Sixteen soldiers, including a driver,
are killed in a landmine explosion in the
Gadchiroli district of
Maharashtra,
India. Maoist insurgents are currently active in the area, leading officials to believe them to be responsible.
(CNN)
Evacuation of approximately 800,000 people is underway as
Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani heads toward the
Indian state of
Odisha (formerly Orissa) and is expected to make landfall Friday with wind speeds in excess of 200 km/h (127 mph).
(BBC News)
The Freewinds cruise ship is quarantined in
Saint Lucia over concerns of a
measlesepidemic after it is reported that one of the passengers has the disease. The cruise ship is reportedly owned by the
Church of Scientology, a religious organization that opposes vaccinations against diseases such as measles.
(CNN)
Myanmar security forces fire into a crowd of 275
Rakhine people detained during a search for
Arakan Army members, killing six and wounding eight. The
military claim that they were forced to shoot after some of the detainees attempted to seize their weapons, despite warning shots and verbal warnings.
(Reuters)
Documents filed in a United States
bankruptcy court indicate that the bankrupt
utility company
Pacific Gas & Electric has not been able to reach a settlement with its creditors over billions of dollars it owes under power purchase contracts. PG&E wants the issue settled by the bankruptcy court rather than by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
(Reuters)
Cyclone Fani, an extremely severe
category 4 storm and one of the strongest in recent years, makes landfall at the coastal town of
Puri in the
Indian state of
Odisha. Eight people have been killed in India, according to the
Press Trust of India, and hundreds more injured. Severe damage and flooding has been reported. One million Indians and 2.1 million Bangladeshis have been evacuated. A
storm surge possibly up to 1.5m (5ft) is expected. The storm, weakening as it travels northeast through India, is expected to reach
Chittagong in
Bangladesh Saturday.
(Reuters)(BBC News)
The
Israeli Air Force carries out dozens of airstrikes on the
Gaza Strip in response to a barrage of rockets fired by
Hamas militants. The
Turkish state-owned
Anadolu Agency's media office in Gaza was among those hit by Israeli missiles, prompting outrage from Turkish officials.
(Deutsche Welle)
Cyclone Fani starts affecting
Bangladesh, where over a million people have been evacuated from the storm's path. Authorities say the cyclone has killed at least five people in Bangladesh and damaged over a thousand homes. At least twelve people have been killed in total by the cyclone.
(Reuters)
In
horse racing,
Country House wins the 145th Kentucky Derby after
Maximum Security is disqualified. The latter horse is the first Kentucky Derby winner ever to have been disqualified for interference.
(CBS Sports)
Hamas and other militant groups in the
Gaza Strip fire hundreds of rockets at
Israel, killing two Israeli civilians in
Ashkelon and one in
Ashdod. Retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 23
Palestinians, including a senior Hamas commander.
(CNN)(Haartez)
Taliban insurgents kill 13 and injure 55 people in an attack on a police headquarters in
Puli Khumri,
Afghanistan, using guns and suicide vests. The Taliban's high command recently rejected a ceasefire offer from the Afghan government.
(BBC News)
The
United States deploys
a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East to respond to threats from
Iran. A U.S. official told
CNN, "... the threats were against both U.S. maritime and land-based forces in the region."
(CNN)
Brunei's SultanHassanal Bolkiah announces, via a television broadcast, that he has extended the moratorium on capital punishment for gay sex convictions. No executions have been carried out in
Brunei since 1957. There has been overwhelming international backlash against a number of the changes affected by the stricter interpretation of
Islamic law published on 3 April 2019. The Sultan also said Brunei will ratify the
United Nations Convention against Torture.
(BBC News)(CNN)
Chinese stocks are down, falling more than 5 percent as of midday, following
U.S. PresidentDonald Trump's threats to raise tariffs against Chinese-made goods on Sunday. The current negotiations for a new deal between the two countries, originally planned for Wednesday, are now in question. U.S. stock
futures fell sharply as well.
