|
Recent Articles
| Image | Title & Summary |
|---|---|
|
A timeline of British royal sagas and scandals down the decades
Former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of the United Kingdom’s King Charles II, was released by police on Thursday after being arrested and held for several hours on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his links to convicted late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor, who turned 66 the day of his arrest, is the first British royal in more than 350 years to be arrested and held in police custody – the last one was King Charles I, who was arrested by parliamentary forces in 1647 and put on trial for high treason. His princely title was revoked last year over his links to Epstein and allegations that the two men sexually abused Virginia Giuffre … |
|
Father grieves for his teen daughter who died in devastating flood
18-year-old Chloe Childress was one of the 27 kids and staff who lost their lives as a result of the floods that occurred at Camp Mystic in the previous summer. According to a recent article in New York Magazine, hChloe's father identified her battered body. She was the 18-year-old Camp Mystic counselor who was killed in the tragic flood last year. The Guadalupe River rose 20 feet in three hours due to the torrential rains that swept over Central Texas that morning on July 4th. More than 130 individuals lost their lives as the catastrophic flood destroyed structures and devastated the area. Following the tragic murders of 25 kids and two counselors, including Chloe, the century-old Christian… |
|
The New Face of American Power
Opinion | Editorial America’s Doctrine of Power in 2026 The opening week of 2026 has stripped away any lingering illusions about the trajectory of U.S. foreign policy. In Caracas, a military raid removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power. Days later, Washington floated the possibility of acquiring Greenland by force. These are not isolated provocations. They clearly show a belief that control over land can be bargained for, valuable resources are seen as rewards, and military power is used as a way to gain economic advantage. Venezuela: Justice or Oil? Officials framed the Caracas operation as a crackdown on corruption and narcotics trafficking. Maduro and his wife were flown to… |
|
Oscars security tighter than ever with 1 mile police buffer amid Iran war
It’s been more than two decades since the Oscars were celebrated as the United States was launching a war in the Middle East. In 2003, the Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre occurred just days after U.S. troops invaded Iraq, elevating security concerns surrounding Hollywood’s biggest night so much that they tightened security like never before. This time around — with concerns heightened not only because of a war with Iran, but also a recent shooting at a university in Virginia and an attack on a synagogue in Michigan — security is going to be even more ironclad, authorities said. The dialed-up security, law enforcement and Oscars officials emphasize, is precautionary and there are… |
|
The astonishing number of bodies that have been abandoned atop Mount Everest
As India plans to retrieve the body of ‘Green Boots’, experts explain to Maroosha Muzaffar why Everest’s dead are rarely brought home. For decades, mountaineers from across the world have risked their lives to climb Mount Everest. Many succeed in reaching the summit and navigating the dangerous journey down. But a surprisingly high number do not, and their bodies remain scattered across the slopes of the world’s tallest mountain. As India plans to launch a daring mission to retrieve the body of one such climber who died on the mountain 30 years ago, experts warned that the process to bring back the dead from Everest is as arduous as the climb to summit itself. Though modern equipment and exp… |
|
Winning peace in Lebanon is harder than winning war
But a symbolic meeting would not be enough to resolve the conflict in Lebanon, which has deep historical roots and a wide geopolitical reach. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to occupy parts of southern Lebanon. The aim of the ongoing operation, as declared by Defense Minister Israel Katz, is to establish a “security zone” over the entire area south of the Litani River – which represents 10 percent of Lebanon’s national territory. The civilian population has been barred from returning to their homes while Israeli forces have continued bombing and mass demolition. Netanyahu appears to be using the narrative of “destroying Hezbollah” to cover up what is really a campaign of mass destruc… |
|
The war on Iran will likely end in American retreat
Iran can credibly impose costs that the United States cannot bear and that the world should not suffer. The US – Israel war plan was a decapitation strike, sold to President Donald Trump by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and David Barnea, the director of the Mossad. The premise was that an aggressive joint US–Israeli bombing campaign would so degrade the Iranian regime’s command structure, nuclear programme, and IRGC senior leadership that the regime would fracture. The United States and Israel would then impose a pliable government in Tehran. Trump seems to have been convinced that Iran would follow the same course as had occurred in Venezuela. The US operation in Venezuela in January 20… |
