Yet another pointless week, however loads of interesting stories, in fact, too many, so I’ve saved some for next week. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Chanchal Lahiri, 40, Indian magician, drowned. 
• Philippe Zdar, 50, French electronic musician (Cassius) and record producer (Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix), fall.
• Jean-Marie Hullot, 65, French computer scientist and programmer (Apple Inc.).  
• Mohamed Morsi, 67, Egyptian politician, President (2012–2013), heart attack.  
• Maria Giuseppa Robucci, 116, Italian supercentenarian, Europe’s oldest person.  
• Peter Allan Fields, 84, American television writer (Star Trek, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.).  
• Lionheart, 36, British professional wrestler (ICW).  
• Marion Wilson, 42, American convicted murderer, executed by lethal injection.  
• William Simons, 78, British actor (No Place for Jennifer, Where No Vultures Fly, Heartbeat).

In Other News

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has revealed that he has been diagnosed with throat cancer. Due to the diagnosis, the heavy metal band have cancelled most of their forthcoming 2019 tour. “I’ve been diagnosed with throat cancer. It’s clearly something to be respected and faced head on – but I’ve faced obstacles before. I’m working closely with my doctors, and we’ve mapped out a treatment plan which they feel has a 90 per cent success rate. Treatment has already begun,” Mustaine wrote in an Facebook post. The recently announced “Megacruise” taking place between 13-19 October will take place as scheduled, “and the band will be a part of it in some form”, Mustaine wrote. They will also continue to work in the studio on the follow-up to their 2016 album Euphoria, which Mustaine said he “can’t wait for everyone to hear”. Mustaine founded Megadeth more than 30 years ago, pioneering the sound that would become known as thrash metal.  

Angela Merkel has said she is “fine” after her body was seen shaking uncontrollably during an official ceremony. The German chancellor blamed dehydration for the episode, telling reporters: “Since then I’ve drunk at least three glasses of water, which I apparently needed, and now I’m doing very well.” The violent trembling, which raised concern about her health, took place as she welcomed the president of Ukraine to Berlin, on a hot 30 degree day. The chancellor appeared to recover as the ceremony continued, walking down the red carpet with Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukranian president Mr Zelensky said he would have come to Ms Merkel’s rescue if she had been in any danger, telling: “She was standing next to me and completely safe.” Germany’s strict privacy laws mean it is not known whether Ms Merkel has any health problems. In 2014 she postponed a television interview at the last minute after reports that she was feeling weak, though her spokesperson said was able to carry it out later after eating and drinking. The Chancellor is due to step down as Germany’s head of government when her current term runs out in 2021. She has already resigned as leader of her conservative CDU party and give the reins to her protege, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer – widely known as “AKK”.    

Alice Cooper has revealed he’s made a death pact with his wife. The 71-year-old rock star, who has been married to Sheryl Goddard, 61, for more than 40 years, suggested he will kill himself if his wife dies first in a brand new interview. “We’ve made a pact – there is no way of surviving without each other,” he said. “I couldn’t live without her. We always said there will never be a time when one of us will be mourning the other.” Cooper – whose real name is Vincent Damon Furnier – continued: “Whenever it does happen, we are going to go together. I’ve been married 43 years to the greatest girl in the world. We have never cheated on each other.” Goddard, a dancer and choreographer, performed for the rock star in the 1970s and 1980s. They married in 1976 and have three children together. Despite a brief break in the early 1980s when Goddard filed for divorce, the couple reconciled and have been together ever since. Goddard will perform with the Alice Cooper band in October this year when they come to the UK, and Cooper said: “She dances better now than she did in 1975. You would think people would want to get away from their wives but she is my best friend.” Cooper, who admitted to substance abuse in his younger years, said he weighs the same as he did when he was 30, crediting his health to not smoking and not having had an alcoholic drink for nearly 40 years. He said his mother, who is 96, is “indestructible” and that “it must be in the genes”.  