(BBC News)(The New York Times)(Bloomberg)
The
Attorney General and the
International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) present a new case of corruption involving the current Economy Minister Acisclo Valladares Urruela, the presidential candidate Estuardo Galdámez of the ruling party
National Convergence Front and seven deputies. They also request the revocation of the immunity of these politicians to proceed with their arrest. Galdámez is the sixth presidential candidate who has a process for possible acts of corruption.
(elPeriódico de Guatemala)
At least seven people are killed and another 20 injured in a shooting at
Pavón Prison near
Guatemala City. The injured have been taken to hospital. Security forces have regained control of the facility.
(BBC News)
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman acquitted of blasphemy after spending eight years on death row, has left
Pakistan for
Canada to be reunited with her daughters.
(ABC News)
The
South Koreanmilitary claims that
North Koreanmilitary has launched an "unidentified projectile" into the sea, marking the second time North Korea has conducted a weapons test in a single week.
(CNBC)
A blast hits
Baghdad's northeastern
Sadr City district.
ISIL claims responsibility. No verified report on casualties is presently available.
(Reuters)
Arts and culture
The
Reserve Bank of Australia confirms it issued approximately 46 million new
Australian $50 notes in late 2018 with a typo in the background
fine print: "responsibility" is misspelled as "responsibilty", the third "i" is missing. The mistake appears three times on the note and is extremely small requiring magnification to see. Part of the rollout of Australia's redesigned currency, the A$50 notes feature the first female member of an Australian parliament, social reformer
Edith Cowan.
(BBC News)(The Age)
Former Brazilian PresidentMichel Temer surrenders to the federal police in response to Wednesday's arrest warrant regarding an investigation into an alleged corruption scheme involving an
Eletrobras nuclear power plant. Temer's lawyer's appeal will be heard on Tuesday.
(Reuters)(France 24)
Colleague Richard Blanco of the Brave Peoples’ Alliance party seeks
refuge in
Argentina's embassy in
Caracas, Venezuela, following Zambrano's arrest.
(Reuters)
Four hostages, who were being held in northern
Burkina Faso, are rescued by
French naval commandos, with two French commandos killed during the rescue operation. Those freed include two Frenchmen who had been kidnapped in
Benin on May 1 and a pair of women, one an
American and the other a
South Korean.
(BBC News)
In
Gwadar, three insurgents attack a luxury hotel, as a result of the attack, four hotel employees, a soldier and all three attackers have been killed. The
Baloch Liberation Army, an ethnic Baloch separatist group fighting for independence for
Balochistan province, claimed responsibility for the attack saying that four fighters were involved.
(BBC News)
Memos sent to Syria's head of
military intelligence, and obtained by the New York Times, report that President
Bashar al-Assad's government has been running a network of secret torture facilities across Syria, crushing opposition via routine torture in secret prisons.
(Al Jazeera)
Law and crime
Argentine lawmaker
Héctor Enrique Olivares, who was seriously injured in a shooting attack near the Congress on May 9, dies in hospital as result of the gunshot injuries.
(TN.com.ar)(Reuters)
An Iranian woman is sentenced to 10 years in prison for suspected spying for the
United Kingdom. A judiciary spokesman alleged that she was recruited by the
British Council'sIran desk.
(Reuters)
Actress
Felicity Huffman pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit
mail fraud and honest services mail fraud and admits to paying $15,000 for a proctor to change her daughter's
SAT answers.
(NBC News)
The
Constitutional Court determines that
Zury Ríos has a constitutional impediment to be a presidential candidate and leaves her out of the electoral contest. Her constitutional impediment is for being the daughter of former dictator
Efraín Ríos Montt.
(Prensa Libre)
Science and technology
American undersea explorer
Victor Vescovo sets a new world record for the deepest ever sea dive at 10,972 metres (35,997 ft) in the
Pacific Ocean's
Mariana Trench. Several unusual things are discovered at the bottom, including four new species of prawn-like
crustaceans, a new species of
snailfish, strange brightly coloured rocky outcrops and a
plastic bag.
(BBC News)
Two
Saudi Aramco oil pumping stations are attacked in an apparent drone strike according to
Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry. The stations are linked to a pipeline transporting oil from the eastern fields to the western coast port of
Yanbu on the
Red Sea.
