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A rare oil painting of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, which is believed to have been damaged by a Hindu nationalist activist, is to be auctioned in London in July.Gandhi, one of the most influential figures in India’s history, led a non-violent movement against British rule and inspired similar resistance campaigns across the world.He is the subject of tens of thousands of artworks, books and films.But a 1931 painting by British-American artist Clare Leighton is believed to be the only oil portrait he sat for, according to the painter’s family and Bonhams, where it will be auctioned online from July 7 to 15.”Not only is this a rare work by Clare Leighton, who is mainly known for her wood engravings, it is also thought to be the only oil painting of Mahatma Gandhi which he sat for,” said Rhyanon Demery, Bonhams Head of Sale for Travel and Exploration.The painting is a “likely hidden treasure”, Caspar Leighton, the artist’s great-nephew, told AFP.Going under the hammer for the first time next month, the painting is estimated to sell for between £50,000 and £70,000 ($68,000 and $95,000).Clare Leighton met Gandhi in 1931, when he was in London for talks with the British government on India’s political future.She was part of London’s left-wing artistic circles and was introduced to Gandhi by her partner, journalist Henry Noel Brailsford.”I think there was clearly a bit of artistic intellectual courtship that went on,” said Caspar, pointing out that his great-aunt and Gandhi shared a “sense of social justice”.- Painting attacked -The portrait, painted at a crucial time for India’s independence struggle, “shows Gandhi at the height of his power”, added Caspar.It was exhibited in London in November 1931, following which Gandhi’s personal secretary, Mahadev Desai, wrote to Clare: “It was such a pleasure to have had you here for many mornings doing Mr Gandhi’s portrait.””Many of my friends who saw it in the Albany Gallery said to me that it was a good likeness,” reads a copy of the letter attached to the painting’s backing board.The painting intimately captures Gandhi’s likeness but it also bears reminders of his violent death.Gandhi was shot at point-blank range in 1948 by disgruntled Hindu nationalist activist Nathuram Godse, once closely associated with the right-wing paramilitary organisation RSS.Godse and some other Hindu nationalist figures accused Gandhi of betraying Hindus by agreeing to the partition of India and the creation of Muslim-majority Pakistan.According to Leighton’s family, the painting was attacked with a knife by a “Hindu extremist” believed to be an RSS activist, in the early 1970s.Although there is no documentation of the attack, a label on the back of the painting confirms that it was restored in the United States in 1974.Under UV light, Demery pointed out the shadow of a deep gash running across Gandhi’s face where the now-restored painting was damaged. “It feels very deliberate,” she said.- ‘Real home’ -The repairs “add to the value of the picture in a sense… to its place in history, that Gandhi was again attacked figuratively many decades after his death”, said Caspar.The only other recorded public display of the painting was in 1978 at a Boston Public Library exhibition of Clare Leighton’s work.After Clare’s death, the artwork passed down to Caspar’s father and then to him.”There’s my family’s story but the story in this portrait is so much greater,” he said. “It’s a story for millions of people across the world,” he added.”I think it’d be great if it got seen by more people. Maybe it should go back to India — maybe that’s its real home.”Unlike countless depictions of the man known in India as the “father of the nation” — in stamps, busts, paraphernalia and recreated artwork — “this is actually from the time”, said Caspar. “This might be really the last truly significant picture of Gandhi to emerge from that time.”

