Chunk, a towering brown bear with a broken jaw, on Tuesday swept the competition in the Fat Bear Week contest — his first win after narrowly finishing second in three previous years.The annual online competition allows viewers to follow 12 bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve on live
The recent debut of an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated “actress” dubbed Tilly Norwood and its producer’s boasts of interest from studio executives on Tuesday sparked a backlash from the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union, condemning the replacement of human performers with “synthetics.”The Hollywood buz
‘END WOKE’: US Senator Jack Reed called the meeting ‘a dangerous dereliction of leadership’ after the defense secretary urged an end to ‘politically correct leadership’
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using US cities as training grounds for the armed forces and spoke of needing US military might to combat an “invasion from within.”Addressing an audience of military brass in Virginia, Trump outlined a view of the military’s role in domestic affairs alo
NEW ZEALANDFBI gun gift seizedFBI Director Kash Patel gifted officials illegal firearms during his visit to the country earlier this year, authorities said yesterday. Patel visited the nation in July to open a permanent intelligence office and met with senior officials. Police Commissioner Richard C
A corn maze at Cool Patch Pumpkins is pictured in Dixon, California, on Monday. Cool Patch Pumpkins owner Taylor Cooley said that the pumpkin patch and 16.2 hectare maze are open for the fall season through Halloween. It typically takes at least 45 minutes to complete the maze, which has five bridge
PREPARING FOR LAYOFFS: A shutdown would add to the pain of government workers after large-scale firings orchestrated by tycoon Elon Musk earlier this year
The US government yesterday was heading toward a shutdown, with funding expiring at midnight, and Democrats and Republicans digging in on their respective demands.A last-gasp meeting at the White House on Monday yielded no breakthrough on the issue, with US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the
A senior North Korean diplomat on Monday reiterated at the UN that his country would not give up its nuclear weapons despite numerous international demands to do so, calling them crucial to keeping a “balance of power” with South Korea.“We will never walk away from this position,” he said.Under the
Afghanistan yesterday faced a second day without Internet and mobile phone service, after Taliban authorities cut the fiber-optic network.Taliban authorities began shutting down high-speed Internet connections to some provinces last month to prevent “vice.”On Monday night, the mobile phone signal an
INCREASING THREAT: The abandonment of agriculture in the mountains and increased availability of prey such as boar and deer have seen the wolf population rebound
Hunters and farmers in Greece are demanding the right to cull wolves after one attacked a child on a beach last month, warning that the protected species is multiplying in the wild.The animal “grabbed” the five-year-old girl by the waist as she played on a beach in the Halkidiki Peninsula, northern
Madagascan President Andry Rajoelina on Monday sacked his government following days of deadly unrest, which the UN said has left at least 22 people dead.Thousands have poured onto the streets of the Indian Ocean nation to protest against repeated water and electricity outages. Police have responded
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has signed a decree granting him additional security powers in case the US military enters the nation, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said on Monday.The measure marks the latest escalation in tensions between the two nations, with Maduro publicly allegi
‘EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE’: The attack in Michigan comes a month after a shooting at a Catholic church and school in Minnesota, in which two children were killed
A man on Sunday opened fire in a Mormon church in Michigan and set the building ablaze, killing at least four people in the latest deadly tragedy that US President Donald Trump called part of a national “epidemic of violence.”Police in the northern US state said the shooter first rammed the church w
Moldova’s ruling pro-EU party won parliamentary elections with the backing of more than half of voters, according to near-complete results yesterday for polls overshadowed by accusations of Russian interference in the ex-Soviet nation.The small EU candidate nation, which borders Ukraine and has a pr
Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Sunday released a US citizen from detention, a week after freeing an elderly British couple.In a statement the Taliban identified the detainee as Amir Amiri and said he had been handed over to Adam Boehler, Washington’s special envoy on hostages.Boehler made a rar
‘BAD IMAGE’: Gergory Moreau never tires of campaigning, including by distributing leaflets with pictures of cute-looking rats in front of the Eiffel Tower
It has black button eyes and long, thin whiskers that tremble when it looks around curiously.Unlike most rats, this one has a name, Plume, and gets to enjoy the rare privilege of wandering around Paris on the shoulder of its owner, a local politician.Gregory Moreau, a Paris district deputy mayor, is
State authorities in Oregon on Sunday sued to halt the deployment of US troops to the northwestern city of Portland, a day after US President Donald Trump ordered the move.The deployment would follow similar moves by the Republican president to mobilize troops against the wishes of local Democratic
Beijing wants to strengthen cooperation with Pyongyang and work together to oppose hegemony, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) told his North Korean counterpart, in a thinly veiled reference to the US.North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son-hui met Wang on Sunday in the Chin
ECONOMIC IMPACTS: The Iranian rial plunged to a record low yesterday, trading at about 1.12 million against the US dollar following the reimposition of the sanctions
Iran yesterday condemned as “unjustifiable” the reinstatement of UN sanctions over its nuclear program, after the collapse of talks with Western powers, and Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear sites.The measures, which bar dealings linked to the Islamic republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile act
RESPONSES: Ukraine urged the West to strike stronger economic blows against Russia, while Moscow denied that it was responsible for drone incursions in Europe
Ukraine yesterday said that Russia pounded the country with “hundreds” of drones and missiles overnight, killing at least four people in the capital alone, while neighboring Poland scrambled jets to secure its airspace.The attacks came after Russia warned NATO against taking sterner action in respon
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