(Associated Press)(Bloomberg)
French
anaesthesiologist Frédéric Péchier, previously investigated in the poisoning of seven patients at private clinics in
Besançon, France, is being held over suspicions that he poisoned a further 17 - 50. Mr. Péchier has denied all charges, and is scheduled for a hearing later this week.
(CNA)(BBC News)(The Daily Telegraph)
WhatsApp confirms a major security bug in the app let hackers remotely install surveillance software on its users' devices. All 1.5 billion users are urged to update WhatsApp as a precaution. The technology used in the
cyberattack appears to have originated from
NSO Group, a technology company operating out of
Israel.
(BBC News)(The Independent)
Militants kill at least 17
NigerArmed Forces troops in an ambush near the
Malian border. Another 11 soldiers are missing; six others have been evacuated to a hospital. No group has claimed responsibility.
(BBC News)(Reuters)
Representatives from 17 world governments and various U.S. technology companies meet in
Paris to support a set of anti-terrorism guidelines called the "Christchurch Call to Action" drafted by the governments of
France and
New Zealand. The
White House expressed support for the "overall goals reflected" in this pledge, but refused to back it, citing
freedom of speech concerns.
(SBS)
Fijian Prime Minister
Frank Bainimarama asks developed nations, especially the United States, to help fight climate change to "prevent the current crisis from escalating into total chaos."
(Radio New Zealand)
President Bolsonaro expresses support for comedian
Danilo Gentili who was sentenced to six months in prison for a sexually graphic rant against a congresswoman, saying that she was a transexual or a prostitute.
(The Washington Post)
Three Britons and a South African die when their light aircraft crashes on approach to
Dubai International Airport, closing the world's busiest airport for 45 minutes.
(Sky News)
The
Cook Islands secretary of health,
Josephine Herman, says that the country is holding and containing the latest outbreak of Dengue, which has killed 22 people and infected another 28.
(Radio New Zealand)
One person was killed and eight injured in a shooting after a dispute between two women at a large high school graduation party. The suspect is still at large.
(Associated Press)
Despite
opinion polls predicting a Labor victory, the
Labor Party loses several seats, with support in the key state of
Queensland far lower than expected. Opposition Leader
Bill Shorten concedes defeat and steps down as party leader.
(Canberra Times)
The
White House is expected to announce the first part of their
Middle East peace proposal in what officials are calling an economic "workshop" to encourage investing capital in the
West Bank,
Gaza, and the region. The workshop is expected to happen on June 25 and 26 in
Manama,
Bahrain.
(CNN)
Ukrainian Prime Minister
Volodymyr Groysman announces he will resign Wednesday in response to the new president's disbanding of parliament.
(Al Jazeera)
Eleven people were killed in an ambush at 12th mile in Khonsa-Deomali road in Tirap District in Arunachal Pradesh.
(Reuters)
Business and economy
Pharmaceutical giant
Merck & Co. announces that it will purchase Peloton Therapeutics Inc. for $1.05 billion in cash. The catalyst for the deal is Peloton's recent progress in the development of a kidney cancer treatment.
(Reuters)
A man is shot dead and his car set alight in Walshestown near
Balbriggan,
Dublin. It is believed the shooting is linked to the 2015–19 Irish gangland feud.
(RTÉ)
The
Syrian Army and
Iran-back militants shell the town of Khan Sheykhun and the villages of Al-Kassabiyya, Abdin, Karasaa, Kafr Sajna and Al-Naqeer.
(AA)
A powerful
tornado hits
Jefferson City,
Missouri, leaving people trapped or injured and structural damage according to city and state officials. At least three people are killed in southwestern Missouri when a storm system sweeps across the state causing extensive damage.
(CBS News)(NBC News)(The Kansas City Star)
Six people die and more than 200 are injured in the Indonesian capital,
Jakarta, after protesters of the announced results of the presidential election clash with security forces and set fire to a police dormitory and vehicles.
(The Guardian)
John Walker Lindh, the first person to be convicted of a crime in the
War on Terror, is released on
probation from a U.S. federal prison after serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence. Lindh has refused to renounce Islamist extremism and will be on probation for three years.
U.S. PresidentDonald Trump condemns the early release.
