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cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/11443068...

Indian police cleared a suspected Chinese spy pigeon after eight months’ detention and released it into the wild Tuesday, news agency Press Trust of India reported....

The prospect of a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia terrifies people on both sides of the border, but some see it as an inevitable fallout from Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza....

It was 1800, and conspiracy theories were flourishing across America. Partisan newspapers spread tales of European elites seeking to seize control of the young democracy. Preachers in New England warned of plots to abolish Christianity in favor of godlessness and depravity....

Claims of “evidence” soon emerged: video footage on TikTok showing a beam of blinding white light, too straight to be lightning, zapping a residential neighborhood and sending flames and smoke into the sky. The video was shared many millions of times, amplified by neo-Nazis, anti-government radicals and supporters of the...

Of the nearly 3,500 people exonerated of serious crimes in the U.S. since 1989, more than half had their cases marred by alleged misconduct by police or prosecutors, according to a national database....

The leaders of the 27 European Union countries sealed a deal Thursday to provide Ukraine with a new 50-billion-euro ($54 billion) support package despite Hungary’s weeks of threats to veto the move....

Chinese hackers are determined to ‘wreak havoc’ on US critical infrastructure, FBI director warns::FBI Director Chris Wray has told House lawmakers that Chinese government hackers are busily targeting critical infrastructure inside the United States, including water treatment plants, the electrical grid and transportation...

Cyprus officials said Wednesday they led a Europol-organized sting operation that dismantled an international criminal ring facilitating illegal immigration and residency in European Union countries using dozens of sham marriages on the east Mediterranean island nation.

Abortion rights supporters mounted another push Wednesday to restore abortion access in Kentucky, but the Democratic lawmaker sponsoring the legislation acknowledged the odds are overwhelmingly against them in the Republican-dominated legislature....

A small venture capital firm faced tough questions from conservative judges Wednesday as it defended a grant program for Black women-owned businesses in a lawsuit that has become emblematic of a growing legal backlash against corporate diversity programs.

A Mississippi man accused of destroying a statue of a pagan idol at Iowa’s state Capitol is now being charged with a hate crime.

The return of sea otters and their voracious appetites has helped rescue a section of California marshland, a new study shows....

Utah became the latest state to regulate bathroom access for transgender people after Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law Tuesday that requires people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools and government-owned buildings that match their sex assigned at birth....

Like a moth to flame, many scientists and poets have long assumed that flying insects were simply, inexorably drawn to bright lights....

The number of western monarch butterflies overwintering in California dropped by 30% last year, likely due to how wet it was, researchers said Tuesday....

New York will expand its legal definition of rape to include various forms of nonconsensual sexual contact, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday....

Two current and two former Massachusetts State Police troopers were among six people charged Tuesday in a scheme to allegedly take bribes including a new snowblower and driveway in exchange for giving passing scores on commercial driving tests, the U.S. attorney’s office said....