DIE

The first shot of director Lynne Ramsay’s stubborn and exasperating postpartum nightmare “Die My Love” would be a great opener for a horror movie. The camera lurks in the kitchen of an isolated ranch house, as still and foreboding as a ghost, while a couple named Grace and Jackson (Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson) poke around the front porch of their newly inherited property. The two take several beats to go inside, long enough that we suspect these crazy kids are making a dangerous mistake. Just look at the wallpaper. Those florals would make anyone crack.

“It’s not New York but it’s ours,” Jackson says of the rural home, left to him by his uncle who died violently upstairs in a way that Grace finds hilarious. He grew up in the area and his parents, Pam and Harry (Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte), still live nearby. Neither Jackson nor Grace say anything about their past lives back in the city, but he yearns to play drums and she once claimed to write. There’s a sense that their dreams have stalled out, either due to finances, passion or talent. So they move in, have a baby and pivot to domestic chaos.

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Lawrence and Pattinson are such a natural, overdue pairing that it’s a surprise to realize this is the first time they’ve teamed up to make the kind of polarizing, go-for-broke prestige film they both enjoy. The two stars launched into the public consciousness roughly around the same time, then followed the same trajectory from teen franchise idols to creatively ambitious A-listers and now, more recently, newish parents making a movie about miserable parents whose hopes have run aground. Lawrence has two tots under 3; Pattinson, a toddler. Their kids shouldn’t watch this movie until college.

In a dynamic montage, Ramsay sets up their boyfriend-girlfriend pair as lusty but strange. Jackson and Grace flirt by fighting like wild beasts. Nuzzling, sniffing, biting, wrestling — that’s foreplay (and she’s more into it than he is). But they can’t communicate with words. “If you’re not feeling good, maybe we should, like … talk?” Jackson says tentatively to his increasingly restless and unstable partner. Grace isn’t interested in talking, though occasionally she’s game to scream. When they fight for real, their bodies twist into spasms of outrage. And when the other one isn’t looking, each seems to power down — Lawrence’s Grace physically collapsing like an unplugged air dancer — a clue of how much energy they must privately expend to make it work.

“Die My Love,” adapted by Ramsay, Enda Walsh and Alice Birch from the 2012 novel by Argentine author Ariana Harwicz, makes parenthood feel like being handcuffed to an anchor that’s sinking into a swamp. Lawrence’s Grace needs help and the more she flails, the worse she makes things. The book is an inner monologue of poison: “How could a weak, perverse woman like me, someone who dreams of a knife in her hand, be the mother and wife of those two individuals?” the first paragraph seethes. But Ramsay rejects putting its angst into words. As with Joaquin Phoenix in “You Were Never Really Here,” she prefers characters who silently roil under their skin.

The tension in this home starts quiet — too quiet — with Grace cranking up kiddie albums by Alvin and the Chipmunks and Raffi to drown out whatever noise is happening in her head. After Jackson brings home a stray dog, the racket becomes unbearable, with sound designers Tim Burns and Paul Davies skillfully and cruelly making sure that no matter how far Grace roams, she can still hear the darned thing bark.

Lacking much perspective into Grace, we mostly see a mentally unwell woman incensed that her sexual playtime is over. She howls with the urge to mate, prowling the house in matching fancy bras and thong sets that clash with this disheveled house and its stockpile of cheap beer. Occasionally, a mysterious leather-clad biker (LaKeith Stanfield) speeds by, considering a quickie with this bored beauty.

Grace’s erotic agony is reductive and a bit ridiculous, although I think the script is also trying to imply that Grace herself is focused on the wrong problems. The film represents her depression by coating the night scenes in so much blue tint that even Picasso might suggest dialing it back. Despite cinematographer Seamus McGarvey’s efforts to put us in her headspace with lenses that make the world blur and swirl around her, you’re more afraid of Grace than for Grace, especially when the shock editing has her smashing through doors like Michael Myers.

Hurling herself into every scene, Lawrence puts her full faith in Ramsay. It’s not a trust fall so much as a trust cannonball. As good and committed as Lawrence is, there were times I wanted to rescue her from her own movie, to protect her from the fate of Faye Dunaway when “Mommie Dearest” turned another blond Oscar winner into a joke.

Yet, this is a character who hates pity and I can’t help but admire that Ramsay faces down today’s phonily upbeat and relatable motherhood discourse with this boogey-mom who keeps herself aloof. Grace treats the older women in her family like a wall of advice to be tuned out even when they’re right. “Everybody goes a little loopy the first year,” Spacek’s Pam says, offering empathy that falls on deaf ears. (Spacek delivers a lovely, endearingly layered turn.) And while Grace is so lonely she literally claws the walls, she rejects any overture of friendship, either from a perky fellow parent (Sarah Lind) or a peppy cashier (Saylor McPherson) whose attempts to start a conversation go so badly that when the poor dear asks Grace if she’s found everything she’s looking for, Grace huffs, “In life?”

Pattinson has the more recessive role but his performance is so subtle and clever that it’s worth watching closely. His Jackson is pathetic, passive and skittish around his baby’s mother, who he both longs to heal and tries to avoid. He has a few moments that play so close to comedy — say, whining to be let into the bathroom — that you wish the movie would do more to encourage our pained, guttural laughs. The punchlines are there, such as a beat after one meltdown where Jackson admits he’s getting really stressed out and Grace coolly replies, “About what?”

There’s one scene in which Grace reveals a snippet of backstory that might explain her psychology, and I think that specificity is a narrative misstep. What’s powerful about Grace is that she’s howling for all parents, even the mostly happy ones. Harwicz’s book deliberately never gave her character a name.

Even inside this movie, Grace’s anguish is universal. Yes, she wanders into the wilderness at night, but so do her in-laws Harry and Pam, for reasons of their own.There are dark vibrations emanating from almost every character, even the minor ones, although Grace is too caught up in herself to take any comfort from that. But Ramsay is comfortable suggesting that everyone feels crazy and miserable. I suspect she thinks it’s the most normal way to live.

HOLIDAY booze cruises promise a carefree escape with sun, sea and endless partying – but beneath the decks and pounding music lies a darker reality.

For Nakita Colville, a pirate-themed boat trip in Turkey turned to tragedy when her father, Peter, suddenly died while swimming – but instead of rushing back to shore, staff told his shell-shocked daughter, “he’s dead, he’s gone”, covered his body with a towel, and told guests they would go ahead with a planned foam party.

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In her first exclusive interview since her father’s heartbreaking death just nine weeks ago, on July 27, she told The Sun how “unbothered and clueless” staff on board just stood there watching as her dad died in front of his children and grandchildren.

She also warned that this wouldn’t be the last tragedy at sea onboard unregulated party boats with shoddy safety standards.

She tells The Sun: “I don’t think people are aware of how dangerous it can be until something like this happens to your family.

“Unless things change, I don’t think this will be the last death.”

Despite thousands of tourists signing up for boat parties and trips every year, what was once a thrill-filled novelty is now a high-risk activity, where the line between fun and danger is perilously thin. 

And the risks are compounded once you step outside UK waters, where regulations can be patchy and enforcement inconsistent – and lax safety measures, unlimited drink offers, and drugs circulating on board create a perfect storm.

On one booze-filled stag-do party cruise in Lisbon, laddish “banter” led to the tragic death of city worker Nishanthan Gnanathas.

Thrown from a yacht into the River Tagus in November 2019, Nish – best man and beloved friend – hit his head on a balustrade before crashing into the icy water. 

The coroner’s conclusion was stark – what happened was “horseplay that went tragically wrong”.

Dr Fiona Wilcox recorded a conclusion of misadventure, saying: “This was an absolutely tragic accident that could not have been reasonably anticipated.”

Maritime police chief Malaquais Dominguez said “it was a stupid joke between friends”.

“He was pushed and he went overboard. He disappeared in the water. I have no doubt they will live with this terrible moment for the rest of their lives,” Dominguez said. 

The story echoes the growing unease around stag and party-boat culture abroad – where cheap alcohol, bravado, and ritualised pranks can lead to tragedy.

In Amsterdam, Neil Stewart’s fiancée arranged a surprise weekend in the Dutch capital – and told her it was “the happiest time of his life”.

But by the end of a night on a party boat, Stewart was dead, swallowed by the inky waters of the Noordzeekanaal after what witnesses believe began as a prank on board.

The Newcastle coroner’s inquest heard Stewart had taken cocaine and cannabis before boarding the boat for the Bounce Til I Die event. 

Post-mortem tests later confirmed both in his system, along with traces of cannabis from a “space cake” eaten earlier in a café.

A witness said she saw Stewart “deliberately jump” from the smoking deck and initially thought it was “a silly prank” – especially as he seemed to be laughing in the water before he drowned, and Stewart’s body was recovered two weeks later.

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‘Pirate ship’ tragedy

On July 27, grandfather Peter Colville, 60, from Woking, died on board a pirate-themed boat trip in Alanya, Turkey.

Daughter Nakita, 27, told how her father and nine other family members, including children, had boarded the boat.

The “luxury pirate ship” promised entertainment, DJs and a foam party, along with two swim stops for guests to go snorkelling.

The family paid over £200 for tickets to board the “luxurious six-deck yacht” – called Legend Big Kral – at an excursion centre.

Everyone was enjoying the music, blue seas and stunning views of the Mediterranean as the boat, carrying some 600 passengers according to Nakita, set sail.

Unless things change, I don’t think this will be the last death

Nakita Colville

Nakita, an admin assistant, said: “My dad is very safety-conscious, and I remember as we walked onto the boat, he said it was strange they didn’t seem to tick off names, hand out wristbands or get waivers signed.

“At that point, we just brushed it off – we never could have known what was to come.”

The first swim stop came and went, with most of Nakita’s family getting into the water, including property maintenance boss Peter – who was an avid snorkeller. 

