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Viral baby hippo Moo Deng has made a shock prediction in the 2024 US presidential election. The zookeepers at Thailand's Khao Kheow Open Zoo tested the four-month-old hippo by giving her two fruit-filled watermelons to choose from, emblazoned with either Donald Trump's name or Kamala Harris. They then let Moo Deng, whose name means 'bouncy pork' choose which melon she wanted to feast on, which would in turn reveal her presidential pick. The young mammal opted for Donald Trump. However, one of the zookeepers later revealed on social media that Trump's melon contained some larger pieces of fruit in it,...

NASA has released the clearest view of Mars yet, showing stunning blue rocks littering the Martian landscape. The footage, captured by the Perseverance rover as it continu s to explore the Red Planet, also revealed 'first of its kind' geological formation resting atop the dried remains of an ancient lakebed. Dark blue, jagged boulders of volcanic basalt were spotted surrounding the speckled white rock, which was found to have a mineral composition unlike anything NASA has ever seen before on Mars. ...Most of the bluish-black rocks seen on the surface of Mars, like those on 'Mount Washburn,' are volcanic basalt....

A special set of stamps have been issued to mark the 60th anniversary of British rock band The Who. The Royal Mail revealed details of 12 stamps which feature images of some of the rock band's most popular album covers and group shots from their live performances. The album covers are My Generation from 1965; Tommy from 1969; Who's Next from 1971; Quadrophenia from 1973; Who Are You from 1978; Face Dances from 1981; Endless Wire from 2006; and Who from 2019. Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon formed The Who in 1964. A miniatures sheet features...

Graphics experts have recreated the face of a pharaoh who founded the Valley of the Kings and rewrote history in ancient Egypt. Amenhotep I - the second ruler of Egypt's 18th Dynasty - is thought to have died 3,500 years ago at around age 35 before being painstakingly preserved through mummification. He was the first to be buried in the Valley of the Kings - the resting site of almost all the Pharaohs of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties.

Nick Norwitz, a doctorate student at Harvard University, found that contrary to the beliefs of many experts, his cholesterol levels actually dropped. After the month-long experiment that saw him eat the equivalent of 24 eggs per day his low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels, or 'bad' cholesterol, fell by 18 percent. Experts have demonized cholesterol in eggs for decades, warning that eating them may cause a surge in LDL levels and raise the risk of complications. Dr Norwitz has a PhD in human brain metabolism from the University of Oxford and is completing his medical doctorate at Harvard University.

Legendary American rocker Freddie Salem has died at the age of 70. The Outlaws guitarist passed away from 'complications due to cancer', his former band confirmed. ... Originally a drummer, Salem switched to the guitar at the age of 15. The Akron, Ohio born performer was the only musician in his family but credited his love of music to hanging out around the jukebox in his father's bar. Salem toured with the Rolling Stones at one point with the band, calling the experience 'incomparable'.

Joe Biden's phone call to former campaign staffers on Monday has sparked new theories on the president's health after an odd moment between the president and Kamala Harris. The 81-year-old spoke in a scratchy voice from COVID isolation at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home and told Harris: 'I'm watching you kid'. However, many noted a strange exchange between the vice president and her boss, who has not been seen in five days and since he shocked the world by dropping out of the race via a letter posted to social media on Sunday. The new presumptive Democratic nominee Harris said:...

Trump knows that Barron has a strange hold on the affections of many of his most hardened supporters. And if there's anything more outlandish than the personality cult that surrounds him, it's the one that is rapidly developing around his youngest child. ... These cherry-picked details helped spawn a bizarre theory – eagerly taken up by pro-Trump tin-foil hatters - that Donald and Barron are time-travellers and that Barron will one day become an all-conquering 'American Caesar'.

President Orban went to Ukraine to speak to President Zelenskyy, then went to Russia to speak to President Putin, then went to China to speak to Chairman Xi, then headed to Washington DC to meet with President Biden, then last night went to see the key that would bring it all together, President Donald Trump. Orban then Tweeted a video saying, “We continued the peace mission in Mar-a-Lago. President @realDonaldTrump has proved during his presidency that he is a man of peace. He will do it again!” The collective UniParty inside Washington DC is having absolute fits about it.

