FRANCE
Artifacts to be returned
President Emmanuel Macron on Friday agreed to return 26 cultural artifacts to Benin “without delay,” a move that could put pressure on other former colonial powers to return African works of art to their countries of origin. The decision came as he received the findings of a study he commissioned on repatriating African treasures held by French museums. Macron agreed to return the works, mainly royal statues from the Palaces of Abomey — formerly the capital of the kingdom of Dahomey — taken by the French army during a war in 1892 and now in Paris’ Quai Branly museum. He also proposed gathering African and European partners in Paris next year to define a framework for an “exchange policy” for African art.
UNITED STATES
Teens steal small plane
Two teenagers on Thursday stole a small plane in a rural area of eastern Utah, flying it at low altitude over a highway and landing at a regional airport before being arrested, officials said. The teens, aged 14 and 15, took the single-engine propeller aircraft from a private airstrip in the small town of Jensen in the northeastern corner of Utah, the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. They flew at low altitude over Highway 40 and were seen in the air above the area of Gusher, about 50km west of where they took off, the office said. The teens thought about continuing to fly west to a more populated area of Utah, but they decided to turn around and land the plane at the Vernal Regional Airport, about 25km from where they took off.
UNITED STATES
Judge dismisses MH370 case
A judge has dismissed nationwide litigation over the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in which victims’ families sought to hold the carrier, its insurer, Allianz SE, and Boeing Co liable for the still-unexplained disaster. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in Washington on Wednesday ruled that the wrongful death and product liability litigation, encompassing 40 lawsuits, did not belong in the US. She said the case belonged in Malaysia, which has an “overwhelming interest” in and “substantial nexus” to the March 8, 2014, disappearance of Flight MH370 with 239 people on board.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Chopper crash kills five
Five people have died after a helicopter crashed near a popular tourist area, authorities said. The EC20 helicopter disappeared late on Thursday after the pilot picked up four people at a hotel in Rio San Juan on the north coast, the director of the Investigative Commission of Aviation Accidents said. Colonel Emmanuel Souffront told reporters on Friday that the group was headed to the southeast coastal city of La Romana. Authorities said they lost contact with the helicopter about 39km northwest of their destination. No further information was immediately available.
ZIMBABWE
Hunters, pilot killed in crash
Four Finns on a hunting expedition died in a plane crash on Friday that also killed their pilot near the southern city of Masvingo, the Finnish consul’s wife told reporters. “There were four Finnish citizens and their pilot in the plane, they all died,” Sally Ward said. “It was cloudy and they were trying to get above the clouds.” The accident occurred near Renco, a gold mine on the outskirts of Masvingo, police spokesman Paul Nyathi said, adding that investigators had found a Finnish identity card and a passport at the scene.
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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