two years in the City of Portsmouth College.

But, during a routine check, a student discovered Ronaldo had given birth to 14 baby snakes.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes,” animal care technician Amanda McLeod said. “One of the students discovered them during a routine vivarium check.

“At first we thought she must have been mistaken.”

Rare phenomenon

China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe landed on Tuesday in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, making the country the first to bring back samples from the moon’s far side.
The reentry capsule touched down at 2:07 p.m. Beijing time (0607 GMT), according to state broadcaster CCTV, carrying lunar soil collected earlier in the month by the probe after a successful landing on the moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater on the side of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.

Soon after the capsule landed, Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, announced the successful completion of the Chang’e-6 lunar mission. Chinese President Xi Jinping said the mission’s completion was a “landmark achievement” in China’s quest to become a space and scientific powerhouse.
The Chang’e-6 probe was launched on May 3 on a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan. The samples will be transported by air to Beijing for analysis, according to CCTV.

While it is yet not known whether the planned 2kg of samples were successfully returned, whatever the amount, the samples will be closely analysed by Chinese and foreign scientists, who believe that they will reveal new details about the formation of the Earth, moon, and solar system.
Samples from the Chang’e-5 mission, which brought back lunar samples from the near side of the moon, led to the discovery of new minerals and more accurate ranges for the moon’s geological age.

The success of the Chang’e-6 mission could give China’s lunar and space exploration program, already in close competition with the United States, greater pull among foreign governments and scientists.

China’s retrieval of samples from the moon’s far side comes as the exploration of lunar resources and the militarisation of space are becoming increasingly pressing questions shaped by geopolitical tensions.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson this year expressed concern at China’s lunar exploration program and described an intensifying “space race” between the two superpowers.
“I’m glad there has been a resurgence in this (space) race, but of course I would like to see us racing alongside each other and together,” said Neil Melville-Kenney, a technical officer at the European Space Agency (ESA) who is working with Chinese researchers on one of the Chang’e-6 payloads.
As the European Union and China are at loggerheads over a wide range of geopolitical issues, from trade to the war in Ukraine, European space agencies and scientists are working closely with Chinese counterparts on data and samples collected by China’s lunar missions.

Source:  https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/chinas-change-6-moon-probe-lands-back-earth-2024-06-25/

The government, which has an edge, is trying to shore up its numbers for a sure win.

New Delhi: The election for the post of Speaker – a rare event in the history of the Lok Sabha – will take place today, with a recharged Opposition challenging the NDA nominee. The government, which has an edge, is trying to shore up its numbers for a sure win.

Here are the top 10 updates on this big story

Assange arrived at court in Saipan in a dark suit with a loosened tie. He is now expected to fly to his home country of Australia to be reunited with his wife Stella and their two children.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to one count of espionage as part of a plea deal with US authorities.

His court appearance took place on the US territory of Saipan. He left the UK on Monday after being released on bail from Belmarsh high security jail.

Addressing the court, Assange said that he broke US law by encouraging classified leaks, but said he believed the Espionage Act violates free speech.

As per the deal, the judge sentenced Assange to time already served in a British prison and told him he would be able to leave court a free man.

The US request to extradite the WikiLeaks founder on spying charges has been dropped and he is now on his way to his home country of Australia to be reunited with his wife Stella and their two children, Gabriel and Max.

Mrs Assange posted on X after her husband walked out of court: “Julian walks out of Saipan federal court a free man. I can’t stop crying.”

WikiLeaks said Assange is expected to arrive in the Australian capital of Canberra at 6.41pm local time (9.41am GMT).

The 52-year-old arrived at court in a dark suit, with a loosened tie, after flying from Stansted Airport in London on a charter plane and stopping to refuel in Bangkok.

The flight cost him $500,000 (£394,000) with Mrs Assange calling for “emergency” donations to cover the “massive debt” for the jet.

She said her husband was “not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia” and any contribution would be “much appreciated”.

Inside court, Assange answered basic questions from judge Ms Manglona and appeared to listen intently as terms of the deal were discussed.

As a condition of his plea, he will be required to destroy information that was provided to WikiLeaks.

Assange left court in a white SUV without speaking to reporters, but his lawyer Jennifer Robinson said it was because of support around the globe that “today’s outcome is possible”.

She said: “Julian has suffered for more than 14 years because of risk of extradition to the US… today he pleaded guilty to an offence for having published information in the public interest… this sets a dangerous precedent, this prosecution sets a dangerous precedent.”

Thanking Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Ms Robinson said he “did what he needed to do to ensure Julian’s freedom”.

Mr Albanese has publicly supported Assange as leader of the Australian Labour Party and as prime minister. He said in a statement earlier on Wednesday: “Regardless of what your views about Mr Assange’s activities, his case has dragged on for too long.

“There is nothing to be gained from his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia.”

The hearing took place in Saipan – the US Commonwealth territory – because of Assange’s opposition to travelling to one of the 50 US states and the court’s proximity to Australia.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/julian-assange-formally-admits-spying-charge-as-part-of-a-plea-deal-with-us-authorities-13158900

The Scottish Prison Service says inmates who pose an immediate risk are not being released as part of the scheme.

Victims are being taunted by criminals who are being released early from Scotland’s prisons today under emergency plans to tackle overcrowding, Sky News has been told.

Jails across the UK are in crisis with governors in England and Wales warning they could run out of space within days.

From this morning, the SNP government in Edinburgh is allowing more than 500 Scottish inmates, serving short term sentences, out early in a bid to tackle the issue.

Prisoners inside for under four years who have 180 days or less left to serve are being released in waves over the coming weeks across all Scottish prisons.

Sex offenders and domestic abusers are among those exempt, with governors handed a veto.

The charity Victim Support Scotland told Sky News the system will lead to reoffending.

Kate Wallace, its chief executive, said: “The last time this happened, over 40% had re-offended within six months. That created more victims, and we are fully expecting that to be the case again.

“Victims are concerned about the risks to their own personal safety, and we are aware already of some prisoners who have been in contact with victims saying that they are going to be released, and it being used as a coercive control tool.”

The prison population in Scotland is almost 8,300, more than exceeding the target operating capacity of 8,007.

The Scottish Prison Service insists safety is a priority.

A spokesman said: “Governors have vetoed anyone they found posed an immediate risk to individuals or groups, with the help of intelligence from police and social work.”

Latest Ministry of Justice figures show English and Welsh jails currently have 87,395 inmates, with maximum spaces standing at 88,778.

The Prison Governors’ Association (PGA) claims police will be unable to detain people because there’s not enough room behind bars.

Some inmates in England and Wales are being freed up to 70 days early in a similar move to Scotland.

However, the Ministry of Justice was unable to tell Sky News how many convicts have been granted freedom since the system came into force in May.

The crisis has been put in to sharp focus with just days to go until the general election.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/victims-taunted-as-scotland-releases-500-inmates-early-to-relieve-packed-jails-13158805

The new strain, which appears to spread more easily from person to person, has potentially more severe symptoms and has a higher mortality rate, early research suggests.

