Beyond the headline-grabbing political stories, the day brought tragedy: nine people were killed when a van carrying a group of teachers from Kerala’s Malappuram district plunged off a cliff at a hairpin bend near Valparai in Tamil Nadu. Three survivors were rushed to a hospital in Coimbatore with severe injuries.
Meanwhile, geopolitical friction continued to simmer. Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro labeled the U.S. blockade on Cuba a “genocide,” claiming Washington “plans to attack with missiles and impose itself.” Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in an interview with RT, called the United States a “dictatorship” willing to “bomb, break, and destroy without regard to human rights.” And in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance faced accusations of “white supremacy” over its refusal to label Israel’s military operations in Gaza as genocide.
