A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Queensland on December 18, with floods and severe hailstorms predicted. Several towns and regions were expected to be hit by the storm, with reported gusts of nearly 60mph (100km/h) in the area. This video shows the conditions in Beenleigh, southeast of Brisbane, as sheets of rain and lightning hit the town. Credit: Facebook/Daily Stop Convenience Store Beenleigh QLD
Columbia University president Minouche Shafik is no stranger to navigating complex international issues, having worked at some of the world’s most prominent global financial institutions. At the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for example, she tackled both the European debt crisis and the Arab Spring. It remains to be seen, however, if her experience with world conflicts has sufficiently equipped her to navigate the thorny challenges she faces amid ongoing student protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
Spicy, steaming, slurpy ramen might be everyone’s favorite Japanese food. In Tokyo, long lines circle around blocks, and waiting an hour for your ramen is normal. Often cooked right before your eyes behind dingy counters, the noodle dish starts here at around 1,000 yen ($6.50), and comes in various flavors and local versions.
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders. The suggestion that Hamas would disarm appeared to be a significant concession by the militant group officially committed to Israel’s destruction. It has vowed to crush Hamas following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the war, and its current leadership is adamantly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
China defended the veracity of its economic numbers and asserted its military spending was "transparent and reasonable", while dismissing as "typical double standards" comments made this week by the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. In March, China said it would boost defence spending by 7.2% this year, with an allocation of 1.55 trillion yuan ($214 billion), slightly outpacing last year's increase and swifter than the government's modest economic growth forecast. In his remarks on Tuesday, U.S. Admiral John Aquilino said China's economy had been battered by turmoil in the real estate sector and its official growth rates were "not real".
Former President Donald Trump, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and his former attorney Rudy Giuliani are uncharged co-conspirators in a Michigan "false electors" scheme tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a state investigator testified Wednesday.
Ecuadorian Indigenous environmental activist and TIME Earth Award honoree Nemonte Nenquimo spoke about collective responsibility toward the climate crisis.
A memorial at the National Cathedral in Washington on Thursday will honor the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza earlier this month. José Andrés, the celebrity chef and philanthropist behind the Washington-based World Central Kitchen disaster relief group, is expected to speak at the celebration of life service, and famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform, organizers said. The Biden administration said Thursday that Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell would be among senior administration figures attending.
Honor and Huawei were tied for the top spot, with Honor's market share rising to 17.1% and Huawei's share climbing to 17%, IDC said, while the iPhone maker's market share fell to 15.6%. The IDC declares a statistical tie when the difference between the share of revenue or shipments between two or more vendors is 0.1% or less. "Apple's price promotions in the quarter were unable to mitigate the impact of the intense competition from Android players," Arthur Guo, senior research analyst at IDC China said in the report.
Action in courts and state capitals around the U.S. this week have made it clear again: The overturning of Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion did not settle the issue. One iteration of the issue was back before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday for the second time in a month. Meanwhile, Arizona lawmakers took a step toward repealing a near-total ban before enforcement can begin; California's governor pitched providing an outlet to abortion providers and patients from neighboring Arizona if that ban takes take effect; and Tennessee moved closer to criminalizing helping a minor go out of state for an abortion without parental consent.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Thursday on the United States and China to manage their differences "responsibly" as he went on a charm offensive ahead of expected tough talks.China has accused the United States of unfair economic coercion.
A reluctant Donald Trump will be back in a New York City courtroom Thursday as his hush money trial resumes at the same time that the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in Washington over whether he should be immune from prosecution for actions he took during his time as president. Jurors will hear more witness testimony from a veteran tabloid publisher, and Trump faces a looming decision over whether he violated a gag order imposed by the judge.
Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launches a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents. Signs advising arriving visitors of the new requirement for a test phase of 29 days through July have been erected outside the main train station and other points of arrival. Once past designated entry ports, officials will carry out random checks for QR codes that show the day-tripper tax has been paid or that the bearer is exempt.
U.S. births fell last year, resuming a long national slide. A little under 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, according to provisional statistics released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. births were slipping for more than a decade before COVID-19 hit, then dropped 4% from 2019 to 2020.
On the left and right, Supreme Court justices seem to agree on a basic truth about the American system of government: No one is above the law, not even the president. “The law applies equally to all persons, including a person who happens for a period of time to occupy the Presidency,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in 2020. Less than a year earlier, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, then a federal trial judge, wrote, “Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings.”
The number of births in the United States fell by 2% in 2023 from the previous year, driven in part by a marked birth rate decline among older teenagers and women aged 20-24, according to a report from the CDC released on Thursday. The number of births in the U.S. fell to 3,591,328 in 2023 from 3,667,758 the year prior, according to provisional National Centers for Health Statistics (NCHS) data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The birth rate in 2022 was flat with the prior year.
Military vehicles and red carnations return to the streets and squares of downtown Lisbon on Thursday as Portugal reenacts dramatic moments from the army coup that brought democracy 50 years ago. Thousands of people are expected to attend celebrations of the so-called Carnation Revolution, which ended a stifling four-decade dictatorship established by Antonio Salazar. It also paved the way for Portugal’s 1986 entry into the European Union, then called the European Economic Community.
‘Father of Environmental Justice’ and TIME Earth Award honoree Robert Bullard discussed the importance of marrying information with action.
Military forces in Burkina Faso killed 223 civilians, including babies and many children, in attacks on two villages accused of cooperating with militants, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Thursday. The mass killings took place on Feb. 25 in the country's northern villages of Nondin and Soro, and some 56 children were among the dead, according to the report. The human rights organization called on the United Nations and the African Union to provide investigators and to support local efforts to bring those responsible to justice.
The CCTV footage shown at the domestic abuse trial was disturbing: The defendant is seen dragging his wife by her hair, and then punching and kicking her. The trial of businessman Kuandyk Bishimbayev, Kazakhstan's former economy minister, in the death of his wife, Saltanat Nukenova, has touched a nerve in the Central Asian country. Tens of thousands of people have signed petitions calling for harsher penalties for domestic violence.
A U.S. Army reservist who sounded the clearest warning ahead of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting is expected to answer questions Thursday from the commission investigating the tragedy. Six weeks before Robert Card killed 18 people at a bar and bowling alley in Lewiston, his best friend and fellow reservist Sean Hodgson texted their supervisors, telling them to change the passcode to the gate at their Army Reserve training facility and arm themselves if Card showed up. “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting,” Hodgson wrote on Sept. 15.
Yahoo Home