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Flag of Vatican City

Vatican City's participation at the 2022 Mediterranean Games, held in Oran, Algeria, from 25 June to 6 July 2022, was as guests. It was the Vatican's first appearance in the Mediterranean Games, and its debut in any international multi-sport event. The Vatican's participation was the result of an agreement with the Italian National Olympic Committee in 2019 that formed Vatican Athletics, paving the way for possible participation in the Summer Olympics. An invitation from the organizers of the games in Oran followed the agreement with the Italians. The delegation consisted of one athlete, long-distance runner Sara Carnicelli, and two officials: Melchor Sánchez de Toca Alameda, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education; and Claudio Carmosino, coach and technical director of Vatican Athletics. Runner Simone Adamoli was supposed to participate but withdrew before the Games started. Carnicelli ran in the half marathon and unofficially placed ninth. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Restoration of Europejara's head

... that Europejara (head pictured) is the oldest known toothless pterosaur?
... that opera singer Joyce Castle specialized in "portraying nuts, mamas, lesbians, nymphomaniacs, witches, and men"?
... that residents of Khirbet el-Maqatir during the Jewish–Roman wars secretly cut a passage between their hiding cave and a water cistern so they could draw water unseen while hiding from the Romans?
... that merchant Benjamin Naylor built a store that contributed to the small New Zealand town of Clyde being described as having "movie-set good looks"?
... that fur-trading ships wintered in an old factory?
... that Eduardo Clark discovered that several teachers registered on Mexico's national education payroll were collecting more than MXN$500,000 per month, with some listed at least ten times?
... that a derailment in 2005 was caused by a train attempting to travel a 10 mph (16 km/h) crossing at 69 mph (111 km/h)?
... that the video game developer Volition was named after a lexical definition?
... that My Little Pony porn has been studied by scholars?

In the news

Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer (pictured) announces his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
In motorsport, Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway of Toyota Racing win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In ice hockey, the Carolina Hurricanes defeat the Vegas Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup.

On this day

June 24

Aftermath of the Surfside condominium collapse

474 – Western Roman emperor Glycerius, who was not recognized by his Eastern counterpart Leo I, was forced to abdicate.
1559 – The Book of Common Prayer, a major component of the Elizabethan religious settlement, was introduced as the liturgy of the Church of England through the Act of Uniformity 1558.
1932 – A group of military officers and civilians engineered a bloodless coup in Siam, ending the absolute rule of the Chakri dynasty.
1989 – Following the Tiananmen Square massacre, the 13th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party appointed Jiang Zemin as general secretary in place of Zhao Ziyang.
2021 – A portion of a 12-story condominium building collapsed (aftermath pictured) in Surfside, Florida, killing 98 people and injuring 11 others.

Edward de Vere (d. 1604)
Kapiʻolani (d. 1899)
Jasmin Moghbeli (b. 1983)
Lionel Messi (b. 1987)

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David Cameron announcing his resignation as prime minister

Events leading to the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union (known as Brexit) began on 23 January 2013, when British prime minister David Cameron delivered a speech promising an in–out referendum on the UK's membership of the EU. The Brexit referendum was held on 23 June 2016, with 51.89 per cent voting for Britain to leave. Cameron announced his resignation as prime minister the next day (pictured), with Theresa May succeeding him on 13 July. Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU began in June 2017, with May putting her withdrawal agreement to Parliament in January 2019. Votes on the deal resulted in large defeats for May, who announced her resignation on 24 July. A Conservative Party leadership contest was won by Boris Johnson, who called for a general election on 12 December. Johnson won a majority at the election, and his withdrawal agreement was then voted through Parliament. The UK subsequently withdrew from the EU at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020. The broad consensus of economists is that Brexit has had a substantially negative effect on the UK's economy, which is expected to be several percentage points smaller than it would have been if the UK had remained in the EU. (Full list...)

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HMCS St. John's is a Halifax-class frigate of the Royal Canadian Navy. She was commissioned on 24 June 1996 and is the first ship named after the city of St. John's in Newfoundland and Labrador. She is part of a class designed as a general-purpose warship, with a particular focus on anti-submarine warfare. Over her career, St. John's has served with NATO forces, supported operations in Afghanistan, participated in counter-narcotics missions in the Caribbean, provided disaster relief after hurricanes and other emergencies, and undergone modernization to keep pace with evolving maritime threats. This photograph shows St. John's in the harbour of Gdynia, Poland, in 2007.

Photograph credit: Łukasz Golowanow and Maciek Hypś; retouched by Papa Lima Whiskey and Julia W

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