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Hard Numbers: Diversity wins at Emmy Awards, Space tourism blasts off, European floods prove deadly, Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners, US leaves Niger, Germany holds fake horse contest

September 15, 2024
Matthew Kendrick
​Anna Sawai, winner of the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series award, and Hiroyuki Sanada, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for "Shogun."

Anna Sawai, winner of the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series award, and Hiroyuki Sanada, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for "Shogun."

Reuters

18: Diversity won the night at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, honoring a lineup of Latino, LGBTQ+, and Japanese artists. The FX drama “Shogun” nabbed the best drama prize, collecting 18 Emmys overall, including best actor awards for Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada.

5: SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission splashed down in the Caribbean on Sunday after a five-day mission that made cosmic history. Billionaire Jared Isaacman became the first non-astronaut to complete a spacewalk, and the four-member team he bankrolled flew further away from Earth than anyone else has in half a century. His mission will allegedly open opportunities for commercial space tourism — but this reporter will live and die entirely within the Earth’s atmosphere, thank you very much.

8: At least eight people are dead and four are missing amid the catastrophic floods devastating Central Europe. Authorities in the Czech Republic have ordered 10,000 people to evacuate, and Vienna declared a state of emergency in Lower Austria.

206: Russia and Ukraine exchanged 206 prisoners on Saturday — 103 each — in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Moscow said the prisoners it brought home had been captured during Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk last month.

11: The United States officially ended its military mission in Niger and pulled out the last of its troops on Sunday, ending an 11-year mission that was crucial to fighting terrorists in West and Central Africa. The withdrawal leaves US Africa Command bereft of close military partners in the region, though Washington’s position in East Africa is stronger, with major bases in Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia.

~300: Germany held its first ever, uh … hobby horse competition on Saturday, where about 300 competitors — mostly children — pretended to ride horses through obstacle courses. The appeal of the sport is inexplicably, but undeniably, growing, and the US and Australia each held their first-ever championships earlier this year as well.

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