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Nakita recalled feeling strange that only the children were given life jackets.

So, being a weaker swimmer, when the second swim stop came at Cleopatra Beach, she opted not to go back in.

But confident swimmer Peter, and Nakita’s brother-in-law, Ben Diamond, 35, were keen to get back in the water again.

The pair were happy snorkelling together one minute – and the next, Nakita heard screams of panic.

She says: “I looked into the water and saw my dad’s face, floating, and people scrambling to get him out of the water.

“My sister and I ran down – and she screamed, ‘Oh my God, he is going purple’.”

Nakita said guests dragged Peter, a dad-of-seven and grandfather-of-six, onto the deck, and one began administering CPR.

As Nakita’s family – along with countless other guests – crowded around, “screaming and horrified”, she claims “unbothered and clueless” staff on board “just stood there watching”.

She alleged staff on board repeated, “he’s dead, he’s gone” before a member of the team suggested covering Peter’s body with a towel – before the coastguard even arrived.

Nakita says: “There didn’t seem to be any system in place to deal with an emergency situation. There didn’t seem to be a plan.

“He was laid on the deck – and then nothing. No proper procedure, no clearing the deck of onlookers, no immediate CPR. They stood there with their arms crossed, clueless.

“Some seemed like they weren’t bothered, some of the younger staff members looked like they felt bad that they didn’t know what to do. 

“It didn’t feel like they were adequately first-aid trained. It was the guests giving my dad CPR.”

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She claims she asked staff if the boat carried a defibrillator and was told by a crew member that they didn’t have one as they “couldn’t keep it charged”.

She said: “I found that strange, as they had electricity for the DJ decks and foam machines.”

According to UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency advice, all ships should undertake a risk assessment, but “as a general guide, vessels in regular operation carrying in excess of 100 persons” should carry a defib.

But many holiday booze cruises operate in foreign ports with looser safety standards, overcrowded decks, and minimal oversight. 

Life jackets may be scarce, crew training is often insufficient, and emergency procedures can be a little more than a box-ticking exercise. 

Nakita said the event was so traumatising that her mother and Peter’s wife, Rosalind Colville, 53, collapsed from shock.

And Nakita says it was also guests on board helping Rosalind by bringing her water and getting her a chair – rather than staff.

I was told the remaining guests were told ‘sorry for the delay’ and they carried on with the party. Apparently it was disturbing – nobody else on board even wanted to party after what they had just witnessed

Nakita Colville

Nakita says: “My sister and I were just holding my dad’s hand, screaming.

“As far as we knew, or he knew, he was healthy – we have no idea what happened.

“He was smart – if he had been, or felt, unwell, he wouldn’t have got in the water.

“They had covered him with a towel before the coastguard even arrived.”

When they did finally arrive 40 minutes later, Peter was taken to hospital.

The family were asked whether they wished to remain on the boat for the rest of the trip, or get off and go to hospital with him.

The family – including two of his grandchildren – were taken off the boat, and at the hospital Peter was confirmed dead.

Nakita says she learned from other guests at their hotel, who were also on board the boat, that after her family left, the party continued.

She claims she learned the crew even hosted a foam party for the remaining traumatised passengers.

She said: “I was told the remaining guests were told ‘sorry for the delay’ and they carried on with the party.

“Apparently, it was disturbing – nobody else on board even wanted to party after what they had just witnessed.”

Nakita had to break the news by phone to her four brothers and their families back home.

Postmortems were conducted in Turkey and back in the UK when his body was brought home.

Nakita said neither could find a cause of death, so investigations are ongoing as the family tries to grieve the loss of their beloved father and grandfather.

One Tripadvisor review from the day of the tragedy read: “The way it was handled by the crew was nothing short of horrifying.

“It is unsafe, unprofessional, and the crew is neither trained nor emotionally capable of handling emergencies – or tragedies.”

There didn’t seem to be any system in place to deal with an emergency situation. There didn’t seem to be a plan

Nakita Colville

But Nakita fears tourists don’t realise the risks associated with excursions like this one.

She says: “With these trips, even if safety measures are in place, there are always risks.

“Thinking back, I don’t think there were enough crew members for the number of people on the boat, and to be able to watch all the people swimming in the water.

“We can’t say it was the company’s fault that he died, but maybe he could have been saved.”

Legend Big Kral did not respond to a request for a comment, but a representative did contact Nakita directly after her original story was shared. 

They claimed that all ten staff members were first aid trained. 

Nakita says the representative also claimed that Peter passed of a heart attack – a fact which has not been confirmed yet by two post-mortems. Coroners say it is still being investigated. 

For many Brits, holiday booze cruises start as a fantasy: sun, cheap drinks and a chance to let loose, far away from the office or family life. 

But increasingly, these trips are leaving more than just a hangover in their wake. 

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THEY were lovers from opposite ends of society — a runaway aristocrat and a convicted rapist who sparked a nationwide manhunt when they went on the run to hide their secret newborn baby from social services.

Now, in a dramatic twist, Mark Gordon’s sister has lifted the lid on her convict brother’s twisted past that led him on the path to a toxic “Romeo and Juliet” romance – culminating in the tragic death of their child.

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It comes as Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, were yesterday sentenced to 14 years behind bars after being convicted of gross negligence manslaughter when their newborn baby, Victoria, died, likely of hypothermia.

Gordon got an extended four-year licence as he met the threshold for dangerousness, meaning he has a high risk of reoffending.

It means after serving his sentence, he will remain under state supervision and have certain restrictions.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Karen Satchell, 54, from North London, reveals for the first time how her jailbird brother dreamed of a new life – and fathered another child before vanishing off-grid with Marten.

She told how her brother was once dubbed “The Preacher” by other lags because he often quoted from the Bible when he was serving 20 years in a US jail for rape, aged 14.

We can also reveal that he had his first baby just a couple of years after returning to the UK after spending time in an American jail.

The child now lives in Greece with their mother, and Gordon’s family still get sent pictures of how they are doing.

Sister Karen Satchell said the runaway father had ambitions to become a businessman before his life spiralled further after a chance encounter with Constance, a woman closely linked to the Royal Family.

And he became increasingly paranoid in what Karen has called a “Romeo and Juliet” style relationship, with lovers from two wildly different families.

It is understood Gordon met Marten’s relatives shortly after they began dating around 2014, and even went to their house before Marten became estranged from them.

With Constance, 38, Gordon had five children – four of whom were taken off them after concerns over their caring abilities, and the fifth, Victoria.

Gordon grew up as a “shy” lad in Birmingham, attending the state comprehensive Yardley Primary School.

While future-wife Marten – the daughter of Queen Elizabeth II’s former page – reminisced about childhood picnics and naked siestas in hay bales at her country mansion in Dorset, Gordon, the youngest of seven, was digging up dirt in his yard and chasing his sisters around with worms.

Half-sister Karen remembers him as a “good kid”, adding: “A proper naughty little brother but more mischievous than anything bad.”

He went to church weekly with his tight-knit family, and his mum Sylvia was a licensed pastor.

He totally shut down and was in a daze. He wasn’t aware of what was really going on. He looked younger than he was. To think of him with felonies is unbelievable.

Karen Satchell on Mark Gordon’s rape arrest

And while Marten’s family had annual skiing holidays, Gordon’s went to Butlins each year, where he once won some money and flowers in a mother-and-son competition.

Karen said: “They were standing on the stage and Mark was asked a few questions about his mum.

“They thought they were the most bonded.”

But he was described as “a bit of a loner” and preferring instead to play by himself, or hang out with Karen and her friends, following them around and threatening to snitch on her to his mum if she was ever up to no good.

When he was still young, Sylvia moved to America to try to build a better life for them, while Mark and Karen stayed in Britain with a nanny.

They were excited when, aged 11 and 15, they joined Sylvia in New York – but it was a culture shock.

They started off at a run-down school in the Bronx, plagued by bad behaviour and knives. Then moved to a better school, but had to catch two trains and two buses to get there.

A year later, the family relocated to a three-bed, single-storey home in a predominantly white neighbourhood in Florida while their mum studied to be a nurse.

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Karen said: “We became popular – everybody wanted to hear us talk because of our accent.

“The girls loved Mark. They knew where he lived and followed him home.

“They would knock on the door, and he was hiding. He didn’t want to talk to them. He was really shy. I never saw him with a girlfriend.

“When I got to the age when I had a boyfriend, he tended to stay home in his room. I was like ‘come out of your room, talk to some girls’. He said ‘get out, leave me alone’.”

‘He shut down’ after rape arrest

Their happy family life turned upside down, however, when he was arrested for rape in 1989.

They panicked when he failed to return home and spent all evening searching the neighbourhood for him, fearing for his safety.

Mum Sylvia, who was training to be a nurse, was away in Jamaica at the time but flew back in a panic as Mark’s siblings phoned the police to make a missing persons report.

But when Sylvia turned up at the police station, she was devastated to hear her last-born son had made a taped confession to rape.

Karen said: “We were devastated. He never spoke. He stopped speaking.

“He totally shut down and was in a daze. He wasn’t aware of what was really going on.

“He looked younger than he was. To think of him with felonies is unbelievable.”

He was convicted of armed kidnapping, multiple counts of armed sexual battery and other charges in 1994.

His family visited him frequently in prison, but he never spoke about any hardships inside.

He had been nicknamed ‘The Preacher’, thought to have been because he was often quoting the bible to get through.

But Karen said he also became incredibly studious.

He got a degree after studying electrical engineering, IT and business management – and built up the life he wanted to lead in his head.

‘He’s somebody you don’t want to cross’

When he returned to Britain in 2010, Karen says he was different – much more philosophical and a “proper naturalist” who worked out and was into healthy eating.

She often saw him having blended vegetables or raw eggs, and was into herbal tea and holistic healing.

