Five technicians secured by wires worked near the curved top of an arched steel structure that loomed the equivalent of 40 stories high, trying to extinguish the last bits of smoldering insulation left by a drone strike. It was snowing; the temperature was below freezing; the steel was covered with ice. The hole from the … Read more
The nonprofit groups track the imprisonment of Chinese political dissidents and the expansion of state censorship. They speak out for persecuted minority groups like the Uyghurs and Tibetans. And they help sustain attention on Beijing’s crackdown of freedoms in Hong Kong. The future of their work is now in question as Elon Musk’s government efficiency … Read more
Vice President JD Vance’s defense of a divisive far-right political party in Germany was the latest jarring example of his willingness to embrace a provocative political issue and showed how hard-line immigration policy has emerged as the thread tightly knitting together a global patchwork of populist movements. The thrust of Mr. Vance’s speech on Friday … Read more
new video loaded: Tropical Cyclone Zelia Hits North Western Australia transcript Back transcript Tropical Cyclone Zelia Hits North Western Australia Zelia made landfall 34 miles northeast of Port Hedland, packing winds equivalent to a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane. Residents were told to stay indoors to shelter from heavy rain and destructive winds. “Port Hedland is … Read more
The top foreign policy official for the European Union had a blunt assessment on Friday of the Trump administration’s apparent willingness to give Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, much of what he wants in Ukraine, even before negotiations to end the three-year war begin. “It’s appeasement,” the official, Kaja Kallas, declared at the Munich Security … Read more
Fewer than 6,000 people live in Trevethin and Penygarn, a gritty, deindustrialized district amid the hills and valleys of South Wales, and not many expected drama when a vote was called to elect a member of the local municipality, one of the lowest tiers of British government. But as one candidate, Stuart Keyte, a member … Read more
A Texas county is taking steps to declare a state of emergency and seek federal assistance over farmland contaminated with harmful “forever chemicals,” as concerns grow over the safety of fertilizer made from sewage. Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, has been roiled since county investigators found high levels of chemicals called PFAS, or per- … Read more
Barbie Hsu, a Taiwanese actress, television host and pop star who catapulted to Pan-Asian popularity in 2001 as the star of the Cinderella-style teenage drama “Meteor Garden,” died on Feb. 2 in Tokyo. She was 48. Her death was announced to TVBS News in Taiwan by her sister Dee Hsu, who said the cause was … Read more
Pope Francis was hospitalized on Friday for diagnostic tests and to treat an ongoing case of bronchitis, the Vatican said, reviving concerns about the 88-year old pontiff’s health. In a brief statement, the Vatican said that Francis had held his audiences as usual on Friday morning and was then taken to the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli, … Read more
A Rafter ‘Swallowed’ by a Whale, and Caught on Dad’s Video