(CNN)(Associated Press)
The U.S. city of
Baltimore,
Maryland, has been battling a
ransomware attack that has blocked government email accounts and disabled online payments to city departments. The hackers breached the city's servers on May 7 and demanded $100,000 (£79,000) worth of
Bitcoin.
(BBC News)
Interpol's Operation Blackwrist arrests nine people in
Australia,
Thailand and the
United States, and rescues 50 children in connection with a 63,000-member online
pedophilia ring. More arrests are expected. Investigators from nearly 60 countries participated in this operation.
(ChannelNewsAsia)(CBS News)
The Malawi Electoral Commission reports, with 75% of the vote counted, President
Peter Mutharika leads with 40.44% of votes, the opposition
Malawi Congress Party's
Lazarus Chakwera has 35.34%, and Deputy President
Saulos Chilima received 18.35% of the votes cast in Tuesday's presidential election.
(Reuters)
A bombing at a mosque in the Pakistani city of
Quetta, the capital of the restive province of
Balochistan, kills three people, including the prayer leader, and injures at least 28 worshippers.
(Al Jazeera)
Three people, including a senior
Muslimpreacher,
are killed and at least 20 injured after an explosion in a mosque during Friday prayers in the Afghan capital,
Kabul.
(Al Jazeera)
During a police raid, six children are found unconscious inside a residential property in the
Shiregreen suburb of
Sheffield,
England. The eldest two children, aged 13 and 14, subsequently died at
Sheffield Children's Hospital; the other four children remain hospitalised.
(BBC News)
Two people – a 37-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman – have been arrested under suspicion of murder at the property in Sheffield where six children were found. They remain in police custody. A murder investigation has been opened.
(Evening Standard)
In the U.S. state of
Wisconsin, Jake Thomas Patterson is sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping of Jayme Closs and the murders of her parents.
(NPR)
The
Governor of MissouriMike Parson signs
House Bill 126 into law, effective on August 28, 2019, bans all abortions in the state of
Missouri at or beyond 8 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of medical emergencies. Persons who perform abortion in the state after 8 weeks of pregnancy face 5 to 15 years in prison.
(CBS News)(The Kansas City Star)
Two people are killed and several are missing due to a tornado in the U.S. state of
Oklahoma.
(ABC News)
A boat sinking on
Lake Mai-Ndombe in western
Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 45 people with 200 passengers still missing. The vessel was carrying more than 400 people, the majority of whom were teachers going to collect their salaries.
(BBC News)
Hundreds of counter-protesters show up and protest against an estimated nine attendees of a planned rally by a
Ku Klux Klan-affiliated group in
Dayton, Ohio.
(CBS News)
Science and technology
Binary
Aten asteroid(66391) 1999 KW4 and its
minor-planet moon make their closest-ever recorded flyby of
Earth at 3.2 million miles away. The asteroid will approach even closer at 0.0155 AU (2,320,000 km) from Earth in
2036, and is the largest asteroid to approach Earth until
(4953) 1990 MU in June 2027.
(Newsweek)
Four soldiers of the
Chadian Army and a journalist are killed following a
Boko Haram attack near the northern shore of
Lake Chad. Boko Haram have reportedly continued their incursion into northern
Chad.
(Africanews)
Four people are killed in an attack on a
Catholic church in northern
Burkina Faso, the latest in a string of assaults on Christian places of worship in the region.
(Al Jazeera)
Lithuanian citizens also are heading to the polls to elect their future president in the second round of the latest presidential election.
(Politico)
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister
Peter O'Neill announces his resignation over disputes of him holding dual citizenship and after weeks of defections from his coalition government.
(Radio New Zealand)
Greek Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras, whose term expires in October, calls for snap elections following his leftist
Syriza party's heavy defeat by the opposition conservatives in the European Parliament elections.
(Reuters)
French police arrest four people in connection with last
Friday's bombing in
Lyon's historic city center that injured 13 people. Anti-terrorist prosecutors are leading the investigation.
District mayor Denis Broliquier said the bomb was a relatively weak explosive that was too small to kill. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
(BBC News)
Over Sunday and Monday, 55 people die of asphyxiation in various prisons across the
Brazilian city of
Manaus.
