SANTIAGO, Chile: Ricardo Alegria is a different sort of milk man. For a quarter century or more, he and his brother Marco have led donkeys through the streets of Chile's capital, milking them on the spot for customers.
It's a rare job, but a very old one.
The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates recommended donkey's milk for some ailments and at least some claim that Cleopatra bathed in it for her skin.
The use of donkey's milk has persisted in some parts of the world. Even Pope Francis has said he drank it as a boy in Argentina, prompting an Italian company that produces the milk to give him two donkeys recently.
The Alegrias sell shot-sized cups of the milk for about $2. A half-liter, the most they say a donkey produces in a day, goes for about $20.
Ricardo Alegria said the milk "is taken as a vitamin jolt for babies with gastric problems," and researchers at the University of Camerino in Italy have reported it can be a good substitute for children with allergies to cow's milk. But adults too often drink it.
Fifty-four-year-old Carlos Aravena said he's been raising burros on the outskirts of Santiago and selling their milk as long as he can remember. His father did as well.
Fresh donkey milk for sale on streets of Chile
Fresh donkey milk for sale on streets of Chile

Shubman Gill, the ‘Prince’ who is now India’s new cricket king

- The 25-year-old’s second century of the match took his overall tally for the game to 430 runs
BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom: India captain Shubman Gill continued to give fresh meaning to the phrase “leading from the front” with a stunning innings of 161 in the ongoing second Test against England at Edgbaston on Saturday.
The 25-year-old’s second century of the match took his overall tally for the game to 430 runs, a figure bettered by India great Sachin Tendulkar, Test cricket’s all-time leading run-scorer, just three times in a series, let alone a match, during his celebrated career.
Following his commanding 269 in the first innings, Gill also became the first batsman in 148 years of Test history to make score of 250 and 150 in the same match.
All that came after Gill’s 147 in his first Test as captain, India’s five-wicket loss in last week’s series opener at Headingley.
But beyond the statistics, it is the way Gill has played that has impressed seasoned observers.
In the first innings at Edgbaston, he batted in near flawless-fashion for eight-and-a-half hours, with his offside driving standing comparison with cricket’s most elegant batsmen.
But in the second innings, with quick runs required to set up a declaration, Gill made 161 off just 162 balls, including 13 fours and eight sixes.
India are now well-placed given England, with seven wickets standing, still need a mammoth 536 more runs on Sunday’s final day to achieve what would be a Test record fourth-innings victory chase of 608.
“Gill is outrageous,” England fast-bowling great Stuart Broad, well used to working out world-class batsmen during a career that yielded 604 Test wickets, told Sky Sports after Saturday’s close.
“As a bowler, I’d be looking for technical things so I could expose him, but he’s not shown any obvious signs of dismissal and he’s played stylishly. He’s played with huge responsibility, under big pressure.
“It’s breathtaking... He deserves all the applause he will get.”
Gill was drafted into India’s under-19 side as for their victorious 2018 World Cup campaign, shortly after scoring a century for Punjab in just his second first-class Ranji Trophy match.
He made his one-day international debut in 2019, but it was in his first Test series, in Australia in 2020/21, that he came to the fore, notably with a fluent 91 in India’s thrilling series-clinching win at the Gabba.
His first Test hundred came a year later, in Chattogram. A month later, aged 23, he became the youngest to make an ODI double-century, smashing 208 off 149 balls against New Zealand.
Born in Fazilka, near the border with Pakistan, before moving to Mohali aged eight to be nearer better cricket facilities, the nickname ‘Prince’ has clung to Gill to the extent of sometimes appearing on his bat-stickers.
An opener and then a number three, Gill now occupies the number four position held by childhood hero Virat Kohli, with his 269 surpassing Kohli’s unbeaten 254 against South Africa in Pune in 2019 as the highest score by an India Test captain.
As a boy, Gill wanted to know what Kohli’s scores and achievements were when he was his age.
And when Kohli first saw Gill in the nets in New Zealand in 2019/20, he said he didn’t even have 10 percent of the talent when he was Gill’s age.
Yet last year, when England went 1-0 up in Hyderabad, a second-innings duck saw Gill’s Test average fall below 30 for the first time.
But then India coach Rahul Dravid, himself an outstanding batsman, resisted the temptation to drop Gill, who then made a second-innings century in a 106-run win in Visakhapatnam and another, in Dharamshala, during a series India won 4-1.
Gill succeeded Rohit Sharma as India captain after the latter announced his retirement from Test cricket in May, with ‘King’ Kohli calling time on his Test career just a few days later.
A few months ago,when asked about potential leaders, Rohit said “the boys aren’t ready yet.”
But Gill, who started this series with a modest Test average of under 36, looks as if he might be now.
Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet shatters women’s 5,000m world record

