While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Sept 5
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Organisers posted online that they expected to formally allow vehicles to leave at noon Monday local time.
PHOTO: AFP
Burning Man festival exodus begins through drying mud
Thousands of Burning Man attendees readied to make their “exodus” on Monday as the counter-culture arts festival in the Nevada desert ends in a sea of drying mud instead of a party around its flaming effigy namesake.
Rain over the weekend turned the once hard-packed ground to pudding. One person died at the event in the Black Rock Desert, authorities said on Sunday, providing few details. An investigation is underway.
Organisers posted online that they expected to formally allow vehicles to leave at noon Monday local time, but some attendees told Reuters that a steady stream of vehicles have left since predawn, many struggling through the slop.
Pope acknowledges his Russia comments were faulty
Pope Francis acknowledged on Monday that his recent comments on Russia, seen by Ukraine as praise for imperialism, were badly phrased and said his intention was to remind young Russians of a great cultural heritage and not a political one.
Speaking to reporters aboard the plane returning from Mongolia, Francis also said he wanted to assure China, with which the Vatican has difficult relations, that the Catholic Church has no ulterior motives and should not be seen as a foreign power.
“I was not thinking of imperialism when I said that,” Francis said about his comments last month.
UN now expects 1.8 million people to flee Sudan by year-end
The UN refugee agency on Monday said it expected over 1.8 million people from Sudan to arrive in five neighbouring countries by the end of the year and appealed for US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion) to help them amid reports of rising disease and death rates.
The estimate for those fleeing violence is about double what UNHCR projected in May shortly after the conflict began and an increase of 600,000 from an interim estimate.
Already, more than 1 million people have left Sudan to neighbouring states of Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Central African Republic amid fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital Khartoum and beyond.
Alcaraz marches into US Open last eight, Pegula crashes out
Carlos Alcaraz swept into the quarter-finals of the US Open with a straight sets demolition of Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi on Monday as American third seed Jessica Pegula became the latest top-ranked player to exit.
Defending champion Alcaraz, who has only dropped one set on his journey into the last eight, produced a dominant display to overwhelm world No.61 Arnaldi, winning 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 in 1hr 57min.
The 20-year-old Alcaraz is bidding to become the first man since Roger Federer in 2008 to successfully defend the US Open after winning the title for the first time last year.
Elvis was ‘the love of my life’, Priscilla tells Venice
Elvis Presley’s former wife Priscilla said the legendary rock star had been the love of her life, despite eventually leaving him, as a film about their turbulent relationship hit the Venice Film Festival.
Priscilla, directed by Sofia Coppola, is based on her 1985 autobiography, Elvis and Me, depicting her roller-coaster life with one of the most famous figures of the 20th century.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t love him. He was the love of my life, but it was the lifestyle that was so difficult for me,” Priscilla told reporters in Venice ahead of the world premiere of the movie, which stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi.