The G7 may be a small, elite club, but when its leaders gather in Canada, several other national heads will attend as guests — highlighting the group’s efforts to adapt to a fast-changing world.The leaders of India, Ukraine, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea are among a carefully selected guest list drawn up at a time of global turmoil and a radical new US approach to world affairs.Summit invitations have become part of the G7 routine, and the host nation often likes to make a “welcome-to-this-exclusive-club” gesture, Ananya Kumar, of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, told AFP.”The leaders want to meet each other, and you’ll see the guests being a part of most of the work that happens.”Some hosts “really want certain guests there to show their significance in the global economy,” she added.This year’s summit in the Canadian Rockies comes as the G7’s share of world GDP has fallen from 63 percent in 1992 to 44 percent today, and as member nations deliberate on troubled relations with China and Russia.”It’s important to think of who will be there in the room as they’re making these decisions,” Kumar said ahead of the three-day event that mixes leadership meetings with “the nitty-gritty ministerial work.”Fifty years ago, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States formed the G6, first meeting at a French chateau, before Canada joined the following year.Russia itself was a guest in the early 1990s, becoming a full member of the G8 in 1998 before being expelled in 2014.Notable guests for the summit that starts Sunday include:- Ukraine -President Volodymyr Zelensky’s presence in Canada is a sign of continuing broad G7 support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion — despite Donald Trump’s skepticism.The US president regularly criticizes Zelensky and has upended the West’s supply of vital military, financial and intelligence assistance to Ukraine.Zelensky aims to use the summit to press for more US sanctions on Moscow, saying last week “I count on having a conversation” with Trump, who wants a quick peace deal.- India -Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the last G7 summit as India — the most populous nation in the world — takes an evermore important role in geopolitics. But his invitation this year was far from certain.Relations between India and Canada have turned sour over accusations of New Delhi’s involvement in the assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada. Modi and new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will have a chance to reset ties.India is also a leading member of BRICS — a more fractured bloc that includes Russia and China, but which has growing economic clout and is increasingly seen as a G7 rival.- Mexico -President Claudia Sheinbaum’s invitation means Canada has ensured that all three members of the USMCA free trade agreement will be present.Trump is seeking to transform the deal when it is up for review next year, as he pursues his global tariff war aimed at shifting manufacturing back to the United States.Enrique Millan-Mejia, of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, said he expected Mexico to use the summit to touch base with United States on tariffs and the USMCA, but he forecast no major breakthroughs.- South Africa -President Cyril Ramaphosa can expect a friendlier welcome than he got from Trump last month, when their Oval Office meeting included a surprise video alleging the South African government was overseeing the genocide of white farmers.Ramaphosa may hope he can make progress repairing badly strained ties via a quiet word with Trump away from the cameras.The former anti-apartheid activist is attending the summit as South Africa holds the current presidency of the wider G20 group, and he said he plans to push its agenda in Canada.- South Korea -Carney appears keen to expand the event to bring in other partners that hold views generally aligned with core members.South Korea fits the bill and has emerged since the Ukraine war as a major defense exporter to Europe, although it has stopped short of directly sending arms to Kyiv.Newly elected President Lee Jae-myung, who comes from the left, will attend after winning a snap election triggered by his predecessor’s disastrous martial law declaration.

India, whose leader has been invited to the G7 starting on Sunday, is eager to represent the Global South on the world stage, acting as a “bridge” between different countries, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.India is not a member of the G7 — which comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — but the world’s most populous nation and one of its biggest economies has been invited to summits since 2019.”We have been an outreach country in the G7 for many years, and I think it brings benefits to the G7,” he told AFP in Paris.”There are very strong feelings in the Global South about the inequities of the international order, the desire to change it, and we are very much part of that,” he added.”It is important for us to organise ourselves and make our presence felt.”The leaders of the G7 kick off a yearly summit in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday.They have invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with the leaders of Ukraine, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea, to attend at a time of global turmoil and a radical new US approach to world affairs.The member nations are also expected to deliberate on troubled relations with China and Russia.India is a leading member of BRICS — a bloc of leading emerging economies that includes Russia and China, whose leaders are set to meet in early July.BRICS has growing economic clout and is increasingly seen as a G7 rival.Jaishankar said India had “the ability to work with different countries in a way without making any relationship exclusive”.”To the extent that that serves as a bridge, it’s frankly a help that we do to international diplomacy at a time when, mostly what you see are difficult relationships and excessive tensions,” he added.- No need for ‘more tension’ -The foreign minister said his country had been in favour of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict since 2022.But Jaishankar — whose nation is a political ally of Russia and trades with Moscow — said sanctions such as those against President Vladimir Putin’s government did not work.”Where sanctions are concerned, you could argue that it has not actually had much impact on policy behaviour,” he said.Europeans are in favour of a plan for a “secondary” sanctions plan, including a 500-percent tariff on countries that buy Russian oil, gas and raw materials.”The world does not need more tension, more conflict, more hostility, more stresses,” the former Indian ambassador in Washington said.US President Donald Trump is expected at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.Modi is expected to meet him to push a trade deal with the United States — India’s largest trading partner — before the July 9 deadline when Washington’s punishing 26 percent tariffs are set to resume.Jaishankar said Trump “clearly, in many ways, represents a discontinuity”.”He is definitely a very nationalistic person who puts his country’s interests very strongly ahead,” he added.- ‘Stable relationship’ with China -As for China, it was a balancing act, said the minister.India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia, and their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) shared frontier has been a perennial source of tension.Their troops clashed in 2020, killing at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, and forces from both sides today face off across contested high-altitude borderlands.Despite both country’s differences, “we are also today the major rising powers in the world”, Jaishankar said.”Where we (India) have to be strong and firm, we will be strong and firm. Where we have to forge a stable relationship, we are prepared to do that,” he added.China has also been a staunch partner of India’s arch-enemy Pakistan.Pakistan used Chinese jets against India when the nuclear-armed foes fought an intense four-day conflict last month in which 70 people were killed, their worst standoff since 1999.The fighting was triggered by an April 22 attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing — a charge Islamabad denies.The territory is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, which have fought several wars over Kashmir since their 1947 independence from British rule.But Jaishankar dismissed fears at the time of a nuclear escalation.These were “only the concerns of people who were completely uninformed,” he said.

