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.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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