Gelje Sherpa was on his way to the top of the world’s highest mountain when he spotted the climber clinging to the rope.

They were in the “death zone,” an area near the summit of Mount Everest where temperatures are extremely low and where there isn’t enough oxygen to breathe unaided for more than a few minutes.

Other climbers and guides “just focused on the summit,” he said – wary of stopping at an altitude where the body is rapidly deteriorating and where many Everest fatalities occur.

Already this year, 12 people have died and five are missing on Everest as the spring climbing season comes to an end, according to Nepali officials.

Gelje – Nepali sherpas traditionally go by their first names – was guiding a client to the 8,849-meter (29,032 feet) summit when he made a decision: they would abandon their journey in a bid to save the Malaysian climber.

It was a near-impossible task: Gelje had to strap the climber to his back and carry him down 600 meters (1,900 feet) for about six hours before another guide joined the rescue, Reuters reported.

They then took turns carrying the climber, wrapped in a sleeping mat, sometimes having to drag him through the snow, before reaching a helicopter that carried them down to base camp.

According to the Nepali government, the rescued climber was flown home to Malaysia once his condition improved. His name has not been released to the media.

Deadly season

This climbing season has been one of the deadliest on record, according to Bigyan Koirala, an official at Nepal’s Tourism Department.

Spring is the prime time to climb Everest, although some mountaineers might climb in the less favorable autumn season. There’s a brief window of time – usually after mid-May – when temperatures are warmer, and the high-altitude winds known as the jet stream have moved away from the mountains.

Four Nepalis and eight foreigners have died on Everest this spring, according to Yubaraj Khatiwada, a director at the tourism department.

And of the five missing, three are Nepalis and two are foreigners.

Gelje, the sherpa, said there were a few likely reasons why this season has been so deadly. The weather has been poor and extremely cold, and some climbers lack experience or sufficient training for such a high altitude.

In recent years, as death tolls have risen on the mountain, climbers and experts have also warned of the dangers of overcrowding. A single route to the summit means there can be delays; one photo in 2019 went viral, depicting hundreds of climbers huddling on an exposed ridge to the summit, in a long queue to reach the top – all in the critical area nicknamed the “death zone.”

Nepal issued permits for a record 478 climbers for this season’s expeditions to Everest, according to the department’s data.

It’s not only Everest that has seen growing popularity as a bucket list destination for international travelers. The world’s second-tallest mountain, K2 in Pakistan, just had its busiest season ever.

The first Friday in June — June 2 this year — is National Donut Day.

Started by the Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938, the day honors the group’s “donut lassies,” who served treats and provided assistance to soldiers on the front lines during World War I. (And this isn’t to be confused with National Doughnut Day, which is in November and honors the actual food; though both days are celebrated by eating doughnuts.)

Doughnuts have been around since long before the First World War, and we have the Dutch to thank for them. The Dutch would make “olykoek,” which translates to oily cake. The first Dutch doughnuts didn’t have a hole, but they were fried in hot oil and the dough was sweet.

It wasn’t until 1847 that the holed-out doughnut we know and love today appeared. Hanson Gregory, 16 at the time, claimed credit. Sick of doughnuts with a raw center, he used a pepper pot to punch out holes to help his doughnuts cook more evenly.

By 1920, Adolph Levitt, a Russian living in New York, had invented a doughnut machine. Thirteen years later, doughnuts were proclaimed the “Hit Food of the Century of Progress” by the World’s Fair in Chicago.

Many doughnut stores, including national chains like Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme, are giving away free or discounted doughnuts to celebrate the occasion.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won Turkey’s presidential election, defeating opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday’s runoff vote and stretching his rule into a third decade.

With 99.43% of the votes counted, preliminary official results announced by Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) on Sunday showed Erdogan winning with 52.14% of the votes. Kilicdaroglu received 47.86%.

Speaking to thousands of his supporters outside the presidential complex in Ankara, Erdogan said that now was the time to “put aside all the debates and conflicts regarding the election period and unite around our national goals and dreams.”