Mourners covered white coffins with flowers in India on Sunday as funerals were held for some of the at least 279 people killed in one of the world’s worst plane crashes in decades.Health officials have begun handing over the first passenger bodies identified through DNA testing, delivering them to grieving relatives in the western city of Ahmedabad, but the wait went on for most families.”They said it would take 48 hours. But it’s been four days and we haven’t received any response,” said Rinal Christian, 23, whose elder brother was a passenger on the jetliner. There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound Air India jet when it crashed Thursday into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground as well.”My brother was the sole breadwinner of the family,” Christian told AFP. “So what happens next?” At a crematorium in the city, around 20 to 30 mourners chanted prayers in a funeral ceremony for Megha Mehta, a passenger who had been working in London. As of Sunday evening, 47 crash victims have been identified, according to Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad’s civil hospital. “This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,” Patel said.One victim’s relative who did not want to be named told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it.Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains.Workers went on clearing debris from the site on Sunday, while police inspected the area.The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff.The majority of those injured on the ground have been discharged, Patel said, with one or two remaining in critical care.- ‘We need to know’ -Indian authorities have yet to identify the cause of the disaster and have ordered inspections of Air India’s Dreamliners.Authorities announced Sunday that the second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, had been recovered. This may offer investigators more clues about what went wrong.Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the first black box, the flight data recorder, would “give an in-depth insight” into the circumstances of the crash.Imtiyaz Ali, who was still waiting for a DNA match to find his brother, said the airline should have supported families faster.”I’m disappointed in them. It is their duty,” said Ali, who was contacted by the airline on Saturday. “Next step is to find out the reason for this accident. We need to know,” he told AFP.One person escaped alive from the wreckage, British citizen Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, whose brother was also on the flight.Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.Among the passengers was a father of two young girls, Arjun Patoliya, who had travelled to India to scatter his wife’s ashes following her death weeks earlier.”I really hope that those girls will be looked after by all of us,” said Anjana Patel, the mayor of London’s Harrow borough where some of the victims lived.”We don’t have any words to describe how the families and friends must be feeling,” she added.While communities were in mourning, one woman recounted how she survived by arriving late at the airport.”The airline staff had already closed the check-in,” said 28-year-old Bhoomi Chauhan.”At that moment, I kept thinking that if only we had left a little earlier, we wouldn’t have missed our flight,” she told the Press Trust of India news agency.

