Florida is braced for the arrival of Hurricane Helene, forecast to be a powerful category-four storm when it smashes into the state’s panhandle. Officials issued dire warnings, pleading with residents in coastal areas along the hurricane’s path to evacuate ahead of catastrophic winds and a potentially deadly storm surge, the wall of seawater pushed on … Read more
A suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann allegedly confessed to taking a child from a Portuguese apartment, his cellmate has sensationally claimed in court. Convicted paedophile and rapist Christian Brueckner, who was in and around the Praia da Luz resort area on the Algarve coast at the time McCann disappeared on May … Read more
Thousands of Australians in Lebanon are being warned to leave immediately as rocket exchanges with Israel narrow the window to escape safely. Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressed alarm at the escalation of the conflict and called for Australians to get out, while spearheading a push to better protect humanitarian workers in conflict zones. Australia was … Read more
LOS ANGELES — For decades, video games have relied on scripted, stilted interactions with non-player characters to help shepherd gamers in their journeys. But as artificial intelligence technology improves, game studios are experimenting with generative AI to help build environments, assist game writers in crafting NPC dialogue and lend video games the improvisational spontaneity once … Read more
Israel intercepted a missile fired by Hezbollah near Tel Aviv on Wednesday, an unprecedented attack by the militant group that reached deep into the country’s commercial heartlands and marked a new escalatory step in the conflict between the two sides. People in Tel Aviv and the central city of Netanya woke up to sirens on … Read more
CAIRO — Mothers and children in the Sudanese region of South Darfur are experiencing one of the “worst” health emergencies in the world, humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday, one of the consequences of the violence that has engulfed the country since April 2023. Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, said in its … Read more
RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian judge Tuesday suspended the preventive arrest of one of the country’s most popular country music stars in connection with a money laundering investigation, a court source with access to the ruling told The Associated Press. A court staffer in the state of Pernambuco confirmed that local Judge Eduardo Guilliod … Read more
An Israeli air strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut has killed a Hezbollah commander who was a leading figure in its rocket division, two security sources in Lebanon said, as fears of a full-fledged war in the Middle East mount. The sources identified the commander who was killed on Tuesday as Ibrahim Qubaisi. The … Read more
TORONTO — Francis Ford Coppola believes he can stop time. It’s not just a quality of the protagonist of Coppola’s new film “Megalopolis,” a visionary architect named Cesar Catilina ( Adam Driver ) who, by barking “Time, stop!” can temporarily freeze the world for a moment before restoring it with a snap of his fingers. … Read more
Several people have been detained and a criminal case opened in connection with the suspected death of a person in a new “suicide capsule”, police in northern Switzerland said. The “Sarco” capsule, which has never been used before, is designed to allow the person sitting in a reclining seat inside to push a button that … Read more
