UNITED KINGDOM
Python fans celebrate
Monty Python fans, sporting knotted handkerchiefs on their heads, rolled up trousers and Wellington boots, on Saturday gathered in London for a suitably silly celebration of the 50th anniversary of the comedy troupe. The costumes matched those of the Gumbys, who were characters in the Monty Python’s Flying Circus series that first aired on BBC television on Oct. 5, 1969. The Gumbys were noted for their ape-like posture, habit of speaking loudly and slowly, and the catchphrase “my brain hurts.” Dozens of Gumbys strutted outside the Roundhouse music venue before events to celebrate the work of Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and the late Graham Chapman. Organizers were hoping to set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Gumbys.
Photo: Reuters
VATICAN CITY
Pope opens Amazon synod
Pope Francis yesterday opened a divisive meeting on preserving the Amazon and ministering to its indigenous peoples. Francis celebrated an opening Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, with indigenous peoples from the Amazon, some with their faces painted and wearing feathered headdresses, as well as more than 180 cardinals, bishops and priests, who donned green vestments like the pope. They traveled to Rome from the region for three weeks of debate at a special synod that has become one of the most controversial of Francis’ papacy. Among the most contentious proposals on the agenda is whether married elders could be ordained priests to address the chronic priest shortages in the region and calls to identify new “official ministries” for women.
UNITED KINGDOM
Drummer Ginger Baker dies
Ginger Baker, the volatile and propulsive musician who was best known for his time with the power trio Cream, died yesterday at the age of 80. Baker’s family said on Twitter that he had “passed away peacefully in hospital this morning.” They had previously announced he was critically ill and asked fans to “please keep him in your prayers.” Cream helped define the psychedelic rock sound of the 1960s, with Baker bringing both a jazz sensibility, recording one of the first drum solos in rock, and a hard-hitting style, using two bass drums, that pointed toward heavy metal. Baker became one of the world’s most admired and feared musicians.
UNITED STATES
Museum replaces Bible
The Museum of the Bible in Washington has quietly replaced an artifact purported to be one of a handful of miniature Bibles that a NASA astronaut carried to the moon in 1971 after an expert questioned its authenticity. The museum replaced the original microfilm Bible with one that was donated by an Oklahoma woman who wrote a book about the Apollo Prayer League, which arranged for Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell to carry tiny Bibles to the moon. “We know for sure that one on display right now went to the moon, but we could not verify for sure that the one we had originally on display had gone to the moon,” museum spokeswoman Heather Cirmo said. “We couldn’t disprove it, it just wasn’t certain.”
THAILAND
Elephants drown in ravine
A herd of wild elephants was swept away by raging waters in Khao Yai National Park, drowning six, while rangers helped steer two animals out of a deep ravine. Park staff discovered the two struggling elephants and the carcasses after dawn on Saturday near the Haew Narok waterfall, also known as the Ravine of Hell. The two elephants were trying to reach a dead calf, park officials said. Park rangers helped lead the two elephants from the ravine and said they would monitor their condition throughout the week. The waterfall was closed off to visitors while officials remove the carcasses. “The two elephants right now are taking a rest. They are exhausted from trying to cross the stream,” Chanaya said.
AUSTRALIA
Cannabis research planned
The government would provide A$3 million (US$2.03 million) for research on the use of cannabis to help cancer patients, Minister of Health Greg Hunt said yesterday, as the demand for medicinal cannabis products grows rapidly. While legal in most of the nation, such products are allowed only to patients on the prescription of a doctor, and a license is required to grow and make medicinal cannabis. Access had been permitted to more than 11,000 patients, with most approvals this year, Hunt said. “There have only been a limited number of well-designed clinical studies on medicinal cannabis, and we need to increase the evidence base to support medical professionals,” a ministry statement cited him as saying. Hunt was speaking at a fundraising walk led by Olivia Newton-John, the English-born Australian singer and actress who became an ardent advocate of medical cannabis after being diagnosed with cancer.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban meet with US envoy
The Taliban met with a US envoy in the Pakistani capital, a Taliban official said on Saturday, the first such encounter since US President Donald Trump announced a month ago that a seemingly imminent peace deal to end the nation’s 18-year war was dead. The official offered few details of Friday’s meeting between peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a cofounder of the movement that was ousted in 2001 by a US-led coalition. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. Khalilzad has been in Islamabad for much of the week meeting with senior government officials in what the US Department of State described as follow-up meetings to those he held in New York during last month’s UN General Assembly session.
TURKEY
Tweet causes firestorm
The government yesterday protested after the US embassy’s Twitter account on Saturday liked a tweet saying that the nation should be ready for a political realm without Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party who has recently fallen in ill. Bahceli’s party is an ally of President Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP said on Twitter that the user who had posted the message was wanted for links to the network of Fethullah Gulen, which Ankara says orchestrated an abortive coup in July 2016. The embassy late on Saturday posted an apology on Twitter. “Earlier today our Embassy Twitter account ‘liked’ an unrelated post in error. We regret the mistake and apologize for any confusion,” it said. The like was also removed from the embassy’s page.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of