International
WW2 veteran aged 102 dies on way to D-Day event
by Wale Ewedimi
A World War Two US Navy veteran travelling to France for an event marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings has died, a veteran organisation has confirmed.
Robert “Al” Persichitti from Rochester, New York, was airlifted to a hospital in Germany on 30 May after suffering a medical emergency aboard a ship heading to Europe.
He died the following day, aged 102.
Remembered as a “great, humble man,” Mr Persichitti was involved in the allied operation in Japan.
Honor Flight – a veteran organisation Mr Persichitti belonged to – confirmed his death on social media and said he had “served his country bravely without hesitation”.
The non-profit helps transport former US servicemen to the memorials of the respective wars they fought in.
The 102-year-old was selected to attend the event in Normandy by the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans, which paid for and organised the trip, a local affiliate of CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, reported.
“I’m really excited to be going”, he told broadcaster WROC-TV a day before he set off.
His cardiologist had encouraged him to travel, he added.
Al DeCarlo, who served alongside Mr Persichitti in Japan, was also on the trip. He told local media in Rochester that his friend did not die alone.
“The doctor was with him… he was at peace and he was comfortable,” he said, according to ABC news agency affiliate, WHAM-TV.
“She put his favourite singer, Frank Sinatra, on her phone and he peacefully left us.”
The pair served in Iwo Jima together, a Japanese island the US captured from the country’s imperial army in 1945.
Mr Persichitti’s friend of 46 years, Pastor William Leone, told WHAM-TV “he had a real zest for living” and would visit children in local schools to talk to about his experiences.
The veteran was also a former teacher. In April, students at a local school helped organise a birthday celebration in his honour.
In 2020, he was named an honouree of New York State Senate’s Veteran Hall of Fame by the then Senator Rich Funke.
His local chapter of Honor Flight in Rochester said they will miss him.
International
Democrats Win US midterm elections
Trump acknowledges the Iran war, and the rising cost of living, were factors in his Republican Party’s defeat – as the White House posts on social media: “Trump is still your president”
US President Donald Trump
The Democrats win the Senate and the House in US midterm elections, taking control of Congress for the rest of Donald Trump’s tenure.
Voters in conservative bastions who had propelled the president to his second term in office just two years ago swung dramatically toward Democrats, fueled by deep frustration over the unpopular war with Iran, anxiety over the high cost of living and anger at Trump’s stewardship of the country.
Trump acknowledges the Iran war, and the rising cost of living, were factors in his Republican Party’s defeat – as the White House posts on social media: “Trump is still your president”

In Texas, the biggest Republican state, Democrats ended a decades-long losing streak in seismic fashion, winning a Senate seat and ousting three-term Governor Greg Abbott.Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since the Great Depression nearly a century ago, and in South Carolina, a state that Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024, Democrats turned aside his hand-picked Senate candidate.The results will usher in a new era of divided government in Washington, following two years in which the Republican-controlled Congress rarely exercised its power to rein in Trump.
International
JUST IN: Plane Crash Near Trump’s Florida Home Kills All 9 Aboard
A private Learjet 60 crashed into a residential neighborhood in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, killing all nine people on board, officials confirmed.
The aircraft, flying from Austin, Texas, to the Bahamas, went down around 12:50 p.m. local time near Cresthaven/Greenacres, roughly 7–11 kilometers (about 4–7 miles) from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
It struck near a busy roadway at the entrance to a mobile-home community, creating a large fireball and leaving a crater in the road. Debris was scattered across a wide area, and nearby power and water lines were damaged.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the crash a “horrific tragedy” and confirmed there were no survivors among the nine occupants.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the impact as “cataclysmic,” saying it “looked like a missile going down.” No injuries were reported among people on the ground. About 600 residents of a nearby mobile-home park were evacuated.
Trump had been at Mar-a-Lago earlier Sunday but departed on Air Force One from the nearby airport about an hour before the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, with support from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Early reports noted the crew had discussed moderate turbulence and ice shortly before the steep descent.
International
Tens of thousands protest against Narendra Modi regime in Delhi
The protest was one of the largest shows of opposition strength in years, taking place amid a wider resurgence of anti-government dissent which has been systematically crushed over the 12 years of the Modi regime.
Thousands of opposition supporters have gathered in Delhi as protests against the Narendra Modi government continue to gather momentum.
Led by the Congress party, India’s opposition alliance has brought together supporters from across the country, amid growing anger over a large-scale revision of the country’s voter roll that has seen 130 million names erased.
Opposition leaders have alleged the process gives Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) an electoral advantage, and have called for the resignation and impeachment of the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar.
The BJP has denied the claims.
Addressing tens of thousands of party workers and supporters, the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said Kumar had “carried out the biggest crime. He has tried to silence the voice of people, strangulate our country.”
Gandhi said the opposition, united under the acronym India (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), would not let “democracy be finished in the country” and warned Modi: “You can’t run anywhere.”
The protest was one of the largest shows of opposition strength in years, taking place amid a wider resurgence of anti-government dissent which has been systematically crushed over the 12 years of the Modi regime.
The Guardian Uk
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