And finally, you may have noticed that I listed an obscure Indian magician in todays list, well he was lowered into a river while shackled in a bid to recreate Harry Houdini’s world-famous trick  and has managed to drown, police confirmed. Chanchal Lahiri was meant to escape and swim to safety but did not emerge from the Hooghly river in West Bengal state. Crowds who watched him take the plunge on Sunday alerted the police, who then launched a search operation. His body, which washed up some 1k from the site of the incident, was identified late on Monday. Mr Lahiri, also known as Mandrake, was lowered into the river from a boat for his trick. He was shackled with six locks and a chain as spectators on two boats watched him. Several people had also gathered by the shore and some stood on the landmark Howrah Bridge in Kolkata. According to the Press Trust of India, the crowd started to panic after Mr Lahiri did not appear after more than 10 minutes!! Jayanta Shaw, a photographer with a local newspaper, witnessed Mr Lahiri attempting the trick. He told the BBC that he spoke to him before the magician started his act. “I asked him why he risked his life for magic,” Mr Shaw said. “He smiled and said, ‘If I do it right, it’s magic. If I make a mistake, it becomes tragic.’” 

On This Day

• 1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.  
• 1972 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.  
• 1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale.  
• 1996 – The Nintendo 64 home video game console is first released in Japan, with Nintendo ultimately selling 32.93 million units worldwide.  
• 2016 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%.

Deaths

• 1998 – Maureen O’Sullivan, Irish-American actress (b. 1911)  
• 2006 – Aaron Spelling, American actor, producer, and screenwriter, founded Spelling Television (b. 1923)
• 2011 – Peter Falk, American actor (b. 1927)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Meryl Streep (70), Bruce Campbell (61), Kris Kristofferson (83), Lindsay Wagner (70), Stephen Chow (57), Prunella Scales (87), Cyndi Lauper (66), Tim Russ (63), Chris Pratt (40), Juliette Lewis (46), Lana Wachowski (54), Lana Del Rey (34), Prince William (37), Nicole Kidman (52), Olympia Dukakis (88), Robert Rodriguez (51), John Goodman (67), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (30), Danny Aiello (86), Lionel Richie (70), Brian Wilson (77), Zoe Saldana (41), Aidan Turner (36), Kathleen Turner (65), Paula Abdul (57), Richard Madden (33), Isabella Rossellini (67), Paul McCartney (77), Jodie Whittaker (37), and James Bolam (84).

A controversial week, as Trump and Macron’s symbolic friendship tree dies; we have bad news for Trish, although her pick for a Woman, Grace Jones passed away, she’s not been listed on the Wiki obituaries so I am unable to dish out the points until there’s an entry! Again, the list of deaths is rather bereft, oh how we hark back to the days of David Bowie and Robin Williams! Let’s set the flying monkeys free, carrying their suicide enabling kits and gremlin luck infusers! 

Also as a side note, Tony Berry of the Houghton Weavers has died. Nickie thought I’d instantly know who he was, but sadly I had no idea of his earthy existence, nor the band, or ever heard any of their songs. So here’s the question to you Poolers, who has heard of this chap? 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Sylvia Miles, 94, American actress (Midnight Cowboy, Farewell, My Lovely, She-Devil).
• Gary Burrell, 81, American electronics executive and philanthropist, chairman and co-founder of Garmin. 
• Franco Zeffirelli, 96, Italian film director (Romeo and Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth, The Taming of the Shrew).  
• Grace Jones, 112, Britain’s oldest living person, supercentenarian.

In Other News

Veteran broadcaster Bob Harris is to take a break from presenting his BBC Radio 2 country show after suffering an aortic dissection. The condition occurs when there is a tear in the wall of the major artery carrying blood out of the heart. “The aorta is basically the M1 of the body and any damage is regarded as extremely serious,” said Harris. “I am not exactly sure when I will be on air again but I am on the road to recovery now,” he continued. Harris, known to fans as “Whispering Bob”, said he suffered a tear to his aorta while out walking 10 days ago. “It was an incredibly scary moment and I am massively indebted to the ambulance crew who attended so promptly,” he said. Harris, 73, also paid tribute to the Intensive Care team and consultants at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, his wife Trudie and his “wonderful” family. Paul Sexton will host the next two editions of Harris’s hour-long show, which airs on Thursdays at 21:00. Harris, who was made an OBE in 2011 for services to music broadcasting, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007.  

