World

US President Donald Trump, citing "tremendous interest," said he was directing the Pentagon and other government agencies to release files related to extraterrestrials and unidentified flying objects (UFOs). He said the agencies should include "any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters." He made the announcement on social media on Thursday, hours after accusing former President Barack Obama of disclosing "classified information" when he suggested in a podcast interview that aliens were real. "I don't know if they're real or not," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. When asked of Obama, he said: "I may get him out of trouble by declassifying." What did Obama say about aliens in the podcast? In a podcast rele...

Eight skiers have been found dead after an avalanche in the mountains near Lake Tahoe in California, the authorities said. Another person is still missing, with the operations moving from rescue to recovery, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said during a news conference. "We are still looking for one of the members at this time," Moon told the local press. The group of 15 was on a three-day trek in the Sierra Nevada when a winter storm hit. Six other travelers from the same group were rescued on Tuesday. According to Moon, the six used their equipment to shelter from the storm and did all they could to stay warm.The northern part of California has seen heavy snowfallImage: Brooke Hess-Homeier/AP Photo/picture alliance More snow is expected Describing the conditions in the area, Moon...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared in a Los Angeles court on Wednesday, where he testified in a trial that has put his company in the spotlight over social media's harmful effects on children. A California woman who used Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube as a child has said the apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts.  The plaintiff started using YouTube at age 6, Instagram at 11, then TikTok and Snapchat. The latter two already reached a damages settlement with the woman. The suit accuses the companies of seeking to get children hooked on their services, despite being aware of the mental health harms they can cause.  At issue is the notion of whether or not social media apps are addictive to children.  Zuckerberg regrets slow progress on spotting under-13s on Instagram M...

Members of the UN Security Council have warned that Israel's efforts to expand control in the West Bank posed a threat to prospects of a two-state solution. The situation is "deteriorating rapidly" in the occupied West Bank, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said in a briefing late on Wednesday. "Widespread raids have been accompanied by home takeovers, mass detentions, movement restrictions and repeated displacement of Palestinian families, particularly in the north," DiCarlo said. "We are witnessing the gradual de facto annexation of the West Bank," she said. In the last few weeks, Israel has launched a contentious land regulation process that will deepen its control in the occupied West Bank.Work for West Bank Palestinians increasingl...

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his ‌government wouldn't ⁠repatriate Australian citizens held for years in a Syrian camp. Roj detention camp in northeastern Syria holds families of militants suspected of having links to the so-called "‌Islamic State" group (IS). "We have a very ‌firm view that ‌we won't be providing assistance or repatriation," Albanese told national broadcaster ABC on Tuesday. "We have no sympathy, frankly, for people who travelled overseas in order to participate in what was an attempt to establish a caliphate to undermine and destroy our way of life," he said. "It is unfortunate that children are impacted by this as well, but we are not providing any support." Australians released from Roj camp forced to turn back Albanese's remarks come a day aft...

Ireland's data protection watchdog launched an investigation into Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, on Tuesday, in the latest step the European Union has taken in response to sexualized deepfake images. The "large-scale inquiry" is on behalf of the European Union and will probe whether the AI tool breached the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) said in a statement. The EU is also running its own investigation into Grok and the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, under the powers of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which sets out rights and protections for EU citizens. Why is Ireland investigating Elon Musk's X? Ireland is taking the lead on the investigation since X's European operations are headq...

Ireland's data protection watchdog launched an investigation into Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, on Tuesday, in the latest step the European Union has taken in response to sexualized deepfake images. The "large-scale inquiry" is on behalf of the European Union and will probe whether the AI tool breached the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) said in a statement. The EU is also running its own investigation into Grok and the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, under the powers of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which sets out rights and protections for EU citizens. Why is Ireland investigating Elon Musk's X? Ireland is taking the lead on the investigation since X's European operations are headq...

A federal judge has ruled that an exhibit about people enslaved by George Washington, the first president of the United States, must be temporarily restored at Washington's former home in Philadelphia. In her decision on Monday, US District Judge Cynthia Rufe said that all materials must be restored in their original condition while a lawsuit challenging the legality of the removal is underway. The city of Philadelphia had sued after the National Park Service removed explanatory panels and a video installation from Independence National Historical Park in January. The exhibit, which opened in 2010, paid tribute to the nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the home. In her ruling made Presidents Day, the federal holiday honoring Washington's legacy, the judge also prohibited the Tru...