The Brookfield Zoo celebrated the arrival of its newest member: a female giant anteater pup born Nov. 15. Giant anteaters are currently considered a vulnerable species with an estimated 5,000 remaining in the wild. (Jan. 24)
A crew of three astronauts from China's Shenzhou-18 mission took off on a rocket bound for the Tiangong space station Thursday, the latest mission in Beijing's space programme that aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.Beijing also aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030, and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction on sex crime charges and ordered a new trial."Order reversed and a new trial ordered," the ruling said.
The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up Donald Trump's bid to avoid prosecution over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Arguments are set to begin at 10 a.m. Trump’s lawyers argue that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity for their official acts.
The leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party on Thursday ended a coalition deal with the Greens, leaving him facing fresh pressure as the head of a minority government in Edinburgh.- Net zero - The SNP-Greens deal, known as the Bute House Agreement after the Scottish first minister's official residence in Edinburgh, was signed in 2021.
The US economy cooled markedly in the first three months this year, expanding less than anticipated as consumer spending and exports decelerated, according to government data released on Thursday.- Slower spending - On Thursday, the slowing in growth "primarily reflected decelerations in consumer spending, exports, and state and local government spending," said the Commerce Department.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez left Spain in suspense after announcing he may step down because of what he called an “unprecedented” smear campaign against his wife. Sánchez, who has been in office since 2018, stunned the nation Wednesday by announcing that he was canceling all official events until next week, when he will unveil his future plans. The announcement came hours after a Madrid provincial judge agreed to study allegations of corruption brought by a right-wing group against Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez.
The iconic windmill sails of the Moulin Rouge, a vibrant emblem of Paris’s bohemian lifestyle, collapsed Thursday after a show. Jean-Victor Clerico, the director of Moulin Rouge, told French media that a “technical problem” led to the windmill’s sails and part of the cabaret’s illuminated sign crashing to the ground. Despite the setback, Clerico said that the show at Moulin Rouge will go on, emphasizing the cabaret’s resilience and commitment to continuing its legacy.
Swiss food giant Nestle reported slimmer sales than expected in the first quarter on Thursday, weighed down by weak demand for frozen pizza and snacks in North America."Weakness in the US centered around frozen pizza and snacks, where we saw a combination of soft consumer demand, intense price competition and a reduction in retailer inventories in the quarter," Manz said.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was abducted at the Nova music festival that was attacked by Hamas gunmen early on Oct. 7 .
Meta's AI reality check has dented hopes for a Big Tech revival for stocks, with a GDP update showing the US economy grew slower than expected in the first quarter.
Amazon ’s cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services plans to invest $11 billion to build a data center in northern Indiana that will create at least 1,000 new jobs, state and company officials announced Thursday. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb called the project planned near the town of New Carlisle, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of South Bend, “the largest capital investment announcement in Indiana’s history."
Russia is considering downgrading the level of its diplomatic relations with the United States if Western governments go ahead with proposals to confiscate its frozen assets, state news agency RIA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Thursday. The G7 group of nations are looking to use nearly $300 billion worth of Russian financial assets frozen by sanctions since 2022 to help support Ukraine, which is now in its third year of fighting a Russian invasion.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction on felony sex crime charges has been overturned by the State of New York Court of Appeals.
Flooding in Tanzania caused by weeks of heavy rain has killed 155 people and affected more than 200,000 others, the prime minister said Thursday. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told parliament that the El Niño climate pattern has worsened the ongoing rainy season, causing the flooding and destroying roads, bridges and railways. Flooded schools have been closed and emergency services have rescued people marooned by the flood waters.
Supreme Court hears Donald Trump immunity claim. Protestors arrested in pro-Palestinian encampments at UT-Austin and USC. Venice institutes entry fee.
U.S. economic growth slowed more than expected in the first quarter, but a surprisingly hot quarterly Personal Consumption Expenditure inflation component suggested that the Federal Reserve would not cut interest rates before September. The economy has defied prophecies of doom since late 2022 following the Fed's aggressive rate hiking campaign to stamp out inflation. It is a down shift in economic growth and it confirms the trend of accelerating inflation.
Exhausted Ukrainian soldiers near the front line were eagerly awaiting the arrival of desperately needed US weapons Thursday, with some bitter at how much the long wait has cost them.Oleksiy said that his unit had enough Ukrainian ammunition but hoped for "armoured vehicles, artillery and long-range shells."
The first six of a dozen Rafale multipurpose fighter jets purchased by Croatia from France landed at an air force base near Zagreb on Thursday with a welcome ceremony attended by top officials. The deal, signed in 2021 with French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, was said to be worth over a billion euros.
China launched a three-member crew to its orbiting space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030. The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket at 8:59 p.m. (1259 GMT). The spacecraft’s three-member crew will relieve the Shenzhou-17 team, which has been staffing China’s Tiangong space station since last October.
Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems on Thursday received backing from an adviser to Europe's top court in his fight against Meta Platforms over personalised advertising based on processing of personal data. The adviser's opinion is non-binding, but judges at the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), follow the majority of such recommendations. Schrems, who has repeatedly sued Meta for alleged breaches of the EU's privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), took his grievance to an Austrian court, saying he regularly received advertisements directed at homosexuals.
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