California’s economy has surpassed Japan’s, making the Golden state the fourth largest economy in the world, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday. The state’s nominal GDP reached $4.1tn, according to data from the International Monetary Fund and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, edging out Japan’s $4.02tn nominal GDP. California now ranks behind the US…
Hundreds of life-size animal puppets have begun a 20,000km (12,400 mile) journey from central Africa to the Arctic Circle as part of an ambitious project created by the team behind Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian girl that travelled across the world. The public art initiative called The Herds, which has already visited…
A book featuring Han Kang’s Nobel prize lecture sold 10,000 copies in its first day on sale online. Light and Thread, which takes its title from Han’s December lecture, is her first book to be published in South Korea since she was announced as the winner of the Nobel prize in literature last October. Booksellers…
Brazil’s former president, Fernando Collor, has been arrested early and ordered to begin serving a prison sentence stemming from his 2023 conviction for corruption. Collor was convicted of receiving 20m reais ($3.5m) to facilitate contracts between BR Distribuidora, a fuel distributor formerly controlled by the state-owned oil company Petrobras, and construction firm UTC Engenharia for…
US consumer sentiment plummeted in April after Donald Trump’s trade war threw the global economy into chaos, according to a new report. The index of consumer sentiment, a score based on a monthly survey asking Americans about their financial outlooks, fell by 32% since January – the largest drop since the 1990 recession, according to…
With crews still working to contain one of New Jersey’s largest wildfires on record, fire danger remains elevated across the state and into eastern Pennsylvania, the National Weather Service warned on Friday. “There is an increased risk for rapid fire spread this afternoon across portions of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania,” the NWS said. Low…
An American man identified as the son of a deputy director of the CIA was killed in eastern Ukraine in 2024 while fighting under contract for the Russian military, according to an investigation by independent Russian media. Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, died on 4 April 2024 in “Eastern Europe”, according to an obituary published by…
The Trump administration launched an investigation into the University of California, Berkeley, on Friday centered on foreign funding, making it the latest university to be targeted by the federal government. The investigation revives criticism from several years ago about the university’s partnership with China’s Tsinghua University. It comes after Donald Trump earlier this week signed…
After 529 days on the run, Australia’s favourite fugitive has been caught at last. Valerie the miniature dachshund, who went missing on Kangaroo Island way back in 2023, has been rescued by conservationists. Allow Facebook content? This article includes content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may…
California regulators have released a new proposal to allow the testing of self-driving heavy-duty trucks on public roads. The state’s department of motor vehicles announced proposed regulations on Friday to allow the testing of driverless trucks over 10,001lbs, opening the door for companies to test self-driving technology on vehicles roughly the size of a Ram…
