In the news

■ Sanya Phetset, district chief of Phop Phra, Thailand, said a 49-foot pit dug in a failed search for water was left uncovered and a 19-month-old girl fell in, but rescuers managed to save her 18 hours later, with one exclaiming amid tears and hugs, “Great job, guys. We did it!”

■ Stephen Dawson, Australia’s emergency services minister, called it “nothing short of miraculous” after two pilots walked away with just minor injuries when a jet fighting wildfires crashed in a national park and was engulfed in flames.

■ Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, 49, Denmark’s defense minister, is taking a leave of absence, saying first that he felt “dizziness and headache” and went to the hospital “just to be safe,” but then that he “was pulling the plug” and “will be back when I’m ready” on his doctor’s advice.

■ Marriyum Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s information minister, said a ban on Wikipedia for not removing allegedly blasphemous content was soon rescinded after being condemned as a blow to digital rights that deprived people of the right to seek knowledge.

■ Kimberlee Beckmen, a state wildlife veterinarian in Alaska, determined that the polar bear that killed a woman and her baby in a rare event was an adult male, likely an older animal in poor condition, but tests were negative for pathogens that cause aggressive behavior.

■ Ashwin Vasan, health commissioner for New York City, which had the nation’s strictest workplace vaccination rules for covid-19, said “it’s clear these mandates … were absolutely necessary to meet the moment” as the mayor announced it’s time for them to fade away.

■ Tom Girardi, 83, disbarred after becoming one of the nation’s most prominent plaintiff’s attorneys, is himself in Los Angeles federal court, where he pleaded innocent to charges that he embezzled $15 million from clients, and attorneys say he now has Alzheimer’s disease.

■ Alfreda Fluker, a former police detective in Birmingham, Ala., was sentenced to life in prison for killing a woman she caught with her police partner, also her live- in boyfriend, and shooting at him as well.

■ Chris Bell of the Mississippi House put it on the record that “I do not like blueberries” as his colleagues voted to recognize them as the state fruit and sent the bill to the Senate, with the speaker noting that Bell cast the “one sour nay.”