Scientists tracking the spread of a dangerous new strain of the Mpox virus have said it is time to “get prepared”.

Researchers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are warning it could spread internationally – with potentially more severe symptoms and higher mortality.

Known as Clade 1b, the strain first emerged in September among sex workers in the DRC mining town of Kamituga, around 170 miles (273km) from the border with Rwanda.

There have now been around 1,000 confirmed cases in the country’s South Kivu province.

On Monday, the first cases were confirmed in the city of Goma, which is also close to the Rwanda border.

Estimates of the strain’s severity are inexact, as only cases among patients who have gone to hospital have been studied.

However, early estimates suggest it has a mortality rate of 5% for adults and 10% for children.

“It is undoubtedly the most dangerous so far of all the known strains of Mpox,” said Jean Claude Udahemuka, from the University of Rwanda.

“Everyone should get prepared and support the local response,” he added.

It comes as South Africa recorded a third Mpox death on Tuesday. Previous deaths there have been due to an ongoing outbreak of the earlier Clade 2 strain.

Genetic sequencing will confirm whether they might have been due to the new strain, but so far it has not been confirmed outside of DRC.

In 2022, the Clade 2 strain of Mpox (previously known as Monkeypox) caused a global outbreak – largely among gay and bisexual men.

More than 97,000 cases have been recorded internationally, including nearly 4,000 in the UK. Most cases are mild and the mortality rate is less than 0.5%.

Vaccination with a smallpox vaccine, which gives protection against Mpox, as well as public health campaigns, have helped control Clade 2.

Like Clade 2, Clade 1b causes a severe blister-like rash at the site of the infection.

But symptoms are more severe, with the rash often spreading to the entire body, according to Leandre Murhula Masirika, a research co-ordinator in South Kivu province.

‘We are very afraid’

Most new cases in the DRC are sexually transmitted, but the new strain can spread more readily from person to person – with infections reportedly jumping between household members and at least one outbreak recorded among schoolchildren.

It has also caused miscarriage in women, with early evidence suggesting long-term health problems in some people who have recovered from infection.

“We are very afraid [Clade 1b] is going to cause more damage in terms of health importance,” said Murhula Masirika.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/new-mpox-strain-clade-1b-most-dangerous-so-far-and-could-spread-internationally-scientists-warn-13158698

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked free on Wednesday from a court on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage law, in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia.
His release ends a 14-year legal saga in which Assange spent more than five years in a British high-security jail and seven years in asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London battling extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations and to the U.S., where he faced 18 criminal charges.

She wished Assange, who turns 53 on July 3, an early happy birthday as she released him due to time already served in a British jail.
While the U.S. government viewed Assange as reckless for putting its agents at risk of harm by publishing their names, his supporters hailed him as a hero for promoting free speech and exposing war crimes.
“We firmly believe that Mr. Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in (an) exercise that journalists engage in every day,” his U.S. lawyer, Barry Pollack, told reporters outside the court.
He said WikiLeaks’ work would continue.
Assange’s UK and Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson thanked the Australian government for its years of diplomacy in securing Assange’s release.
“It is a huge relief to Julian Assange, to his family, to his friends, to his supporters and to us and to everyone who believes in free speech around the world that he can now return home to Australia and be reunited with his family,” she told reporters outside the court.
Assange, left the court through a throng of TV cameras and photographers without answering questions, then waved as he got into a white SUV.

He left Saipan on a private jet to the Australian capital Canberra, where he is expected to land around 7:30 p.m. (0930 GMT), according to flight logs.

“That Julian can come home to Australia and see his family regularly and do the ordinary things of life is a treasure,” his father, John Shipton, told Reuters in Canberra, where he was waiting for his son’s return.

“The beauty of the ordinary is the essence of life.”

LONG SAGA

Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

The U.S. territory in the western Pacific was chosen due to his opposition to travelling to the mainland U.S. and for its proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.

Dozens of media from around the world attended the hearing, with more gathered outside the courtroom to cover the proceedings. Media were not allowed inside the courtroom to film the hearing.

“I watch this and think how overloaded his senses must be, walking through the press scrum after years of sensory depravation and the four walls of his high security Belmarsh prison cell,” Stella Assange, the wife of WikiLeaks founder said on social media platform X.

Politicians in Australia who had campaigned for his release raised concern about the guilty plea on U.S. soil, saying he was a journalist who had been convicted for doing his job.

“That is a really alarming precedent. It is the sort of thing we’d expect in an authoritarian or totalitarian country,” said Andrew Wilkie, an independent lawmaker who led a parliamentary group advocating for Assange.

Assange spent more than five years in what Judge Manglona called one of Britain’s harshest prisons and seven years holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London as he fought extradition.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/wikileaks-assange-arrives-mariana-islands-us-plea-deal-2024-06-25/

It comes as North Korea warned of a “new demonstration of deterrence” after the US joined military drills with South Korea and Japan earlier this week.

South Korea has said North Korea may have launched a hypersonic missile towards the North’s east coast.

South Korea’s joint chief of staffs said the launch on Wednesday morning originated from Pyongyang and appeared to fail before landing in the sea.

The country initially thought North Korea had launched a ballistic missile.

Japan’s defence ministry said the missile had reached an altitude of about 100km (62 miles) and covered a range of more than 200km (124 miles) before falling outside the country’s exclusive economic zone – an area of sea that a country claims the rights over to conduct economic activities.

No damage has been reported.

Earlier this week, North Korea criticised the deployment of US aircraft carrier, the Theodore Roosevelt, to take part in joint military drills with the South and Japan.

It warned of an “overwhelming, new demonstration of deterrence” as a result.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol boarded the US aircraft carrier – the first sitting president to do so since 1994 – and claimed the countries alliance is the world’s greatest, and can defeat any enemy.

Hypersonic weapons are considered the next generation of arms that aim to rob adversaries of reaction time and traditional defeat mechanisms.

North Korea has launched various missiles that it claims are hypersonic over the few years. In April, Kim Jong Un watched over a test of what the country said was a new hypersonic-intermediate range missile using solid fuel.

The missile launch came hours after South Korea said the North floated flying balloons – believed to be carrying rubbish – across the border for a second day in a row.

The balloons caused a three-hour delay at the country’s Incheon international airport after one landed on the tarmac near one of the passenger terminals. Runways have since reopened.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/north-korea-fires-ballistic-missile-towards-sea-south-korea-says-13158861

Police said they detained the men – thought to be linked to the Youth Demand protest group – “within one minute of them entering the grounds”. They remain in custody.

Four men have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass in the grounds of the prime minister’s home, police have confirmed.

The incident took place at Rishi Sunak’s constituency address in Kirby Sigston, North Yorkshire, while he was attending events in London to mark the Japanese state visit.

A police statement said officers were “with the four men within one minute of them entering the grounds”.

