Top News Stories –

Russian ‘runaway robot’ causes traffic jam –
A robot escaped from a science lab and caused a traffic jam in one Russian city, it’s reported. Scientists at the Promobot laboratories in Perm had been teaching the machine how to move around independently, but it broke free after an engineer forgot to shut a gate, says the local edition of the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper. The robot found its way to a nearby street, covering a distance of about 50m (164ft), before its battery ran out, the daily says. An eyewitness video posted online shows a vaguely humanoid machine standing in the middle of a busy road, guarded by a traffic policeman. It is then wheeled off by a human, presumably an engineer from the company that developed the robot. Russian Channel 5 TV also showed footage of the incident, and said that the robot spent about 40 minutes at large. But not everyone is convinced that the robot’s escape was accidental: some in the Russian media have argued that it’s all a ploy devised by Promobot to draw attention to its creation. [BBC]

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • A suicide bombing kills at least 10 security force members in the village of Abu Qurayn, west of Sirte. (Al Jazeera)
• Syrian Civil War
  • The United States accuses Russia of bombing U.S.-backed forces in southern Syria near al-Tanf. (Washington Examiner)
  • Dozens of American diplomats send a memo, via the State Department’s dissent channel, critical of U.S. policy in Syria. The memo was signed by 51 mid- to high-level State Department officers involved with advising on Syrian policy, and calls for airstrikes against President Bashar al-Assad’s government to stop its persistent violations of the United Nations-sponsored February ceasefire. (New York Times) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• Flooding in southern Ghana caused by heavy rain leaves at least 10 people dead and the streets of Accra under water. (Al Jazeera)

International relations

• China cancels an invitation to a Taiwanese children’s choir after it performed the island’s national anthem at last month’s inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen; the Puzangalan Choir consisting of children from the Paiwan aboriginal tribe had been due to take part in a choral festival in Guangdong province in July. (AP) (The New York Times) (BBC)
• Violence at UEFA Euro 2016
  • France deports twenty Russian football fans including Alexander Shprygin, the leader of the All-Russia Supporters Union, following violence at the England–Russia match in Marseille. (BBC)
• Switzerland–European Union relations
  • Switzerland‘s Federal Assembly votes to officially withdraw the country’s application to join the European Union. Following the vote, foreign minister Didier Burkhalter was quoted as saying that thegovernment will now tell the EU to “consider the application as withdrawn”. (Malta Today) (Euronews)

Law and crime

• Thai police raid the Dhammakaya Buddhist temple, north of Bangkok, to arrest Abbot Phra Dhammachayo, who is accused of conspiring to launder money by accepting stolen cash from a credit union. His followers deny the allegations and claim the charges are politically motivated. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Labour Party MP Jo Cox dies at Leeds General Infirmary after being shot and stabbed as she prepared to hold a meeting with constituents in Birstall, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. A woman suffered serious injuries; a man was slightly wounded. West Yorkshire police have arrested a 52-year-old male suspect. (NBC News) (ABC News) (BBC) (Reuters) (The Guardian)
• European migrant crisis
  • Nigerien authorities discover the bodies of 34 migrants, mostly children, left behind in the Sahara desert by people smugglers who were taking them to Algeria and then to Europe. (The Guardian)
• A Ugandan soldier kills at least seven people in a shooting spree at a military police barracks in the capital, Kampala. The soldier, Sgt Isaac Obua, was then shot dead himself. He is reported to have been drunk. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Senator Murphy gun control filibuster, 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting
  • Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy ends a nearly 15-hour filibuster after Republican Party leaders reportedly agree to allow votes on two proposed gun control measures. (NBC News)
• The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Council approves a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened and diet beverages, effective January 1, 2017. This is the first so-called sugary drinks tax in a major U.S.city. (‘Philadelphia Inquirer)

Sport

• Ten Olympic weightlifters fail a drug test in a reanalysis of samples from the 2012 Summer Olympics. Among them are four Kazakh gold medalists: Ilya Ilyin, Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Svetlana Podobedova andMaiya Maneza. The other athletes represent Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. All ten lifters are provisionally suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation and are expected to be stripped of their titles. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• UEFA Euro 2016
  • Northern Ireland achieves their first victory in a UEFA European Championship by defeating Ukraine 2–0; other results eliminate Ukraine. (BBC)
• 2016 NBA Finals
  • The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of the NBA finals 115-101, forcing a Game 7 which will be held in Oakland, California on June 19.(The New York Times)

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