Author: Grace Thompson

A man killed himself with a bomb outside Brazil’s Supreme Court after trying to enter the building on Wednesday, officials said, stirring security concerns before the country hosts global leaders from the Group of 20 major economies. The blasts come five days before the G20 heads of state meet in Rio de Janeiro, followed by a state visit to the capital Brasilia by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The first of two explosions went off on Wednesday evening in a parking lot near the court building and a second blast came seconds later in front of the court, where the man’s body was found. Federal District Vice Governor Celina Leao said preliminary information suggested the man had killed himself with explosives after trying to enter the Supreme Court. She said he owned a nearby car in wh...

The president of the Pacific Islands nation of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr., was returned for a second term after a national election held last week, a final tally by the Palau Election Commission showed Wednesday. The results showed Whipps Jr. won 5,626 votes, defeating his brother-in-law Tommy Remengesau, who received 4,103 votes. Palau, which is important to the U.S. military amid tensions with China and is among a dozen diplomatic allies of Taiwan , held a national election for president and its Senate on Nov. 5. “Looking ahead, I know the challenges we face are significant, but so are the opportunities,” Whipps said in a statement claiming victory on Wednesday. He added that his government would seek to diversify Palau’s economy while protecting i...

Two people have been killed and 10 others were injured in an explosion in Louisville, Kentucky, plant Tuesday. Food and cosmetics company Givaudan said that the blast occurred at its Sense Colour factory, east of downtown, and that two of its team members were killed. The blast happened around 3 p.m. local time at the facility, which makes natural food colorings. Fire Chief Brian O’Neill credited the workers with their emergency response to get most people out. Firefighters rescued one person who was trapped and assisted others in escaping the building. “Once we got the fire knocked down, we immediately started air monitoring for the immediate area,” O’Neill said. “You may have heard that there was an evacuation; that was a precautionary measure.” He said that was ordered b...

The Philippine government said on Wednesday it would not stand in the way if former President Rodrigo Duterte wants to surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and would be obliged to comply if his arrest was sought over his war on drugs . During a congressional hearing on Wednesday into the bloody crackdown on narcotics that killed thousands of Filipinos, the mercurial Duterte said he was not scared of the ICC and told it to “hurry up” on its investigation into his possible crimes against humanity. The office of the current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr , issued a statement hours later indicating it would be willing to consider handing Duterte over if an Interpol request was made. “The government will feel obliged to consider the red notic...

Democrat Dave Min has defeated Republican Scott Baugh in the race for a congressional seat in Orange County, California, NBC News projects. "I know many of us are anxious about the future of our country, but we cannot give up on America," Min wrote on X after he declared victory Tuesday night. "In Congress, I will fight to protect our democracy, safeguard our freedoms, and expand economic opportunity." The results come after a contentious election cycle in a swing district with rapidly shifting demographics. Once a Republican stronghold, the district has been flipping between the parties for the past decade. The number of registered Democrats is nearly identical to the number of registered Republicans in a district where unaffiliated voters largely decided the race. ...

After Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency last week, tech CEOs including Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos publicly praised the president-elect. One name was conspicuously missing: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew . His absence was notable considering that of all the top tech companies, TikTok faces the most immediate and existential threat from the U.S. government. In April, President Joe Biden signed a law that requires China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok by Jan. 19. If ByteDance fails to comply, internet hosting companies and app store owners such as Apple and Google will be prohibited from supporting TikTok, effectively banning it in the U.S. Trump’s return to the White House, though, may provide a lifeline for Chew...

It’s the next natural step in virality. Internet favorite baby animal Moo Deng now has an official song, “Moodeng Moodeng” — available in four languages. The 50-second upbeat song released Wednesday has simple but catchy lyrics such as “Please Mommy, come play with me / Bounce with me, Mom,” with other versions in Thai, Chinese and Japanese. The music video stars the pygmy hippopotamus, who lives at a zoo in Thailand , bouncing around in her trademark style in a loop. Moo Deng, now 4 months old, became a TikTok star in September when her caretakers at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand, began uploading videos of her going about her day, which mostly involves napping, getting hosed down for a shower and toothlessly chewing her caretakers’ knees. ...

WASHINGTON — A triumphant President-elect Donald Trump huddled with House Republicans before their leadership elections Wednesday and threw his support behind Speaker Mike Johnson, a key ally, as the GOP prepares for unified control of government next year. Endorsing Johnson, R-La., for two more years as speaker, Trump said he is "with him all the way," using such words as “tremendous” and “terrific” to describe him, according to Republican sources in the closed-door meeting at the Hyatt Regency hotel near the Capitol. Trump, the 45th and future 47th president, got multiple standing ovations from rank-and-file Republicans at the meeting. Introducing Trump onstage, Johnson called him the "Comeback King." Follow for live updates "We did something that no one thought cou...

The president of Azerbaijan , host of this year’s U.N. climate summit , lashed out at Western critics of his country’s oil and gas industry on Tuesday. In his keynote address at the COP29 climate summit , where nearly 200 nations are negotiating global action on climate change , President Ilham Aliyev described his country as a victim of a “well-orchestrated campaign of slander and blackmail.” Within moments, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres took to the stage to say that doubling down on fossil fuels was an absurd strategy. The opposing views underscored the challenge at the heart of the climate negotiations: while nations are urged to shift to green energy sources, many, including wealthy Western nations, continue to rely on fossil...