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Galapagos Tortoise Celebrates His 135th Birthday and His First Father’s Day at Zoo Miami

In this image provided by Zoo Miami, Goliath, a 517-pound (234-kilogram) Galapagos tortoise at Zoo Miami, meets his first offspring on June 12, 2025 in Miami. (Zoo Miami via AP)
In this image provided by Zoo Miami, Goliath, a 517-pound (234-kilogram) Galapagos tortoise at Zoo Miami, meets his first offspring on June 12, 2025 in Miami. (Zoo Miami via AP)
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Galapagos Tortoise Celebrates His 135th Birthday and His First Father’s Day at Zoo Miami

In this image provided by Zoo Miami, Goliath, a 517-pound (234-kilogram) Galapagos tortoise at Zoo Miami, meets his first offspring on June 12, 2025 in Miami. (Zoo Miami via AP)
In this image provided by Zoo Miami, Goliath, a 517-pound (234-kilogram) Galapagos tortoise at Zoo Miami, meets his first offspring on June 12, 2025 in Miami. (Zoo Miami via AP)

A South Florida zoo's oldest resident celebrated his 135th birthday and his first Father's Day on Sunday.

Goliath, a 517-pound (234-kilogram) Galapagos tortoise at Zoo Miami, became a father for the first time earlier this month, zoo officials said.

“Goliath is my hero, and I am sure he will soon be an inspiration to many others!” Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill said in a statement. “He is living proof that where there is a will, there is a way and to never give up!”

One egg out of a clutch of eight laid on Jan. 27 successfully hatched on June 4, officials said. Besides being Goliath's first offspring, it's also the first time one of the endangered reptiles has hatched at Zoo Miami.

The animals' numbers were drastically reduced before the 20th century by human exploitation and the introduction of invasive species to the Galapagos Islands. Modern threats include climate change and habitat loss.

According to Goliath’s official record, he hatched on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos on June 15, between 1885 and 1890. The island group is located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, several hundred miles west of mainland Ecuador.

Goliath arrived at the Bronx Zoo in 1929 and moved to Zoo Miami in 1981. He has bred with several different females during his time at Zoo Miami, but he has never sired an offspring. The new hatchling's mother, Sweet Pea, is estimated to be between 85 and 100 years old.

Both parents are doing well in their public habitat, officials said. The hatchling appears to be healthy in a separate enclosure. Wild hatchlings are not raised by their parents.

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The First Canine Inducted into the Surfer’s Hall of Fame Dies

FILE - Sugar catches a wave in the first heat of medium dogs during the World Dog Surfing Championships, Aug. 3, 2024, in Pacifica, Calif. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard, File)
FILE - Sugar catches a wave in the first heat of medium dogs during the World Dog Surfing Championships, Aug. 3, 2024, in Pacifica, Calif. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard, File)
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The First Canine Inducted into the Surfer’s Hall of Fame Dies

FILE - Sugar catches a wave in the first heat of medium dogs during the World Dog Surfing Championships, Aug. 3, 2024, in Pacifica, Calif. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard, File)
FILE - Sugar catches a wave in the first heat of medium dogs during the World Dog Surfing Championships, Aug. 3, 2024, in Pacifica, Calif. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard, File)

Sugar The Surfing Dog, the first canine inducted into the Surfer’s Hall of Fame, who spent her days outside the water comforting veterans as a dedicated therapy dog, died Monday after battling cancer.

The 16-year-old rescue dog from Huntington Beach, California, who was a five-time dog surfing world champion, died “in her daddy’s arms,” a post on her Instagram said, according to The Associated Press.

“She lived to put smiles on faces, volunteer, to send it !! to change dog surfing forever !!! thank you for loving Sugar,” the post said. “Good bye my Sugar., i can’t believe in writing this .. i’m going to miss you so much.”

Sugar was found as a stray and over the years her love of the waves and natural talent took dog surfing to new heights.

Dressed in a life jacket, spectators would watch the furry white canine in amazement as she balanced on her surfboard, riding wave after wave back to the shore, sometimes with her owner, Ryan Rustan, by her side and other times all on her own.

In 2024, her paw prints joined the hand and footprints of many other renowned surfers immortalized in concrete in Huntington Beach when she was inducted into the hall of fame.

“This is just incredible. Dreams do come true even for a surfing dog and guys like me,” Rustan said at the ceremony.

A post on Huntington Beach's Facebook page described her as a local legend who the Surf City community is mourning.

“From inspiring the surfing world to advocating for rescue dogs and bringing comfort to veterans as a therapy dog, her impact reached far beyond the shoreline,” the post said.

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Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube Aren’t Fully Complying with Child Account Ban, Australia Says

Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
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Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube Aren’t Fully Complying with Child Account Ban, Australia Says

Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)
Cars drive past a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, October 28, 2021. (Reuters)

Australia’s online safety watchdog said Tuesday it was considering court against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube alleging they are not doing enough to keep Australian children younger than 16 off their platforms.

