AFGHANISTAN
Fifty killed in flash flooding
Flash flooding has killed at least 50 people in Ghor Province, police said yesterday, a week after hundreds were washed away in the north. The floods on Friday also destroyed about 2,000 houses, and damaged thousands more homes and businesses, Ghor police spokesman Abdul Rahman Badri said in a statement. The fresh flooding comes as survivors of the flash floods on Friday last week in northern Baghlan Province continue to search for missing relatives. “Fifty residents of Ghor Province were killed by the floods on Friday and a number of others are missing,” Badri said. “These terrible floods have also killed thousands of cattle... They have destroyed hundreds of hectares of agricultural land, hundreds of bridges and culverts, and destroyed thousands of trees,” he added.
UNITED STATES
Actor Dabney Coleman dies
Dabney Coleman, a character actor who brought a glorious touch of smarm to the screen in playing comedic villains, mean-spirited bosses and outright jerks in films such as 9 to 5 and Tootsie, has died at age 92. Coleman “took his last earthly breath peacefully and exquisitely” in his Santa Monica, California, home on Thursday, his daughter Quincy Coleman said in a statement on Friday on behalf of the family. While best remembered for his arrogant, unctuous and uncaring characters, Coleman said it was all an act. “It’s me kidding around,” Coleman once told the New York Times. Not all of Coleman’s characters were cads. He won an Emmy playing a lawyer in the 1987 television movie Sworn to Silence and a federal security official in 1983’s WarGames.
UNITED STATES
Xi-Putin hug ‘nice’: official
The White House on Friday said that it had not seen any surprising advance in relations between China and Russia despite Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanging a hug with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on a visit to Beijing. “Exchanging hugs? Well, that’s nice for them,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told a briefing when asked about the significance of photographs showing the two US adversaries locked in an embrace. “I’m not good at talking about personal human bodily affection one way or the other. I think I’ll leave it to these two gents to talk about why they thought it was good to hug one another,” Kirby said.
UNITED KINGDOM
McCartney is a billionaire
Paul McCartney is a billionaire Beatle, figures released on Friday showed. The annual Sunday Times Rich List calculated the wealth of the 81-year-old musician and his wife, Nancy Shevell, had grown by ￡50 million (US$63.32 million) since last year to ￡1 billion thanks to McCartney’s Got Back tour last year, the rising value of his back catalogue and Beyonce’s cover of The Beatles’ Blackbird on her Cowboy Carter album.
FRANCE
Stamp celebrates baguette
La Post on Friday rolled out a scratch-and-sniff postage stamp to celebrate the world-famous baguette, once described by President Emmanuel Macron as “250g of magic and perfection.” It was unveiled on Thursday, the day of Saint-Honore, the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. “The baguette, the bread of our daily lives, the symbol of our gastronomy, the jewel of our culture,” La Poste says on its Web site. The stamp, which costs 1.96 euros (US$2.14), depicts a baguette decorated with a blue-white-red ribbon, and has a “bakery scent.”
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
Africa has established the continent’s first space agency to boost Earth observation and data sharing at a time when a more hostile global context is limiting the availability of climate and weather information. The African Space Agency opened its doors last month under the umbrella of the African Union and is headquartered in Cairo. The new organization, which is still being set up and hiring people in key positions, is to coordinate existing national space programs. It aims to improve the continent’s space infrastructure by launching satellites, setting up weather stations and making sure data can be shared across
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