International
JUST IN: US conducts first firing squad execution in 15 years
Sixty-seven-year old Brad Keith Sigmon, an inmate at the South Carolina Department of Corrections in the United States, was executed by firing squad on Friday.
It was the first such execution in the US since 2010, and the fourth since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Sigmon selected the firing squad out of three state-approved methods of execution; others are lethal injection or the electric chair.
Convicted of double homicide, he was declared deceased by a physician at 6:08 p.m. ET, officials announced at a news conference.
Sigmon was found guilty of the deaths of his former girlfriend’s parents in 2001. He kidnapped the ex-girlfriend after the murders, but she broke free.
“I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,” Sigmon appealed in a statement.
The convict also quoted Bible verses on forgiveness, and said, “Nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man.”
Sigmon’s attorneys filed a petition to stop his execution, seeking executive clemency and commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment without parole.
The lawyers noted that he committed the crimes and “stood trial while in the grip of an undiagnosed, inherited mental illness.”
But the last minute push was unsuccessful as the Supreme Court and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster declined to approve leniency.
International
Just In: People trapped in Japanese mall hit by earthquake, with others missing after factory chimney collapse
Reports in Japan say 20 to 30 shopping centre staff may be missing – but the figure has not been confirmed.
Image credit : BBC
Many people are trapped inside a Japanese shopping centre after an earthquake, the fire service says.
One witness reported the second floor of the mall in Kumamoto collapsing – BBC Verify has looked at some of the images from the site.
Reports in Japan say 20 to 30 shopping centre staff may be missing – but the figure has not been confirmed
Elsewhere in the Kumamoto prefecture, people are reported missing at a paper factory after a chimney collapsed
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit inland on Kyushu island at 16:27 local time (07:27 GMT), causing power cuts, damaged roads, a collapsed castle wall, and a destroyed footbridge.
International
India’s Gen Z protesters force out education minister
The latest education protests erupted in May after NEET, India’s biggest medical entrance exam, was cancelled following a question paper leak, forcing nearly two million students to retake the test. More than 20 students died by suicide, with their families blaming the scandal.
Indian’s Gen Z protesters have forced out the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation on Saturday, after more than a week of intense street protests.
In the words of 22-year-old Sakhi, a student activist in Delhi, “for the first time, it felt like we can make things happen through protests”.Soon after Pradhan quit, social media seized on an old video of a senior Modi minister boasting that “resignations do not happen in our government”, reflecting the confidence of the nationwide youth movement that had demanded his exit.
The latest education protests erupted in May after NEET, India’s biggest medical entrance exam, was cancelled following a question paper leak, forcing nearly two million students to retake the test. More than 20 students died by suicide, with their families blaming the scandal.
The outrage was channelled by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), an online campaign launched after India’s chief justice likened unemployed people with “fake and bogus degrees” to cockroaches.
Its founders staged a sit-in in Delhi, demanding Pradhan’s resignation, education reforms and compensation for the bereaved families.
International
Spain and France wildfires force more than 300,000 to flee as Macron calls crisis meeting
The fire, which began in the Southwest of France in Gironde on Wednesday, has burned 42,000 hectares and has forced one of the largest evacuations in France’s history.
•Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit (UME) and Castilla-y-Leon unit’s firefighters battle a fire in a forest next to La Atalaya residential area in El Tiemblo, 80 kms west of Madrid, on July 25, 2026. (Photo by Cesar MANSO / AFP via Getty Images)Cesar Manso | Afp | Getty Images
Wildfires are ravaging southern France and spreading into Spain, forcing more than 300,000 people to flee ahead of further expected heatwaves during the week.
French President Emmanuel Macron is set to hold a crisis cabinet meeting on Monday, while Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit areas hit by fires in Valencia, in the East of Spain.
The fire, which began in the Southwest of France in Gironde on Wednesday, has burned 42,000 hectares and has forced one of the largest evacuations in France’s history, according to French broadcaster France 24 and local news outlets.
The wildfires have also affected 77,000 hectares of the Avila and Toledo areas in Western Madrid.
The situation remains highly unfavorable,” France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on X on Saturday, according to a Google translation.
“At the start of the night, in Gironde, the fire became extremely virulent and unpredictable again, generating its own wind and spreading erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area. By the end of the night, it had calmed down somewhat.”
Source: CNBC
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