|
US and Israel bomb Iran with talks and threats leading up to attacks
The United States and Israel have launched strikes on Iran despite ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran responded to Saturday’s attacks with missile and air strikes across the region, including in Israel, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. Israeli officials said their strikes targeted Iran’s military and nuclear-related infrastructure, while airspace across Israel was closed and emergency measures imposed. Several other countries in the region also announced the closure of their airspace. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said Washington has begun a “major combat operation” in Iran, aimed at “eliminating threats from th… |
|
Texas homeowner charged with murder after killing armed intruder
The story begins in Texas, a state long associated with strong protections for gun owners and expansive interpretations of self-defense. According to reports, a homeowner confronted an armed intruder inside his residence. Shots were fired, and the intruder was killed. What might seem, at first glance, like a textbook case of “castle doctrine”—the legal principle that allows homeowners to use deadly force against unlawful entry—quickly became more complicated. Prosecutors filed murder charges against the homeowner, arguing that the circumstances did not justify lethal force. The decision shocked many Texans, who assumed the law would shield the homeowner. It also sparked outrage among gun rig… |
|
The Needless Murder of Over 150 Girls in Minab Iran
We remember the small rituals that made the day feel ordinary, because ordinary is what a school is supposed to be. A braid tightened with quick fingers. A scarf adjusted in a hallway mirror. The paper smell inside a notebook when you open it too fast. The soft ache of a backpack strap on a shoulder that’s still growing. We remember the way our teachers tried to make us brave about quizzes, the way we pretended not to care and then cared anyway. We remember laughter spilling down a corridor like marbles—impossible to gather once it’s loose. We walked into Shajareh Tayyebeh believing, with the stubborn faith children are allowed to have, that a classroom is a kind of sanctuary. Not holy, not … |
|
A Big Win For A Lonely Woman
Human Interest Opinion / Perspective For forty years, a stoneware crock sat on a porch in New York, a silent sentry against the biting winters and the humid, heavy summers of the Northeast. It was, for all intents and purposes, a piece of lawn debris. It held no flowers; it served no function. To the woman who lived behind the screen door, it was simply "there"—a familiar shape in a life that had slowly become a series of familiar, quiet shapes. When her birthday approached, she looked at the heavy salt-glazed vessel and allowed herself a modest, almost apologetic hope: perhaps it was worth a hundred dollars. A hundred dollars for a birthday treat, or perhaps a utility bill, or just the smal… |
|
|
The Epstein Files and the Machinery of Forgetting
Editorial The first instinct of power, when threatened, is not denial but delay. Delay until outrage exhausts itself, until headlines thin, until the public grows bored or distracted or numb. The newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein-related documents land in public view with the weight of something both familiar and unfinished, a reminder not merely of a disgraced financier and the crimes that orbited him, but of how expertly the machinery of forgetting has been engineered. These files do not arrive as a revelation in the cinematic sense. There is no single smoking gun, no neat moral closure. Instead, they arrive like sediment, layer upon layer of testimony, allegation, recollection, and evasion. … |
|
A Child Can Be Saved Now If Her Parents Can Afford the Cure
The number came before the explanation. It sat there, stark and unblinking, a figure so large it did not feel like money anymore but something abstract, like distance or time—millions, arranged neatly in digits, as if that made it reasonable. The doctor spoke afterward, carefully, almost gently, about breakthroughs, about possibility, about a future that would not have existed even a decade ago. There was no cruelty in his voice. That was the worst part. It meant the system no longer needed cruelty to do its work. The child sat in the corner, small and restless, tapping the edge of a chair, unaware that the conversation had already begun to close around her like a narrowing corridor. A cure … |
|
How OC Innovators Are Winning the Last Mile of Artificial Intelligence
