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Rafael Nadal will not play at Wimbledon or at the Tokyo Olympics, saying Thursday he has decided to skip the two tournaments after “listening” to his body.
Source: apnews.com
A boatman in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state is being praised after he rescued a baby girl found floating in a wooden box in the Ganges river. Gullu Chaudhary said he was alerted by the cries of the 21-day-old and found her wrapped in a red scarf in the box decorated with images of Hindu deities. The baby has been taken to hospital and her health is being monitored. She will be sent to a shelter home later. Officials are investigating how the baby ended up in the river.
Source: bbc.com
For the first time in nearly 40 years, Congress has moved to establish a new national holiday, this time for Juneteenth, and just in time for Saturday's 156th anniversary of the day which marks the last African American slaves being freed in Texas in the wake of the Civil War. The House voted Wednesday night to pass the legislation. It heads next to President Joe Biden's desk for a signature. When Biden signs it, as he's expected to at 3:30 p.m. ET Thursday, according to the White House, Juneteenth will officially become a federal holiday -- the first since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law in 1983.
Source: abcnews.go.com
Tayyip Erdogan said he told U.S. President Joe Biden at their first meeting that Turkey would not change its stance on its Russian S-400 missile defences over which Washington sanctioned Ankara, state media reported on Thursday. Biden and Erdogan sounded upbeat after their face-to-face talks on Monday, although the NATO allies did not announce any major breakthroughs in disputes including the S-400s, Syria and other issues.
Source: reuters.com
Police in South Africa have discovered the bodies of 20 suspected illegal miners near an abandoned goldmine shaft south-west of Johannesburg. Police said in a statement they were investigating the cause of the deaths, adding that the men’s bodies “were found wrapped in white plastic bags” and bore “severe body burns”. “All the deceased are suspected to be illegal miners commonly known as ‘zama zamas’ operating in obsolete shafts in Orkney and Stilfontein,” just under 200km south-west of Johannesburg, police said in the statement.
Source: theguardian.com
Satya Nadella is now even more powerful at Microsoft. The tech giant's CEO was named chairman of the board Wednesday, elevating his current role atop one of the world's most valuable companies. Nadella, who has served as chief executive since 2014, has helped transform the PC maker into a leader in cloud computing in recent years, resulting in blockbuster earnings and a market cap of close to $2 trillion.
Source: cnn.com
Christian Eriksen will be fitted with an implantable device to monitor his heart rhythm, the Danish soccer federation said Thursday. Eriksen is recovering in a Copenhagen hospital after suffering cardiac arrest during Denmark’s game against Finland at the European Championship. The Danish federation said doctors have determined that Eriksen needs to have an ICD — implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.
Source: apnews.com
South Korea has provided $900,000 to a U.N.-led humanitarian aid initiative for Myanmar, U.N. data showed on Thursday. A spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said earlier data on its financial tracking service showing a contribution of $300,000 by North Korea was wrong and it has since been corrected. The contribution on May 24 to the Myanmar Humanitarian Fund came from South Korea in addition to a separate contribution of $600,000, Asia Pacific head of communications for the Office Pierre Peron said.
Source: reuters.com
Diana Ross is to return to music with her first album of original material in 22 years, and her first album of any kind since 2006. Written during lockdown, Thank You was made with a variety of contemporary pop producers including Jack Antonoff, who is known for his work with Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Lorde.
Source: theguardian.com
Sixty German police officers have been injured in riots over a building being occupied by squatters in Berlin. A court has granted officials permission to carry out a fire inspection, but when police attempted to secure the area on Wednesday morning, they were hit by stones. Occupants of 94 Rigaer Straße fear the move could lead to their eviction from one of the city's last remaining squats. Previous attempts to clear the building have failed following violent protests.
Source: bbc.com
North Korea has provided $300,000 to a U.N.-led humanitarian aid initiative for Myanmar, marking its first donation to other countries since 2005, U.N. data showed on Thursday. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)' financial tracking service showed that North Korea paid the contribution on May 24 to the Myanmar Humanitarian Fund.
Source: reuters.com
A diamond believed to be the third largest ever found has been put on display in Botswana. The stone - weighing 1,098 carats - was shown to President Mokgweetsi Masisi, two weeks after the diamond firm, Debswana, unearthed it. The huge gem is only slightly less heavy than the world's second-largest diamond which was also found in Botswana in 2015. Botswana is Africa's largest producer of diamonds.
Source: bbc.com
The bikini worn by Dame Barbara Windsor in the 1969 film Carry On Camping has sold at auction for £9,500. The late actress wore the swimwear in a famous scene where her bikini top flew off in the middle of an exercise class. The proceeds from sale of the item, which had been rescued from a bin decades ago, will be donated by the vendor to the Alzheimer's Society. The actress, who also starred in EastEnders, died in December from Alzheimer's at the age of 83.
Source: bbc.com
A Scottish pensioner has become a great, great, great grandmother with six generations alive at the same time. Mary Marshall, 86, has a total of 90 grandchildren, great grand children, great great grandchildren and great great great grand children. The mother-of-eight, from Edinburgh, has one of the only families in the UK to span six generations. It stretches from oldest member Mary to the youngest, Nyla Ferguson, who is just three weeks old.
Source: bbc.com
Six climate activists and two environmental NGOs have taken Norway to the European court of human rights (ECHR), arguing the Nordic country’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic are harming young people’s futures. The activists, Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth want the court to rule that Oslo’s 2016 decision to grant 10 Barents Sea oil exploration licences violated article 112 of Norway’s constitution, which guarantees the right to a healthy environment.
Source: theguardian.com
Billionaire MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated another $2.7bn to a range of charities. Ms Scott said in a blog post that she wanted to give the money to those "that have been historically underfunded and overlooked". She wrote that she had chosen 286 organisations working on racial inequality, the arts and education. Ms Scott is one of the world's richest women.
Source: bbc.com
Israeli troops shot a Palestinian motorist on Wednesday who tried to ram them in the occupied West Bank and then brandished a knife, the Israeli military said. The Palestinian health ministry said the woman had died of her injuries. There was no word of Israeli casualties.
Source: reuters.com
After signing her recent first-look deal with Netflix, Jennifer Lopez is already busy building up that development slate as sources tell Deadline she is set to star and produce in the Netflix sci-fi thriller Atlas with Rampage helmer Brad Peyton directing. Aron Eli Coleite is writing the most recent draft of the script based off Leo Sardarian original script.
Source: deadline.com
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