The arrests are connected to a protest by campaigners from Youth Demand. It describes itself as a group of young people who want “the Tories and the Labour Party commit to a two-way arms embargo on Israel, and to stop all new oil and gas licences”.

A spokesperson for the group said three of those arrested were taking part in the demonstration, while the fourth person was an independent photographer.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “They were detained at around 12.40pm before being escorted off the property and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

“The men, aged 52 from London, 43 from Bolton, 21 from Manchester, and 20 from Chichester, remain in police custody for questioning and enquiries are ongoing.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/four-men-arrested-at-rishi-sunaks-north-yorkshire-home-13158703

President Joe Biden’s campaign used the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning abortion rights on Monday to spotlight Donald Trump’s role in the ruling, as Democrats zero in on the issue ahead of the November election.

Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, said Trump, the Republican former president seeking reelection, was “guilty” of taking away reproductive rights from women. First Lady Jill Biden and other Democrats speaking on Monday also tried to mobilize volunteers and voters around protecting the patchwork remains of abortion access.

“Donald Trump is the sole person responsible for this nightmare,” the president said in a statement.
He said the reversal two years ago of the landmark Roe v Wade ruling of 1973, which gave constitutional protection to abortion rights, has been “devastating.”
“This is a fight for freedom: the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not having her government tell her what to do,” Harris said at a campaign event in Maryland.

Trump appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices during his 2017-21 presidency, leading to a change in the court’s balance that sparked the abortion ruling in 2022.
Harris called the plan to overturn Roe v Wade “premeditated.”
“In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty,” she said.
Since the 2022 ruling, more than 20 Republican-led states have imposed restrictions on abortion, while the unpopularity of the decision even in some conservative states made it a political liability for Republicans during mid-term elections in 2022.

Abortion access is now almost non-existent in Southern states, forcing tens of thousands of women to cross state lines for abortions, and sparking a rise in medication abortion.

Biden’s team believes the issue could swing the tight Nov. 5 election his way. He will focus on getting a law passed that restores the rights of Roe v Wade if re-elected, White House gender policy council chair Jennifer Klein told reporters Monday.
Trump said in April that abortion laws should be set by individual U.S. states, stepping away from a national abortion ban that anti-abortion groups and some parts of his Republican Party have pushed for.
On Saturday, Trump addressed a crowd of evangelical voters at the Faith & Freedom Coalition in Washington. “We have also achieved what the pro-life movement fought to get for 49 years, and we’ve gotten abortion out of the federal government and back to the states,” he said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-aim-anger-trump-anniversary-abortion-rights-ruling-2024-06-24/

Justice isn’t always blind. When it comes to levying punishments on powerful companies, the challenge is to inflict enough pain that bad behavior is deterred, but not so much that it creates unintended suffering elsewhere. Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab, an American icon in a heap of trouble, exemplifies that quandary.
Prosecutors are recommending that the Department of Justice bring criminal charges against the $104 billion aviation company, according to sources cited by Reuters, for breaching the terms of its deferred prosecution agreement. After two crashes killed 346 people, Boeing agreed in 2021 to a three-year settlement, opens new tab that shielded it from criminal prosecution, but in which it admitted former employees had misled regulators, pledged to do better, and paid $2.5 billion. The government says Boeing has failed to live up to its side of the bargain. Boeing disagrees.

There’s a problem, though. Boeing is a national champion with a big economic footprint, and that could limit the amount of pain the government is able to inflict. For example, commercial aviation is essentially a duopoly shared between Boeing and its European rival Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab. It’s also the nation’s single largest exporter, with over $30 billion of foreign revenue in 2023. And what hurts the U.S. aircraft-maker also hurts numerous small subcontractors who supply Boeing planes’ parts. Customers like Southwest Airlines (LUV.N), opens new tab, already reeling from delayed jet deliveries, might see their problems worsen.

One of the biggest threats of a prosecution for a company like Boeing – debarment from government contracts – is also hard to enforce. Consolidation has already left too little competition in the sector, and over a third of the company’s $78 billion of revenue last year came from government contracts. Past guilty pleas, opens new tab by Boeing, including for felonies, opens new tab, did not stop the company from quickly getting back on the government-contract gravy train. In 2003, for example, the Air Force suspended some of the company’s units from winning work, but granted two waivers to the Boeing units for space and rocket contracts. Then there are fines. Those hurt, but not much for a company that has already lost around $100 billion of market capitalization in the past five years.

The Kremlin on Monday squarely blamed the United States for an attack on Crimea with U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles that killed at least four people and injured 151, and Moscow formally warned the U.S. ambassador that retaliation would follow.
The war in Ukraine has deepened a crisis in relations between Russia and the West, and Russian officials have said the conflict is entering the most dangerous escalation to date.

The death toll from a series of brazen attacks on churches and synagogues in Russia’s mainly Muslim region of Dagestan rose to 20 on Monday after gunmen went on the rampage in coordinated attacks in two of the republic’s most important cities.
Gunmen with automatic weapons burst into an Orthodox church and a synagogue in the ancient city of Derbent on Sunday evening, setting fire to an icon at the church and killing a 66-year-old Orthodox priest, Nikolai Kotelnikov.

In the city of Makhachkala, about 125 km (75 miles) north on the Caspian Sea shore, attackers shot at a traffic police post and attacked a church.
Gun battles erupted around the Assumption Cathedral in Makhachkala and heavy automatic gunfire rang out late into the night. Footage showed residents running for cover as plumes of smoke rose above the city.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Russia’s investigative committee said 15 policemen and four civilians were killed. According to Dagestan’s healthcare ministry, 46 more people were wounded.

Dagestan announced three days of mourning. Photos of the dead policemen were lined up on the street by red carnations.
President Vladimir Putin, who has long accused the West of trying to stoke separatism in the Caucasus, sent his condolences to those who lost loved ones.

Dagestan is a mainly Muslim republic of Russia’s North Caucasus, a patchwork of ethnic groups, languages and regions that live in the shadow of the Caucasus mountains between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.

DAGESTAN

The attack on Christian and Jewish places of worship stoked fears Russia may be facing a renewed militant Islamist threat just three months after a deadly attack in Moscow.

In the Moscow attack, 145 people were killed at the Crocus concert hall, an attack claimed by Islamic State.

In October, after the war in Gaza broke out, rioters waving Palestinian flags broke down glass doors and rampaged through Makhachkala airport to look for Jewish passengers on a flight arriving from Tel Aviv.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and conveyed his condolences, a spokesperson said.

Derbent, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, is home to an ancient Jewish community and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Russian investigators said it was a “terrorist” attack but did not give details of the attackers.