Chris Froome has admitted he is lucky to be alive after speaking for the first time since his horror cycling accident. The four-time Tour de France winner crashed at nearly 35mph during his fourth-stage reconnaissance of the Criterium du Dauphine on Wednesday. Lying in his hospital bed, Froome also paid tribute to cycling fans following his life-threatening crash. “I know how lucky I am to be here today and how much I owe to all the paramedics and medical staff on the race, whilst this is a setback and a major one at that, I am focusing on looking forward. There is a long road to recovery ahead, but that recovery starts now and I am fully focused on returning back to my best.” The post was issued with a picture of Froome giving the thumbs up from his bed at the University Hospital of St Etienne where he underwent a six-hour operation. It has been reported that the 34-year-old suffered a fractured neck and faces six weeks in hospital. He also has a fractured right femur, a broken hip, a fractured elbow and fractured ribs and was in intensive care following the surgery. Froome is not expected to compete again this year. Froome took his hand off his handlebars to blow his nose before a gust of wind destabilised his bike. He crashed into a wall and lost consciousness. The Briton was airlifted to hospital where he has since been joined by his wife Michelle and Team Ineos doctor Richard Usher.   

Paul Sinha, one of the professional quizzers on ITV’s The Chase, has revealed he has Parkinson’s disease. “I will fight this with every breath I have,” tweeted the 49-year-old comic, going on to share further details of his diagnosis in a blog post. Sinha, a former GP, said he was told he had Parkinson’s – a degenerative brain condition – last month. He said it had been “a really, really tough two weeks” but said he did not “consider himself unlucky”. “Whatever the next stage of my life holds for me, many others have it far worse,” he continued. Sinha said he intended to “keep Chasing, keep writing and performing comedy [and] keep quizzing” while joking that appearing on Dancing on Ice was probably “out of the question”. “A lot of people have asked ‘What can I do to help?'” he concluded. “The answer is to treat me exactly the same as before.” Last month the BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones revealed he has Parkinson’s, whose symptoms include involuntary tremors. Sir Billy Connolly and actor Alan Alda have also spoken about how they deal with the illness since being diagnosed in 2013 and 2015 respectively.   

And just as you thought life wasn’t harrowing enough, a glass ledge on the 103rd floor of the tallest skyscraper in Chicago cracked under visitors’ feet on Monday night. The all-glass area of the Willis Tower, in which sightseers can view the city of Chicago from a high point, is called the Skydeck. Its protective top layer is made of laminated glass, which is built to maintain its integrity even while it cracks. On Monday, it cracked into “thousands of pieces,” according to WBBM. In a video shared on Facebook, visitors appear nervous and scared, and immediately huddle away from the glass area. The Willis Tower, which was called the Sears Tower until 2009, said no one was ever in danger. The layer is known as the “Ledge,” and was constructed in 2009, after Tower officials noticed “the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week.” Build to hold five tons, the attraction give tourists and residents an immersive view of the midwestern city. Still, tourists appeared frightened, as the incident was, of course, not supposed to happen. “There was a woman with two kids and they looked really pale and scared because the floor just cracked,” witness Jesus Pintado told WBBM. “I’m scared of heights in general so when I saw that happen, I was like nope, not going on,” Karly Pintado, who was also on the 103rd floor that day, said.  