“We are not the only winners, the winner is Turkey. The winner is all parts of our society, our democracy is the winner,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said among the government’s main priorities would be fighting inflation and healing the wounds from a catastrophic earthquake on February 6 which claimed more than 50,000 lives in Turkey and neighboring Syria.

Speaking at his party headquarters in the capital Ankara, Kilicdaroglu said he would continue to fight until there is “real democracy” in Turkey.

“This was the most unfair election period in our history… We did not bow down to the climate of fear,” he said. “In this election, the will of the people to change an authoritarian government became clear despite all the pressures.”

Kilicdaroglu said what “truly makes me sad is the hard days ahead for our country.”

Foreign leaders including those of Russia, Qatar, Libya, Algeria, Hungary, Iran and the Palestinian Authority were among the first to congratulate Erdogan.

In remarks published on the Kremlin’s website, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the election provided “clear evidence of the Turkish people’s support” for Erdogan’s efforts “to strengthen state sovereignty and pursue an independent foreign policy.”

US President Joe Biden also congratulated Erdogan, tweeting that he looked forward to working together “as NATO allies” on “bilateral issues and shared global challenges.”

Erdogan’s supporters gathered In Istanbul’s Taksim Square, chanting his name and “God is great.”

Hundreds gathered outside the Istanbul headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party after preliminary results showed Erdogan in the lead. Some came with children while others waved flags, honked car horns and set off flares and fireworks.

Speaking outside party headquarters amid the celebrations, Erdogan supporter Denel Anart said: “I hope he lives forever.”

“He is my father, grandfather, uncle. He is my everything,” Anart said.

Others struck a more religious note.

“Muslims should rejoice. The whole world will know Muslims more,” said Sehat Pak, 33. “The Islamic world should rejoice.”

But Mehmet Karli, adviser to Kilicdaroglu, called Erdogan’s election win a “pyrrhic victory” accusing the president of fueling tensions during the election.

“It does appear that President Erdogan has won these elections. But it would be a mistake to call this a victory. Perhaps a pyrrhic victory is a better term to describe this situation,” Karli said.

Erdogan’s victory over Kilicdaroglu, a 74-year-old bureaucrat and leader of the left-leaning CHP, leaves Turkey a deeply divided nation.

In the first round of voting on May 14, Erdogan secured a nearly five-point lead over Kilicdaroglu but fell short of the 50% threshold needed to win. 

The president’s parliamentary bloc won a majority of seats in the parliamentary race on the same day. 

Electoral authorities said earlier that voting was passing “without any issues.”

Last week, third-place candidate Sinan Ogan, who won 5% of the first-round vote, publicly endorsed Erdogan, further boosting the strongman leader’s chances of winning Sunday’s second and final presidential round. 

Many polls had incorrectly predicted that Kilicdaroglu would lead in the May 14 vote, which saw a high turnout of nearly 90% across the country. 

Six opposition groups had formed an unprecedented unified bloc behind Kilicdaroglu to try to wrest power from Erdogan.

The opposition had described the election as a last stand for Turkish democracy, accusing Erdogan of hollowing out the country’s democratic institutions during his 20-year rule, eroding the power of the judiciary and repressing dissent.

Erdogan also faces headwinds from a floundering economy and a shambolic initial response to the February earthquake.

The government acknowledged its “mistakes” in its rescue operation and apologized to the public. 

Erdogan’s critics also spotlighted loose construction standards presided over by the ruling AK party, which turbocharged a construction boom since the early 2000s, and exacerbated the death toll. They also argued that the earthquake response underscored Erdogan’s alleged hollowing out of government entities in his bid to consolidate power. 

The country’s financial crisis – which saw the currency plummet and prices soar – is also partially blamed on Erdogan’s policies. The president suppressed interest rates leaving inflation unfettered, critics argued.  