Russia’s state media cited law enforcement as saying two sons of Magomed Omarov, the head of central Dagestan’s Sergokala district, were among the attackers in Dagestan. They were killed and their father was detained, state media said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-dagestan-mourns-priest-police-killed-attack-by-gunmen-2024-06-24/

Even in the exuberant world of Taiwanese politics, Huang Jie stands out – and not just because of the pink highlights in her hair and love for cosplay.
Known for her fiery speeches and progressive views, the 31-year-old made history in January when she won a seat in parliament – and became the island’s first openly gay legislator.
“I think it’s a new milestone for Taiwan,” Ms Huang told the BBC recently. “I feel quite grateful that the Taiwanese are willing to have come this far.”
“Of course, as the first such legislator, I also bear a certain responsibility, which is to work harder and show everyone my efforts in pushing for LGBTQ rights,” she added.
Taiwan is one of the most progressive place in Asia for gay rights. Back in 2019 it was the first place in the region to legalise same-sex marriage. Now it also recognises transnational LGBTQ+ couples and allows gay couples to adopt.
Besides Ms Huang, activists estimate there are now more than a dozen Taiwanese politicians who identify as LGBTQ+.
They include lesbian Taipei city councillor Miao Poya – she and Ms Huang were the two most prominent gay politicians in January’s elections. The island – and the world – also had its first transgender cabinet minister back in 2016, when then President Tsai Ing-wen appointed Audrey Tang as digital affairs minister.
Yet some worry of a resurgence in conservative politics – while others dream of a time when sexuality will not even be a point of discussion.
Ms Huang’s win – she represents the governing Democratic Progressive Party in its stronghold Kaohsiung – caps a rocky few years in her political career. After brief stints in environmental health research and journalism, she joined a small progressive political party and in 2018 won a seat in Kaohsiung’s local council.
The following year, she shot to fame when she went toe-to-toe with controversial conservative politician Han Kuo-yu. During a sparring session at a council meeting, she was caught on camera rolling her eyes before delivering a snappy riposte.
That moment of unbridled exasperation earned her the delighted attention of the Taiwanese internet, the moniker “eyeroll goddess”, and a new following. But it also attracted scrutiny. A tabloid ran a piece about her romantic life, prompting Ms Huang to deny some of its allegations and clarify that she was bisexual.
She said she was forcibly outed by the press – her parents had no idea about her sexuality until they read about it in the papers. Given a choice, she would not have revealed it.
“I have never shied away from talking about my sexual orientation. But I also don’t think I have the obligation to explain my sexual orientation in particular,” she said. “When we have to show that I am a sexual minority, it conveys to society that gay people are the exception, special, and not normal.”
Ms Huang has since come to terms with her role as an openly gay public figure, and has spoken about her experience in interviews.
She has also made clear she would push for LGBTQ equality in parliament. One of her top priorities, she told the BBC, is to advocate for same-sex couples to have biological children. Taiwan is now considering allowing them access to assisted reproductive technology such as IVF.
But as the only gay person in Taiwan’s famously combative parliament – which now happens to be led by the target of her famed eyeroll Mr Han – Ms Huang also anticipates critics “may use my sexual orientation and identity against me”.
“I can already think of scenarios where, if my performance is not as good as they expected, they will say it’s because I’m a gay legislator… it is a common situation that sexual minority public figures face.”
It is an example, she said, of a “social environment that is not friendly enough”. This is why “even in Taiwan, where everyone feels that gay people are already very open, in fact there are still many public figures or people in charge who are still very afraid to reveal their identity.”
Ms Huang pointed out that unlike her straight counterparts who often appear publicly with their partners, she appears alone. Her partner is afraid of accompanying her “because they feel they have to bear a negative gaze”.
Other LGBTQ politicians also said they have faced hurdles.

When Ms Miao first started out in politics, she told the BBC she was advised by senior party members to “play down my gay identity”. They suggested she grow her hair long and use more pink campaign materials. She refused.

The challenge, Ms Miao said, lies in convincing voters to view her as more than just her sexual preferences: “Once you disclose your identity, then the voter’s perception of you will be focused on your sexual orientation… to put it simply, you will be labelled.”

It is a subtle battle in a society which has seemingly embraced the LGBTQ community.

Taiwan used to be deeply split on gay rights, but government polls show a rise in support in the last five years. About 69% are now in favour of same-sex marriage while some 77% support same-sex adoption.

Tens of thousands attend Taiwan’s annual pride parade, the biggest in Asia. Even more gay tourists flock to its capital all year round for its vibrant LGBTQ scene, earning Taipei the nickname “the San Francisco of the East”.

In May, Taiwanese drag queen Nymphia Wind who won popular reality show Rupaul’s Drag Race was hosted by then-President Tsai Ing-wen at her office – a sign not just of recognition, but also acceptance.

While Taiwan’s government has led the way, there are still some parts of society that are not as accepting, say observers. Though attitudes especially among younger parents are changing, “in Taiwanese society, we think it’s okay if other kids are LGBTQ – but not mine,” said Liu Wen, an associate fellow with Academia Sinica who studies queer issues in Chinese-speaking communities.
Some fear that the lingering conservatism could bloom following the recent election. “I’m not 100% optimistic we will continue to become even more progressive… we cannot be complacent because we do see conservative ideology rising,” said Rita Jhang, an academic and activist with LGBTQ group Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association.
Joyce Teng, executive director of Taiwan Equality Campaign, said the issue of homosexuality “can still be manipulated by conservative political powers”.
During the election a candidate from the up-and-coming Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) questioned Ms Miao’s appearance and gender presentation. Separately, a small party campaigned on an anti-transgender platform while a conservative group warned against voting in LGBTQ lawmakers.
Ko Wen-je, the leader of TPP, who enjoyed a lot of youth support in January’s election, has been criticised for remarks appearing to frame homosexuality as a psychological issue. He also expressed shifting views on same-sex marriage and was accused of flip-flopping on the issue to gain votes. Mr Ko insists he never opposed it.
One possible reason conservative attitudes are rising again is the progress Taiwan has made. Ms Miao said: “It is precisely because of this… that some opposition opinions will become more intense.”
But she hopes that Taiwan’s democracy can overcome this. “Taiwanese society is very diverse – extremely open and extremely conservative views can co-exist.”

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5111ve3ygpo

Stinging jellyfish, rays with their whip-like tails and sharks on the hunt are some ocean hazards that might typically worry beachgoers. But rip currents are the greatest danger and account for the most beach rescues every year.

Six people drowned in rip currents over a recent two-day period in Florida, including a couple vacationing on Hutchinson Island from Pennsylvania with their six children and three young men on a Panhandle holiday from Alabama, officials say.

About 100 people drown from rip currents along U.S. beaches each year, according to the United States Lifesaving Association. And more than 80 percent of beach rescues annually involve rip currents.

The National Weather Service lists 16 known deaths so far in 2024 from rip currents in U.S. waters, including the Florida fatalities as well as eight deaths in Puerto Rico and two in Texas.

Here are some things to know about rip currents:

What is a rip current?

Rip currents are narrow columns of water flowing rapidly away from the beach, like a swift stream within the ocean. They don’t pull swimmers under water, but can carry them out a fair distance from shore.

Taylor Swift — once again — accidentally swallowed a bug on stage during her Eras Tour concert.

The 34-year-old singer was belting out the chorus to the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” on Sunday night when she accidentally choked on a critter.