More than three days after giving a DNA sample, Imtiyaz Ali is enduring an anguished wait to receive the remains of his brother who died in the Air India crash.”My 72 hours are over, but I’ve not heard from them so far,” Ali said in Ahmedabad, where relatives of victims have gathered since the air disaster.All but one of the 242 people on board the plane died on Thursday when it slammed into a residential area, where at least 38 others were killed.Health officials have said the process of matching blood samples with the DNA of victims will be slow, with just 47 identified by Sunday evening.Ali, whose brother Javed was killed alongside his wife and two children, said he understood the delay and was more frustrated with the airline’s response.”With Air India, the next day after this accident they should have appointed whoever they needed to ensure everything is available to us,” such as help with paperwork, he told AFP on Sunday.”Whatever it took, they should have done it within hours of the accident,” he said, a day after being appointed a support person by the airline.Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said “over 200 trained caregivers are now in place, with each family assigned dedicated assistance”, in a video message on Saturday. The airline directed AFP to earlier statements about its response to the crash when asked to comment on the criticism from families.- ‘What happens next?’ -While some funerals have already been held, the majority of grieving relatives are still waiting for a DNA match before remains are handed over from the mortuary.Rinal Christian, whose elder brother was on the flight, said her family keeps returning to the hospital but they have been told to wait.”They said it would take 48 hours. But it’s been four days and we haven’t received any response,” the 23-year-old told AFP.Her brother Lawrence Christian had travelled to Ahmedabad from his home in London after his father died.”After my father, my brother was the sole breadwinner of the family. I’m still studying, my mother doesn’t work, and we have our grandmother too. So what happens next?” asked his sister.Air India and its parent company Tata Group have announced financial aid, amounting to $146,000 for each family, but Christian said she has not heard from the airline.With some in Ahmedabad mourning those who supported their families, parents are also confronting the loss of children.Suresh Patni, a driver, had just dropped his teenage son off at his wife’s tea stall when the plane hit.She was severely injured, with burns and nerve damage, and Patni has been unable to tell her their son was killed.”She won’t be able to handle it… I’ve already lost one, I can’t risk losing her too,” he said.While watching over his wife, Patni is among those still waiting for his son’s remains to be found.”As soon as our number comes, they’ll call us, ask us to come, and then hand over the body.”

Seven people including a toddler were killed Sunday in India when a helicopter ferrying Hindu pilgrims from a shrine crashed in the Himalayas, officials said.The fatal accident comes as relatives mourn at least 279 people killed when a passenger plane slammed into a residential area in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday. The helicopter crash left the pilot and all six passengers dead when their chopper came down during the flight from Kedarnath temple, in Uttarakhand state, disaster response official Nandan Singh Rajwar told AFP.It was likely caused by bad weather, according to state tourism official Rahul Chaubey. The incident prompted Indian civil aviation authorities to suspend chopper services to shrines in the Himalayas, Chaubey said.The state’s chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said there will be “zero tolerance for any compromise with passenger safety” in a post on X.Pilgrims flock to Kedarnath, which stands at an altitude of 3,584 metres (11,759 feet), and other revered Himalayan shrines during the summer when it is possible to access them. Helicopter charter firms serve wealthy pilgrims who want to visit mountainous shrines while avoiding arduous trekking.But there have been multiple mishaps already this season, including a crash last month in which six people were killed.In a separate incident this month, a pilot was forced to make an emergency landing on a highway after their helicopter developed a technical fault.

Since seeing thousands of comments justifying the recent murder of a teenage TikTok star in Pakistan, Sunaina Bukhari is considering abandoning her 88,000 followers.  “In my family, it wasn’t an accepted profession at all, but I’d managed to convince them, and even ended up setting up my own business,” she said. Then last week, Sana Yousaf was shot dead outside her house in the capital Islamabad by a man whose advances she had repeatedly rejected, police said. News of the murder led to an outpouring of comments under her final post — her 17th birthday celebration where she blew out the candles on a cake.In between condolence messages, some blamed her for her own death: “You reap what you sow” or “it’s deserved, she was tarnishing Islam”. Yousaf had racked up more than a million followers on social media, where she shared her favourite cafes, skincare products and traditional shalwar kameez outfits. TikTok is wildly popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels. On it, women have found both audience and income, rare in a country where fewer than a quarter of the women participate in the formal economy. But as TikTok’s views have surged, so have efforts to police the platform.Pakistani telecommunications authorities have repeatedly blocked or threatened to block the app over what it calls “immoral behaviour”, amid backlash against LGBTQ and sexual content.TikTok has pledged to better moderate content and blocked millions of videos that do not meet