Cup beats killings
Within a few hours last week, one of Germany’s deadliest mass shootings vanished from top headlines. The killing of six social workers on June 29 was replaced as a top news item by the collective anguish over an early German exit from the football World Cup. The German media saw the shooting as a terrible but local tragedy — and the defeat by Paraguay as a national one.
Regrets, he may have a few
Frank Sinatra, who was never keen on critics and often up for some fisticuffs, might have wanted to take New York Times theatre reviewer Matt Wolf “outside”. Wolf says Sinatra: The Musical, which has opened in London’s West End, is a “paint-by-numbers bio-musical that feels like a Wikipedia entry with tunes”. Nevertheless, it’s still expected to draw in the fans for its scheduled year-long run.
Drone makes waves
The rescue of two US soldiers by a drone boat near the Strait of Hormuz after their helicopter had been shot down is said to be a first at sea. It might have been a lesson learnt from the war. In April, a Ukrainian medical battalion completed six robotic evacuations in 24 hours, rescuing 21 wounded soldiers in a single day. Ukraine has done no rescues by sea. So far.