Swift stopped singing momentarily after the bug flew into her mouth, telling the audience, “I just swallowed a bug, keep singing.”

Although the 14-time Grammy winner barely missed a beat, she leaned over and began coughing during a pause in the song.

The “Cruel Summer singer, who stepped away from her microphone, was seen clutching her throat while trying to get it out of her system.

However, once the rest of the chorus began, Swift hopped right back on the microphone as if nothing happened.

The pop star found herself in the same situation around this time last year while performing at Soldier Field in Chicago.

During her “Evermore” set, the singer alerted fans that she “swallowed a bug” and needed to take a minute.

“Oh, delicious,” she said with a laugh. “Oh, God. Is there any chance that none of you saw that?”

After a cough attack, the singer joked, “So I’m just gonna try not to do as many of those. This is gonna happen again tonight. There’s so many bugs. There’s a thousand of them. Anyway, this has been fun.”

While Swift was able to avoid the bugs during her last year on tour, they finally got the best of her during her final show in London.

However, the incident was only one small mishap during her otherwise flawless — and unexpected — final show in England.

The hitmaker shocked the crowd when she brought boyfriend Travis Kelce on stage for a short skit amid the “Tortured Poet’s Department” set.

The crowd erupted when they realized Kelce, 34, was amongst Swift’s dancers dressed in a custom tuxedo and top hat.

He then scooped her up in his arms and carried her across the stage, where the other dancers helped her out of her gown and into a white sparkling bralette and high-waisted bottoms.

Swift subtly blew the NFL star a kiss as she turned to sing “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”

On Monday, the singer reflected on the now-viral moment while recapping the “surreal” shows in her old stomping grounds.

“I’m still cracking up/swooning over @killatrav’s Eras Tour debut 🥰 Never going to forget these shows,” she captioned various photos and videos, three of which featured Kelce.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/06/24/entertainment/taylor-swift-chokes-on-another-bug-onstage-as-she-performs-in-london/

Pirates of the Caribbean actor Tamayo Perry has died after being attacked by a shark while surfing in Hawaii.

The 49-year-old died on Sunday afternoon, Honolulu’s emergency services confirmed in a press conference.

Emergency services were called to Malaekahana Beach at around 13:00 local time.
But Perry, who was also a lifeguard, was pronounced dead by paramedics after being brought to shore by jet ski.
Perry portrayed one of the buccaneers in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth film in the franchise.
The 2011 film, which follows Johnny Depp as eccentric pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, also stars Penelope Cruz and Geoffrey Rush.
Perry also had roles in Lost, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Crush and Charlie’s Angels sequel Full Throttle, and appeared in a Coca-Cola advert.

Born on the east side of Oahu, Perry had been surfing professionally for over a decade.
In a blurb on the Oahu Surfing Experience, where he was an instructor, he described his experiences surfing “the world’s deadliest wave”.
“This small time island boy can bang it out with the world’s best,” he wrote.
He also said that several years ago, he was involved in “a freak accident that turned into a near-fatal experience”.
Perry didn’t elaborate on what the incident had involved, but said it happened because of someone else’s “lack of awareness”.
The real reasons why sharks attack humans

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1117lwlxyo

For Joe Biden and Donald Trump – the two oldest candidates ever to seek the US presidency – age is an election issue neither can escape.
On Thursday, the current Democratic president, 81, and his Republican predecessor, 78, will face off in Atlanta, Georgia, for the first of two debates ahead of November’s vote, offering Americans a rare, split-screen comparison of the two men’s physical and mental strength.
For 90 minutes, under the glare of the high-definition cameras, President Biden and former President Trump — who remain nearly tied in national opinion polls — will spar on issues ranging from the economy and foreign wars to immigration and the future of democracy. One slip-up, stumble or verbal miscue could cement concerns about their advanced age, with the potential for reshaping an already tight presidential race as voters begin to pay attention.
But delivering a vigorous performance may be more critical for Mr Biden, the nation’s oldest president who has been dogged by questions about his stamina and mental fitness since he took office.
“There’s no hiding the fact that Biden’s 81, there’s no hiding the fact that Trump’s basically the same age,” said Jim Messina, a Democratic strategist who managed Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. “It’s not a contest of age, it’s a contest of policy and character.”
“Part of what needs to happen on Thursday night is just to begin the conversation about the differences between them,” Mr Messina said.

For Joe Biden and Donald Trump – the two oldest candidates ever to seek the US presidency – age is an election issue neither can escape.
On Thursday, the current Democratic president, 81, and his Republican predecessor, 78, will face off in Atlanta, Georgia, for the first of two debates ahead of November’s vote, offering Americans a rare, split-screen comparison of the two men’s physical and mental strength.
For 90 minutes, under the glare of the high-definition cameras, President Biden and former President Trump — who remain nearly tied in national opinion polls — will spar on issues ranging from the economy and foreign wars to immigration and the future of democracy. One slip-up, stumble or verbal miscue could cement concerns about their advanced age, with the potential for reshaping an already tight presidential race as voters begin to pay attention.
But delivering a vigorous performance may be more critical for Mr Biden, the nation’s oldest president who has been dogged by questions about his stamina and mental fitness since he took office.
“There’s no hiding the fact that Biden’s 81, there’s no hiding the fact that Trump’s basically the same age,” said Jim Messina, a Democratic strategist who managed Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. “It’s not a contest of age, it’s a contest of policy and character.”
“Part of what needs to happen on Thursday night is just to begin the conversation about the differences between them,” Mr Messina said.

Some Democrats have publicly and privately expressed reservations about the president’s age, but they rallied around him in February, when justice department special counsel Robert Hur released his investigation into Mr Biden’s handling of classified documents after his term as vice-president.
The report did not recommend prosecuting him, but Mr Hur’s description of the president as an an “elderly man with a poor memory” made headlines.
But when Mr Biden gave his annual State of the Union address a few weeks later, pundits gave him high marks for an energetically delivered speech.
“The president always delivers in big moments,” Congressman Ro Khanna, a Biden campaign surrogate, told NBC News last week. “He did in the State of the Union. And people are going to see the difference.”
The Biden campaign is hoping Thursday’s debate will be another moment in which the president demonstrates he can endure the rigours of governing, drawing a sharp contrast with Trump on policy and temperament.
Ahead of the debate, Donald Trump suggested his opponent could exceed expectations, telling the All-In podcast in a 20 June appearance that he assumed Mr Biden was “going to be somebody [who] will be a worthy debater”.
“I don’t want to underestimate him,” he added. Trump has separately spread unsubstantiated claims that the president will take performance-enhancing drugs to put in a good performance, which the Biden campaign has described as “desperate lies”.
While the scrutiny around Trump’s age is not as intense, the former president has faced questions about his own fitness for office.
At a January rally, Trump appeared to confuse his Republican primary rival, Nikki Haley, with former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for several minutes during his speech.
He claimed, incorrectly, that Ms Haley had been “in charge of security” at the time of the 6 January attack on Congress. Ms Haley, Trump’s former UN ambassador, called for “mental competency tests” for politicians over 75 during her own unsuccessful presidential run.
Trump’s personal physician issued a statement in November attesting that his “cognitive exams were exceptional”.
At a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania, Trump complained of a double standard between the media’s treatment of himself and Mr Biden.
“If I say one word slightly out, they say, ‘He’s cognitively impaired,’” Trump told supporters. “Whereas Biden can run into walls. He can fall off the stage. He can fall up the stairs. He falls up.”