He also hailed his relationship with Russia’s President Putin as “special” and said he would continue to block Sweden’s access to NATO, despite Western criticism that he was obstructing a unified front against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Erdogan, who controls the second-largest army in NATO, accused Sweden of harboring Kurdish terror groups and has preconditioned Stockholm’s accession on the extradition of wanted individuals. Sweden has refused Turkey’s repeated requests to extradite individuals Ankara describes as terrorists, arguing that the issue can only be decided by Swedish courts.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson congratulated Erdogan for his victory. “Our common security is a future priority,” he tweeted.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Turkish strongman has emerged as a key power broker, adopting a crucial balancing act between the two sides, widely known as “pro-Ukrainian neutrality.”

He helped broker a key agreement known as the Black Sea Grain Corridor Initiative that unlocked millions of tons of wheat caught up in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, averting a global hunger crisis. The agreement was extended for another two months last Wednesday, one day before it was set to expire.

In a statement on Twitter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Erdogan for his victory.

“We count on the further strengthening of the strategic partnership for the benefit of our countries, as well as the strengthening of cooperation for the security and stability of Europe,” Zelensky said.

One month after four children vanished into the Colombian Amazon, a preliminary report by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority offers clues to how they could have survived the devastating airplane crash that killed every adult onboard.

The extraordinary story of the missing children has drawn intense interest across Colombia and internationally, as a massive military-led search operation continues in the forest.

The ill-fated flight on May 1 carried pilot Hernando Murcia Morales, Yarupari indigenous leader Herman Mendoza Hernández, an indigenous woman named Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, and her four children, the eldest 13 years old and youngest just 11 months.

Soon after the early morning take-off from the remote community of Araracuara, the pilot radioed to air traffic control that he would look for an emergency landing spot, according to the report.

“…Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 2803, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, I have the engine at minimum, I’m going to look for a field,” he said.

The pilot later updated that the engine had regained power, and continued on his way – only to hit trouble again less than an hour later: “…Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, 2803, 2803, The engine failed me again… I am going to look for a river… I have a river on the right…”

This time the problem did not improve.

Air traffic control later tracked the plane veering right, the report said. Then it went off the radar.

Despite air and water searches that immediately followed the incident, per the report, the plane would not be found until more than two weeks later – time that may yet prove significant in the fates of the plane’s passengers, as investigators continue to probe the crash and its aftermath.

A crucial seat map

Five days after the plane’s disappearance, the Colombian military deployed special forces units to search the ground on May 6. Ten days later, on the night of May 16, they finally spotted the wreckage.

The three adults were found dead at the scene. But all all four children were missing entirely – leading rescuers to presume that they had survived, evacuated the plane and were trekking the jungle on their own, and spurring a massive renewed search effort.

Investigators’ photos of the crash scene show the raised tail of a small plane painted in still-crisp blue and white, its nose and front smashed into the jungle terrain. The report says the plane likely first hit the trees of the dense forest, tearing the engine and propeller off, followed by a vertical drop to the forest floor.

“Detailed inspection of the wreckage indicated that, during tree landing, there was a first impact against the trees; this blow caused the separation of the engine with its cover and propeller from the aircraft structure,” the report says. “Due to the strong deceleration and loss of control in the first impact, the aircraft fell vertically and collided with the ground.”

Though it notes that forensic examinations are ongoing, the report suggests that the adults seated in the front of the plane cabin suffered fatal injuries from the crash. “The diagram of injuries caused by the accident registered fatal injuries in the occupants located in positions 1 (Pilot), 2 (male adult occupant) and 3 (female adult occupant).

But the rear seats, where the older children were located, were less affected by the impact, according to the report, offering a potential explanation for their survival and signs of life – including a baby bottle, a used diaper, and footprints – later found in the jungle by search and rescue teams.

Two of three seats occupied by the children remained in place and upright despite the crash, according to the report, while one child’s seat came loose from the plane structure. The infant may have been held in the mother’s arms, according to the report.

The children “were not located in the area of the accident, and there were no signs that they had been injured, at least not seriously. For this reason, an intense search began in order to find them,” it says.

A total of 119 Colombian special forces troops and 73 indigenous scouts have so far been deployed to comb the area, according to the report.

Relatives have previously said that the children knew the jungle well – but worried whether they would understand that the outside world had not given up on them.

