User Articles

Louisiana appeals Ten Commandments ruling

Lawyers for the state of Louisiana have asked a federal appeals court to immediately block a judge’s ruling ordering education officials to tell all local districts that a law requiring schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms is unconstitutional. US District Judge John deGravelles in Baton Rouge declared the law “unconstitutional on its face” in a lengthy decision and ordered education officials to notify the state’s 72 local school boards of that fact.

Politics

Gaetz shock pick for attorney general

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as his attorney general, bypassing more experienced options in favour of a loyalist who has built a national reputation as a disruptor and whom Trump has tasked with dramatically overhauling the Justice Department. Trump also confirmed that he had tapped Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his nominee for secretary of state. And he selected Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic member of Congress and presidential candidate, to serve as his director of national intelligence.

Nature

6 hours ago

Mystery creature determined to be a sea slug

More than two decades after spotting a mysterious, gelatinous, bioluminescent creature swimming in the deep sea, California researchers have announced that it is a new species of sea slug. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute posted video online of the new sea slug floating gently in the depths. Using a remote vehicle, scientists with the institute first noticed what they called a “mystery mollusc” in February 2000 at a depth of 8,576 feet (2,614 meters) in the Pacific.

6 hours ago

Aviation

8 hours ago

Oakland airport ordered to stop using ‘San Francisco’

A federal judge has ordered the Port of Oakland to stop using San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport as its airport’s name while a lawsuit by the city of San Francisco is ongoing. San Francisco sued in April over what it says is a trademark violation and asked a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction, arguing that the airport’s new name is confusing people who want to fly to the San Francisco International Airport and violates copyright infringement.

8 hours ago

Switzerland

Villagers flee rockslide threat

Families in a tiny Swiss village are packing up again after authorities issued an evacuation order with a weekend deadline because of the threat of a possible rockslide from an Alpine mountainside overhead. Authorities in charge of the eastern village of Brienz said they had analysed the potential danger with geology and natural-hazards specialists and recommended the precautionary evacuation by 1pm on Sunday.

Politics

Defence pick stuns Pentagon

President-elect Donald Trump has stunned the Pentagon and the broader defence community by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defence secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world’s largest and most powerful military. The news was met with concern among many in Washington as Trump passed over a number of established national security heavy-hitters to chose an Army National Guard officer well known in conservative circles as a co-host of Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends Weekend.

Odd Spot

19 hours ago

Bear caught dumpster diving

A bear has been seen rummaging through a dumpster and exploring a neighbourhood in Pasadena, California. Video captured by KABC-TV/ABC7 Los Angeles also showed the animal walking in front of properties in the area. ABC7 reported that the bear had been spotted near a school earlier in the day.

19 hours ago

Military

21 hours ago

Joint drills with Indonesia kick off in Java

The Indonesian and Australian militaries have begun joint combat drills off Indonesia’s main island of Java, with about 2,000 troops training in air, maritime, amphibious and land operations. They’ll participate in a live-fire exercise near Banongan beach of East Java’s Situbondo district with tanks, artillery, infantry and attack helicopters, a joint landing operation and a non-combat evacuation used for a disaster.

21 hours ago

Belarus

22 hours ago

Political prisoner resurfaces after months of no contact

Imprisoned Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova has resurfaced after more than 20 months without any communication with relatives or friends and met with her father, a human rights group says. Kolesnikova, one of the most popular and charismatic figures who helped lead protests of Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, was last heard from in February 2023. The 42-year-old musician-turned activist, who suffered a serious illness and underwent surgery while in prison, has been serving her 11-year sentence at a facility near Gomel.

22 hours ago

Russia

Doctor jailed for alleged Ukraine war criticism

A doctor accused of criticising the war in Ukraine in front of a patient was convicted of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, part of an unrelenting Kremlin crackdown on dissent. Dr Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of her patients, reported the pediatrician to authorities. Akinshina alleged that Buyanova told her and her son that his father, a Russian soldier who was killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for Kyiv’s troops and had blamed Moscow for the war. A video of the outraged Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely publicised, and chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin personally demanded a criminal case be brought against the doctor.

France

Le Pen expecting guilty verdict

For weeks, Marine Le Pen has thrown all her energy into fighting what she calls unfair accusations that her party embezzled European Parliament funds. France’s leading far-right figure is now facing a crucial moment in a high-profile trial where her eligibility to run for president in 2027 is at stake. Le Pen is anticipating a guilty verdict, as prosecutors wrap up their and lay out their proposed sentence. The trial is scheduled to finish November 27, with a verdict at a later date.

Agriculture

Furore as French farmers protest imports deal

French farmers are protesting against a trade deal that would increase agricultural imports from South America, saying it hurt their livelihoods. The European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc, composed of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia, reached an initial agreement in 2019, but negotiations stumbled due to opposition from farmers, and some European governments, leading to sweeping rallies where they particularly expressed worry about the use of pesticides in South American produce.

History

Reservoir works reveal ‘ghost bridge’

A bridge from the horse-and-buggy era, known to locals as the “Ghost Bridge”, has recently become visible and is capturing the interest of people from around the region who travel to see it. The bridge is located in the Oak Ridge Reservoir in northern New Jersey, one of several reservoirs that supply water to the residents of Newark.

Education

Ten Commandments law blocked

A new Louisiana requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public classrooms is “unconstitutional on its face”, a federal judge has ruled, ordering state education officials not to take steps to enforce it and to notify all local school boards in the state of his decision.