UNITED STATES
Author Robbins dies at 92
Author Tom Robbins, whose novels read like a hit of literary LSD, filled with fantastical characters, manic metaphors and counterculture whimsy, died on Sunday. He was 92. Robbins’ death was announced by his wife, Alexa Robbins, on Facebook. The post did not cite a cause. “He was surrounded by his family and loyal pets. Throughout these difficult last chapters, he was brave, funny and sweet,” Alexa Robbins wrote. “He asked that people remember him by reading his books.” Tom Robbins indulged the hippie sensibilities of young people starting in the early 1970s with books that had an overarching philosophy of what he called “serious playfulness,” and a mandate that it should be pursued in the most outlandish ways possible. As he wrote in Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas: “Minds were made for blowing.” Robbins’ works included Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Another Roadside Attraction and Still Life With Woodpecker. Robbins’ characters were over the top, off the wall and around the bend. Among them were Sissy Hankshaw, the hitchhiker with the 9 inch thumbs in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Switters, the pacifist CIA operative in love with a nun in Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. “What I try to do, among other things, is to mix fantasy and spirituality, sexuality, humor and poetry in combinations that have never quite been seen before in literature,” Robbins said in an interview with January magazine in 2000. “And I guess when a reader finishes one of my books ... I would like for him or her to be in the state that they would be in after a Fellini film or a Grateful Dead concert.”
AUSTRALIA
Sewage cancels Adams gig
Overflowing sewage caused by a “large blockage” of fat, grease and rags has organizers to cancel a Bryan Adams concert in Australia, citing a threat to the arena’s toilets. The Canadian singer-songwriter’s Sunday night event fell victim to the sewers of Perth “due to the risk of sewage backing up within the venue’s toilets,” the state water corporation said. “Our crews are working to clear the large blockage of fat, grease and rags, which has caused several wastewater overflows at properties.” In an update yesterday, the water authority said the blockage “could not be easily dislodged,” with venue management taking the “incredibly tough decision to cancel the Bryan Adams concert.” “Contingencies, including the use of sucker trucks, were considered, but the volume of wastewater generated by a capacity crowd of 16,000 people at the arena was considered too great,” it said.
INDIA
Cops end Sheeran street gig
A street performance by Ed Sheeran in Bengaluru was stopped abruptly by police on Sunday, outraging fans and prompting the British singer to issue a clarification. Sheeran, dressed in a white T-shirt and shorts, was seen singing and playing his guitar on a sidewalk in the center of Bengaluru ahead of a concert on Sunday night. Local channels showed a police officer walking up to Sheeran as he was singing the hit single Shape of You and unplugging the microphone, as onlookers jeered. Sheeran left soon afterward. “I refused to give permission because Church Street gets very crowded. That is the reason he was asked to vacate the place,” Bengaluru police official Shekar Tekkannanavar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. Sheeran, who began his career as a busker in the UK, said later on social media that he did have permission to perform. “It wasn’t just us randomly turning up. All good though,” he wrote.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
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