“Maybe they are hiding,” said Fidencio Valencia, the children’s grandfather, speaking to Colombia’s Caracol TV earlier this month.

“Maybe they don’t realize that they are looking for them; they are children.”

The synthetic drug trade in Asia is roaring to “extreme levels,” with crime groups establishing new trafficking routes to evade enforcement crackdowns and methamphetamine prices hitting fresh lows, according to a new report released Friday.

The research by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that meth seizures in East and Southeast Asia, which spiked to record highs during the pandemic as cartels switched to bigger and riskier bulk shipments, returned to pre-Covid numbers last year.

But other key indicators such as arrests, street availability, purity as well as low wholesale and street prices “indicate the supply has remained very high or unchanged,” the report said.

And as pandemic border closures and travel restrictions began lifting, international criminal organizations began reconnecting, with “late 2022 and early 2023 patterns starting to look similar to 2019,” said Jeremy Douglas, UNODC Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

There are other signs of the drug trade bouncing back. Japan’s customs officials saw a rise in air passengers smuggling methamphetamine in the second half of 2022, after the country reopened its borders. West African trafficking networks in East and Southeast Asia, which “all but disappeared” during the pandemic, have now resumed their activities, the report said.

“The most powerful regional trafficking networks are able to operate with a high degree of certainty they can and will not be stopped, and they are able to dictate the terms and conditions of the market as a result,” the report warned.

Some countries have stepped up their anti-trafficking efforts in recent years. More stringent law enforcement in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, and along the Thai border with Myanmar, has seen a significant drop in meth seizures in China and a slight decrease in Thailand.

But in turn, traffickers have adapted to “try to circumvent what governments do,” Douglas said.

Andaman trafficking

Asia’s drugs cartels generate billions through the global narcotics trade while generating a fraction of the attention of their counterparts in Latin and Central America, in part because they keep a much lower profile and are less prone to bouts of internecine warfare.

For years, the majority of regional meth production has taken place in the jungles of the Golden Triangle, a remote area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet that has long been one of the world’s key narcotic hubs.

The closely-watched area still sees large volumes of drugs pass through – but crime groups are increasingly turning to western maritime routes, rerouting supply through central Myanmar to the Andaman Sea “where it seems few were looking,” said Douglas.

From Myanmar, meth and other synthetic drugs then travel out to the world, with shipments previously found as far away as Japan, New Zealand and Australia. South Asia, too, is being pulled further into this market, with meth transported in “high volumes” from Myanmar to Bangladesh and northeast India, the report found.

Despite the government crackdowns and increased seizures, wholesale and street prices for meth fell to record lows across the region in 2022 – a sign that that ample drug supplies were still getting through uninterrupted, according to the report. It also pointed to the high number of drug-related arrests and admissions at drug treatment facilities as further evidence of robust trade.

Other UNODC findings in recent years have painted a picture of a booming drug industry in Asia in spite of the pandemic, with some drug cartels taking advantage of distracted governments scrambling to contain the virus and enforce public health measures.

Organized crime groups have also capitalized on political instability such as the 2021 military coup in Myanmar and ongoing conflict in the country, which has made the country’s already lawless border regions an even more ideal production and smuggling hub.

Surge in ketamine

Besides meth, the production and trafficking of ketamine is also rising rapidly in the region, with authorities seizing 27.4 tons of the powerful dissociative anesthetic often used as a party drug.

That figure is 167% higher than the previous year, according to the UNODC report. Nearly every country and territory in the region reported an increase in seizures, except Japan and Hong Kong.

“The ketamine situation in the region in many ways mirrors the supply-driven approach used to expand the methamphetamine market in the mid-2010s,” said Inshik Sim, UNODC regional coordinator on synthetic drugs, in a news release.

“That being said, information on ketamine use is limited, and it is unclear how widespread it is – research is badly needed.”

Cambodia, long a transportation hub, has also begun to emerge as a key drug manufacturing location, with authorities discovering a series of secret industrial-scale ketamine labs, storage facilities and processing warehouses in the country.

