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Everest Climber's Remains Believed Found after 100 Years

(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
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Everest Climber's Remains Believed Found after 100 Years

(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)

A documentary team discovered human remains on Mount Everest apparently belonging to a man who went missing while trying to summit the peak 100 years ago, National Geographic magazine reported Friday.

Climate change is thinning snow and ice around the Himalayas, increasingly exposing the bodies of mountaineers who died chasing their dream of scaling the world's highest mountain, AFP reported.

Briton Andrew Irvine went missing in 1924 alongside climbing partner George Mallory as the pair attempted to be the first to reach Everest's summit, 8,848 meters above sea level.

Mallory's body was found in 1999 but clues about Irvine's fate were elusive until a National Geographic team discovered a boot, still clothing the remains of a foot, on the peak's Central Rongbuk Glacier.

On closer inspection, they found a sock with "a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it", the magazine reported.

The discovery could give further clues as to the location of the team's personal effects and may help resolve one of mountaineering's most enduring mysteries: whether Irvine and Mallory ever managed to reach the summit.

That could confirm Irvine and Mallory as the first to successfully scale the peak, nearly three decades before the first currently recognised summit in 1953 by climbers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

"It tells the whole story about what probably happened," Irvine's great-niece Julie Summers told National Geographic.

Members of the Irvine family reportedly offered to share DNA samples to confirm the identity of the remains.

Irvine was 22 when he went missing.

He, along with Mallory, was last spotted by one of the members of their expedition on the afternoon of June 8, 1924, after beginning their final ascent to the summit that morning.

Irvine is believed to have been carrying a vest camera -- the discovery of which could rewrite mountaineering history.

Photographer and director Jimmy Chin, who was part of the National Geographic team, believes the discovery "certainly reduces the search area" for the elusive camera.

More than 300 people have perished on the mountain since expeditions started in the 1920s.

Some are hidden by snow or swallowed down deep crevasses.

Others, still in their colorful climbing gear, have become landmarks en route to the summit and bestowed with gallows humor nicknames, including "Green Boots" and "Sleeping Beauty.”

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Varieties

Florida Kicks Off 1st Black Bear Hunt in a Decade, Despite Pushback

FILE - A black bear is weighed by FWC Biologists Alyssa Simmons and Mike Orlando at the Rock Springs Run Wildlife Management Area near Lake Mary, Fla., Oct. 24, 2015. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP, file)
FILE - A black bear is weighed by FWC Biologists Alyssa Simmons and Mike Orlando at the Rock Springs Run Wildlife Management Area near Lake Mary, Fla., Oct. 24, 2015. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP, file)
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Florida Kicks Off 1st Black Bear Hunt in a Decade, Despite Pushback

FILE - A black bear is weighed by FWC Biologists Alyssa Simmons and Mike Orlando at the Rock Springs Run Wildlife Management Area near Lake Mary, Fla., Oct. 24, 2015. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP, file)
FILE - A black bear is weighed by FWC Biologists Alyssa Simmons and Mike Orlando at the Rock Springs Run Wildlife Management Area near Lake Mary, Fla., Oct. 24, 2015. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP, file)

For the first time in a decade, hunters armed with rifles and crossbows are fanning out across Florida's swamps and flatwoods to legally hunt the Florida black bear, over the vocal opposition of critics.

The state-sanctioned hunt began Saturday, after drawing more than 160,000 applications for a far more limited number of hunting permits, including from opponents who are trying to reduce the number of bears killed in this year's hunt, the state's first since 2015, The Associated Press reported.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission awarded 172 bear hunt permits by random lottery for this year's season, allowing hunters to kill one bear each in areas where the population is deemed large enough. At least 43 of the permits went to opponents of the hunt who never intend to use them, according to the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club, which encouraged critics to apply in the hopes of saving bears.

The Florida black bear population is considered one of the state's conservation success stories, having grown from just several hundred bears in the 1970s to an estimated more than 4,000 today.

Opponents have questioned whether the hunt was necessary, but they were unable to convince the courts to halt it.

Here's what to know.

A limit of one bear per hunter The 172 people who were awarded a permit through a random lottery will be able to kill one bear each during the 2025 season, which runs from Dec. 6 to Dec. 28. The permits are specific to one of the state's four designated bear hunting zones, each of which have a hunting quota set by state officials based on the bear population in each region.

In order to participate, hunters must hold a valid hunting license and a bear harvest permit, which costs $100 for residents and $300 for nonresidents, plus fees. Applications for the permits cost $5 each.