If I have any accurate arrows of faith or pragmatic hope left in my quiver, then I am correct in thinking that Donald Trump made this decision a long time ago, and the Vice President nominee has long known exactly what the plan is. If my “begin with the end in mind” thinking is incorrect; well, then we’re in bigger trouble than 99% of MAGA Americans can fathom. ... I’m not looking at the current landscape, I’m out here with a well-worn machete looking at where we are heading. And I’m telling you those same systems, voices and financial networks...

The last embedded myth about Joe Biden is that he’s a decent man. Like the rest of his life’s story, his “decency” is a made-up contrivance. ... No, he is not a decent man. He’s never been a decent man. Before Joe Biden drifted into complete incoherence, he was a nasty, vindictive "Queen of Hearts" who fell upwards his entire career. And he’s lied all the way while doing it. He’s abused the truth like a wife-beating drunk beats his mate. He’s always been a miserable human being, but now he’s a cognitive mess who can’t be prosecuted because he’s...

From New Year's Eve some years ago, but still good for celebrating the birth of a great nation.

David McCallum was one of the big losses for my generation. He was a gifted musician, as well as one of my favorite actors.

The papyrus had been buried under metres of ash at the house, believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, after Vesuvius erupted in AD79 and scholars have spent the last 250 years painstakingly trying to find a way to read its contents, The Times reports. Now Professor Graziano Ranocchia of the University of Pisa and his colleagues have used techniques, including shortwave infrared hyperspectral imaging, which picks up variations in the way light bounces off the black ink on the papyrus, to decipher the document. Professor Ranocchia described the scroll as 'the oldest history of Greek philosophy in our...

Cambridge-based AstraZeneca, which is contesting the claims, acknowledged in a legal document submitted to the High Court in February that its vaccine 'can, in very rare cases, cause TTS'. TTS is short for thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome – a medical condition where a person suffers blood clots along with a low platelet count. Platelets typically help the blood to clot. The complication – listed as a potential side effect of the jab – has previously been called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT). AstraZeneca's admission could lead to pay-outs on a case-by-case basis. Although accepted as a potential side effect for...

The pocket watch of the richest man on the Titanic – recovered when his body was fished out of the Atlantic seven days after the tragedy – was sold a record-breaking £1.175 million yesterday. The timepiece belonged to John Jacob Astor IV, a US business magnate who was among more than 1,500 people who died when the ship struck an iceberg in the early hours of April 15, 1912. His 14-carat gold Waltham watch was sold at Henry Aldridge & Son auction house in Wiltshire for a record-breaking £1.175 million, six times the guide price, matching the record paid for...

Mike Pinder, original keyboardist for The Moody Blues in both their original mid-1960s configuration as a pop/blues outfit and their better-known late-1960s/early-1970s gentle progressive rock quintet entity, died in his Northern California home on April 25, 2024, from an as-yet unstated cause. Pinder was 82.

Portrait of Fräulein Lieser', which the Austrian modernist artist started in 1917, sold to an unknown buyer at an auction in Vienna yesterday. The portrait of a young woman was one of Klimt's last works, as the artist died in early 1918 after suffering from a stroke, meaning the painting has small unfinished areas. The Jewish Lieser family, who had commissioned the painting, received the artwork unfinished, but soon after were forced to flee Austria amid the rise of Hitler and antisemitism.

Queen Victoria 1885: Dinner at Balmoral commenced with calf's head pate, trout and turbot in breadcrumbs followed by veal sweetbread croquettes, venison cutlets, fattened chicken in a salt crust and roast beef. The main course featured pheasant and chicken, with fried puffed potatoes. Dessert was a ginger soufflé and almond tart filled with vanilla and orange blossom cream. For those still with room, there was a side table of cold cuts including tongue and beef Buckingham Palace menu 1911: George V's guests started lunch with a meat broth followed by lobster escalopes. Next came cold chicken in jelly, Russian-style quail...

A £560,000 prize was on offer for scholars who could read the ancient Roman texts buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Scrolls cocooned in volcanic ash that consumed the Roman city of Pompeii have been deciphered for the first time in 2,000 years. Using AI researchers were able to discern some meaning from the writings which were discovered in the doomed ancient Italian city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. ...In a statement the Vesuvius Challenge revealed some of the information hidden until now in the scrolls which appear to be philosophical treatises concerning...