The chemicals and equipment found in these labs point to a sprawling international network, originating or transiting from at least 12 different countries and provinces, the report said. For instance, there were chemicals found produced in France with Vietnamese writing on the packaging; other substances came from Poland, India, Indonesia and South Korea.

The sheer amount of chemicals found also point to a boom in ketamine production; Cambodian authorities seized 518 tons of chemicals in 2022, compared to just 5 tons in 2020, alarming international and regional leaders.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) forward Lionel Messi will play his last game for the club on Saturday, coach Christophe Galtier told reporters on Thursday.

Messi’s current contract runs out in June and there has been much speculation about where he will be playing his football next season.

It had been expected that Messi would leave the Parisian side and Galtier confirmed as much ahead of the team’s last game of the season against Clermont Foot.

“I had the privilege of coaching the best player in the history of football. This will be his last match at the Parc des Princes, and I hope that he will receive the warmest of welcomes,” Galtier confirmed.

Messi, 35, led Argentina to a World Cup title in Qatar and won the Ligue 1 title with PSG this season for a second year running.

Last month, signs of an increasingly fractious relationship between PSG and Messi were evident when he received a club-imposed suspension for taking an unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia, resulting in a missed training session.

But Gaultier maintained that the criticism against the star player is not justified.

“This year, he has been an important part of the team, always available. I don’t think any of the comments or criticisms are justified,” Galtier said.

“He’s always been there for the team. It’s been a great privilege to accompany him throughout the season.”

On Saturday, as PSG sealed an 11th Ligue 1 title, Messi scored his 496th goal in Europe’s top five leagues, surpassing Ronaldo’s previous record of 495 goals.

Speculation about his future has been rife amid rumors of a lucrative deal in the Middle East, but Messi’s representatives have repeatedly declined to comment on his career beyond PSG.

Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva has continued her meteoric rise by reaching the third round of the French Open with an emphatic 6-1 6-2 win over France’s Diane Parry.

The 16-year-old, who celebrated her birthday in April, is now the youngest player to reach the third round at Roland Garros since 2005, according to the WTA.

Andreeva, the youngest player in this year’s main draw, took only 77 minutes to defeat wild card Parry and secure her sixth top 100 win of the season.

She is yet to drop a set at this year’s tournament, which includes two main draw matches and three qualifiers.

Andreeva had already become the seventh youngest player this century to beat a top 20 player, according to the WTA, when she beat world No. 14 Beatriz Haddad Maia in straight sets in the second round of the Madrid Open.

Ranked No. 312 at the start of April, the teenager’s impressive runs at ITF W60 tournaments and upsets of Leylah Fernandez, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Magda Linette in Madrid saw her fly up the rankings, where she is now 143.

Unranked just over a year ago, Andreeva entered into her first grand slam with a bang at Roland Garros, taking less than an hour to defeat American Alison Riske-Amritraj 6-2 6-1 on Tuesday.

Andreeva was the runner-up at this year’s junior Australian Open and is now playing in just the third tour-level tournament of her fledgling career, boasting a remarkable 22-2 record on the professional circuit.

She could next face American Coco Gauff, who takes on Julia Grabher Thursday.

Today is the first official day of the Atlantic hurricane season and it’s already off to an active start.

Tropical Depression Two has formed in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center. Although the storm is expected to “remain offshore and will be weak and short-lived,” it will enhance rainfall over Florida, which could lead to flooding, the NHC said.

Thunderstorms in the Gulf of Mexico associated with an area of low pressure “have increased and become better organized during the overnight hours,” the NHC said earlier.

The disturbance is expected to drift southward over the next couple of days and landfall of the storm is not expected.

Tropical Depression #Two Advisory 1: Tropical Depression Forms in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Expected to Remain Offshore and Be Short-Lived. https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) June 1, 2023

If Tropical Depression Two does strengthen into a tropical storm, it will still be the first named storm of the season and will be given the name Arlene. An Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft is scheduled to investigate the system Thursday afternoon, NHC forecasters said.

Though the season begins Thursday, a named storm doesn’t normally develop for about three weeks. Over the last 30 years, the average first named storm has formed around June 20, according to the NHC.