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Karen also described him as cunning, charming, but still incredibly private.

She threw a welcome home party for him at her flat in Palmers Green, but he never went.

In fact, she didn’t hear from him for six months after he landed.

Karen said: “He went quiet and we didn’t know where he was.

“I was ringing, trying to go to prisons and agencies, trying to find out where he went. I had been waiting for him.

“When he was on his feet, he showed up. I was like ‘Where have you been?’.

“He was smiling and laughing, saying: ‘I’m alright, sis.’

There’s a look in his eyes that would make you shut up. You shut up and agree with him. He does these weird stares.

Karen Satchellon her brother’s chilling look

He would often turn up to see his sister wearing smart suits, he went to business conventions and became interested in investments, stocks and bonds. She said he was articulate and productive.

He “never drank, never smoked, never swore, never raised his voice” and told his family he always had different ventures and sales meetings going on.

But she also remembered he sometimes had a strange look in his eyes.

She said: “This is what got him through his jail time. There’s a look in his eyes that would make you shut up.

“You shut up and agree with him. He does these weird stares.

“He’s not a person who had to do anything action-wise. You would look at him and go ‘leave that man alone’.

“He looks like somebody you don’t want to cross with. But when you get past that, he’s quite shy. I think that’s his defence mechanism.”

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He also never told her exactly where he lived, nor exactly what he did.

Within the first year of coming back to Britain, he had his first daughter, who Karen never found out about until she was two.

She went to meet her for the first time when she was three, when Mark was living with her and her mother in Ilford, East London.

Karen said: “We were shocked. We didn’t know he had a daughter. He was a private guy.

“When I met the girl, they had been together for a little while. She was lovely. So beautiful. He took care of his kids really well.”

She added: “I think he always wanted to be a dad.”

They broke up shortly after for unknown reasons, just before Mark met Constance Marten in an incense shop in Tottenham, North London, in 2014.

Paranoid he was being followed

After this, Karen says he became noticeably more paranoid, often talking about people following or tracking him.

He moved around after dark, whispered on the phone and asked to meet his sister in parks at strange hours.

When he visited Karen, he would stay for a few minutes, ask about them and just laugh if asked where he was staying.

He would say: “It’s alright, sis, you don’t need to know.”

He stayed with her in 2015 for around a month, coming in and out regularly at night, before suddenly leaving without a fuss.

Karen remembered: “I’d say Where do you live? Where are you going?

“I want to help like a big sister would. He just said it’s okay, I don’t need it, I’m good.

“They went travelling a lot. I asked him how he could go to all these places.

“He just did a little smirk and said: ‘Don’t worry, you will get there one day.’”

Gordon and Marten’s troubles escalated shortly after they got married in Peru, in a ceremony that is not recognised in the UK.

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They then had their first baby in 2017 after living in a tent together in Wales to escape Marten’s family and their private investigators.

Karen said: “He called me once from Wales and asked me to help him out, and if he could stay at my address.

“He called and said, ‘What are you doing? ‘ but said he couldn’t talk right now because ‘they are listening’. It was weird.

“He said, ‘You can’t help me’. He said he had gone to see his wife. He was hiding out, whispering.

“He said I’m visiting my wife. I asked what was wrong, and he just said ‘Long story, something to do with the baby’.

“He said he was trying to get his wife moved out. He wanted to come back to London.”

His family only knew about his first two babies with Constance.

They never met her, and don’t even know the gender of the second two children and were never told anything about their battle with social services.

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The couple were supposed to spend Christmas 2019 with Karen, but Mark arrived without her, saying she was away and that “It’s complicated”.

Karen said: “I said, ‘Why, who is she? The Queen? Then it turned out she was linked to the Queen!”

She reckons Marten was the “boss” in their marriage, while Mark would have guided her decision-making.

And she insisted the couple just “wanted to be naturalists”.

She last spoke to Mark about a year before he went on the run, which would have been during the time he and Constance were trying to keep the latest pregnancy hidden from everyone.

Days after his arrest, Victoria’s body was found dead in a plastic bag in a disused allotment shed.

Karen concluded: “It went terribly wrong. They made a terrible mistake.”

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TWO men have died while unloading glass panels from a lorry in a freak accident.

The horror unfolded in the car park of one of England’s oldest football clubs, Hitchin Town FC, on Saturday.

Emergency services were called at around 2pm, and paramedics sadly pronounced two men dead at the scene.

A third man was treated for minor injuries.

Hertfordshire Police confirmed the men had been “unloading glass panels from a lorry” when tragedy struck.

A spokesperson for the force confirmed: “Police attended an incident in the Hitchin Town Football Club car park at approximately 2pm on Saturday 6 September, following reports that two men were seriously injured.

“The men, who were unloading glass panels from a lorry parked in the overflow car park, were injured in the process.

“Two men sadly died at the scene. Their next of kins have been informed and are being supported by officers. A third man sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene.

“The incident is currently under investigation and enquiries continue.”

Hitchin Town Football Club has been contacted for comment.

Hitchin is the childhood home of several Premier League names, including Kevin Phillips and Jack Wilshere.

The club are seventh in Southern League Division One Central and through to the second-round qualifying of the FA Cup.

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Police in western Afghanistan’s Herat province say the accident was due to the bus’s ‘excessive speed and negligence’. 

At least 71 people, including 17 children, have been killed in western Afghanistan after a passenger bus carrying refugees, recently deported from neighbouring Iran, caught fire after colliding with a truck and motorcycle, according to provincial government spokesman Ahmadullah Muttaqi and local police.

Police in Herat province said on Tuesday that the accident was due to the bus’s “excessive speed and negligence”.

The returnees are part of a massive wave of Afghans deported or forced out of Iran in recent months.

The accident took place a day after Iranian Minister of Interior Eskandar Momeni announced that a further 800,000 people would have to leave the country by next March.

The bus was carrying Afghans recently returned from Iran and en route to the capital Kabul, provincial official Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi told the AFP news agency on Tuesday. He added that all the passengers boarded the vehicle in Islam Qala, a border crossing point.

Taliban government chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to the dpa news agency that the victims had been deported from Iran, but said that further details were not available immediately.

Police in the Guzara district outside Afghanistan’s city of Herat, where the accident occurred, said a motorcycle was also involved.

The majority of those who died were on the bus, but two people travelling in the truck were also killed, as well as another two who were on the motorcycle.

Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of war, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of regulation.

Last December, two bus accidents, involving a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan, killed at least 52 people.

Every year, conflict, persecution, poverty and high unemployment drive large numbers of Afghans to cross the 300km (186-mile) Islam Qala border into Iran without documentation. Many work in low-wage jobs in big cities, including on construction sites, where they are valued as cheap and reliable labour.

Nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since early June, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), after Tehran imposed a July 6 deadline for undocumented refugees to leave the country.

The surge compounds Afghanistan’s existing challenges, as the impoverished nation, back under hardline Taliban rule since 2021, struggles to integrate waves of returnees from Pakistan and Iran since 2023, amid one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises after decades of conflict.

The UNHCR reports that more than 1.4 million people have “returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan” this year alone. Iran’s late May directive potentially affects 4 million undocumented Afghans among the approximately 6 million Afghan residents claimed by Tehran.

Border crossings increased dramatically from mid-June, with some days seeing approximately 40,000 people entering Afghanistan. Between June 1 and July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, bringing the 2024 total to 906,326, according to an International Organization for Migration spokesman.

Aug. 17 (UPI) — Two American cruise passengers in their 70s drowned in separate incidents on Carnival Cruise Lines’ private destination in the eastern Bahamas.

At Celebration Key on the south side of Grand Bahama, one person died in a lagoon and another at the beach on Friday, the cruise line told ABC News. The 65-acre private location, which initially cost $600 million to build, opened in July.

Grand Bahama, with 47,000 residents, is not on a private island, like Carnival’s other locations for guests.

The island, which serves two Carnival ships at one time, also includes a water park, restaurants, swim-up bar, the world’s tallest sandcastle and swing, and 1.5 miles of beach.

“One guest was sailing with family on Mardi Gras and one guest was sailing with family on Carnival Elation,” the cruise line said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the guests and their families and our Care Team is providing assistance.”

Both cruise ships left ports in Florida last week.

Before noon, Royal Bahamas Police Force officers found a 79-year-old man unresponsive aboard a commercial vessel.

“According to the initial report, the male became unresponsive while snorkeling at a beach,” police said in a statement to NBC News. “A lifeguard assisted him from the water, and CPR was administered, but to no avail.”

Shortly before 2:30 p.m., offers found an unresponsive 74-year-old woman who had been swimming in the pool. A lifeguard assisted her out of the water and CPR was administered “to no avail,” police said.

Carnival said more than 2 million guests a year will visit the destination. An extension is being built to serve two additional ships at one time.

In the debut on July 19, more than 7,000 passengers from Carnival Glory and Carnival Conquest went to Carnival’s site.

Grand Bahama, which is near Freeport, is 65 miles east of Palm Beach County in Florida. Southeast Bahamas, 145 miles from Grand Bahama, is under a tropical storm warning from Hurricane Erin.

The Elation, which launched in 1998, is a 71,909-ton, 855-foot-long ship, that can accommodate up to 2,900 guests and a crew of 900. It sails out of Jacksonville on five-day cruises.

The Mardi Gras, which began service in 2016, is a 181,808-ton, 1,113-foot ship can host up to 6,000 passengers and 2,000 crew members. The Mardi Gras sails out of Port Canaveral on seven-night trips. Another Mardi Gras was Carnival’s first ship launched in 1972 and sold in 1993.

All all, the cruise line operates 29 ships worldwide.

At least 23 people, including 10 seeking aid, have been killed on Thursday in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities, as four more people died from malnutrition amid a growing starvation crisis in the besieged territory.

