INDIA
Tank sinks, killing five
Five soldiers were killed when a military tank they were traveling in sank while crossing a river in Ladakh, which borders China, officials said yesterday. The tank sank early yesterday due to sudden increase in the water levels of Shyok River during a military training activity, an Indian army command center statement said. The accident took place in Saser Brangsa near the Line of Actual Control that divides India and China in the Ladakh region, it said. Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh called it an “unfortunate accident.”
IRAQ
Five bombs found in al-Nuri
The UN has said it discovered five bombs in a wall of Mosul’s iconic Great Mosque of al-Nuri, planted years ago by the Islamic State group, during restoration work. Five “large-scale explosive devices, designed to trigger a massive destruction of the site,” were found in the southern wall of the prayer hall on Tuesday by the UNESCO team working at the site, a representative for the agency said late on Friday. “The Iraqi armed forces immediately secured the area and the situation is now fully under control,” UNESCO said. One bomb was removed, but four others “remain connected to each other” and are expected to be cleared in the coming days, it said.
UNITED STATES
Crew ‘not stranded’: NASA
The first astronauts to fly Boeing’s troubled Starliner are not “stranded” at the International Space Station, NASA said on Friday despite having no clear timeframe for bringing them home. In an unusually defensive press call, officials attempted to put a positive spin on where things currently stood after weeks of negative headlines due to the spaceship’s delayed return. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off on June 5 following years of delays and safety scares affecting Starliner. They docked the following day for what was meant to be a week-long stay, but their return has been pushed back multiple times because of thruster malfunctions and helium leaks that came to light during the journey. “Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said. The pair were “enjoying their time on the space station” and “our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time,” he added. Before that can happen, ground teams need to run more testing to better understand the root causes.
UNITED STATES
Comedic actor Mull has died
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including Roseanne and Arrested Development, has died, his daughter said on Friday. Mull’s daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.” Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often smarmy characters as he did as Teri Garr’s boss and Michael Keaton’s foe in 1983’s Mr. Mom. He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game Clue, which, like many things he appeared in, has become a cult classic. “He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and — the sign of a truly exceptional person — by many, many dogs,” Maggie Mull wrote on Instagram.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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