Lego mania
Seattle architect creates a Lego man cave for his 250,000-piece collection
Seattle architect creates a Lego man cave for his 250,000-piece collection
The Fed chair this week doused any hope homebuyers still had that mortgage rates would soften anytime soon.
Wall Street strategists are becoming less confident in small cap stocks as Fed rate cut hopes diminish.
An attack on pro-government fighters by suspected members of the Islamic State group in central Syria killed 22 pro-government fighters, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media reported Friday. Gunmen attacked a bus carrying members of the Quds Brigade, a government and Russian-backed faction of mostly Palestinian fighters in Syria, near the town of Sukhna late Thursday night. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition war monitor, and the pro-government radio station Sham FM said IS was behind the attack.
San Francisco is the latest U.S. city preparing to receive a pair of pandas from China, in a continuation of Beijing’s famed “panda diplomacy.” San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the panda loan in Beijing on Friday, alongside officials from China Wildlife Conservation Association, or CWCA.
Oil prices rallied and equities fell Friday as reports said explosions had been heard in Iran and Syria, fuelling fears of an escalation of the Middle East crisis after last weekend's missile attack on Israel by Tehran."It is now clear that the escalating shadow warfare between Israel and Iran... has finally ignited the powder keg in the Middle East, and we have moved decisively out of the shadows and into the glaring light of open conflict," said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.
Apple has removed Meta's WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China on orders from the country's internet regulator, US media reported Friday."The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns," it added, referring to China's internet regulator.
Ukraine said Friday that, for the first time since Russia's invasion, it had downed a Russian long-range bomber used to fire cruise missiles at cities across the war-battered country."For the first time, anti-aircraft missile units of the air force in cooperation with the defence intelligence of Ukraine destroyed a Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber," Ukraine's military said in a statement on social media.
Kenya began three days of mourning on Friday after its defence chief and nine other senior military officers were killed in a helicopter crash, the latest accident to blight the nation's military.General Francis Omondi Ogolla, the Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces (CDF), was killed when his helicopter went down shortly after takeoff in a remote area of northwestern Kenya on Thursday.
Here’s what we know so far amid fears of conflict escalating in the region.
Shoppers and workers returned to a “really quiet” Sydney mall Friday, where six days earlier an assailant stabbed six people to death and wounded more than a dozen others in an attack that police believe targeted women. Westfield Bondi Junction mall near world-famous Bondi Beach had opened Thursday, although shops inside were closed, for a “community reflection day.” New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns described it as “the first step in healing” in what has been a traumatic week for Australia’s largest city.
A former teacher in Indiana is accused of orchestrating a “Fight Club” in which he allegedly encouraged classmates to beat up a 7-year-old student with disabilities and videotaping at least one assault, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
Bitcoin enthusiasts were eagerly waiting for bitcoin's 'halving' on Friday - a change to the cryptocurrency's underlying technology designed to cut the rate at which new bitcoins are created. The halving, which happens roughly every four years, was written into Bitcoin's code at its inception by pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto as a way to reduce the rate at which bitcoins are created. Chris Gannatti, Global Head of Research at asset manager WisdomTree, which markets bitcoin exchange-traded funds, called the halving "one of the biggest events in crypto this year".
A Polish man has been charged with assisting Russia in an alleged plot to assassinate Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to authorities in Poland and Ukraine.
Asian stocks tumbled Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei slumping 2.4% on heavy selling of semiconductor-related shares and other market heavyweights. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 2.4% to 37,156.54, paring losses in the early trading when it plunged 3.5%. Renesas gave up 6%, Tokyo Electron lost 8.7% and Sony Group Corp. declined 1.8%.
In remote Indian forests home to a decades-old Maoist insurgency battling government rule, few in farmer Ajay Kumaroya's village had ever dared anger the guerrillas by voting.But India has deployed tens of thousands of security personnel to crush them, and the crowd at Kumaroya's village reflects government efforts to boost infrastructure and connect villages like his to the rest of the country.
Indonesian authorities were on alert Friday for more eruptions from a remote island volcano that forced thousands to evacuate this week, as nearby residents began clearing debris after molten rocks rained down on their villages. And then it rained and rocks fell.
Explosions rocked Iran's central Isfahan province on Friday, according to state media, while US officials told American news outlets that Israel carried out a retaliatory strike on the Islamic republic.- Early Friday, Iran's Fars news agency said "three explosions" were heard near the Shekari army airbase in the northwest of Isfahan province.
DUBAI (Reuters) -Dubai's flagship airline Emirates is suspending check-in for all customers with onward connections through the city until 2359 GMT on Friday, three days after a record storm swept the United Arab Emirates. Emirates, one of the world's biggest international airlines, said customers travelling to Dubai as their final destination may check-in and travel as usual. The suspension shows the airline and its hub, Dubai International Airport, are still struggling to clear a backlog of flights after the UAE saw its heaviest rains in the 75 years records have been kept, bringing much of the country to a standstill for two days and causing significant damage.
Street vendors in Mali's capital of Bamako peddle water sachets, ubiquitous for this part of West Africa during the hottest months. This year, an unprecedented heat wave has led to a surge in deaths, experts say, warning of more scorching weather ahead as effects of climate change roil the continent. The heat wave began in late March, as many in this Muslim majority country observed the holy Islamic month of Ramadan with dawn-to-dusk fasting.
Taiwanese tycoon Morris Chang received one of the island's highest medals of honour on Friday, in recognition of his achievements as the founder of semiconductor giant TSMC. Known as the "godfather" of the island's chip industry, Chang founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company three decades ago, building it into a multi-billion-dollar company that today is a leader in making the microchips that power everything from smartphones to AI technology."Because of (TSMC) founder Chang, Taiwan's