Experts say the Australian courts could decide what steps the platforms can reasonably be expected to take under the laws that took effect on Dec. 10 banning young children from holding accounts.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on Tuesday released her first compliance report since those laws took effect demanding 10 platforms remove all Australian account-holders younger than 16.

While 5 million Australian accounts had been deactivated, a substantial number of Australian children continued to retain accounts, create new accounts and pass platforms’ age assurance systems, the report said.

Inman Grant said in a statement her office had “significant concerns about the compliance” of half of those 10 platforms. Her office was gathering evidence against the five that they had not taken “reasonable steps” to prevent young children holding accounts.

Courts could order fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to comply. eSafety would decide on whether to initiate court action against any platform by midyear.

Age-restricted platforms that aren’t under investigation are Reddit, X, Kick, Threads and Twitch.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the five criticized platforms were deliberately not complying with Australian law.

“Social media platforms are choosing to do the absolute bare minimum because they want these laws to fail,” Wells told reporters.

“This is the world-leading law. We’re the first in the world to do it. Of course they don’t want these laws to work because they want that to be a chilling effect on the dozen countries that have come out since Dec. 10 to follow Australia’s step,” she added.

eSafety had identified “poor practices” such as platforms allowing unlimited attempts for a user to pass their age assurance methods and prompting the user to try to pass the age assurance method even after they declared themselves underage.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told The Associated Press it was committed to complying with Australia’s social media ban. “We’ve also been clear that accurately determining age online is a challenge for the whole industry,” the statement said.

Snap Inc. said it has locked 450,000 accounts in compliance with the law and continued to lock more every day.

“Snapchat remains fully committed to implementing reasonable steps under the legislation and supporting its underlying goal of improving online safety for young Australians,” a Snap statement said.

TikTok declined to comment on Tuesday and Alphabet Inc., which owns YouTube and Google, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lisa Given, an information sciences expert at RMIT University in Melbourne, said she expected the courts will decide whether platforms have taken “reasonable steps” to exclude young children.

“If a tech company has said: look, we put in age assurance, we’ve done all these steps. That’s reasonable. Even though the aged assurance technologies are flawed, whose fault is that? Should they be held accountable for a piece of technology that is not 100% and likely not going to be 100% foolproof any time soon?” Given said.

“That’s really the crux of it: what the courts will deem reasonable,” she added.

Reddit has filed one of two constitutional challenges to the social media ban in the Australian High Court. The other was filed by Digital Freedom Project, a Sydney-based rights group that did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday..

Both suits claim the law is unconstitutional because it infringes on Australia’s implied freedom of political communication.

A preliminary hearing is set for May 21 when the court will set a date for oral arguments, Reddit said Tuesday.

Global online forum Reddit on Friday filed a court challenge to Australia’s world-first law that bans Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on the world’s most popular social media platforms.

California-based Reddit Inc.’s suit filed in the High Court follows a case filed last month by Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project.

Both suits claim the law is unconstitutional because it infringes on Australia’s implied freedom of political communication.

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Rescuers Find 21 People on Raft Drifting in Indonesian Waters After Their Boat Sinks

In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), crew look on as a rescue ship approaches a raft to evacuate the survivors boat that sank on Monday, in the waters off Taliabu Island, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)
In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), crew look on as a rescue ship approaches a raft to evacuate the survivors boat that sank on Monday, in the waters off Taliabu Island, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)
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Rescuers Find 21 People on Raft Drifting in Indonesian Waters After Their Boat Sinks

In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), crew look on as a rescue ship approaches a raft to evacuate the survivors boat that sank on Monday, in the waters off Taliabu Island, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)
In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), crew look on as a rescue ship approaches a raft to evacuate the survivors boat that sank on Monday, in the waters off Taliabu Island, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (BASARNAS via AP)

Indonesian search teams rescued 21 people from a raft Tuesday morning, a day after their boat sank in rough seas.

Everyone on board the ship was found safely, said Muhammad Rizal, who heads the search and rescue office in Palu city. Officials earlier reported that 27 people were missing, but survivors reported that six people listed on the manifest had cancelled their plans to join the trip.

Rescuers found the survivors, who were mostly fishing crew, on a raft about 46 kilometers (29 miles) from the place where the boat sank in the northern waters of Taliabu Island.

The boat, Nazila 05, departed from a port on Taliabu island in North Maluku province just after dusk Sunday bound for Kema in North Sulawesi province, Rizal said.

He said the Nazila 05 was frequently used to transport tourists and was also known locally as a fishing or small passenger vessel.

The owner of the Nazila 05 told authorities the boat's captain had reported the vessel sank after its bow was broken by high waves during rough weather, and all crew managed to board a longboat before the ship went down, Rizal said.

Relatives reported the victims had tied themselves to a raft, and the National Search and Rescue Agency, or Basarnas, said a rescue vessel was heading toward the estimated location just after dawn Tuesday where the raft was believed to be drifting in choppy waters.

"All survivors located by rescuers will be taken to a nearby city of Gorontalo,” Rizal said in a video statement.

The search operation involved two rescue vessels and was assisted by local fishermen, the Basarnas said.

Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, and boats are a common form of transportation. With lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding, accidents occur frequently.