SUDAN
Army chief picks PM
Army chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan on Monday appointed the nation’s first prime minister since it plunged into civil war two years ago and following months of steady advances by the military against its paramilitary rival. Kamil al-Taib Idris is to be tasked with forming the country’s transitional government, a move long touted by Burhan, particularly after the army regained control of Khartoum in March and ousted the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from the capital. Journalist and political analyst Osman Mirghani said that appointing Idris marks an important step toward restoring civilian-led rule and addressing the political crisis. “His chances of being accepted by various communities of the Sudanese society seems higher, even among those who support the RSF, because he has no political affiliations,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Cop killer executed
A man was yesterday executed in Indiana for the murder of a police officer in 2000, the prison department said, one of three executions to be carried out this week. Benjamin Ritchie, 45, was put to death by lethal injection at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City after being sentenced for the murder of officer Bill Toney. Toney, a father of two, was shot to death after pursuing a van that had been stolen by Ritchie and another man from a gas station in the town of Beech Grove. A second execution was scheduled for later yesterday in Texas. Matthew Johnson, 49, was to die by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary for killing convenience store worker Nancy Harris, 76, by setting her on fire in 2012. A third execution is to be carried out tomorrow is in Tennessee. Oscar Smith, 75, is to be put to death by lethal injection for the 1989 shooting and stabbing murders of his estranged wife, Judy Smith, and her two sons, Chad and Jason Burnett.
UNITED STATES
Kushner confirmed envoy
The Senate on Monday confirmed Charles Kushner, father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and the recipient of a presidential pardon after his conviction for witness tampering and tax evasion, to be ambassador to France. The Senate backed Kushner 51 to 45. Senator Cory Booker, who represents Kushner’s home state of New Jersey, was the only Democrat to vote along with Trump’s fellow Republicans in favor of the nomination. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican who opposed it. Kushner pleaded guilty in 2005 to 18 federal counts, including tax evasion, retaliating against a federal witness and lying to the Federal Election Commission. He served two years in prison, the maximum allowed in a plea deal.
FRANCE
Denzel Washington honored
Actor Denzel Washington on Monday received a surprise honorary Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in recognition of his outstanding career. Washington, 70, was in Cannes for the premiere of US director Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, an adaptation of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, which also premiered on Monday. Washington, who was joined by costars A$AP Rocky and Jeffrey Wright on the red carpet, stars as David King in the crime thriller that marks the fifth time he and Lee have worked together. The two-time Oscar winner’s movie roles have ranged from black activist Malcolm X, to a drunk, but heroic pilot in Flight. His turn as a rogue detective in Training Day earned him his second Oscar in 2002 following his first win in 1990 for Glory.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
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