Hospital sources told Al Jazeera that 10 people seeking aid were among 12 people killed by Israeli forces near Rafah in southern Gaza.

One person was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli attack near an aid distribution site, the sources said.

Eight people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a residential home in Gaza City in northern Gaza, medical sources said.

Two other people were killed in an Israeli attack on the city’s Tuffah neighbourhood, hospital sources told Al Jazeera.

The killings come as Israel escalates its attacks on Gaza City, the largest city in the enclave, after the country’s security cabinet approved plans for the military to seize the city, an operation that could forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to concentration zones in southern Gaza.

The plan has received international condemnation from the United Nations and even dissent from within Israel’s own military.

Al Jazeera correspondents reported on Thursday that large swaths of northern Gaza have been turned into “lifeless wastelands” amid the Israeli escalation.

Palestinians in Gaza City have spoken of their fears of further displacement, following an Israeli forced evacuation order to areas further south, ahead of the proposed occupation.

Walaa Sobh said she had already been displaced during the war from the northern city of Beit Lahiya to Gaza City, and was unable to move again.

“We’re afraid to move anywhere else, because we have nowhere to go, no income – and I am a widow,” she told Al Jazeera.

“If they want to force us out, then at least find us a place, give us tents, especially for the widows, the children, and the sick. You’re not only displacing one or two people; you’re displacing millions who have nowhere to stay.”

Another woman, Umm Sajed Hamdan, said she would refuse to follow the order.

“I am a mother of five and the wife of a detainee. I cannot escape with my children from one place to another,” Hamdan told Al Jazeera. “I would rather face death here in Gaza City than go to al-Mawasi.”

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza City are a serious cause for concern.

“It’s a terrible escalation, really,” said Bishara.

“[Netanyahu] really intends to reoccupy Gaza … send the military in and just take it on again.”

Truce talks

As Israel continues to escalate attacks on Gaza City, Mossad spy chief David Barnea is visiting Qatar in an effort to revive talks over a Gaza ceasefire, two Israeli officials told the Reuters news agency on Thursday.

The visit follows a reported expression of positivity from Hamas officials to restart ceasefire negotiations during a meeting with Egypt’s intelligence chief in Cairo earlier this week.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said that a non-Israeli, peaceful civilian administration for Gaza was among the Israeli government’s five key principles for ending the war.

The other principles include the release of captives still held in Gaza, the surrender of weapons by Hamas, the full demilitarisation of Gaza, and Israel retaining overriding security control, he said.

Aid still ‘a drop in the ocean’

Meanwhile, more than 100 aid groups on Thursday accused Israel of obstructing life-saving aid from entering Gaza, resulting in vast quantities of relief supplies remaining stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt as more Palestinians starve.

“Despite claims by Israeli authorities that there is no limit on humanitarian aid entering Gaza, most major international NGOs [nongovernmental organisations] have been unable to deliver a single truck of life-saving supplies since 2 March,” the groups said.

There is aid sitting all around the boundary between Israel and Gaza that is not being allowed in, Natasha Davies, a nursing activity manager with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Al Jazeera.

“We’ve had a couple of trucks in [to Gaza], but really, it’s just a drop in the ocean … We run primarily a trauma surgical hospital, so every single patient has a wound of some sort that needs fixing with supplies that we are intermittently receiving,” Davies said by videolink from Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.

“It’s just a humanitarian catastrophe. There are these GHF sites, which are slaughter masquerading as aid, which create mass casualty incidents, which create more injuries for us to treat with limited resources,” she said.

The total number of aid seekers killed since May 27, when Israel introduced a new aid distribution mechanism through the US-based GHF, has reached 1,881, with more than 13,863 injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The total count of hunger-related deaths is now 239, including 106 children, the ministry records.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,776 people and wounded 154,906. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.

Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa pass away within a day of each other after separate bouts on the same card.

Two Japanese boxers have died from brain injuries sustained in separate bouts on the same card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.

Shigetoshi Kotari, 28, collapsed shortly after completing a 12-round draw against Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) junior lightweight champion Yamato Hata on August 2.

He underwent emergency brain surgery for a subdural haematoma – a condition in which blood collects between the brain and skull – but died on Friday.

“Rest in peace, Shigetoshi Kotari,” the World Boxing Organization (WBO) wrote on social media. “The boxing world mourns the tragic passing of Japanese fighter Shigetoshi Kotari, who succumbed to injuries sustained during his August 2nd title fight.

“A warrior in the ring. A fighter in spirit. Gone too soon. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, team, and the entire Japanese boxing community.”

On Saturday, 28-year-old Hiromasa Urakawa died after suffering the same injury during a knockout loss to Yoji Saito. He had undergone a craniotomy in an attempt to save his life.

“This heartbreaking news comes just days after the passing of Shigetoshi Kotari, who died from injuries suffered in his fight on the same card,” the WBO said in another social media post on Saturday. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and the Japanese boxing community during this incredibly difficult time.”

In response, the Japanese Boxing Commission announced all OPBF title bouts will now be reduced from 12 rounds to 10.

Earlier this year, Irish boxer John Cooney died a week after being taken into intensive care following his Celtic super-featherweight title defeat to Nathan Howells in Belfast.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Rescue operations are ongoing to find dozens more missing, local authorities say.

At least 54 African refugees and migrants have died and dozens remain missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Yemen, according to health authorities in Abyan governorate in the south of the country.

Abdul Qader Bajamil, director of the health office in Zanzibar, said on Sunday that rescue teams had recovered 54 bodies from the beaches there and surrounding areas, while 12 survivors were transferred to Shaqra Hospital.

The boat carrying around 150 people, mostly from Ethiopia, capsized in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Shaqra, in the Abyan governorate, due to strong winds on Saturday evening.

Bajamil noted that authorities were making arrangements to bury the victims in an area near the city, while search operations continued amid difficult conditions.

The waterways between Yemen and the Horn of Africa are a common but perilous route for refugees and migrants travelling in both directions. The area saw a spike in Yemenis fleeing the country after the civil war broke out in 2014.

Houthi rebels and government forces reached a truce deal in April 2022 that has resulted in a decrease in violence and the slight easing of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Meanwhile, some of those fleeing conflict in Africa, particularly in Somalia and Ethiopia, have sought refuge in Yemen or have sought to travel through the country to the more prosperous Gulf countries. The route remains one of the “busiest and most perilous” migration routes in the world, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).

To reach Yemen, people are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.

According to the IOM, more than 60,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, marking a significant drop from the previous year’s total of 97,200.

The decreased numbers come amid increased patrols of the waters, according to an IOM report released in May.

This is a deadly route that has killed hundreds over the past two years. According to the IOM, 558 people died along the route last year.

Over the past decade, at least 2,082 people have disappeared along the route, including 693 known to have drowned, according to the IOM. Yemen currently houses around 380,000 refugees and migrants.

Officials say the workers were conducting an emergency inspection of sewage pipes when the accident took place.

Four workers have died in Japan after falling into a manhole near Tokyo as they inspected sewage pipes, according to public broadcaster NHK, quoting police.

NHK reported on Sunday that the incident in the city of Gyoda in Saitama Prefecture, north of the Japanese capital, happened on Saturday, as the four men, all in their 50s, and other co-workers were inspecting a sewage pipe.

City officials say the workers were conducting an emergency inspection of sewage pipes that the central government had ordered municipalities to carry out, after a huge road cave-in in January.

Police were quoted by NHK as saying that during the inspection, one of the workers fell down the manhole, followed by three of his co-workers who were trying to save him.

According to police, the manhole is 60cm (24in) in diameter and more than 10 metres (33ft) in depth.

The fire department from the area also confirmed the incident to the AFP news agency.

Video clips published by NHK showed several emergency and rescue personnel near the manhole.

The department said rescuers detected hydrogen sulfide – a gas toxic in high concentrations – coming out of the manhole.

But city officials refused to be drawn on the cause of the initial fall.

“Detailed circumstances leading up to the accident are still unknown, so it’s too early for us to say anything about our responsibility,” a Gyoda city official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

The four workers were retrieved and taken to hospital, where they were pronounced dead, according to local media reports.

About 10 workers were at the scene of the inspection, ordered to clean the pipes of wastewater and sludge if necessary.

In May, Japanese rescuers recovered the body of a dead 74-year-old truck driver months after he was swallowed by a road collapse in Saitama prefecture.

April 3, 2005. It’s 02:00 in Washington.

Stephan Weiler is woken by a “dreaded call”. A voice said: “Is Becky Zerlentes your wife?’

“I said ‘yes’, and the official from Denver Health Medical Center and Hospital told me I need to get to the airport as quickly as possible. Her condition was deteriorating.”

Up until that day, a female boxer in the United States had never died in a sanctioned fight.

In succumbing to that devastating blow, Zerlentes – who three years previously won a regional boxing title – had rewritten history.

While the tales of fighters like Johnny Owen and Jimmy Doyle, external are enshrined in history, the impact of Zerlentes’ death on the community in Denver and on those who loved her has remained private.

Zerlentes’ love affair with combat sports defined her life, an overwhelming rush every time she stepped inside the confines of a boxing ring or MMA cage.

Like most amateur fighters, 34-year-old Zerlentes embraced a career away from the ropes, working as a geography and economics professor at Front Range Community College’s Larimer County campus, earning a master’s and PhD.

The buzz she enjoyed inside the classroom was complemented by her love of sport, especially in combat.

On that fight night, Weiler remained in the capital of the US, continuing his three-year stay at the Federal Reserve, the country’s central banking system.

He had constantly been asked by Zerlentes to return to Fort Collins, the former military outpost nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and promised he soon would.

Facing Heather Schmitz, Zerlentes was taking part in the Colorado State Boxing Senior Female Championships at the Denver Coliseum in Colorado, a venue that has crammed more than 10,000 people in when the Rolling Stones or Rage Against the Machine have been in town. Both women wore protective headgear.

