Headlines

Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan’s parents fled Vietnam by boat; their daughter became the first in her family to attend college and later pledged millions to scientific research | World News

Priscilla Chan’s journey from the daughter of Vietnamese refugees to a Harvard graduate, paediatrician and major science philanthropist is rooted in a family story shaped by war and migration. Her grandparents put her parents, who were teenagers at the time, on boats to flee Vietnam during the war. Chan grew up in Massachusetts, where her…

Read More

The US offered a California family $4 million for its 6,300-acre island ranch; after they refused, the government seized it and a jury awarded them $12.7 million

A federal jury in Los Angeles ordered the United States government to pay $12.7 million (£7.8 million) to a California family after it seized their 6,300-acre ranch on Santa Cruz Island. The verdict, delivered in February 1999 after a three-week trial, ended a decades-long property dispute between federal park officials and attorney Francis Gherini, whose…

Read More

In the 1980s, Burmese pythons invaded Florida’s Everglades, and decades later raccoons fell 99.3%, opossums 98.9% and bobcats 87.5% | World News

For years, the Everglades was known for its tangled wetlands, alligators and an abundance of smaller mammals moving through the vegetation. Then an animal from south-east Asia began spreading through the marshes. Burmese pythons, most likely introduced through the pet trade, have established a breeding population in southern Florida and now occupy large parts of…

Read More

Christopher Goodson: Florida police officer arrested after using Flock surveillance cameras 717 times to track estranged wife | World News

A Florida police officer has been arrested after allegedly using his department’s Flock licence-plate surveillance system 717 times to track a vehicle belonging to his estranged wife over nearly two years. Christopher Goodson, a 31-year-old officer with the Haines City Police Department, allegedly searched the vehicle’s licence plate between September 1, 2024, and June 30,…

Read More

MacKenzie Scott got $1,000 from her roommate to stay in college. Years later, she donated $26 billion to charity | World News

MacKenzie Scott is now known for giving billions of dollars to charities, but her own experience of needing financial help began much earlier. While studying at Princeton, Scott faced a difficult period when money was tight and remaining at university was uncertain. Her roommate, Jeannie Ringo Tarkenton, noticed her struggle and lent her $1,000, helping…

Read More

Meet Zainab Nathani, the Illinois student who designed a material that can pull water from humid air using sunlight |

Zainab Nathani, a high school junior from Niles, Illinois, has designed a material that can pull drinkable water straight out of humid air, powered entirely by sunlight. Studying at Niles Township West High School, she built her project around emulsion-templated composite biogels, porous, bio-based structures engineered to trap moisture from the atmosphere and release it…

Read More

In 2020, a Brazilian mother and daughter began collecting discarded bottles; years later, more than 8,000 glass bottles had become the walls of their seven-bedroom home that glows during sunrise

When people go on a trip, they make sure to carry back a suitcase full of memories. From photos to souvenirs, they invest in numerous things to ensure that they have something to remember the good times by. But one thing they always end up forgetting is to carry back the waste and deposit it…

Read More

‘We are Gen Z’ row: Army veteran offers to crowdfund Ladakh tourist’s salary for Siachen stay | Srinagar News

A viral video shows a tourist arguing with security personnel at a Kargil checkpoint SRINAGAR: A retired Army officer has hit out at the female tourist whose “We are Gen-Z and we won’t tolerate this nonsense” rant at a Kargil checkpoint went viral, saying her behaviour had unfairly portrayed the younger generation and created a…

Read More

In 2006, Oregon poured rotenone into 2,824-acre Diamond Lake: an estimated 90 million invasive fish disappeared, and its collapsed trout fishery reopened |

Aerial view looking east to Diamond Peak and Crescent Lake in the Diamond Peak Wilderness in the Oregon Cascade Range. Credits – Wikimedia Commons In September 2006, Oregon officials took the drastic step of treating Diamond Lake with rotenone after an invasive fish had pushed the lake’s trout fishery into collapse. The fish was tui…

Read More

In 1937, Australian scientists released infected rabbits on an island to test a virus that would later transform rabbit control across the continent |

A European rabbit in Tasmania. Image Credit: JJ Harrison/Wikipedia In 1937, Australian scientists took an unusual step in the fight against one of the country’s most destructive pests known as ‘rabbits.’ They released rabbits carrying ‘myxoma virus’ on Wardang Island, off South Australia, to see whether the disease could spread naturally. The experiment was part…

Read More