its community guidelines as well as at the request of Pakistan authorities.After Yousaf’s murder, Bukhari, 28, said her family no longer backs her involvement in the industry.”I’m the first influencer in my family, and maybe the last,” she told AFP. – ‘Fear of being judged’ -Only 30 percent of women in Pakistan own a smartphone compared to twice as many men (58 percent), the largest gap in the world, according to the Mobile Gender Gap Report of 2025. “Friends and family often discourage them from using social media for fear of being judged,” said a statement from the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF).In southwestern Balochistan, where tribal law governs many rural areas, a man confessed to orchestrating the murder of his 14-year-old daughter earlier this year over TikTok videos that he said compromised her honour.In October, police in Karachi, in the south, announced the arrest of a man who had killed four women relatives over “indecent” TikTok videos. These murders each revive memories of Qandeel Baloch, dubbed Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian and one of the country’s first breakout social media stars whose videos shot her to fame. After years in the spotlight, she was suffocated by her brother. Violence against women is pervasive in Pakistan, according to the country’s Human Rights Commission, and cases of women being attacked after rejecting men are not uncommon.”This isn’t one crazy man, this is a culture,” said Kanwal Ahmed, who leads a closed Facebook group of 300,000 women to share advice. “Every woman in Pakistan knows this fear. Whether she’s on TikTok or has a private Instagram with 50 followers, men show up. In her DMs. In her comments. On her street,” she wrote in a post.  In the fifth-most-populous country in the world, where 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30,the director of digital rights organisation Bolo Bhi, Usama Khilji says “many women don’t post their profile picture, but a flower, an object, very rarely their face”.”The misogyny and the patriarchy that is prevalent in this society is reflected on the online spaces,” he added. A 22-year-old man was arrested over Yousaf’s murder and is due to appear in court next week. At a vigil in the capital last week, around 80 men and women gathered, holding placards that read “no means no”. “Social media has given us a voice, but the opposing voices are louder,” said Hira, a young woman who joined the gathering. The capital’s police chief, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, used a press conference to send a “clear message” to the public. “If our sisters or daughters want to become influencers, professionally or as amateurs, we must encourage them,” he said.

The death toll from the fiery crash of a London-bound passenger jet in an Indian city climbed to 279 on Saturday as officials sought to match the DNA of victims with their grieving relatives.The Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner issued a mayday call shortly before it crashed around lunchtime on Thursday, bursting into a fireball as it hit residential buildings.A police source said on Saturday that 279 bodies had been found at the crash site in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, making it one of the worst plane disasters of the 21st century.”Nobody can fill the void left by loss,” said Imtiyaz Ali, whose younger brother boarded the plane.”I can’t even begin to explain what’s going on inside me,” he told AFP.There was just one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the jet when it crashed, leaving the tailpiece of the aircraft jutting out of a hostel for medical staff.Emergency services kept up their recovery efforts on Saturday, extracting a badly burnt body from the tailpiece before cranes were used to remove the wreckage.At least 38 people were killed on the ground.”I saw my child for the first time in two years, it was a great time,” said Anil Patel, whose son and daughter-in-law had surprised him with a visit before boarding the Air India flight.”And now, there is nothing,” he said, breaking down in tears. “Whatever the gods wanted has happened.”- Search for black box -Distraught relatives of passengers have been providing DNA samples in Ahmedabad, with some having to fly to India to help with the process.The first body of a passenger to be handed over to relatives was placed in a white coffin on Saturday before being transported in an ambulance with a police escort, footage from the state government showed.Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.The official casualty number will not be finalised until the slow process of DNA identification is completed.Those killed ranged from a top politician to a teenage tea seller.The lone survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, said even he could not explain how he survived.”Initially, I too thought that I was about to die, but then I opened my eyes and realised that I was still alive,” Ramesh, a British citizen, told national broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed.Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Friday that a flight data recorder, or black box, had been recovered, saying it would “significantly aid” investigations.Forensic teams are still looking for the second black box as they probe why the plane lost height and crashed straight after takeoff.The aviation minister said on Saturday that authorities “felt the need to do an extended surveillance of the Boeing 787 planes”, with eight out of Air India’s 34 Dreamliners inspected so far.Officials will take “whatever necessary steps are needed” to determine the cause of the disaster as soon as possible, he said.The US planemaker said it was in touch with Air India and stood “ready to support them” over the incident. A source close to the case said it was the first 787 Dreamliner crash.