(BBC News)
Multiple destructive tornadoes strike
Dayton, Ohio, and surrounding communities. There was at least one known fatality in
Celina. Multiple homes and businesses were destroyed, with reports of numerous power outages and a boil and water conservation advisory issued for Dayton.
(Accuweather)
Brazil prison officials report at least 42 prisoners are found strangled to death in four separate jails in the state of
Amazonas. Yesterday, 15 prisoners were killed in a fight between rival prison gangs at a facility near the Amazonas capital
Manaus.
(Reuters)(Firstpost)
A man stabs two people to death and wounds 17 others, including sixteen children, in
Kawasaki,
Japan, before slitting his own throat; he later dies of his wounds. Three people are in critical condition.
(BBC News)(CNN)
The Hableány, a sightseeing river cruise ship on the
Danube in
Budapest, capsizes and sinks with 34 South Korean tourists on board. At least seven people are killed and 19 remain missing.
(The New York Times)
Law and crime
A 55-year-old pediatrician, Ricardo Russo, is arrested at the
Hospital Garrahan in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he was Chief of the Immunology Department. He is accused of sexually abusing minors, distributing and possessing child pornography, including handicapped children and babies. He was wanted by the U.S.
FBI and public prosecutors in Brazil.
(Clarín)(Fox News)
A study, published in the journal Science, finds a
genetically enhanced fungus that produces spider toxin can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread
malaria. Trials held in
Burkina Faso showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days. The fungus did not affect other insects, such as bees.
(BBC News)(Science)
Sixty new cases in the past week are reported, bringing this year's total to 971 cases in 26 U.S. states – the highest since 1994. The
CDC warns, "If these outbreaks continue through summer and fall, the United States may lose its
measles elimination status."
(BBC News)
U.S. PresidentDonald Trump announces a 5% import tariff on all products from Mexico, effective June 10 and rising in steps to 25% by October, "until the illegal immigration problem is remedied".
(BBC News)
Mexican PresidentAndrés Manuel López Obrador responds with a letter to the U.S. president stating he wants to avoid a confrontation, saying that ideals such as justice and universal brotherhood are more important than borders. He also ordered his
foreign minister to travel to Washington on Friday.
(Reuters)
Law and crime
American songwriter
R. Kelly is charged by
Cook County prosecutors with 11 counts of sexual assault and abuse.
(USA Today)
The captain of the M/V Viking Sigyn that was involved in the deadly sinking of the Hableány is questioned and arrested by the
Hungarian police.
(BBC News)
New documents reveal that
Jussie Smollett bought drugs from Abimbola "Abel" and Olabinjo "Ola" Osundairo, the two people who accused him of staging an attack on January 29.
(USA Today)
Louisiana GovernorJohn Bel Edwards signs a
heartbeat bill that bans abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy. The law’s effective date is tied to a similar Mississippi law which has already been temporarily blocked by a federal court.
(BBC News)
Fifteen days after the first wave of protests, millions of students, schoolteachers and university professors hold demonstrations in over a hundred
Brazilian cities against massive cuts in the education budget. Brazilian Education Minister Abraham Weintraub accuses teachers of "coercing" students into participating in the protests.
(The Guardian)
In northern
Alberta,
Canada, an estimated 10,000 people have been evacuated due to fast spreading wildfires.
(Global News)
Air quality warnings are issued for most of
Alberta as a result of the thick smoke moving across the province. Places as far south as
Calgary have reached 10+ on the Air Quality Health Index, and rated worse than some of the most polluted cities in the world.
(Calgary Herald)
According to
South Korean media, North Korea executed five officials back in March, including
Kim Hyok-chol, its nuclear envoy to the United States, for their part in the failed second
summit in Hanoi. In addition, three other officials involved in the summit have reportedly been sent to a camp for political prisoners.
(Reuters)(Fox News)
Eddie Gallagher, a
U.S. Navy Seal charged with the murder of an
ISIL prisoner, attempted murder of civilians, and obstruction of justice, is temporarily released from custody amidst allegations of misconduct by Navy prosecutors.
(CBS News)