And finally, it’s the contest Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fans never knew they wanted. On Sunday, Justin Bieber challenged Tom Cruise to join him in the octagon to solve a problem so fiendishly difficult no-one had previously bothered to think of it. Why does a 25-year-old pop star randomly decide to try to goad a 56-year-old movie star into fighting him? Needless to say, a calculation so onerous quickly won the attention of the very best minds the social media platform had to offer. Former UFC champion Conor McGregor was quick to talk up the bout’s prospects. “Does Cruise have the sprouts to fight?” he inquired, simultaneously offering his own company’s services in hosting the clash and then offering to fight actor Mark Wahlberg on the undercard. Sprouts or no sprouts, many took the view that in this match-up it’s Bieber who’s the turkey. Cruise famously performs his own stunts and the physicality exhibited in action films like the Mission Impossible series would give him the edge, many social media users argued. Others were just left confused by the whole thing. “At some point tonight Tom Cruise’s agent will have to call Tom Cruise and tell him Justin Bieber has challenged him to a fight,” another user tweeted. Tom Cruise is yet to respond. UPDATE: Justin Bieber doesn’t want to actually take on Top Gun star Tom Cruise in a fight as the pop star admitted that he wasn’t really serious about fighting the actor. Speaking recently with TMZ, Justin Bieber admitted he was only joking about the fight. Bieber also admitted that he said it almost randomly and didn’t realise the traction his challenge to Tom Crusie would get: “I don’t know him. He’s tight. The story is I saw an interview with him, and he was just on my mind. It was just a random tweet. I do that stuff sometimes.” “I think he’d probably whoop my ass in a fight.” It seems we won’t get to see a match between Tom Cruise and Justin Bieber after all. 

On This Day

• 1883 – The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England kills 183 children.
• 1884 – The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson’s “Switchback Railway”, opens in New York’s Coney Island amusement park.
• 1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
• 1944 – At age 14, George Junius Stinney, Jr. becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century.
• 1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.
• 1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.

Deaths

• 1977 – Wernher von Braun, German-American physicist and engineer (b. 1912)
• 1999 – Screaming Lord Sutch, English singer and activist (b. 1940)
• 2016 – Jo Cox, English political activist and MP (b. 1974)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Courteney Cox (55), Helen Hunt (56), Neil Patrick Harris (46), Ice Cube (50), Jim Belushi (65), Yasmine Bleeth (51), Donald Trump (73), Boy George (58), Alan Carr (43), Stellan Skarsgård (68), Chris Evans (38), Ally Sheedy (57), Tim Allen (66), Malcolm McDowell (76), Richard Thomas (68), Simon Callow (70), Kathy Burke (55), Richard Ayoade (42), Joshua Jackson (41), Peter Dinklage (50), Shia LaBeouf (33), Adrienne Barbeau (74), Hugh Laurie (60), Jane Goldman (49), Elizabeth Hurley (54), Jürgen Prochnow (78), Johnny Depp (56), Natalie Portman (38), Michael J. Fox (58), Eddie Marsan (51), Griffin Dunne (64), and Nancy Sinatra (79).

We’re still stuck in the doldrums, we really need a big name to drop soon or this year is going to be a wash out! We’re halfway through the year and most of us haven’t even scored yet! Darn these healthy celebrities!    

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Paul Darrow, 78, English actor (Blake’s 7, Doctor Who).
• Keith Birdsong, 59, American illustrator (Star Trek, Shadowrun), complications of cerebral haemorrhage from traffic collision.
• Dr. John, 77, American Hall of Fame singer-songwriter (“I Walk on Guilded Splinters“, “Right Place, Wrong Time“), heart attack.   
• Justin Edinburgh, 49, English football player (Tottenham Hotspur) and manager (Leyton Orient), cardiac arrest.

In Other News

Brian Wilson has postponed his forthcoming June tour over mental health concerns. The  Beach Boys legend, 76, issued a statement to announce that he would not be able to go ahead with the Pet Sounds and Greatest Hits Live tour as scheduled, after a recent surgery caused him to feel “mentally insecure”.  “It is no secret that I have been living with mental illness for many decades,” the statement on Wilson’s website read. “There were times when it was unbearable but with doctors and medications I have been able to live a wonderful, healthy and productive life with support from my family, friends and fans who have helped me through this journey. “As you may know in the last year or so I’ve had 3 surgeries on my back. The surgeries were successful and I’m physically stronger than I’ve been in a long time.” “However, after my last surgery i started feeling strange and it’s been pretty scary for a while,” he continued. ”I was not feeling like myself. Mentally insecure is how I’d describe it. We’re not sure what is causing it but i do know that it’s not good for me to be on the road right now so I’m heading back to Los Angeles.” He said he plans to rest, recover and work with his doctors, and that he was looking forward to recovery and “seeing everyone later in the year”.  