For two rounds Zerlentes worked, trading punches with Schmitz until the third.

With a blow to the head, just above her left eye, Zerlentes staggered forward, struck the canvas and fell unconscious – a state she would remain in until her death the following morning.

“The doctor in the ring said her pupils were fixed and dilated when he saw her first and already there was a chance that brain damage had occurred,” Weiler, now a professor, said.

By 06:30 Weiler was on a flight to Denver and immediately made his way to the hospital. There he saw Zerlentes.

“The amount of damage to Becky’s brain was remarkable given that it was a fairly glancing blow,” he said.

“It was not a hard hit… but the brain had become bruised to such an extent that it could no longer operate.”

The life support Zerlentes had been placed on was beginning to fail, and that “clinically she was probably already dead in the ring”, Weiler recalled.

And then he had to make a choice.

“At about noon that morning, the decision was made, knowing that her condition was deteriorating, I made the choice that it was time,” he said.

The reaction to her death was immediate.

Tributes flooded in across Denver. Colleagues, students and others who knew Zerlentes described the warmth and tenacity of one of the college and community’s pillars.

Two young men have died in the last two weeks after falling from the balcony at Ibiza Rocks Hotel in San Antonio, which is known for its live music and vibrant atmosphere but has now been dubbed a ‘death hotel’

The notorious Ibiza Rocks Hotel has faced another tragedy after a Brit holidaymaker fell to his death from the hotel’s balcony.

Gary Kelly, 19, was visiting the Spanish island when he fell from the third floor of the four-star Ibiza Rocks Hotel just after midnight on Monday. Two ambulances were sent to the scene, but paramedics said there was nothing they could do to save him.

A spokesman for the Civil Guard confirmed this morning: “We are investigating the death of a 19-year-old British man at a hotel in San Antonio in Ibiza. The alarm was raised around 12.40am this morning.

“Our officers were sent to the scene but the man in question was already dead by the time help arrived. The fall was from from the third floor of the hotel to an outside part of the complex. Court officials authorised the removal of his body at 2.40am this morning.

“The fall could be accidental based on the early information obtained from cameras but as part of the investigation possible witnesses will need to be located and interviewed. The results of the post-mortem will also be important to the investigation.”

Well-placed sources confirmed the hotel where the tragedy occurred is the famous Ibiza Rocks Hotel in San Antonio. The source said: “The post-mortem will help to determine if the man who died had consumed alcohol or taken drugs beforehand and in what quantities.”

The teen’s tragic death comes just a fortnight after Scottish holidaymaker Evan Thomson lost his life after falling from his sixth-floor balcony at the same hotel while celebrating his 26th birthday with friends. Evan was pronounced dead at the scene after medics rushed to the hotel at around 6am on July 7.

Friends and family of Evan blasted bosses over how the aftermath of his death was handled, and claimed the hotel resumed normal operations less than 90 minutes after his traumatic death. They were enraged by social media posts allegedly uploaded hours later advertising their next pool party.

They also claimed they sat in an office “without answers” for an hour after they were informed of Evan’s death before being allowed back to their rooms. Pals of the Brit said they were told to pack up their belongings before being transferred to another nearby hotel.

Evan’s sister Teila said: “Ibiza is known for its partying and it just stuns me that they don’t have higher safety precautions. Pray nobody else suffers. And, once it did happen, the hotel’s response was just completely heartbreaking; almost as if it never happened. I pray no other family has to go through this.”

Remi Duncan, 23, said: “It was disgusting. There was minimal respect for the situation, considering the music went back on soon after Evan had died. It puts a pit in your stomach.”

In April a 33-year-old British woman died at the Ibiza Rocks Hotel. Local police and paramedics rushed to the hotel, situated just metres from one of the world’s most famous sunsets, after the alarm was raised around 6.30pm on April 30.

Emergency responders confirmed when they arrived the holidaymaker had gone into cardiac arrest and spent around 40 minutes practicing CPR on her to try to revive her. She was declared dead at the scene after efforts to save her life proved unsuccessful. Well-placed sources said at the time there was nothing pointing to the death being suspicious.

On April 27 a 19-year-old Italian tourist of Turkish origin plunged to her death from the fourth-floor at the same hotel. She had flown to the island the previous day and gone out partying. She was said at the time to have tried to been trying to reach her room via a balcony from a shared area of the hotel after realising she didn’t have her key card when she lost her footing and fell. Her lifeless body was discovered around 9am on April 27.

In light of Gary’s death, Ibiza Rocks hotel has suspended its events as authorities conduct their inquiries. A statement read: “We are deeply shocked and devastated by the recent incidents that have tragically occurred. Our priority is to support those affected and their loved ones during this incredibly difficult time and to fully assist the authorities with their investigations.

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests has and always will remain our highest priority. Given the seriousness of the situation and out of respect for those involved we believe it is right to pause our advertised events programme at this time. All customers will be informed directly via email.”

The Ibiza Rocks Hotel, a hotspot known for its live music poolside events featuring top artists and DJs, is a magnet for British holidaymakers. The venue boasts a large pool, sun terraces, bars, and entertainment, drawing in young Brits with its vibrant atmosphere. Tourists are often seen dancing on balconies up to six floors above the music stage or in the swimming pool, often while intoxicated.

One person who stayed there “many years ago” told the Mirror: “It was full of 18-24 year olds, girls were more interested in their looks etc than getting drunk but the boys were getting very drunk and high. Drugs were most of the problem. I actually saw the body of a teenager lying on the ground after he fell from the balcony of a hotel nearby. It turned out he was the precious son of a good family who was on his first boys holiday and was a talented rugby player.”

They added: “The main trouble is ketamine – it makes users hallucinate and feel invincible. Spanish police once said it was main reason for the balcony deaths – and the fact that guys try to get to each other balconies for a laugh. It has not changed sadly.”

Former guests at the hotel have shared their thoughts on social media. One partygoer wrote: “It’s a really fun place… until it isn’t. It’s 24/7 carnage, just party after party with everyone dancing on balconies or swimming in pools even though they’re wasted.”

Another expressed on X: “This place needs shut down! The stories that are coming out and the way they treat their guests is appalling! A pattern like this shows serious safety failings but they continued business as usual and now unfortunately another young man has died! Heartbreaking.”

Someone else commented: “The balcony railings are far too low it seems to me.” Another fumed: “How many people need to die before you ACTUALLY do something about the safety of your hotel! absolutely ridiculous!!!!! Rest in peace Evan, so lucky to have known you.”

On TripAdvisor, yet another slammed: “A horror, to flee absolutely!! Hotel just horrible. Customers are disrespectful and there is no control or oversight by staff. If you want to spend a sleepless night, you’ve come to the right place: it’s noisy, poorly insulated, and chaos reigns all night. No respect for the rest of others. A frankly unpleasant experience from start to finish. Go your way!”

In a review from August last year one holidaymaker wrote: “DECADENT! Hotel is full of drunk people screaming and shouting 24/7 – security is rude and they don’t have control over it”.

Despite concerns being raised, the hotel has previously received a huge number of positive comments following a stay at the party hotel. One traveller wrote on Tripadvisor: “Wow!!! I have just got back from 4 nights @ Ibiza Rocks and it has been INCREDIBLE! I travelled alone with a friend meeting me out there later in the week!”

A second added: “This hotel is absolutely wild and is totally for the party goers in Ibiza. There is music daily. The hotel is very clean, staff are fabulous and so accommodating. I was expecting a very young crowd here but surprising the age group was late 20’s to mid 40’s which was great. It was definitely an experience”.

A third shared: “Stayed for a hen party with a group of 15 girls – hotel was fantastic, rooms were clean & staff were really friendly & helpful – highly recommend the rooftop room for hens was so great having the extra space! The chill pool is so good, prices there are so reasonable too – shop on site and also right opposite with everything you need – walking distance to everywhere you want to go that side of the Island!”

The Mirror has contacted Ibiza Rocks Hotel for a comment.

At half past eight on the morning of Friday, July 21, 1967, following a quick breakfast with his wife, Chief Albert Luthuli set out from his home in Groutville, about 70km (45 miles) from Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, on his normal daily routine.

The 69-year-old leader of the African National Congress (ANC) would “walk three kilometres to open the family’s general store in Nonhlevu, proceed to his three plots of sugarcane fields, and return to close the shop before going back home”, his daughter-in-law, Wilhelmina May Luthuli, now 77, told a new inquest into his death at Pietermaritzburg High Court in May this year. The current justice minister has reopened the inquests into several suspicious apartheid-era deaths.

Luthuli reached the store by 9:30am and set off again to check on his sugar cane fields about half an hour later.

This much is not in dispute.

The only witness

Train driver Stephanus Lategan told a 1967 inquest into Luthuli’s death that at 10:36am, as his 760-tonne train approached the Umvoti River Bridge, he noticed a pedestrian walking across the bridge and sounded his whistle. “The Bantu [the official and derogatory term for Black people at the time] did not appear to take any notice whatsoever … He had walked about … 15 or 16 paces when my engine commenced to overtake him … He made no attempt to step towards the side or turn his body sideways.”

While the bridge was not designed for pedestrian traffic, Luthuli and the rest of his family often crossed it. His son, Edgar Sibusiso Luthuli, explained that when using the bridge, his father was “very, very careful. When a train was coming, he would stand, not even walk, and hold onto the railings tightly. The space was big enough for the train to pass you on the bridge”.

But, according to Lategan, Luthuli did no such thing that morning. The train driver told the inquest that while the front of the train narrowly missed Luthuli, “the corner of the cab struck him on the right shoulder and this caused him to be spun around and I saw him lose his balance and fall between the right-hand side of the bridge and the moving train.”

