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Sudan military plane crashes in residential area

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At least 46 people have been killed and 10 others injured after a Sudanese military plane crashed in a residential neighbourhood in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital Khartoum, state media says.

The Russian-built Antonov aircraft came down after take-off from the military’s Wadi Seidna air base on Tuesday evening, killing military officers and civilians.

The cause of the crash is unclear, but military sources have been quoted as saying that it was likely to have been a technical malfunction.

The crash came a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – which is at war with the army – said it had downed a fighter jet in South Darfur.

The conflict has devastated large parts of Sudan – including Khartoum and Omdurman – with thousands of people killed and about 12 million displaced.

The health ministry said that emergency teams rushed injured civilians, including children, to a nearby hospital following Tuesday’s plane crash.

A senior army commander in Khartoum was among those killed, Reuters news agency quoted unnamed military sources as saying.

Witnesses said there was a loud explosion and several homes were damaged when the plane came down, the AFP news agency reports.

The crash also caused power outages in nearby neighbourhoods, it added.

Sudan has been hit by a civil war since April 2023, when the army and the RSF became involved in a vicious power struggle.

The war has split the country, with the army controlling the north and the east while the RSF holds most of the Darfur region in the west and parts of the south.

In recent weeks, the army has retaken parts of Khartoum and surrounding areas from the RSF.

(BBC News)

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12 countries face travel ban to US

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US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation banning citizens of a dozen countries from travelling to the US.

US President Donald Trump has signed a ban on travel to the US from 12 countries in a bid to “protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors”.

The ban will come into place from June 09.

The 12 countries are set to be banned from travelling to the US are : Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Another seven countries have come under a partial ban: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

In a video message, Trump cited the recent attack in Colorado as an example of foreign nationals entering the US without being “properly vetted”. The alleged attacker was an Egyptian national – but Egypt has been left out of the ban.

The travel ban has been met with dismay in the targeted countries. Venezuela has described the Trump administration as “supremacists who think they own the world”, while Somalia has pledged to “engage in dialogue to address the concerns raised”.

Despite its sweeping nature, the travel ban contains exemptions to some, such as immigrants who are “ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran” and athletes travelling for major sporting events.

In addition, Trump has also signed an executive order to restrict foreign student visas at Harvard University, and ordered an inquiry into what he says was a “conspiracy” to cover up former President Joe Biden’s cognitive health decline.

(BBC News)

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11 dead in stampede as RCB’s celebratory moment turns to tragedy

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The frenzied celebration in Bengaluru over RCB winning the IPL after 18 long years took a tragic turn with at least 11 people feared dead in a stampede.

The chaos began after a crowd gathered near M Chinnaswamy Stadium for a felicitation of the team held by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).

Visuals showed police shifting injured and unconscious people to a nearby hospital. Many people who came to watch the celebrations fainted amid the stampede, eyewitnesses said.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said the crowd was “uncontrollable”.

“I apologise for the overcrowding,” Mr Shivakumar said. “We arranged more than 5,000 personnel. This is a young vibrant crowd, we can’t use lathi on them.”

The scenes at some Bengaluru Metro stations near the stadium also showed huge crowds coming out of trains and taking the stairs.

At the nearby Bowring Hospital, ambulances carrying injured people continued to arrive, drop them, and head back again to the stadium.

People were seen climbing trees and sitting on branches to catch a glimpse of the celebration. The Karnataka government had cancelled a victory parade from Vidhana Soudha to the stadium, citing security reasons.

The police said they have been controlling the celebrating crowds since Tuesday night. Throughout the night, the police have been engaged in managing them and ensuring no untoward incidents occurred, news agency IANS reported.

Huge crowds also turned up on the Vidhana Soudha premises to see the felicitation programme of the RCB by the government.

Mr Shivakumar greeted the RCB team after they landed in Bengaluru on Wednesday. He presented bouquets to each player and especially greeted Virat Kohli, presenting him with both the RCB team flag and the Kannada flag.