A former nurse has been convicted of murdering 85 patients at two hospitals in northern Germany and handed a life sentence. Judge Sebastian Buehrmann described Niels Högel’s killing spree as “incomprehensible”. Högel, who is already serving life for two murders, administered lethal doses of heart medication to people in his care between 1999 and 2005. He is believed to be the most prolific killer in Germany’s modern history. Prosecutors said he attacked patients in order to impress colleagues by subsequently trying to revive them. A former colleague told the German newspaper Bild that Högel was nicknamed “Resuscitation Rambo” because of the way he “pushed everyone else aside” when patients needed to be resuscitated. On the last day of his trial, Högel, 42, asked the families of his victims for forgiveness for his “horrible acts”. “I would like to sincerely apologise for everything I did to you over the course of years,” he said. Högel had been accused of murdering 100 patients in the northern cities of Delmenhorst and Oldenburg. Police believe he may have killed far more but the cremation of bodies had destroyed any possible evidence. Högel had confessed to 55 murders and the court in Oldenburg convicted him of 85, German media reported. Högel’s killing spree was stopped when he was caught in the act of administering unprescribed medication to a patient in 2005 in Delmenhorst. Records at the Oldenburg hospital showed rates of deaths and resuscitations had more than doubled when Högel was on shift!!!  

A botched helicopter rescue (video in the link) of a hiker from a mountain in Arizona has resulted in the injured 74-year-old woman being spun round at high speed while strapped to a stretcher as she was being winched up into the aircraft. The incident, which has been captured on film, shows the aircraft crew attempting to winch the woman up into the helicopter. She had reportedly suffered a head injury from a fall while hiking on Piestewa Peak – the second highest point in the Phoenix mountains – on Tuesday morning. As the stretcher nears the belly of the aircraft, it begins to rotate faster and faster until it is a whirling blur. The winch is then lowered somewhat, and the speed of the spin falls, but as they again try to pull up the stretcher the spin goes to an even higher rate. Unable to immediately bring the stretcher on board, the helicopter flies away with the woman strapped to the stretcher on the dangling line, spinning at high speed over the mountains. Shelley Jameson, assistant chief of the Phoenix Fire Department, told us: “We carry out mountain rescues all of the time, but this one gathered quite a bit of attention because during the rescue she was packaged on a hoist in a stokes basket and it started to spin.” Captain Bobby Dubnow said: “As dramatic as it looks … she suffered no ill-effects from that spin other than being a little bit dizzy. The reports from the hospital are that she is stable and suffered no effects from the spin.”

On This Day

• AD 68 – Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer‘s Iliad, thus ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
• 1934 – Donald Duck makes his debut in The Wise Little Hen.
• 1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.

Deaths

• AD 68 – Nero, Roman emperor (b. 37)
• 1870 – Charles Dickens, English novelist and critic (b. 1812)
• 1958 – Robert Donat, English actor (b. 1905)
• 2013 – Iain Banks, Scottish author (b. 1954)
• 2014 – Rik Mayall, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1958)
• 2017 – Adam West, American actor (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Liam Neeson (67), Bill Hader (41), Karl Urban (47), Anna Torv (40), Julianna Margulies (52), Griffin Dunne (63), Nancy Sinatra (78), Kanye West (41), Michael Cera (31), Helen Baxendale (49), Iggy Azalea (29), Bear Grylls (45), Tom Jones (79), Anna Kournikova (38), Jason Isaacs (56), Paul Giamatti (52), Josie Lawrence (60), Robert Englund (72), Sandra Bernhard (64), Mark Wahlberg (48), Mel Giedroyc (51), Angelina Jolie (44), Noah Wyle (48), Bruce Dern (83), Russell Brand (44), Sean Pertwee (55), Bradley Walsh (59), Imogen Poots (30), James Purefoy (55), Suzi Quatro (69), Morena Baccarin (40), Liam Cunningham (58), Zachary Quinto (42), Justin Long (41), Dominic Cooper (41), and Dana Carvey (64).