Lategan was the only witness to the collision. According to his testimony, when he realised he had hit Luthuli, he stopped the train as fast as he could.

Luthuli was still breathing but unconscious and bleeding from the mouth when Lategan said he reached him. He asked the station foreman and station master to call an ambulance, which took Luthuli to the nearest “Bantu” hospital.

Fifty-eight years later – nearly another lifetime for Luthuli – a new inquest opened earlier this year. Experts testifying cast serious doubt on Lategan’s version of events.

Police crime scene analyst Brenden Burgess was part of a team that used evidence from the first inquest to reconstruct the crash scene.

“The possibility of an accident scenario occurring as described by Mr Lategan is highly unlikely,” testified Burgess. “Taking into account the stopping distance required to stop the locomotive where it came to rest at the scene … the brakes to the train would have to have been applied at least 170 metres before the entrance to the northern side of the bridge … The probability of the point of impact being on the southern side of the bridge is highly unlikely.”

In fact, experts say, it is likely that Luthuli was not walking along the bridge at all.

Steam train expert Lesley Charles Labuschagne went further. By his estimation, “Luthuli was assaulted and his body taken to a railway track so it would look like he was hit by a train,” according to a Business Day article about his testimony, published in May.

Citing “gaps relating to description of trauma, in terms of size as well as characterisation of injuries”, forensic pathologist Dr Sibusiso Ntsele told the 2025 inquest that Luthuli’s post-mortem report was “substandard to say the least”. Ntsele concluded his testimony: “I don’t have enough to say he was hit by a train … What I have suggests that he is likely to have been assaulted.”

The inquest has been adjourned until October, when Judge Qondeni Radebe will rule on Luthuli’s cause of death.

‘Quietly, as a teacher’

There is no formal record of his birth, but it is known that Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli was born sometime in 1898 in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where his father worked as an interpreter for missionaries from the Congregational Church in America. This instilled in Luthuli a deep and lifelong faith and, according to the writer Nadine Gordimer, a way of speaking “with a distinct American intonation”.

When Mvumbi (his preferred name, meaning “continuous rain”) was about 10 years old, his family moved back to South Africa and he was sent to live with his uncle, the chief of Groutville, so that he could attend school.

By 1914, Luthuli was 16 and had progressed as far as he could at the small school in Groutville. He spent a year at the Ohlange Institute, the first high school in South Africa founded and run by a Black person, John Dube, the first president of the ANC. That was followed by several years at Edendale, a Methodist mission school where, for the first time, Luthuli was taught by white teachers. In his autobiography, Luthuli refuted the accusation that mission schools produced “black Englishmen”. Instead, he argued, “two cultures met, and both Africans and Europeans were affected by the meeting. Both profited and both survived enriched.”

After graduating from Edendale with a teaching qualification, he accepted a post as principal (and sole employee) of a tiny Blacks-only intermediate school in the outpost of Blaauwbosch, where – under the mentorship of a local pastor – his Christian faith deepened.

Luthuli’s performance at Blaauwbosch earned him a scholarship to Adams College, one of the most important centres for Black education in South Africa, just south of Durban.

Luthuli arrived at Adams with no political aspirations: “I took it for granted that I would spend my days quietly, as a teacher,” he wrote in his autobiography, Let My People Go. But the influence of ZK Matthews (the principal of the high school at Adams, who would go on to become an influential ANC leader and academic) and some of the other teachers gradually opened his eyes to a political world of resistance.

Luthuli stayed at Adams College for 15 years. Only in 1935 did he succumb to pressure from the people of Groutville, who wanted him to return home to take up the chieftainship (his uncle had been “fired” by the white government).

Becoming a chief – a salaried position, which meant he could be fired by the apartheid regime if he stepped too far out of line – meant taking a significant pay cut, but Luthuli saw it as a calling. Administering the needs of the 5,000 Zulu people of the Umvoti Mission Reserve, which had been founded by American missionary Reverend Aldin Grout from the Congressional Church in 1844, opened his eyes to the reality of life in South Africa: “Now I saw, almost as though for the first time, the naked poverty of my people, the daily hurt to human beings.” As the chief explained in his autobiography: “In Groutville, as all over the country, a major part of the problem is land – thirteen percent of the land for seventy percent of the people, and almost always inferior land…When I became chief I was confronted as never before by the destitution of the housewife, the smashing of families because of economic pressures, and the inability of the old way of life to meet the contemporary onslaught.”

Called to activism

Luthuli entered formal politics relatively late in life compared with others, only joining the ANC at the age of 46 in 1944, four years before apartheid officially began. Nelson Mandela, 20 years his junior, joined in the same year. Both men arrived at a time when the party was in dire need of new blood. The older generation of Black leaders was seen as too polite and accepting of the status quo to fight the increasingly draconian white minority government, with its rapidly restrictive legislation governing the lives of Black people.

But while Mandela and a few of his contemporaries shook up the national conversation with a more brash and confrontational style, Luthuli brought a more moderate brand of leadership to the Natal branch of the ANC. He was elected to the provincial executive less than a year after joining the party, and as president of the Natal branch in 1951.

Luthuli shot to national prominence as the chief volunteer of the 1952 Defiance Campaign, which saw thousands of people all around the country offering themselves up for arrest for contravening apartheid laws by doing things like sitting on whites-only benches and travelling on whites-only buses.

“He was duly stripped of his position as chief by the apartheid government, before being elected ANC president on the back of the youth vote that December,” explains Professor Thula Simpson of the University of Pretoria, one of the leading historians of the ANC. “Luthuli was seen as a bridge between old and young. But he and Moses Kotane [secretary general of the communist SACP for 39 years] became the old guard when Mandela and co started agitating for violence.”

Luthuli’s stance against violence

Mandela first publicly called for violent resistance in June 1953, telling a crowd in Sophiatown that, as he wrote in his autobiography, “violence was the only weapon that would destroy apartheid and we must be prepared, in the near future, to use that weapon.” This did not align with Luthuli’s approach.

In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela wrote of being “severely reprimanded” by Luthuli and the ANC’s National Executive, “for advocating such a radical departure from accepted policy [never, ever condoning violence]… Such speeches could provoke the enemy to crush the organisation entirely while the enemy was strong and we were as yet still weak. I accepted the censure, and thereafter faithfully defended the policy of nonviolence in public. But in my heart, I knew that nonviolence was not the answer.”

Luthuli was actually in court, giving evidence about the ANC’s commitment to non-violent struggle, on March 21, 1960, when white police officers opened fire on a crowd of peaceful Black protesters at Sharpeville, killing at least 91 people. After Sharpeville, the calls for violent protest within the ANC grew louder and – despite Luthuli’s opposition – in June 1961, Mandela was given permission to set up Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the party’s military wing.

MK’s founding document is “the strangest declaration of war in the history of insurgency”, says Simpson, with its focus on sabotaging government infrastructure but avoiding loss of life at all costs.

1961 was also the year Luthuli became the first African to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. “The citation from the committee noted that he had consistently stood for non-violence,” says Simpson. “But the irony is that he was aware that his movement had committed to forming a sabotage squad, even if he personally had acquiesced to the decision without enthusiasm.”

The apartheid government initially prevented Luthuli from travelling to Oslo to receive the award, but eventually relented with a condition: He could not make overt mention of South African politics during his speech. He followed this restriction (he didn’t say the word “apartheid” once) but made a clear statement by wearing traditional Zulu attire.

By sheer coincidence, Luthuli’s route back from Oslo saw him arrive in Durban on 15 December: The exact evening that MK began its operations.

Despite their differences, says Simpson, “Mandela liked and respected Luthuli and felt the need to consult with him. Mandela wanted the older man’s consent, authorisation and approval…”

This close relationship would lead to Mandela’s arrest and imprisonment for 27 years. In 1961, after the banning of the ANC, Mandela went undercover. Dubbed the Black Pimpernel, he was the most wanted man in the country. In August 1962, posing as the chauffeur of white playwright and activist Cecil Williams, Mandela drove to Groutville to brief Luthuli about a military training trip he’d taken to other African countries. One of the people Mandela met on that trip was a police informant, and on their way back to Johannesburg, Mandela and Williams were ambushed by police. “I knew in that instant that my life on the run was over,” Mandela later recalled.

Rewriting history

Many anti-apartheid leaders died in suspicious circumstances over the 46 years that the apartheid regime survived. Perhaps the most famous of these was Steve Biko, who died following police torture in 1977. The official inquest into Biko’s death absolved the police, finding that he could not have died “by any act or omission involving an offence by any person”. Despite a local and international outcry, the truth would only come out at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1999, after apartheid had ended. Presided over by Desmond Tutu (himself a Nobel peace laureate), the TRC held more than 2,500 hearings between 1996 and 2002.

Controversially, the TRC had the power to grant full amnesty for politically motivated crimes, provided the perpetrators made honest and complete confessions. Four security policemen admitted to the killing of Biko at TRC hearings. But the commanding officer, Gideon Nieuwoudt, was denied amnesty on the grounds that he did not prove that his crime was politically motivated. Nieuwoudt was convicted for his role in the murder of the “Motherwell four” – four Black policemen who had been leaking information to the ANC and were killed in a car bomb planted by the authorities but died in 2005 before he was sentenced.

Since the TRC concluded, there have been other inquests into mysterious deaths, most notably the 2017 inquest into Ahmed Timol’s 1971 death. According to police reports at the time, Timol had jumped from the 10th floor of the Johannesburg Central Police Station after being overcome with shame at disclosing sensitive information about his colleagues during interrogation. A 1972 inquest ruled that he died by suicide. “To accept anything other than that the deceased jumped out of the window and fell to the ground can only be seen as ludicrous,” ruled Magistrate JL de Villiers. “Although he was questioned for long hours, he was treated in a civilised and humane manner.”