A minute’s silence for victims of the Air India plane disaster was held on Saturday at a London birthday parade for King Charles III, in which  some members of the royal family also wore black arm bands.The king, 76, requested amendments to the parade, known as Trooping the Colour, “as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy”, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.A total 279 people, including passengers, crew and people on the ground, died on Thursday when a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London’s Gatwick Airport crashed on take-off from Ahmedabad in eastern India.The victims included 52 Britons. A sole survivor has been named as British man Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, from the central English city of Leicester.In a written message after the disaster, Charles said he was “desperately shocked by the terrible events” and expressed his “deepest possible sympathy”.Trooping the Colour, a minutely choreographed military tradition dating back more than two centuries, marks the British sovereign’s official birthday. It starts at Buckingham Palace and moves down The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, where Charles receives a royal salute before inspecting soldiers.Hundreds of people gathered outside the palace and along The Mall to watch the spectacle.They included a group of anti-monarchist protesters with yellow placards reading “not my king” and “down with the crown”.Charles, who is still undergoing weekly treatment for an unspecified cancer, was accompanied by Queen Camilla for the parade.Also present were heir Prince William, 42, his wife Catherine, also known as Kate, and their three children: George, 11, Charlotte, 10 and Louis, seven.- No Harry -Catherine, 43, whose formal title is Princess of Wales, has also faced her own cancer battle.She announced that she had also been diagnosed with an unspecified cancer in March 2024 just weeks after Charles revealed his cancer.The princess said in January 2025 that she was “in remission” and she has since made a partial return to public life.Not present at Saturday’s parade, were Charles’s estranged younger son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who both stepped down from royal family duties in 2020, and moved to the United States.Harry’s fraught ties with his family have worsened since he and Meghan made various public allegations against the royals.Harry and his brother William are said to barely be on speaking terms, according to UK media.After the parade, the royal family made their traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.A fly-past included a team from the Royal Air Force’s aerobatic team, the Red Arrows, whose aircraft trailing red, white and blue vapour were powered by a blend of sustainable aviation fuel and vegetable oil.Charles was an early champion of sustainability and climate action.Although Trooping the Colour takes place in June, the king was actually born in November.The second birthday tradition dates back to 1748, when King George II wanted to have a celebration in better weather than at his own birthday, which was in October.The parade comes on the same day that US President Donald Trump presides over a huge military parade in Washington on his 79th birthday.

Grieving families are mourning at least 279 killed when a London-bound passenger jet crashed in India, with the victims in Ahmedabad ranging from a top politician to a teenage tea seller.One man on board the plane, which was carrying 242 passengers and crew, miraculously survived the fiery crash on Thursday afternoon.But that lone British citizen was the only story of escape from the jet.”I saw my child for the first time in two years, it was a great time,” said Anil Patel, whose son and daughter-in-law had surprised him with a visit from Britain.”And now, there is nothing,” he said, breaking down in tears. “Whatever the gods wanted has happened.”Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight bound for London’s Gatwick airport, as well as 12 crew members.At least 38 people were killed on the ground.The nose and front wheel of the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner landed on a canteen building where medical students were having lunch.Mohit Chavda, 25, a junior doctor in Ahmedabad, described how he escaped through choking black smoke after the plane smashed into the dining hall.”There was almost zero visibility,” Chavda said. “We were not able to see even who was sitting beside us — so we just ran from there.”Scorch marks scar the buildings, where chunks of the plane were embedded into its walls. – ‘He caught fire’ -Among the dead was Vijay Rupani, 68, a senior member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party and former chief minister of Gujarat state.But they also included teenager Akash Patni, who Indian media reported had been snoozing under a tree in the fierce heat of the day near his family’s tea stall in Ahmedabad.”He caught fire in front of my eyes,” his mother Kalpesh Patni said, weeping as she talked to the Indian Express newspaper. “I won’t be able to live without him.”Businessman Suresh Mistry, 53, said his daughter Kinal was a trained dancer, an excellent cook and a yoga enthusiast. A chef in London, she had been visiting her family in India and postponed her flight to stay a few more days.Mistry described the last time he spoke to her, when she called to say the plane was about to take off and he could head back home without any worry.He said he couldn’t stop thinking about how, if she had stuck to her original plan, “she would have been alive”.