Today's international story

Stampede kills at least 121 at India religious event

What happened
A stampede at an overcrowded Hindu religious event in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state on Tuesday left at least 121 people dead, mostly women and children, police officials said. Dozens more were injured and taken to overwhelmed hospitals.

Who said what
It wasn't clear what caused the stampede, but it "appeared to be a combination of sweltering heat and religious fervor," The Washington Post said. The BBC said witnesses described a "fierce dust storm" that "led to confusion and pain" as people rushed toward exit from the enclosed open-air venue where Hindu guru Narayan Sakar Hari, known locally as Bhole Baba, had just finished preaching.

But "deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals," The Associated Press said. India is "good at drawing crowds, but not good at managing them," Manoj Kumar Jha, a member of India's Parliament, said in The New York Times. "Every year, these kinds of incidents keep repeating themselves, and we learn nothing."

What next?
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered an investigation of the incident and said the families of the dead will each get $2,400 in compensation.

Today's POLITICS Story

RFK Jr. denies eating dog but not assaulting nanny

What happened
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on a podcast Tuesday that a Vanity Fair profile raising troubling questions about his past was "a lot of garbage." But he declined to deny sexually assaulting a 23-year-old live-in babysitter in 1998, when he was 45 and married to his second wife.

Who said what
"I am not a church boy," Kennedy said when asked about allegations by ex-nanny Eliza Cooney that he asked her for a massage after appearing shirtless in her room and groped her in the pantry. "I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet." He said he's "not going to comment" on whether he assaulted Cooney.

But RFK Jr. did insist a photo of him preparing to eat a roasted animal carcass did not show "me eating a dog," as Vanity Fair suggested, but rather "me eating a goat in Patagonia." The magazine said he texted the image to a friend last year, telling him he would enjoy a Korean restaurant that served dog.

What next?
Kennedy, 70, is only "polling at 9.1% of the national vote," The Guardian said, but "both the Biden and Trump campaigns fear he could pull votes away from them in key states."

It's not all bad

The South Sudan government is working to protect the world's largest land mammal migration: the mass movement of antelope species across Boma National Park and Bandingilo National Park. The effort involves a 10-year management agreement covering 12,700 square miles. Ecologists have long known about the massive migration involving species like Mongalla gazelle and white-eared kob, but they only recently began to appreciate its scope. The nonprofit conservation organization African Parks is assisting the project by conducting large-scale GPS collaring studies and aerial surveys.

Under the radar

The 95% Muslim country that has banned the hijab

Tajikistan's parliament has approved a bill to outlaw the hijab, describing it as an "alien garment." It has also banned the practice of youngsters going door to door collecting money during Eid, said Free Press Kashmir.

The ban on headscarves is seen as a "reflection of the political line" that the government of Emomali Rahmon, Tajikistan's president-for-life, has been "pursuing" since 1997, said Euronews. His administration has had its "sights set on what they describe as extremism for a long time," particularly since he blunted the influence of the Tajikistan Islamic Resurrection Party and then banned it altogether.

Rahmon is a polarizing figure who has held on to power in elections that "fall far short of being free or fair," said the BBC. His measures have sparked international attention. In 2023, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom designated Tajikistan a "country of special concern."

Experts believe the hijab ban was influenced by a terrorist attack in Moscow in April. Russian authorities said four of the attackers had Tajik passports.

There are restrictions on Islamic religious dress in other countries, including Austria and France, the latter of which prohibits wearing "symbols or clothes through which students conspicuously display their religious affiliation." In addition, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and Norway have laws prohibiting Islamic garments. Several Muslim-majority countries have also banned the burqa and hijab in educational establishments and government buildings, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan and Tunisia.

On this day

July 3, 1976

The Israel Defense Forces launched a raid on Entebbe, Uganda, to rescue Israeli hostages who were being held captive by Palestinian hijackers at a local airport. The raid resulted in the successful rescue of more than 100 hostages. However, mission commander Yoni Netanyahu, the brother of future Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was killed.

TODAY’S newspaperS

'Court pits Trump against rule of law'

The "momentous" Supreme Court term that just ended saw the "justices move boldly to the right," The Washington Post says on Wednesday's front page. The "fractured court remade nation," The New York Times says, including engendering a "sudden leap in presidential power" that will be "hard to reverse." By granting Donald Trump broad immunity from criminal liability, the "court pits Trump against rule of law," the Los Angeles Times says, leaving him "further emboldened to break democracy's norms if reelected." Already, the immunity ruling has prompted a "delay in Don's punishment" for his New York convictions, the New York Daily News says. The "Georgia case against Trump takes hit" from that ruling, too, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

The devil's lettuce

Pet rabbits are inadvertently getting high by eating lettuce, experts with U.K. pet food maker Burgess Pet Care have warned. As part of its Rabbit Awareness Week, Burgess is busting "myths" about bunny diets, highlighting the fact that leafy lettuce contains lactucarium – dubbed "rabbit opium" – which promotes "a mild sensation of euphoria," The Daily Star said. Carrots are packed with sugar, too, the team warned, and should only be given to bunnies in moderation.

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harold Maass, Chas Newkey-Burden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Hannah Beier / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Arun Sankar / AFP via Getty Images; Leonard Ortiz / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images

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