For years, the artificial intelligence conversation was dominated by a handful of technology giants investing billions into massive data centers, specialized chips and large language models. But a different story is unfolding in Orange County, where a growing wave of “AI-native” startups is proving that innovation doesn’t always require building the foundation models themselves. Instead, local entrepreneurs are focusing on what many industry observers call the “last mile” of AI: applying increasingly accessible open-source and commercial AI models to solve highly specific business problems. The result is a surge in enterprise workflow automation and industry-specific AI applications that are… |
|
Amber Glenn Shocked Over What Madonna Said About Her
The collision of elite sport and pop iconography rarely transcends the level of a well-managed PR stunt, yet the moment Amber Glenn stared into a screen to find Madonna staring back was different. It was a rupture in the sterile, high-pressure atmosphere of the Olympic village. Glenn, a 26-year-old from Plano, Texas, was already carrying the weight of a nation’s expectations and the personal history of a career defined by "almosts" and "not quites." When the Queen of Pop—the woman whose 1989 anthem "Like a Prayer" Glenn had chosen as her battle cry—spoke directly to her, the athlete’s physical composure dissolved. "I’m legitimately shaking," Glenn admitted. In that trembling, we saw the inte… |
|
They Married When He Was Supposed to Die
Human Interest He was dying, and it was the saddest thing for their relatives, friends, and even the hospital staff. Most of all, Arlaine, his longtime girlfriend, was with him in the hospital. They'd been together for decades before the illness. Now, the room smelled of antiseptic and overripe flowers—the kind people buy when they’re afraid they’ve waited too long. The lights were too bright, and the machines emitted steady, monotonous noises. Bendigo Davies lay flat on his back, staring at a ceiling he hadn’t chosen, while Arlaine stood beside him, holding his hand like it was the last solid thing in the room. But they looked and admired each other, the smiles hiding dreadful worry. They h… |
|
China with its axis of authoritarians is only growing stronger under Trump
As Donald Trump prepares to depart for China to meet Xi Jinping, it is a moment for America’s traditional allies to reflect on a sobering fact: the balance of power is rapidly shifting against the United States. Since becoming president, Trump’s actions have fractured America’s alliance system just as Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have consolidated theirs. As if to underscore this, the Russian president will likely arrive in Beijing days after Trump. His will be a red carpet welcome. Donald Trump’s will be far more exposing – and we all know why. Instead of a mighty demonstration of American firepower, his Iran war has exposed huge vulnerabilities. And less discussed but no less consequentia… |
|
What happened to Lorraine Blondina Bird will shock you
Lorraine Blondina Bird was a woman who lived her life like a flame—bright, stylish, impossible to ignore. Born in East Los Angeles, she clawed her way into success, becoming one of Redondo Beach’s most respected Realtors. She wore silk scarves, kept her nails manicured, and drove a silver Mercedes with a vanity plate that announced her presence: LBBIRD1. She gave her children the kind of life she had never known—ski trips, fine dining, a college education. She was proof that ambition could rewrite destiny. But in the end, Lorraine’s story did not close with champagne and sunsets. It ended in the Mojave Desert, her body curled inside a pile of graffiti-splashed boulders, stripped nearly bare,… |
|
Democrats fear rising that too many candidates in governor race could lead to a Republican victory
SAN FRANCISCO — Leaders of the California Democratic Party, along with liberal activists and loyal power brokers, are openly expressing fear that their crowded field of candidates running for governor may splinter the vote and open the door to a surprise Republican victory in November. Because of those concerns, the Democrats lagging at the bottom of the pack are being urged to drop out of the race to ensure that the party’s political dominance in statewide elections survives the 2026 election. “California Democrats are prepared to do what’s required,” state party chairman Rusty Hicks told reporters at the California Democratic Party’s annual convention on Friday. “We are ready and willing a… |
|
California named the most air polluted state in US
The 27th annual “State of the Air” study revealed that almost half of kids in the US are exposed to harmful levels of air pollution. That includes 7 million youngsters in California, and more than eight in 10 individuals live in counties with bad air. The research rated the air quality of counties with data from 2022 to 2024 on ground-level ozone pollution, popularly known as smog, and particle pollution, generally known as soot. Los Angeles-Long Beach was once again the most ozone-polluted metropolis in the nation. Bakersfield was the most contaminated for yearly particle pollution, although the area continued to improve in 2026 report. Ground-level ozone pollution, or smog, is a potent res… |