Both campaigns have sought to shape the narrative around their opposing candidate through social media, amplifying video snippets of verbal gaffes, memes and in some cases, deceptively edited footage.
More recently, Republicans and rightwing media have intensified attacks on Mr Biden’s mental competence, circulating a flurry of edited video clips including one of the president appearing to wander off during the G7 summit of world leaders in Italy. The unedited footage showed Mr Biden was walking to greet paratroopers during a skydiving demonstration.
Days later, conservative critics shared footage online of the president at a Los Angeles fundraiser, standing on stage before Barack Obama reaches for his arm and they walk off stage together. Donald Trump and other Republicans claimed it was evidence that Mr Biden had frozen up and had to be led off stage. But allies of the president pointed to longer clips that appeared to show Mr Biden smiling and taking in the crowd’s applause.
The Biden campaign has responded with a rapid response effort on social media, sharing content that appears to similarly raise questions about Trump’s mental acuity. They’ve posted clips of Trump appearing to walk off stage before he is supposed to and being redirected by others including former Vice-President Mike Pence and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn00e8dzq46o

Two people are said to have jumped to their death from the top floors of the burning eight-storey building on Monday.

At least eight people are dead after a fire in an office building in the city of Fryazino outside Moscow on Monday, according to Russian emergency services.

Two people jumped to their death from the top floors of the burning eight-storey former Russian electronics research institute on Monday and at least six others died in the fire, the state-run TASS news agency reported.

More than 130 firefighters and 50 vehicles tackled the flames, which had spread from the fifth floor to the seventh, according to TASS.

Black smoke billowed from the building outside Moscow and flames roared up its walls.

Some people were trapped on the top floors but were unable to escape.

A video released by the Russian Emergency Ministry showed fire engines and helicopters battling the fire which spread across 5,000sq m.

The interior structures of the building collapsed, the ministry said, and an explosion was heard as gas cannisters exploded in the flames.

“The extinguishing operation is complicated by the presence of gas-air mix canisters inside the building,” said the press office to TASS news agency.

The building is located about 15.5 miles (25km) northeast of the capital and is shared by a number of different companies.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/eight-dead-in-fire-at-former-russian-research-institute-near-moscow-13158178

The British star released her sixth album, Brat, earlier in June – but was kept off the top spot in the UK by Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. Charli XCX is engaged to The 1975’s drummer. Swift was linked to the band’s singer Matt Healy before her relationship with Travis Kelce.

Singer Charli XCX has warned her fans to stop chanting “Taylor is dead” at her gigs.

The British star shared a statement on social media following reports that members of the audience were shouting about Taylor Swift at a gig in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“Can the people who do this please stop. Online or at my shows,” Charli wrote after the chanting was highlighted by one of her fans.

She added: “It is the opposite of what I want and it disturbs me that anyone would think there is room for this in this community.

“I will not tolerate it.”

It came after a fan tagged the star in an Instagram message that said: “Your Brazilian fans have been showing toxic behaviour by screaming ‘Taylor is dead!’ in your concerts and events related to you.”

Charli released her sixth album, Brat, earlier in June – but was kept off the top spot in the UK by Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, which has charted at number one for seven non-consecutive weeks since its release in April.

The British singer, who supported Swift on her Reputation tour in 2018, is also engaged to The 1975 drummer George Daniel.

The US star was previously linked to the band’s frontman Matt Healy in 2023, before her relationship with current partner Travis Kelce.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/charli-xcx-asks-fans-to-stop-disturbing-chanting-about-taylor-swift-13158025

Six construction workers died after the vessel lost power, veered off course and collided with a supporting column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.

A cargo ship that crashed into a US bridge and caused it to collapse – killing six people – has left Baltimore after undergoing repairs.

The Dali sailed out of the city on Monday morning, local time, heading for Virginia, nearly three months after hitting a supporting column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Six construction workers died after the collision, which investigators have said was caused by a power failure.

The vessel was refloated and guided back to port in May after spending two months stuck in the wreckage with a massive steel truss draped across its damaged bow.

A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation found the ship experienced two power outages in the hours before it left the Port of Baltimore.

It lost power again and veered off course before crashing into the bridge.

The NTSB is still investigating what caused the electrical failures while a criminal investigation has been launched by the FBI.

The ship’s crew, who had been forced to stay in the country afterwards, have been allowed to leave, provided they were available to give evidence, thanks to an agreement confirmed by a federal judge.

Earlier on Monday, four tugboats helped the 984ft (300m) craft get moving shortly before 8.30am.

The Dali is scheduled to go directly to Virginia International Gateway where around 1,500 cargo containers will be offloaded to reduce draft, the US Coast Guard said in a statement.

From there, the vessel is scheduled to sail for Virginia’s Norfolk International Terminal for further salvage and repairs from damage caused during the bridge collapse.

The Dali was sailing under its own power with a full crew of 22 and six salvage experts, according to the coast guard, which is overseeing the voyage and providing a 500-yard (457m) safety zone around it.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/dali-ship-in-deadly-baltimore-bridge-collapse-leaves-three-months-after-disaster-13158166

Eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a training college near Gaza City being used to distribute aid, Palestinian witnesses said, as Israeli tanks pushed further into the southern city of Rafah.
The strike hit part of a vocational college run by the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA that is now providing aid to displaced families, the witnesses said.
“Some people were coming to receive coupons and others had been displaced from their houses and they were sheltering here. Some were filling up water, others were receiving coupons, and suddenly we heard something falling. We ran away, those who were carrying water let it spill,” said Mohammed Tafesh, one of the witnesses.

The Israeli military said the site, which it said had served in the past as a UNRWA headquarters, has been used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. It added that precautionary measures were taken before the strike to reduce the risk of harming civilians.

“This morning (Sunday), IAF fighter jets directed by IDF and ISA intelligence struck terrorist infrastructure in which Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were operating,” the military said in a statement.

“This is another example of Hamas’ systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure and the civilian population as a human shield for its terrorist activities,” it added.
Hamas denies Israeli accusations that it uses civilians as human shields or civilian facilities for military purposes.
Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications, said the agency was looking into details of the reported attack before providing more information.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have recorded that nearly 190 of our buildings have been hit. This is the vast majority of our buildings in Gaza,” she said. A total of 193 UNRWA team members have been killed in the conflict, she added.
Just after midnight, an Israeli air strike hit a clinic in Gaza City, killing the director of ambulance and emergency services at the territory’s health ministry, Hani Al-Jaafarwi, and another medical staffer, Hamas media said. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

‘INTENSE PHASE’ ENDING

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the phase of intense fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip would end “very soon” but that the war would not end until the Islamist group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave.