Who are these dead people? Are they even Z list celebrities? Who  knows… One thing is for certain, no points have been awarded this week! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Carmine Caridi, 85, American actor (The Godfather Part II, Bugsy, Summer Rental), pneumonia. 
• Peggy Stewart, 95, American actress (The Fighting Redhead, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, That’s My Boy)
• John Tidmarsh, 90, English broadcaster and journalist (Outlook).
• José Antonio Reyes, 35, Spanish footballer (Sevilla, Atlético Madrid, national team), traffic collision.

 In Other News

Father Christmas… Sorry, Julian Assange was too ill to appear at his court hearing in London on Thursday, his lawyer said. The WikiLeaks founder, 47, is fighting against being extradited to the United States over charges related to leaking US government secrets. He had been due to appear at his case management hearing via video link from Belmarsh Prison but lawyer Gareth Peirce said he was “not very well”. According to WikiLeaks, Assange has been moved to the medical ward in jail. A spokesman for the whistleblowing website said it had “grave concerns” about Assange’s health. “During the seven weeks in Belmarsh his health has continued to deteriorate and he has dramatically lost weight,” the spokesman said. “Defence lawyer for Assange, Per Samuelson, said that Julian Assange’s health state last Friday was such ‘that it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him’.” The five-minute hearing on Thursday at Westminster Magistrates’ Court was the second in the Australian’s extradition case. The US Justice Department has charged Assange with receiving and publishing thousands of classified documents linked to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Thursday, chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot set the next hearing for 12 June and suggested the hearing could take place in Belmarsh, adding: “It may be more convenient for everyone if it’s there.” Assange sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012. He is currently serving a 50-week sentence in Belmarsh Prison in south east London for bail violations. Earlier this month, Swedish prosecutors reopened their investigation into rape allegations against Assange, which he denies.  

Game of Thrones star Kit Harington has checked into a “wellness retreat” in the US, reportedly for stress. The actor – who’s known for playing Jon Snow – began getting treatment several weeks ago. His publicist told Radio 1 Newsbeat that Kit was working on “some personal issues.” In a recent interview Kit spoke of “a huge heave of emotion” after filming the final scenes of Game of Thrones, which he worked on for eight seasons. In a different interview – the 32-year-old actor told Esquire what it was like filming Jon Snow’s final scenes. He said: “The final day of shooting, I felt fine… I felt fine… I felt fine… Then I went to do my last shots and started hyperventilating a bit. “Then they called, ‘Wrap!’ And I just… broke down. It was this onslaught of relief and grief about not being able to do this again.” A documentary about the end of Game of Thrones called The Last Watch was released on Sunday. It showed Kit crying when he learned about his character’s ending. Kit – who was in Game of Thrones from the first episode until the last – told Variety about the effects of working on such an intense show for a long period. “You have these in-jokes, and these relationships that thrive for eight years,” he explained. “That’s a long time for those jokes to be going, and they never felt old or tired. In the last season, I was like, these are getting tired now. “And I think they got tired because we could see the end coming. “That’s a way of emotionally detaching from something: relationships very slightly starting to strain, just on the edges, just frayed.” Must be awful knowing your career is over at such a young age…. 

