UNITED STATES
Mine accident probed
Investigators on Friday were trying to figure out what led to an elevator accident inside a former Colorado gold mine that killed a tour guide, injured four others and left a separate group of 12 people trapped for six hours at the bottom of the tourist attraction 305m beneath the surface. The elevator was descending into the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine on Thursday in the mountains near Colorado Springs, when at about 152m down, the person operating the elevator from the surface “felt something strange” and stopped it, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said. The elevator was still operable, and those on board were brought back up within 20 minutes, he said, adding that the elevator’s door was damaged. The exact circumstances of the death of Patrick Weier, 46, were not disclosed, but the sheriff said he died because of the elevator’s mechanical issue.
FRANCE
Paris adopts anti-sexism law
Filmmakers looking to shoot on the iconic streets of Paris would have to promise to fight sexism, discrimination and sexual violence on set under a regulation adopted on Friday by city lawmakers. The regulation, due to take effect on Jan. 1 next year, requires production companies seeking a permit to film in the capital to sign a charter pledging to promote gender balance on set, train crews against sexism and fight gender discrimination and violence. Companies would also have to put special measures in place to protect those involved in shooting sex scenes — a side of the industry that has been transformed since the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017.
UNITED KINGDOM
Creepy parent killer jailed
A woman who murdered her parents and then lived for four years alongside their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home was on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment and told she would not be eligible for parole for 36 years. Virginia McCullough, who spent her parents’ money and went to great lengths to cover her tracks with family and friends through a web of lies, had pleaded guilty to murdering her parents in June 2019 at a previous hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court in southeast England. Judge Jeremy Johnson said at the sentencing hearing that McCullough’s actions represented a “gross violation of the trust that should exist between parents and their children.” In September last year, McCullough, 36, admitted to poisoning her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks and that a day later she beat her 71-year-old mother Lois McCullough with a hammer and fatally stabbed her.
UNITED STATES
Kayak turtle smuggler caught
A woman from Hong Kong on Friday pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 29 eastern box turtles, a protected species, across Vermont’s Lake Wallace into Canada by kayak. Wan Yee Ng, 41, was arrested on the morning of June 28 at an Airbnb in Canaan as she was about to get into an inflatable kayak with a duffle bag, according to a Border Patrol agent’s affidavit filed in federal court. Royal Canadian Mounted Police had notified agents that two other people, including a man who was believed to be her husband, had started to paddle an inflatable watercraft from the Canadian side toward the US, court documents showed. The agents found 29 live eastern box turtles individually wrapped in socks in her duffle bag, the affidavit states. The turtles are known to be sold on the Chinese black market for US$1,000 each, it said.
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
RSS