Timol’s death shone a light on the many (73 in total) mysterious deaths of activists in police custody during apartheid. These were the inspiration for Chris van Wyk’s satirical poem “In Detention”:

He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He hanged himself
He slipped on a piece of soap while washing
He fell from the ninth floor
He hanged himself while washing
He slipped from the ninth floor
He hung from the ninth floor
He slipped on the ninth floor while washing
He fell from a piece of soap while slipping
He hung from the ninth floor
He washed from the ninth floor while slipping
He hung from a piece of soap while washing.

The TRC found that there was a “strong possibility that at least some of those detainees who allegedly committed suicide by jumping out of the window were either accidentally dropped or thrown”. This was not enough for the Timol family, however, and, in 2017, they succeeded in having the 1972 inquest reopened.

On October 12, 2017, Judge Billy Mothle set a historic precedent by overturning the first inquest’s findings. Mothle ruled that “Timol’s death was brought about by an act of having been pushed from the tenth floor or the roof” of the building, and that there was a prima facie case of murder against the two policemen who interrogated Timol on the day he was pushed to his death. The policemen in question had already died, but a third – Joao Rodrigues – was charged as an accessory to the murder. Rodrigues died before his case went to trial.

Seeking a motive

The Luthuli family hope to receive similar vindication when the inquest into his death reaches its conclusion in October this year. But, looking at the case objectively, Simpson is hard-pressed to find a motive for the murder. While Luthuli was the ANC’s official leader at the time of his death in 1967, a combination of ill-health, government banning orders and his opposition to violence had rendered him something of a figurehead without much political clout by the mid-1960s.

“There’s no clear motive for his murder,” says Simpson. “He’d ceased to be a threat to the regime. If anything, his funeral was an opportunity for protest.” Of course, Simpson adds, “If there was a conspiracy, the 1967 inquest would never have found it. Even if Luthuli’s death was accidental, there’s loads of reason to doubt the apartheid government’s version.”

In 2025, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has been on something of a mission to expose apartheid-era cover-ups. On the same day that the Luthuli inquest was reopened, he announced plans to reopen the inquests into the deaths of Mlungisi Griffiths Mxenge in 1981 (a civil rights lawyer who was stabbed 45 times by a police “death squad”) and Booi Mantyi, who was shot dead for allegedly throwing stones at police in 1985. Last month, the inquest into the 1985 murder of the “Cradock Four” was reopened.

While most of the perpetrators of apartheid-era crimes are now dead (or very old), Lamola is pressing ahead. “With these inquests, we open very real wounds which are more difficult to open 30 years into our democracy,” he said. “But nonetheless, the interest of justice can never be bound by time…the truth must prevail.”

Uncovering the truth is especially important for Luthuli’s family. “It’s a very exciting moment for us,” said Sandile Luthuli, the chief’s grandson and CEO of the Social Housing Regulatory Authority. Now in his early 50s, Sandile doesn’t have memories of his grandfather, but talks about Luthuli being deeply religious: “He conducted church services on his own.” He also highlights the role that Luthuli’s wife, Nokukhanya, played in “keeping the home fires burning”.

While Sandile does admit to “some anxiety” about the outcome of the inquest, he is confident it will finally set the record straight. “This is the moment that we have been waiting for as a family … to really peel the layers of … his untimely assassination at the hands of the apartheid government.”

The inquest has also reminded the nation of South Africa and the world at large of Luthuli’s incredible legacy. As Martin Luther King Jr wrote in a letter to Luthuli in 1959: “You have stood amid persecution, abuse, and oppression with a dignity and calmness of spirit seldom paralleled in human history. One day all of Africa will be proud of your achievements.”

This is a story about two Europeans who devoted their lives to the Palestinian cause and paid the ultimate price.

Francoise Kesteman was a French nurse who worked in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in the late 1970s and early 80s. She was a communist and saw the displacement of millions of Palestinians as a fundamental injustice that needed to be addressed. She joined armed Palestinian groups resisting the Israeli occupation.

Franco Fontana was an Italian photographer who cofounded a Marxist-Leninist political group in the 1970s and organised exhibitions to raise awareness of the Palestinian cause. As a photojournalist, he visited Palestine and Lebanon, where he also joined groups fighting to liberate Palestine.

Kesteman was killed in 1984 in a paramilitary operation in Lebanon. Fontana fell ill in 2015 and chose to return to a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, where he died and was buried, as was his dying wish.

Danielle Kelly’s right leg and left arm are now in plaster, having suffered injuries as she and other passengers were forced to flee a Ryanair flight at Majorca Palma Airport

A mum has described how “utter chaos” ensued when she thought a terrorist was on her Ryanair flight.

Danielle Kelly grabbed her daughter Frankie and “feared for her life” amid the mayhem, during which she and other passengers jumped from the plane’s wings as it sat stationary at Majorca Palma Airport. Ms Kelly, 56, knew she was seriously injured once she plummeted to the ground as she was unable to walk.

The Ryanair flight, which was destined for Manchester, experienced a “false fire alarm” as it attempted to take off on Saturday morning. However, amid the confusion and panic, passengers scrambled to flee the plane, and several have reported sustaining injuries. Ryanair says these were “very minor injuries” but Ms Kelly, a self-employed fitness instructor, suffered a broken right heel, fractured left wrist and smashed elbow. The mum’s right leg and left arm are now in plaster.

Speaking from her hospital bed, Ms Kelly said: “It was terrifying, we’ve been left completely traumatised by the experience. I’ve got my foot and arm in plaster and I’ve got to have three different surgeries to pin my foot, wrist and elbow tomorrow, I’m in a mess.”

READ MORE: ‘I booked seat on Ryanair’s cheapest flight and cost of trip left me floored’

The mother, from Bury, Greater Manchester, told Mail Online: “I’m 56-years-old, I didn’t want to jump but I feared for my life. It felt like a life or death situation. I knew as soon as I landed that I was seriously injured, I couldn’t walk but the ground staff were shouting for everyone to move away from the aircraft in case it exploded.

“It was utter chaos, passengers were screaming, ‘open the doors, open the doors’. It was terrifying, I thought there was a terrorist on board, so I grabbed my daughter and got out.”

Ms Kelly was travelling with 26-year-old Frankie, friend Francine Elkinson, 57, and her daughter, Savannah. Savannah, also 26, said: “We got off via the wing. There were no slides. I’ve hurt my shoulder, my friend hurt her knee. Her mum fractured her elbow, wrist and foot. My mum broke her ankle. She’s in a cast. She’s having surgery now. She’s done it in in three places.”

Joanne Baker, who was on the flight with her husband, said the passengers heard a “loud bang” before crew members asked passengers to “brace.” She told us: “The crew was shouting “brace! brace!. We didn’t quite know what we were meant to do. They shouted, ‘get off the plane’, and leave your possessions. The communication was awful, the staff did their best, but they are kids and were obviously frightened as well.”

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from Palma to Manchester, on July 4, discontinued take-off due to a false fire warning light indication. Passengers were disembarked using the inflatable slides and returned to the terminal.

“While disembarking, a small number of passengers encountered very minor injuries (ankle sprains, etc.) and crew requested immediate medical assistance.

“To minimise disruption to passengers, we quickly arranged a replacement aircraft to operate this flight, which departed Palma at 07:05 this morning. We sincerely apologise to affected passengers for any inconvenience caused.”

Scientists say heatwaves and storms are becoming more intense due to human-driven climate change.

At least eight people have died across Europe as an early summer heatwave grips much of the continent, triggering health alerts and forest fires and forcing the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant.

Authorities in Spain’s Catalonia region said about 14,000 people were ordered to stay indoors due to two wildfires that broke out almost simultaneously in the province of Lleida.

In one of the blazes near the city of Cosco, “two people were found lifeless by firefighters,” the fire and emergency service said in a statement on Wednesday.

The exact cause of the fire was unclear, but the service said the recent heat, dry conditions and strong winds increased the intensity of the flames.

Tuesday’s fire in the Catalonia region burned several farms and affected an area stretching about 40km (25 miles) before being contained, officials said.

On Wednesday, Spanish officials reported two more people died due to the heatwave in Extremadura and Cordoba.

Spain is in the midst of an intense heatwave with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places, and several heat records were set for the month of June.

France also experienced its hottest June since 2003.

Its energy minister reported two deaths linked to the heat with 300 others taken to hospital on Wednesday.

Weather forecaster Meteo France said red alerts remained for several areas of central France, and Catherine Vautrin, the health and families minister, said authorities should remain vigilant.

“In the coming days, we’ll see the consequences, particularly on the most vulnerable, and I’m thinking particularly of the elderly,” she said.

Two men over the age of 60 also died from the heat on beaches in Sardinia in Italy, the ANSA news agency reported.

In Germany, temperatures were forecast to peak at 40C (104F) in some areas, making it the hottest day of the year. Fire brigades were also tackling several forest fires in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony on Wednesday.

Storm warnings issued

Italy, France and Germany have also warned of the risk of powerful storms due to excessive warming in unstable atmospheres.

Violent storms in the French Alps late on Monday triggered mudslides, disrupting rail traffic between Paris and Milan.

The Swiss utility Axpo shut down one reactor at the Beznau Nuclear Power Plant and halved output at another on Tuesday because of the high temperature of river water.

Water is used for cooling and other purposes at nuclear power plants, and restrictions were expected to continue as temperatures are monitored.

Scientists said heatwaves have arrived earlier this year, spiking temperatures by up to 10C (50F) in some regions as warming seas encouraged the formation of a heat dome over much of Europe, trapping hot air masses.

Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a cause of climate change, they said, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing factors. Last year was the planet’s hottest on record.

“Extreme heat is testing our resilience and putting the health and lives of millions at risk,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, told the Reuters news agency.