“This system is being numbered as the second cyclone of 2023 in the Atlantic basin and is being designated as Tropical Depression Two,” the NHC said. “Rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches with localized higher amounts up to 6 inches are possible through Saturday across portions of the central and southern Florida Peninsula.”

Regardless of whether this storm gets a name, it will likely impact parts of the Gulf Coast with locally heavy rainfall, flooding, high surf and rip currents along much of the Florida Peninsula as well as coastal regions of Mississippi and Alabama.

The storm is expected to dissipate over the weekend in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

When does hurricane season really get going?

Hurricanes can form at any time during the warm season and late into fall, but on average they peak in the Atlantic in the early fall – which is also around the time that the strongest storms tend to make landfall in the United States.

Hurricane season ends on November 30, though there have been several instances where storms continued to form well after that date. In 2005 – the same year Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans – Hurricane Epsilon formed on November 29 and dissipated December 10. It was followed by an extremely late-season storm, Tropical Storm Zeta, that formed December 30 and lasted into January.

Churchill Downs, host of the famed Triple Crown horse race the Kentucky Derby, announced new safety initiatives as an ongoing investigation continues into a series of horse deaths at the track.

Officials will continue to hold thoroughbred races as planned but said they would pause “track-based incentives such as trainer start bonuses and purse pay-out allocations to every race finisher through last place.”

Other initiatives, to go into effect immediately, include restricting horses to four starts during a rolling eight-week period. The racetrack will also establish ineligibility standards for horses that finish 12 or more lengths back in five consecutive races.

There have been 12 horse deaths at the facility since March 30, according to Churchill Downs Incorporated, which owns the track and others in several states.

On Tuesday, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority – the national organization overseeing integrity and safety within thoroughbred racing – held an “emergency veterinary summit,” which included members from Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to review all available information related to the deaths.

As the probe continues, authority CEO Lisa Lazarus said, “Everyone is committed to seeing what is happening and stopping it to the extent it can be stopped.”

The authority said in a news release Thursday “no obvious or specific pattern” has emerged so far in its probe into the recent deaths at the Louisville track.

It said it will implement several measures, including an increased number of health screenings of race horses to minimize risks and a review of the death examinations of horses, in addition to the racetrack’s initiatives.

The track said equine surgeon Dr. Ryan Carpenter “provided educational information and tools to trainers and practicing veterinarians about advanced interventions that can be considered for certain equine injuries.”

“Any decision must be made first and foremost with the long-term well-being of the horse in mind,” Dr. Will Farmer, the equine medical director for Churchill Downs Incorporated, said in a statement. “It is imperative that all available, educated and informed options can be efficiently, confidently and thoroughly relayed to the owners.”

The safety authority said an expert has begun his analysis of the Churchill Downs’ racing surfaces. The facility has a 1-mile dirt course and a 7/8-mile turf track.

The current racing session ends July 3.

The first Friday in June — June 2 this year — is National Donut Day.

Started by the Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938, the day honors the group’s “donut lassies,” who served treats and provided assistance to soldiers on the front lines during World War I. (And this isn’t to be confused with National Doughnut Day, which is in November and honors the actual food; though both days are celebrated by eating doughnuts.)

Doughnuts have been around since long before the First World War, and we have the Dutch to thank for them. The Dutch would make “olykoek,” which translates to oily cake. The first Dutch doughnuts didn’t have a hole, but they were fried in hot oil and the dough was sweet.

It wasn’t until 1847 that the holed-out doughnut we know and love today appeared. Hanson Gregory, 16 at the time, claimed credit. Sick of doughnuts with a raw center, he used a pepper pot to punch out holes to help his doughnuts cook more evenly.

By 1920, Adolph Levitt, a Russian living in New York, had invented a doughnut machine. Thirteen years later, doughnuts were proclaimed the “Hit Food of the Century of Progress” by the World’s Fair in Chicago.

Many doughnut stores, including national chains like Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme, are giving away free or discounted doughnuts to celebrate the occasion.