- Chebet, 25, had already broken the 10,000m world record at Hayward Field in May of 2024
EUGENE, United States: Kenya’s double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet crushed the women’s 5,000m world record on Saturday, powering to victory in 13min 58.06sec at the Diamond League athletics meeting in Eugene Oregon.
Chebet, Olympic gold medallist at 5,000 and 10,000m in Paris last year, delivered a devastating finish to become the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier in the event, beating the previous world record of 14:00.21 set by Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay on the same Hayward Field track in September 2023.
Chebet, 25, had already broken the 10,000m world record at Hayward Field in May of 2024, when she became the first woman to run under 29 minutes (28:54.14).
Compatriot Agnes Jebet Ngetich was second in 14:01.29 — the third-fastest time ever — and Tsegay was third in 14:04.41.
Chebet was under world-record pace for much of the way. She, Tsegay and Ngetich had broken away from the rest of the field when the pace faded slightly a few laps from the finish.
But Chebet mustered a final flourish — delivering an incredible last lap to pull away mercilessly for the triumph and the world record.
“I’m so happy,” Chebet said, adding that she had been inspired by her own strong performance in Rome last month and compatriot Faith Kipyegon’s unsuccessful bid to become the first woman to break four minutes for the mile.
“After running in Rome, I said I have to prepare for a record because in Rome I was just running to win a race, but after running 14:03, I said that I’m capable of running a world record.
“When I was coming here to Eugene, I was coming to prepare to run a world record, and I said I have to try. I said ‘If Faith is trying, why not me?’
“And today, I’m so happy because I’ve achieved being the first woman to run under 14. I’m so happy for myself.”
Israel to send delegation to Qatar for Gaza ceasefire talks

- The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, Israeli official says
- Hamas earlier said it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit”
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the militant group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s retaliatory military assault on the enclave has killed over 57,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, displaced Gaza’s entire population internally and prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes. Israel denies the accusations.
Musk says ‘America Party’ is formed in US

- “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he said
- “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom“
WASHINGTON: A day after asking his followers on X whether a new US political party should be created, Elon Musk said on Saturday that the “America Party is formed.”
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he said in a post on X.
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
The announcement from Musk comes after President Donald Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which the billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla fiercely opposed.
Musk spent hundreds of millions on Trump’s re-election and led the Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration aimed at slashing government spending, but the two have since fallen out over disagreements about the bill.
Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billions of dollars in subsidies that Musk’s companies receive from the federal government.
Musk said previously that he would start a new political party and spend money to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.
Republicans have expressed concern that Musk’s on-again, off-again feud with Trump could hurt their chances to protect their majority in the 2026 midterm congressional elections.
What We Are Reading Today: Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

“Midnight In Chernobyl” offers a harrowing and compelling narrative of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand.
Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world. The book is an indelible portrait of history’s worst nuclear disaster, of human resilience and ingenuity and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will remain not just vital but necessary.
This book makes for a masterful non-fiction thriller, according to a review on goodreads.com.