“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14.

Israel’s fighting against Iran-backed Hezbollah has escalated on the northern border with Lebanon, where many Israeli towns have been evacuated. Netanyahu said a northern deployment would allow residents to come home.

More than eight months into Israel’s war in the Hamas-administered Palestinian enclave, its advance is focused on the two areas its forces have yet to seize – Rafah on Gaza’s southern tip and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the centre.

Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Israeli offensive in retaliation has killed almost 37,600 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and has left Gaza in ruins.

Residents said Israeli tanks had advanced to the edge of the Mawasi displaced persons’ camp in the northwest of Rafah in fierce fighting with Hamas-led fighters, part of a push into western and northern Rafah during which they had blown up dozens of houses in recent days.

“The fighting with the resistance has been intense. The occupation forces are overlooking the Mawasi area now, which forced families there to head for Khan Younis,” said one resident, who asked not to be named, on a chat app.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-tanks-edge-rafahs-mawasi-refuge-zone-residents-say-2024-06-23/

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that he welcomed his third child with Neuralink director Shivon Zilis earlier this year — making the tech mogul a father to at least 12 children.

Half of the $210-billion-man’s kids were born in the past five years.

His children include his three with Zillis, three with Canadian popstar Grimes and five with his ex-wife Justine Wilson.

Musk, 52, a vocal “pronatalist” who has long claimed that the population is in decline and previously joked that he’s, “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis.”

Although world fertility rates are declining, the UN projects that the global population will hit 10 billion by the end of the century.

Here’s everything to know about the very modern family started by the world’s second wealthiest man.

Justine Wilson – Mother of to Griffin, Vivian, Kai, Saxon, Damian and Nevada
Musk and his first wife, Justine Wilson, had twins Griffin and Vivian in 2004 after the couple had a son named Nevada in 2002 who died at just 10 weeks old from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

While Musk has rarely mentioned his loss, he expressed his sympathy in an email chain with the father of an 18-year-old boy who died in a fiery Tesla crash in 2018.

“There is nothing worse than losing a child,” Musk wrote, according to Bloomberg.

“My firstborn son died in my arms. I felt his heartbeat.”

Musk’s child Vivian, came out as transgender in 2022 and legally changed her name from Xavier Musk, including taking her mother’s last name.

In court, Vivian said she “no longer lives with or wishes to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”

Five years after their twins were born, the couple had triplet boys, Kai, Saxon and Damian, in 2006 using in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Musk and Wilson divorced in 2008.

Following his divorce from Wilson, Musk married actor Talulah Riley in 2010.

The pair divorced in 2012, remarried in 2013 and divorced for a final time in 2016.

The actor and tech guru never had children together.

Grimes – Mother to X Æ A-Xii, Exa Dark Sideræl and Techno
Musk and the “Oblivion” singer’s first son, X Æ A-Xii, was born in May 2020.

In December 2021, the couple quietly welcomed their daughter, Exa Dark Sideræl via surrogate.

Their son, originally named X Æ A-12, had to have his name legally changed to follow California laws on birth certificates, though his parents simply refer to him as “X.”

His name is pronounced “X Ash A Twelve,” Musk explained on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast just after his birth, giving props to Grimes for coming up with the majority of the name.

“My partner’s the one that mostly came up with the name,” he said.

“It’s just X, the letter X, and then the ‘Æ’ is like pronounced, ‘Ash,’ and then, ‘A-12’ is my contribution.”

The couple split in September 2021 before getting back together around the time of the birth of their daughter, Exa Dark Sideræl, whose name is pronounced “Sigh-deer-ee-el,” but has been given the nickname “Y.”

This past September it was confirmed that the pair had a third child, a boy named Techno Mechanicus, whom they nicknamed “Tau.”

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Elise Boucher, spoke of their third child in an X post, writing, in part, “I wish I could show u how cute little Techno is but my priority rn is keeping my babies out of the public eye.”

Source:https://nypost.com/2024/06/23/us-news/elon-musks-12-kids-and-counting-what-to-know-about-the-tesla-billionaires-big-brood/

Firefighters across Greece have been battling forest fires over the weekend, struggling to contain them as gale force winds hit the country’s islands and mainland.

Thirteen people have been arrested in Greece after fireworks launched from a yacht allegedly started a forest fire.

On the island of Hydra, the only pine forest caught fire after fireworks from a boat went astray, according to the local fire service.

Emergency services were able to get the blaze in the remote Bisti area under control on Saturday.

As there were no roads to the affected area, firefighters had to access it by sea and air.

The fire brigade’s crime division later arrested the 13 yacht crew members and passengers.

“We are outraged,” Hydra mayor George Koukoudakis told state TV.

“If it’s true, it is something that really saddens me.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/yacht-fireworks-spark-forest-fire-in-greece-13157409

Sunday was supposed to be the date Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo would swim in the Seine to prove the water was clean enough for Olympic athletes.

Parisians have threatened to poo in the River Seine in a protest ahead of the Olympics.

People angry at the expense of cleaning up the river have rallied under the hashtag #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin, which translates as “I shit in the Seine on 23 June”.

Sunday was supposed to be the date Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo would swim in the Seine to prove the water was clean enough for Olympic athletes – but she delayed the dip until after the French elections in July.

President Emmanuel Macron has also promised to swim in the Seine before the Games, but has not said when.

A website has been set up with the slogan: “They have plunged us into shit, it’s their turn to plunge into our shit.”

The anonymous programmer behind the website told news outlet Actu Paris why people are angry.

“The problem is that all the resources that have been invested have not been to resolve all the social problems we have at the moment,” he said.

“We have the feeling of being abandoned. We see where their priority was.”

More than €1.4bn (£1.2bn) has been spent on trying to make the water safe enough to swim in, with triathlon and open water swimming events scheduled to take place in the river.

A report published on Friday showed the water was still too dirty to swim in, just over five weeks out from the first triathlon event.

Water samples showed high rates of two kinds of faecal bacteria, including E.coli, and did not meet the standards set for the Games, Paris region prefect Marc Guillaume said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/why-people-are-threatening-to-poo-in-paris-river-seine-today-13157481

Gracie Abrams also joined Swift for a surprise duet of their song ‘Us’ in the weekend’s third and final London show.

Taylor Swift performed at the third and final night of the Eras tour‘s London stop on Sunday evening, during which a surprise guest joined her on stage: her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Kelce, dressed in a tailcoat and top hat, literally swept the pop star off her feet during the “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” transition of Swift’s show at Wembley Stadium. He then performed a short routine alongside Swift’s dancers, who were wearing the same attire as Kelce.

That did not mark the end of the special guests during the show, as Swift was soon joined by her friend (and frequent opening act) Gracie Abrams, who joined her for a duet of their song “Us” during the acoustic surprise-songs segment.

