Author: Rahul M

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit, who supervised royal projects to help the rural poor, preserve traditional craft-making and protect the environment, died on Friday. She was 93.The Royal Household Bureau said she died in a hospital in Bangkok. Since Oct. 17, she had been suffering from a blood infection but despite her medical team’s efforts, her conditions did not improve. She had been largely absent from public life in recent years due to declining health. Her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, died in October 2016.Photos released by the palace for her 88th birthday showed her son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn,…

New Line Cinema Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine the big-screen adaptation of “Hairspray,” the bubbly Tony-winning musical that was in turn based on the John Waters 1988 cult classic movie of the same name, without Amanda Bynes and Zac Efron in key roles. Starring alongside Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad, Bynes played Penny, Tracy’s sheltered best friend with an overbearing mother, while Efron appeared as Link Larkin, Tracy’s charming love interest and star of “The Corny Collins Show.” But although the two teen idols both put in two of the…

BERLIN — No one can know how long President Donald Trump’s pique with President Vladimir Putin of Russia will last this time. But the past few days have been an important signal that European persistence in its support for Ukraine has paid off, at least for now. Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on two of Russia’s largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft, will have a significant impact on Russian income over time. Europe added its own new sanctions Thursday and committed to funding Ukraine’s financial and military needs for the next two years. An innovative but controversial proposal to use…

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Houthi rebels detained two additional United Nations staff members and raided the homes of several others in Yemen over the last 48 hours, the latest in a series of events now forcing the world body to reassess how it operates in the war-torn country. The detainment of two staffers was confirmed by Farhan Haqq, the deputy U.N. spokesperson, on Friday. Three officials with the World Food Program confirmed the raids on the homes of Yemeni staff and the U.N. facility took place on Thursday and Friday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity as they…

The “Predator” franchise has spawned several sequels and spin-offs over the years, and a brand-new film is going to be added to the universe very soon in the form of “Predator: Badlands.” If you need a refresher before the next installment in the franchise arrives, the above recap video has all the information you need. “Predator: Badlands” will be the first theatrically-released film in the series since “The Predator” came out in 2018, though fans were treated to the animated anthology film “Predator: Killer of Killers” in June 2025. “Killer of Killers” topped Hulu’s…

Since its launch on September 30, OpenAI’s Sora app has dominated the iOS App Store charts, thanks to its easy breezy AI video generation and an initially loose interpretation of copyright laws. On Friday, its reign came to an end. Your new champion is … Dave’s Hot Chicken.Yes! Not ChatGPT or Gemini or Threads or any of the other usual suspects. Dave’s Hot Chicken now rules over the App Store, where its slack-beaked, bug-eyed mascot icon expresses appropriate surprise at its ascent. How did it do it? How did it break the grasp of OpenAI’s golem TikTok? With something people…

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Carrie Fisher was many things throughout her life: an actor with a vibrant career outside of “Star Wars,” a writer, and an icon. She was the type of person who had no problem expressing her feelings to others. There are countless stories of Fisher standing up for what she believed in, and this occasionally resulted in confrontations with those who wielded great power in Tinseltown. The most memorable of these interactions arose from Fisher taking up a fight on behalf of another woman in the industry.…

“Two thousand calories” is quoted so often that it looks like a rule. It isn’t. Your body needs more or less energy based on age, height, weight, daily movement, muscle mass, and even sleep. If you eat to a headline number, you risk feeling low on energy or slowly gaining weight. A better way is to estimate your personal need with a calorie calculator, then adjust for your routine and goals. Additionally, you can use a body shape calculator to know your ideal body type. Why the 2,000-calorie idea is misleading The 2,000 figure is a rough reference used on…

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian authorities said Friday they have made progress in solving the housing shortage for attendees of the upcoming U.N. climate conference, while also defending a recent decision to allow exploratory drilling in the Amazon. Both issues have been contentious as Brazil prepares to host the summit, known as COP30, in November.Ana Toni, Brazil’s climate change chief and CEO of COP30, told reporters that more than 163 national delegations have confirmed their accreditations to the conference, and 80% have secured accommodations.National delegations, activists and other attendees have struggled to find affordable places to stay in Belem, the…

PARIS (AP) — It was shortly after the stunning heist of the crown jewels at the Louvre when Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus caught in his frame a dapperly dressed young man walking by uniformed French police officers, their car blocking one of the museum gates. Instinctively, he took the shot.It wasn’t a particularly great photo, with someone’s shoulder obscuring part of the foreground, Camus told himself. But it did the job — showing French police sealing off the world’s most-visited museum after the brazen daylight robbery last Sunday. Plus, Camus figured, the guy walking past the officers was…