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Facebook Tweet Email Link Southwest Airlines, primarily a domestic airline throughout its over 50-year history, is looking at expanding to overseas markets, a further sign that the once-distinctive Texas airline is following the path of rival carriers. “Southwest Airlines is continuing to consider ways to grow our business as we evolve to meet the needs of our current and future customers,” Southwest said a statement to CNN. “One of the things we are exploring is the potential to expand our network to new international destinations on our Boeing 737 aircraft.” Southwest currently flies to a handful of international locations in…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Arnon Nampa’s youngest child runs toward the sound of shackles. The 3-year-old’s only memories of his father, a prominent human right lawyer and activist, are from seeing him in a courtroom – not from his work defending others, but from the numerous lese majeste cases against him, Thailand’s notoriously strict royal insult law. “He remembers Arnon with his closely shaved hair, leg shackles, and prison uniform,” Arnon’s wife Pathomporn told CNN. “Every time we drive past the court, he says ‘We are going to see Dad’.” Arnon has been sentenced to a combined 29 years in…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Bordeaux’s tourists flock to its vineyards to taste flights of the region’s renowned red wines. On the other side of the world, entrepreneur Adrian Choy hopes that visitors to Malaysia will soon view sampling the world’s most divisive fruit as a similar must-do cultural experience. At DurianBB Park in Kuala Lumpur, people taste platters of varieties of the spiky, football-sized fruit – from the saccharine sweet Musang King to the custardy Black Thorn – grown at the company’s farms. They wear plastic gloves to protect their hands from the odor, which has been likened to “stale…

Facebook Tweet Email Link India has successfully test-fired an indigenously developed intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead deep into the territory of its geopolitical rival, China, just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for his first visit there in years. The Agni-5 was launched in India’s eastern Odisha state and “validated all operational and technical parameters,” the country’s defense ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The missile has a range of more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies Missile Defense Project. That puts India’s rivals like China and…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Sarah J. Maas, Freida McFadden and Emily Henry –– can these popular authors join forces and save the day against a dangerous decline in reading for enjoyment? Daily reading for pleasure has plummeted 40% over the past 20 years, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal iScience. The report, which surveyed people in the United States about their reading habits between 2003 and 2023, showed that the decline has been sustained over time –– about 3% a year. African Americans, people with lower income or educational levels, and people in rural areas experienced…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Rafah, Egypt  —  For nearly two years, Egyptian truck drivers have braved the only land crossing into Gaza outside Israel to deliver vital aid, but long delays, Israeli rejections and harsh border conditions are testing their resolve to continue serving Palestinians in the war-torn enclave. The drivers spend weeks parked near the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, awaiting approvals from Israeli authorities to transport aid into Gaza. Once approval is granted, they are made to undergo a process of inspections on both sides of the border that Egyptian aid workers say often lasts almost 18…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Kara Alaimo is an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her book “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — And How We Can Take It Back” was published in 2024 by Alcove Press. When your kids head back to school, there’s a good chance they plan to use artificial intelligence to get their schoolwork done. Twenty-six percent of teenagers ages 13 to 17 said they had used ChatGPT for their schoolwork in a 2024 Pew Research Center survey. AI chatbots have become more prevalent since then, so the…

Facebook Tweet Email Link They roll down Beijing streets, some covered from prying eyes by huge tarpaulins, but the silhouettes of missiles, tanks and undersea vehicles are unmistakable as China prepares for its most revealing military parade in six years. For military watchers, the procession of veiled armaments is offering valuable clues to what might be on show at a massive military parade on September 3, which China says will reveal the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) “new generation” of domestically produced, active-duty weaponry. It will be the largest display of advancements in China’s military hardware since the 2019 National Day…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Bintan, Indonesia  —  In 1914, two years after the Titanic embarked on its ill-fated maiden voyage, the steam-powered SS Medina rolled off the shipyard at Newport News, Virginia. The vessel has had many lives — and many names — since, in a career that eventually made it the oldest active passenger ship on the oceans. But the 111-year-old boat’s latest assignment is, perhaps, the unlikeliest of them all. Originally used to transport onions and other goods, the Medina was conscripted to assist America’s World War II efforts. It was then converted into a passenger ship, the…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is ready to make “some compromise” on his demand that a ceasefire takes place before any talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin – as long as some security guarantees for Ukraine are established. His comments come as Moscow openly contradicts the White House narrative that plans for a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky are “underway.” Ukraine and its allies in Europe have long pushed for there to be a ceasefire as a first step towards ending the war, which would require resolving seemingly intractable issues such as land and…