(NDTV)

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Musk calls Trump’s tax bill a ‘disgusting abomination’

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Elon Musk has hit out at President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill, describing it as a “disgusting abomination”, in a widening rift between the two allies.

The budget – which includes multi-trillion dollar tax breaks and more defence spending while also allowing the US government to borrow more money – was passed by the House of Representatives last month.

“Shame on those who voted for it,” Musk said in a post on X about the legislative linchpin of Trump’s second-term agenda.

The tech billionaire left the administration abruptly last week after 129 days working to cut costs with his team, known as Doge.

The comments mark his first public disagreement with Trump since leaving government, after having previously called the plan “disappointing”.

The South African-born tech billionaire’s time in the Trump administration came to an end on 31 May, although Trump said that “he will, always, be with us, helping all the way”.

In its current form, the bill – which Trump refers to as the “big beautiful bill” – has been estimated to increase the budget deficit – the difference between what the government spends and the revenue it receives – by about $600bn (£444bn) in the next fiscal year.

In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Musk said that the “outrageous, pork-filled” spending bill will “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America [sic] citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt”.

In American politics “pork” refers to spending on projects in lawmakers’ constituencies.

Musk, who had previously vowed to fund campaign challenges against any Republican that votes against Trump’s agenda, added a political warning in another post.

“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” he wrote.

Asked about Musk’s comments soon after the first post, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “the President already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill”.

“This is one, big, beautiful bill,” she added. “And he’s sticking to it.”

The legislation also pledges to extend soon-to-expire tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration in 2017, as well as an influx of funds for defence spending and to fund the administration’s mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

To the dismay of fiscal conservatives, it would lift the limit on the amount of money the government can borrow, known as the debt ceiling, to $4tn.

The comments from Musk reflect wider tensions among Republicans over the plan, which faced stiff opposition from different wings of the party as it worked its way through the House.

The Senate has now taken it up, and divisions are already emerging in that chamber, which is also narrowly controlled by Republicans.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has said over the last few days he will not support the bill if it raises the debt ceiling.

“The GOP [the Republican Party] will own the debt once they vote for this,” he told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, over the weekend.

Trump responded to Paul with a series of social media posts, accusing him of having “very little understanding of the bill” and saying that the “people of Kentucky can’t stand him”.

“His ideas are actually crazy,” Trump wrote.

Republican lawmakers pushed back on Musk’s comments, with Senate majority leader John Thune telling reporters the party plans to “proceed full speed ahead” despite “a difference of opinion”.

“We have an agenda that everybody campaigned on, most notably the president,” he said.

Mike Johnson – the Republican Speaker who has ushered the legislation through the House – told reporters on Capitol Hill that “my friend Elon is terribly wrong”.

“It’s a very important first start. Elon is missing it,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he had a 20-minute phone call with the tycoon about the bill on Monday, adding that its phasing out of electric vehicle tax credits could “have an effect” on Tesla, Musk’s firm.

“I lament that,” Johnson said, expressing surprise that Musk criticised the bill despite their call. “I just deeply regret he’s made this mistake.”

Among the issues that upset Musk involved air traffic control at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to Axios.

Musk was hoping it would be run on his Starlink satellite system, but he was denied because of issues relating to the technology and the appearance of a conflict of interest, the political outlet reported.

Some Democrats welcomed Musk’s comments despite their previous criticism of him and the work of Doge.

“Even Elon Musk, who’s been part of the whole process, and is one of Trump’s buddies, said the bill is bad,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “We can imagine how bad this bill is.”

Trump and Republicans in Congress have set a deadline of 4 July to get the measure passed and signed into law.

Musk supported Trump in last year’s November election with donations of more than $250m.

To make peace with spending hawks, Trump is also asking Congress to pass a plan that would reduce current spending by $9.4bn, a figure derived from Doge’s work.

It would mainly slash funding for foreign aid, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and for broadcasters NPR and PBS.

(BBC News)

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