“Us” is a song that Swift and Abrams wrote and sang together for the latter artist’s new album, “The Secret of Us,” which came out Friday. Swift began the acoustic segment by singing a substantial part of the number on her own, before taking a pause as Abrams strolled down the long ramp to the B-stage. Swift then talked about the compressed songwriting session that had them coming up with the tune together, before restarting it as a full-on joint performance, with Abrams playing piano while Swift strummed an acoustic guitar.

After Abrams’ departure, Swift then did the other surprise song of the night, an acoustic version of the “1989” favorite “Out of the Woods,” which was briefly mashed up at the end with another track from that album, “Clean.”

Although he didn’t count as an official special guest, Paul McCartney became a trending topic on X when he was spotted and filmed dancing to “But Daddy I Love Him!” on the floor of the arena.

Sunday night marks the last of three shows at Wembley Stadium, though Swift will return to Wembley Stadium in August for five more shows to end the European leg of the Eras tour.

At her first London show on Friday night, Swift took a selfie with Prince William, who celebrated his 42nd birthday at the concert alongside children George and Charlotte.

Several celebrities, including Hugh Grant, Tom Cruise, Liam Hemsworth, Rachel Zegler, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, attended Swift’s second date of her London stop on Saturday night.

Source: https://variety.com/2024/music/news/travis-kelce-joins-taylor-swift-on-stage-surprise-eras-tour-appearance-1236045290/

Suri Cruise is officially a high school graduate!

The daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise celebrated getting her diploma from LaGuardia High School on Friday with her mom by her side.

In photos and video obtained by Page Six, she could be seen ringing in the milestone moment by snapping pics with Holmes and a friend in New York City, where she resides.

The teen was also photographed animatedly hugging another recent graduate.

Suri, 18, looked thrilled as she posed with Holmes, 45, for photos outside a brick building before heading into the United Palace Theatre, located in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

She rocked a dainty, white dress under her red graduation robe, and paired the ensemble with white sandals that had floral embellishments on them. Her brunette hair was styled down.

Holmes, meanwhile, opted for a matching set that consisted of light yellow pleated pants and a collared long-sleeve shirt.

Suri’s father, Tom, was not present at the special event, as they have been estranged for most of her life. He instead attended Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in London.

It was even revealed in the teen’s graduation ceremony pamphlet that she goes by “Suri Noelle” and seemingly does not use her famous dad’s last name.

Suri is expected to attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in the fall.

On Tuesday night, she looked all grown up as she headed to senior prom with her friends and a brunette date, who was seen holding her by her waist.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/06/22/parents/suri-cruise-celebrates-high-school-graduation-with-mom-katie-holmes/

Gunmen opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in attacks across two cities in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing an Orthodox priest and multiple police officers, the region’s head said.
“This is a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the whole country,” Sergei Melikov, governor of the Dagestan region, said in a video published early on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.

Melikov said that more than 15 police officers “fell victim” to what he said was a “terrorist attack”,” but he did not specify how many of the police were killed and how many were injured. Russia’s Interfax agency reported that at least 15 police officers were killed.
The simultaneous attacks across the cities of Makhachkala and Derbent came three months after 145 people were killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State on a concert hall near Moscow, Russia’s worst terrorist attack in years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in the volatile North Caucasus region.
“We understand who is behind the organisation of the terrorist attacks and what goal they pursued,” Melikov said, without disclosing further details.
Russia’s state media cited law enforcement as saying that among the attackers had been two sons of the head of central Dagestan’s Sergokala district, who had been detained by investigators.

Melikov said that among the dead, in addition to the police officers, were several civilians, including an Orthodox priest who worked in Derbent for more than 40 years. A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church said on Telegram that the priest, Nikolai Kotelnikov, was “brutally murdered”.
Six of the gunmen were shot and killed as the incidents unfolded, Melikov said. Russian state news agencies cited the National Anti-Terrorist Committee as saying that five of the gunmen had been killed.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports on how many people or gunmen were killed in the attacks.
DAYS OF MOURNING
June 24-26 have been declared days of mourning in Dagestan, Melikov said, with flags lowered to half-staff and all entertainment events cancelled.
The restive region was in the 2000s hit by an Islamist insurgency spilling over from neighbouring Chechnya, with Russian security forces moving aggressively to combat extremists in the region.
In recent years, attacks had become rarer, with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) saying in 2017 that it had defeated the insurgency in the region.
The agencies reported exchanges of gunfire in the centre of Makhachkala. They cited the interior ministry as saying that exits from the Caspian Sea port of around 600,000 had been closed, and that conspirators who were still at large may yet attempt to flee the city.
About 125 kms (75 miles) south of Makhachkala, gunmen attacked a synagogue and a church in Derbent, home to an ancient Jewish community and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Authorities were quoted as saying that both the synagogue and church were ablaze, and that two attackers had been killed.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/gunmen-fire-targets-russias-north-caucasus-region-two-police-killed-interior-2024-06-23/

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in a podcast released on Thursday said that students graduating from U.S. colleges should get a green card to stay in the country, a proposal that runs counter to his hardline immigration stance.
During the All-In podcast hosted by Silicon Valley tech investors, angel investor Jason Calacanis told Trump that the U.S. needs to be able to legally retain more high-skilled workers, a major issue for the tech industry.

“Can you please promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America?” Calacanis said.
“I do promise,” Trump said. “But I happen to agree, otherwise I wouldn’t promise… You graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country and that includes junior colleges too.”
A green card, also known as a permanent resident card, allows individuals the right to live and work permanently in the United States and is a step towards citizenship.

It was not clear if Trump was referring to all foreigners, including those who came to the United States illegally or overstayed their visas, or only those people on student visas.
Asked for comment, the Trump campaign said in a statement that only after “the most aggressive vetting process in U.S. history” would “the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America” be able to stay.

The Biden campaign cast doubt on whether Trump would in fact enact the proposal he outlined on Thursday, given the hardline immigration stances he adopted during his 2017 to 2021 term.
“Every chance Donald Trump got in office, he made it his mission to rip apart immigrant families for his own political gain,” said Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz.
“Trump’s empty promise is both a lie and an insult, especially to the countless people that have been permanently damaged by his first-term in office.”

Immigration advocates were also unconvinced by Trump’s proposal.
“I almost have to laugh because his administration adopted multiple policies aiming to restrict student visas and make it harder for people to stay in the country after graduating,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council.
During his presidency, Trump’s administration took steps aimed at curbing U.S. companies’ use of skilled foreign workers on H-1B visas, a key visa option for international students seeking to remain in the United States.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration tried to force tens of thousands of foreign students to leave the country if their schools held all classes online. Faced with lawsuits and strong opposition from colleges and universities, the administration later rescinded the order.
Trump has vowed a wide-ranging crackdown if reelected in the November election against Democrat Joe Biden, and has lambasted Biden’s efforts to curb the record number of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-foreign-college-graduates-should-automatically-get-green-cards-2024-06-20/