Nepal’s tourism authority has denied accusations that the rise in Mount Everest deaths is solely due to overcrowding. The department’s  director general Dandu Raj Ghimire said other factors including adverse weather conditions had also contributed. Ten climbers have been reported dead or missing this season. Photos of long queues near the summit have been widely shared as record numbers ascended the mountain in May. Mr Ghimire said 381 people had ascended Everest this spring but as periods of fine weather had been short, the number of people on the routes had been “higher than expected”. A local tour organiser told AFP that one of the climbers, Nihal Ashpak Bhagwan, died of exhaustion after being “stuck in traffic for more than 12 hours”. Mr Ghimire offered “heartfelt condolences to those who’ve passed away and prayers to those who are still missing”. “Mountaineering in the Himalayas is in itself an adventurous, complex and sensitive issue requiring full awareness yet tragic accidents are unavoidable,” he said. Basically, they don’t give a fuck, just pay your royalty fee of $11,000 and take your chances. 

And finally, there was an empty seat in the front row when Good Omens had its world premiere in London on Tuesday. But that’s not because organisers had trouble filling the gigantic (and newly reopened) Odeon in Leicester Square – quite the opposite, the event was packed out. In fact, a seat was deliberately kept vacant for Terry Pratchett, the co-writer of the original novel, who died in 2015. As a tribute, his trademark hat was placed in the front row as the premiere got under way. According to Gaiman, one of Pratchett’s last requests was that the novel be adapted for the screen. “[Pratchett said] ‘You have to make it into television because I want to see it before the lights go out,'” explained Gaiman at the premiere. “I said OK, figuring I had six or seven years of Terry left. And then he died, which suddenly turned into a last request.” Gaiman took on the task of adapting the story himself – giving the project a stamp of approval that helped it attract some stellar names to the cast. 

On This Day

• 1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to be tried for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts; she was found guilty and later hanged.
• 1910 – Charles Rolls, a co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.
• 1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, who is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, the first major international event to be televised.
• 1962 – During the 1962 FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.

Deaths

• 1990 – Rex Harrison, English actor (b. 1908)
• 2008 – Bo Diddley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1928)
• 2009 – David Eddings, American author (b. 1931)
• 2012 – Richard Dawson, American actor, tv personality, & gameshow host (b. 1932)
• 2017 – Peter Sallis, English actor (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tom Holland (22), Morgan Freeman (81), Brian Cox (72), Jonathan Pryce (71), Amy Schumer (37), Rene Auberjonois (78), Heidi Klum (45), Robert Powell (74), Alanis Morissette (44), Clint Eastwood (89), Colin Farrell (43), Lea Thompson (58), Brooke Shields (54), Tom Berenger (70), Sharon Gless (76), Stephen Tobolowsky (68), Mark Sheppard (55), Colm Meaney (66), Duncan Jones (48), Keir Dullea (83), Harry Enfield (58), Leigh Francis (46), Jennifer Ellison (36), Annette Bening (61), Danny Elfman (66), Mel B (44), Kylie Minogue (51), Julie T. Wallace (58), Michelle Collins (57), Paul Bettany (48), Joseph Fiennes (49), Rachel Parris (35), Helena Bonham Carter (53), Pam Grier (70), Bobcat Goldthwait (57), Lenny Kravitz (55), and Stevie Nicks (71).

Nil points this week, and a lacklustre week for news too. Definitely time to send out the flying monkeys I feel… 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Andrew Hall, 65, English actor (Butterflies, Casualty, Coronation Street).
• Niki Lauda, 70, Austrian racing driver and airline owner, Formula One world champion (1975, 1977, 1984).
• Judith Kerr, 95, German-born British writer and illustrator (The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mog).
• Bobby Joe Long, 65, American convicted serial killer and rapist, execution by lethal injection.

 In Other News

Broadcaster Bill Turnbull has spoken of living with cancer, declaring it is “out to get him”, but that since he finished chemotherapy “just feeling normal feels fantastic”. Bill, 63, was on steroids last year after having several rounds of chemo. He said: “I’ve had a holiday from it now for 10 months. I still have bad days, but I get through.” The Classic FM host was speaking at the Chelsea Flower Show, where he met up with weather presenter Carol Kirkwood, his old BBC Breakfast colleague. He said: “My hair has grown back and I’m letting my hair grow long just to celebrate. I know I looked awful last year. “I saw pictures of myself and I was, ‘Oh Lord, that was just ghastly’. I was in the middle of the treatment.” In November 2017, he was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer, which had spread to his pelvis, hips, legs and spine. He said: “I’m keeping it at bay is the best way to put it. The first prognosis I got was 10 years, then I went to a different doctor and he said 12 to 14, but his ambition was to get me to 80. “But the boundary keeps getting pushed back. You can never tell, but looking at the horizon, the horizon is getting further away with treatments and stuff, so you have to stay positive.”  