“Our new climate reality means we can no longer be surprised when temperatures reach record highs each year,” she added.

The easyJet flight from Cyprus to Bristol was forced to land in Turkey due to the smell of smoke on the aircraft, with one passenger revealing the ‘mayhem’ it caused on board

A passenger on an easyJet flight, which was forced to make an emergency landing due to the smell of smoke, has recounted his harrowing ordeal, revealing that he and his fellow travellers “thought that they were going to die.”

The easyJet service, flying from Paphos, Cyprus, to Bristol Airport on Saturday (June 14), had to make an unscheduled descent into Izmir, Turkey, just an hour and 20 minutes after takeoff.

Jamie Shorland, returning from a trip to see his grandfather in Cyprus with a friend, was aboard when the smoke alarms went off. He described how the crew’s lack of communication likely added to the ensuing chaos.

The 21-year-old Exeter resident detailed that the plane, already behind schedule by half an hour, finally left the ground at 10:30 p.m. It was while soaring over the Turkish coast that Jamie sensed trouble brewing. Jamie said: “The air cabin crew were told to put away the catering trolleys, whilst we were told no information at all, then we were told to brace for an emergency landing.”

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He continued: “We were above the water so we thought we’d crash into the sea, there was pure panic and none of the crew were helpful. I thought to myself ‘this is how it ends’, people were screaming ‘we are going to die!'”.

“One father rushed up the plane to hug his kids and the airline staff told him to go back to his seat. He told them to ‘f**k off, if I am going to die I am going to be with my kids.'”

Speaking to BristolLive, Jamie described the terrifying moment their aircraft suddenly veered off course, executing a gut-wrenching 180-degree turn towards Turkey, with passengers experiencing the sensation of the plane flying sideways before it dramatically dropped 15,000ft.

“I saw cabin crew crying at the back of the plane thinking they were going to die, however the plane flew into Izmir and landed at the airport,” Jamie said. “It was a traumatic experience, I genuinely thought I was going to die. I was trying to think happy thoughts of my family as we fell through the sky.”

He recounted the disorder that ensued: “It was a load of mayhem, the plane had no lights and it was a scary time.”

Passengers made to wait half an hour as firefighters stormed plane

Further tension followed after the emergency landing as passengers were made to wait onboard for half an hour amidst confusion, while firefighters swarmed the aircraft.

In the midst of uncertainty after landing, Jamie watched as emergency crews accompanied the plane until it came to a full stop, resulting in firefighters storming the laneway.

Passengers remained in limbo, confined within the aircraft without sufficient information. After a tense 20 minutes, they gradually learned that the ordeal might be linked to a fault with the cooling system.

Following the incident, EasyJet confirmed that accommodations were arranged for all affected travellers, spreading them across three hotels. Jamie was briefed on the arrangements, being told he could remain at the hotel until 6pm on Sunday in anticipation of the rescheduled 10pm flight.

Jamie recounted the mayhem that ensued at their hotel, with all guests being asked to leave suddenly at noon, resulting in a prolonged wait at the airport for a flight that was further delayed until 11pm.

Reflecting on his ordeal, Jamie expressed his apprehension about flying again: “I did not want to leave Izmir, I thought ‘I might not make it’.”

Airline criticised over lack of response

EasyJet was heavily criticised for their poor communication during the disruption.

Jamie reported difficulty in getting information from easyJet, saying the airline wasn’t helpful: “They’ve been no help at all, the pilot [of the initial flight] even made a joke after landing telling everyone to buy a lottery ticket because ‘we got lucky’, I couldn’t believe it.”

After the delayed take-off, the flight landed at Bristol Airport at 12.30am on Monday, with Jamie arriving in Exeter just before 3am.

He described the ordeal’s impact on his companion, stating: “It was my friend’s first time flying in 12 years. We will never get on a plane again, I’ve never been so scared of flying, it was the worst experience of my life.”

EasyJet released an official statement on Saturday, June 15: “We can confirm that flight EZY2902 from Paphos to Bristol diverted to Izmir due to a technical issue which resulted in a smoke smell onboard.

“The aircraft landed safely in Izmir and was met by emergency services as a routine and precautionary measure only.

“All passengers disembarked as normal into the terminal and were provided with hotel accommodation and meals where required. Passengers will continue to Bristol on a replacement aircraft later today.”

The carrier emphasised its commitment to safety: “The safety of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all manufacturers’ guidelines.

“We would like to thank customers for their understanding and apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

Getty Images

George Herd, BBC News, reporting from Eryri

NEW YORK — Speaking out 20 years after his daughter drowned in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick, the father of Mary Jo Kopechne says she did not die in vain because her death “kept the senator from becoming President.”

“He was worried about himself, not Mary Jo,” Joseph Kopechne said in an interview in the July issue of Ladies Home Journal.

Miss Kopechne, 28, died July 19, 1969, when a car driven by Kennedy ran off a bridge at night and plunged into a pond on Massachusetts’ Chappaquiddick Island. She had been a campaign worker for Kennedy’s brother, Robert.

Kennedy said he freed himself from the car and tried to rescue his passenger. But it took him 10 hours to report the accident. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and lost his license for a year.

In the interview, Miss Kopechne’s mother, Gwen Kopechne, 71, said other women who attended a party with Kennedy and Miss Kopechne before the accident “were shut up.”

“I think there was a big cover-up and that everybody was paid off,” she said.

The Kopechnes received a settlement of $140,904, of which $90,904 came from the senator and $50,000 from his insurance company.

The couple had two brief meetings with Kennedy after the accident, Mrs. Kopechne said. “I don’t think he seemed upset either time we saw him,” she said, “and I don’t remember him saying he was sorry.”

Kennedy has expressed regret for Miss Kopechne’s death on numerous occasions.

Mrs. Kopechne said Kennedy has telephoned the couple periodically.

During China’s imperial age, those deemed guilty of the worst offenses were sometimes sentenced to death in a public square by a brutal form of execution known as lingchi. Soldiers — using sharp blades — would slice away pieces of flesh from the accused until they died. Translated, lingchi means “death by a thousand cuts.”

Maybe democracy does die in darkness, as journalist Bob Woodward often suggests. Or maybe democracy’s demise comes in the light of day, in a public forum, where everyone can bear witness. Sometimes those holding the knives are the oligarchs or elected officials drenched in corruption. And sometimes there’s blood on the hands of the people.

On Saturday, voters in San Antonio — the seventh-largest city in the country — are headed to the polls to decide the first open mayoral race since President Obama’s first term. Or at least some voters will be.

In November 2024, nearly 60% of the 1.3 million registered voters in the county cast a ballot in the general election. However, in the local election held last month, barely 10% showed up to the polls. Before anyone starts throwing shade at San Antonio, in Dallas the turnout was even lower.

Lackluster participation in an “off year” election is not new. However, the mayoral race in San Antonio has increased national interest because the outcome is being viewed as a litmus test for both the strength of the Democrats’ resistance and the public’s appetite for the White House’s policies.

Like other big blue cities nestled in legislatively red states, San Antonio’s progressive policies have been under constant assault from the governor’s mansion. And with neither the progressive candidate, Gina Ortiz Jones, or her MAGA-leaning opponent, Rolando Pablos, eclipsing 50% of the vote in May, the runoff has drawn more than $1 million in campaign spending from outside conservative groups looking to flip the traditionally blue stronghold.

The outcome could provide a possible glimpse into the 2026 mayoral race in Los Angeles, should the formerly Republican Rick Caruso decide to run against Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat. When the two faced off in 2022, around 44% of the city’s registered voters went to the polls. Caruso lost by less than 90,000 votes in a city with 2.1 million registered voters — most of whom didn’t submit a ballot.

It is rather astonishing how little we actually participate in democracy, given the amount of tax dollars we have spent trying to convince other nations that our government system is the best on the planet. Capitulating to President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud, many local conservative elected officials have tried to ram through a litany of “voter integrity” policies under the guise of protecting democracy. However, democracy is not a delicate flower in need of protection. It’s a muscle in need of exercise.

“Some people find voting to be a chore,” Michele Carew, the elections administrator for Bexar County — which includes San Antonio — told me. “We need to make voting easier and quite frankly, fun. And we need to get those who don’t feel like their vote counts to see that it does. That means getting out and talking to people in our neighborhood, in our churches, in our grocery stores … about when elections are coming up and what’s at stake locally.”

Carew said that the added outside interest in the city’s election has driven up early voting a tick and that she expects to see roughly a 15% turnout, which is an increase over previous years. It could be worse. The city once elected a mayor with 7% turnout back in 2013. Carew also expressed concern about outside influence on local governing.

“One of the first times I saw these nonpartisan races become more political was in 2020, and so as time goes by it’s gotten even more so. I would like to think once the candidate is elected mayor they remain nonpartisan and do what’s best for the city and not their party.”

In 2024, a presidential election year when you’d expect the highest turnout, 1 in 3 registered voters across this country — roughly 20 million people — took a look around and said, “Nah, I’m good.” Or something like that.

The highest turnout was in Washington, D.C., where nearly 80% showed up. Too bad it’s not a state. Among the lowest turnout rates? Texas — which has the second-greatest number of voters, behind only California.

And therein lies the problem with trying to extrapolate national trends from local elections. Maybe Ortiz Jones will win in San Antonio this weekend. Maybe Caruso will win in L.A. next year. None of this tells us how the vast majority of Americans are really feeling.

Sure, it’s good fodder to debate around the table or on cable news shows, but ultimately the sample size of a mayoral election belies any claims about a result’s meaning. Turnout during an off year is just too low.

One thing we know for certain is most voters in America exercise their right to vote only once every four years. Oligarchs and corrupt officials are not great, but it’s hard for democracy to stay healthy and strong if that’s all the exercise it’s getting.

@LZGranderson