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Facebook Tweet Email Link Taipei, Taiwan AP  —  Chinese authorities are using nets, spraying insecticide and even deploying drones to fight the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, which has infected thousands of people. Authorities had reported more than 7,000 cases of the virus as of Wednesday, mostly in the southern Chinese manufacturing hub of Foshan, some 170 kilometers (105 miles) from Hong Kong. The number of new cases appears to be dropping slowly, according to authorities. It appears to be the largest chikungunya outbreak ever documented in China, according to Cesar Lopez-Camacho of the University of Oxford. The virus is transmitted by…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Zed Nelson spots the painting on the wall behind me almost as soon as we begin our interview. “It’s perfect,” he said. The canvas depicts a sleeping tiger draped across a velvet cushion, floating among pastel-shade leaves and flowers. The London-based photographer doesn’t mean “perfect” as in “masterfully painted;” he means it’s the perfect metaphor for the idealized, human-centric relationship we’ve cultivated with nature. The painting reminds him of another artwork, “A young Tiger Playing With Its Mother,” by the French Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix, who used a captive tiger at a zoo and his pet…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Kherson, Ukraine  —  Russia has launched a new bid to exert control over the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson by threatening key access roads with its drones and trying to split it in two by striking a vital bridge. On Sunday, a wave of airstrikes damaged a key bridge between Kherson’s island, Korabel, and the main city, sparking a widespread effort to evacuate the estimated 1,800 Ukrainian civilians who still live there. Russian forces appear not to have targeted the evacuation effort over the past three days, according to locals and rescuers, a rare moment of…

Facebook Tweet Email Link The Mexican state of Oaxaca is threatening legal action against Adidas, accusing the footwear company of cultural appropriation over a newly unveiled shoe that resembles a traditional handmade sandal. The “Oaxaca Slip-On,” billed as a collaboration between American designer Willy Chavarria and Adidas Originals, features a woven leather surface, open heel, and thick rubber sole – and, in the eyes of the Oaxaca government, bears more than a passing resemblance to the “huarache” handmade sandal from the Oaxacan community of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag. Oaxacan Governor Salomón Jara Cruz on Wednesday accused the company of copying the…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Donald Trump proclaimed “great progress” toward ending the Ukraine war after announcing plans to meet soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But is Putin, to quote the US president in a previous, and rare, moment of lucidity on Russian relations, merely “tapping (him) along” again? Trump’s boiling frustration with Putin, who has tarnished the president’s hopes of becoming a peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Prize, evaporated after his envoy Steve Witkoff emerged from a three-hour meeting Wednesday with the Kremlin strongman. Trump predicted that a summit within weeks could stop the war in Ukraine, saying there…

Facebook Tweet Email Link US President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that more punishment was coming for countries buying Russian energy products after slapping a 25% tariff on India that is supposed to go into effect Thursday. “You’re going to see a lot more. So this is a taste,” he said in the Oval Office. “You’re going to see a lot more. You’re going to see so much secondary sanctions.” The move is part of Trump’s high-stakes effort to cripple Russia’s economy over its war in Ukraine. He had set a Friday deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to make peace…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Astronaut Butch Wilmore is retiring from NASA less than five months after he returned from a troubled test mission that left him aboard the International Space Station far longer than expected, the space agency announced Wednesday. Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Suni Williams, piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft last year. The mission gained worldwide attention when the spacecraft experience several serious issues en route to the space station, including thruster outages and gas leaks. Williams and Wilmore had been expected to stay about eight days in orbit. But NASA and Boeing spent…

Facebook Tweet Email Link From anchors aweigh to funnels ashore. As the historic SS United States gets ready to be converted into the world’s largest artificial reef off the coast of Florida, a new plan for an accompanying museum is coming into focus — preserving its iconic massive funnels. The two six-story-high towering funnels will soon be removed from America’s flagship, to be used as a “dramatic centerpiece” of the SS United States Museum and Visitor Experience, according to an announcement this week by the SS United States Conservancy Board. “By incorporating iconic components from the historic ocean liner into…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Tokyo  —  Japan’s precipitous population decline shows no sign of slowing, with the nation shrinking by more than 900,000 people last year – the biggest annual drop on record, according to government data. The data, released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Wednesday, showed that the number of Japanese nationals fell by 908,574 in 2024, bringing the total population to 120 million. Since peaking at 126.6 million in 2009, the population has declined for 16 consecutive years, diminished by various factors like a struggling economy and deep-seated gender norms. With the population of…

Facebook Tweet Email Link The Israeli military has “illegally and indiscriminately” used US munitions to attack school shelters in Gaza, killing hundreds of people, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. The US-based campaigners’ report, “Gaza: Israeli School Strikes Magnify Civilian Peril,” was published Thursday. Israel’s campaign following the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023 has made the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.1 million people homeless – forcing many to flee their neighborhoods in search of civilian infrastructure. Israel has frequently said its strikes on school facilities in Gaza target embedded Hamas fighters. But HRW said it only found seven instances where…