Comedian Freddie Starr lived as a recluse in Spain after falling on tough times which left him single, drowning in debt and battling health troubles. The funnyman died alone at his home in Feungirola at the age of 76 and his body was found by his carer. Subsequent reports suggest Starr had become housebound and stopped talking to his friends and neighbours after racking up massive debts in the years before his death. He’s believed to have spent most of his time alone at the two-bed £170,000 townhouse in the hills above the town of Mijas. Starr got himself into thousands of pounds-worth of debt from unpaid water bills and community fees. Also his health had been causing him troubles over the last few years and he went into a downward spiral after his appearance on I’m A Celeb back in 2011. After leaving the jungle, he was caught up in Operation Yewtree after an allegation of sex abuse but was later told he would not be prosecuted. It emerged yesterday that Starr – real name Frederick Fowell – faced being made homeless over a £500,000 debt to the woman who accused him of groping her. Lawyers acting for Karin Ward had reportedly secured a “freezing order” on his Spanish home. They had obtained a preventative embargo from a Costa del Sol court in January 2017 for £380,000. Starr had sought damages in the High Court in July 2015 for alleged slander and libel over her claims that he groped her as a 15-year-old but failed and amassed nearly £1 million legal bill.  

A convicted offender accidentally shot himself in the testicles while having drugs hidden in his anus, say police and prosecutors in Washington state. Cameron Jeffrey Wilson, 27, was forced to seek treatment at a Wenatchee city hospital after the pistol in his front pocket discharged sending a bullet through his groin. He is accused of trying to hide the gun in the aftermath of the violent mishap. A balloon full of marijuana was seen falling out of his anus while doctors operated on his gunshot wound, according to the Wenatchee World News. Police called to the hospital to investigate the unusual 5th April shooting searched Wilson’s car and discovered a bag of methamphetamine inside a pair of blood-stained jeans he had been wearing while shot, Chelan County authorities have claimed. Later that month – while Wilson was being strip-searched by police at Chelan County Regional Justice Centre following his arrest on initial drugs charges – a second balloon full of marijuana slipped out of his anus. After being booked at the county jail on 18th April, he called his girlfriend from jail to tell her to keep silent about the accidental shooting and its aftermath – a call recorded by the authorities. Wilson had allegedly told his girlfriend to hide the pistol at a friend’s house before they drove to the hospital on 5th April. The 27-year-old has been charged with unlawful drugs possession, unlawful weapons possession and tampering with a witness. Reportedly convicted 13 times, he has been detained in jail on a $110,000 (£100,000) bail. He due in court to face the charges on 18th June.

On This Day

• 1293 – An earthquake strikes Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 23,000.
• 1897 – Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
• 1986 – The European Community adopts the European flag.
• 2004 – Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.

Deaths

• 1703 – Samuel Pepys, English politician (b. 1633)
• 1904 – Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French physician and neurologist (b. 1857)
• 2008 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1934)
• 2013 – Jack Vance, American author (b. 1916)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Doug Jones (59), John C. Reilly (54), Jim Broadbent (70), Alfred Molina (66), Priscilla Presley (74), Gary Burghoff (76), Tommy Chong (81), Bob Dylan (78), Eric Cantona (53), Cillian Murphy (42), Octavia Spencer (46), Mike Myers (55), Ian McKellen (79), Frank Oz (74), Joan Collins (86), Melissa McBride (54), Ginnifer Goodwin (41), Naomi Campbell (49), Judge Reinhold (62), Noel Fielding (46), Mr. T (67), Jack Gleeson (27), Cher (73), Louis Theroux (49), Grace Jones (71), and James Fox (80).