Lava erupts from vents on the west part of the caldera wall, during a new eruption within the summit caldera of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, US, December 23, 2024 [USGS/N Deligne/Handout via Reuters]
Here is the situation on Wednesday, December 25: Fighting: The estimated contingent of 12,000 North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian troops in Russia’s Kursk region has not yet had a major impact on the course of the conflict, said Yevgen Yerin, the spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence service. The North Koreans have little experience…
As a child growing up in the 1980s in Washington, DC, Christmas was a time when the usual monotony of my Catholic school existence gave way to an indescribable magic. It was not so much the presents as the sense that reality had been temporarily suspended and replaced by something far more invigorating – which…
Days after New Hampshire voters received a robocall with an artificially generated voice that resembled President Joe Biden’s, the Federal Communications Commission banned the use of AI-generated voices in robocalls. It was a flashpoint. The 2024 United States election would be the first to unfold amid wide public access to AI generators, which let people…
A leading United States government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department has said, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism. The Global Engagement Center (GEC), a State Department unit established in 2016, shuttered on Monday at a time when officials and experts tracking propaganda…
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is expected to make history by flying into the sun’s outer atmosphere, called the corona, on a mission to help scientists learn more about Earth’s closest star. “No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory,” Nick Pinkine, mission…
United States President-elect Donald Trump has promised to step up the use of the death penalty during his second term in office, saying he will go after “rapists, murderers, and monsters”. Trump’s announcement on Tuesday came after outgoing President Joe Biden used his presidential pardon powers to reduce the sentences of nearly all federal prisoners…
Since Donald Trump’s re-election as United States president, there has been growing discussion about what his incoming administration’s policies towards Afghanistan might look like. Many anticipate a tougher stance against the Taliban, but a closer look at Trump’s track record and statements on the issue indicates he is unlikely to make any drastic changes to…
A strike at Starbucks has expanded to more than 300 of the coffee chain’s stores in the United States, with more than 5,000 workers expected to walk off the job, the workers’ union said. The five-day strike will end later on Tuesday, and has come amid the Christmas holidays, one of the busiest times of…
Hollywood star Blake Lively has filed a legal complaint against her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, accusing him of “repeated sexual harassment” on set and of an intensive smear campaign against her after the movie’s release. Lively filed the complaint, which precedes a lawsuit, on Friday with the California Civil Rights…