The regulated hunt will help incentivize maintaining healthy bear populations, and help fund the work that is needed, according to Mark Barton of the Florida chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, an advocacy group that supported the hunt.

Having an annual hunt will help guarantee funding to "keep moving conservation for bears forward,” Barton said.

Hunting as a management tool According to state wildlife officials, the bear population has grown enough to support a regulated hunt and warrant population management. The state agency sees hunting as an effective tool that is used to manage wildlife populations around the world, and allows the state to monetize conservation efforts through permit and application fees.

"While we have enough suitable bear habitat to support our current bear population levels, if the four largest subpopulations continue to grow at current rates, we will not have enough habitat at some point in the future," reads a bear hunting guide published by the state wildlife commission.

Opponents meanwhile have called the hunt cruel, unnecessary and an excuse for hunters to bag a trophy animal when the real issue is the ever-growing human population encroaching on bear habitat.

Stricter regulations than the last hunt This year’s hunting plan has more stringent rules than the 2015 hunt, in which permits were provided to anyone who could pay for them, resulting in more than 3,700 permits issued. That led to a chaotic event that was shut down days early. Of the 304 bears killed, at least 38 were females with cubs, meaning the young bears may have died too.

Ultimately, wildlife officials decided to call off the hunt after its second day after a higher than expected number of bears were killed, though hunters did not exceed the statewide quota.

Doug Moore regularly sees bears on the more than 6,000 acres of timberland that he manages in northeast Florida. The president of a local hunting club, Moore is generally supportive of the new regulations for the bear hunt, even though he and his family members weren't issued a permit this year.

Moore described the management of the 2015 hunt as “fouled up” and “totally wrong" but said, “they’re doing it right this time."

Activists were issued dozens of permits Backers of the hunt have said that growing numbers of bears present a safety problem, with local officials sharing reports of bears on porches, rooting through garbage cans and roaming neighborhoods and playgrounds.

Activists have argued that the state should instead focus on other means of curbing nuisance bears and assuring safety through better trash management.

While opponents failed to convince a judge to stop the hunt, they were issued about a quarter of the overall permits, after activists applied for hunting tags they never intend to use.

“Somewhere out there a bear will be walking the grounds of the Panhandle, and I gave them a stay of execution,” said Joel Cleveland, an opponent of the hunt who was issued one of the permits.

Varieties

British Man Makes Artwork in Size of Human Blood Cell

David A Lindon's latest sculpture is the same size as a human blood cell, mould spores, bacteria, talcum powder or a fog droplet (David A Lindon)
David A Lindon's latest sculpture is the same size as a human blood cell, mould spores, bacteria, talcum powder or a fog droplet (David A Lindon)
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British Man Makes Artwork in Size of Human Blood Cell

David A Lindon's latest sculpture is the same size as a human blood cell, mould spores, bacteria, talcum powder or a fog droplet (David A Lindon)
David A Lindon's latest sculpture is the same size as a human blood cell, mould spores, bacteria, talcum powder or a fog droplet (David A Lindon)

A micro artist said he has beaten his own world record by creating the smallest handmade sculpture ever.

David A Lindon, from Bournemouth, Dorset, says his latest sculpture, The Yellow Smiley Face, is “invisible to the human eye,” with measurements of only 11.037 by 12.330 microns, according to BBC.

Lindon said his artwork lived on a first-class stamp on a micro dot on the eye of the late Queen.

It has now broken his previous smallest handmade sculpture world record, The Lego Brick.

Lindon, who has 12 Guinness World Records in total, is known for his work creating miniature pieces of art, including three microscopic re-creations of Van Gogh masterpieces on a watch mechanism which sold for £90,000.

The Red Lego Brick measures 0.02517mm by 0.02184mm.

“My Yellow Smiley Face artwork is half the size of my Red Lego Brick artwork, which in turn was already four times smaller than the previous record,” the artist said.

He said it was the same size as either a human blood cell, mould spores, bacteria, talcum powder and a fog droplet.

Other of Lindon's tiny creations include unique animals crafted within the eye of a needle, from a blue whale to a delicate peacock butterfly.

“I probably am completely bonkers,” he jokes.

The stamp where Yellow Smiley Face lives is mounted on a glass tower and housed inside a sealed glass box.

Varieties

Israel Cleared to Stay in Eurovision; Spain, Ireland and Others Quit in Protest

Pro-Palestinian protestors hold a flag and a banner outside the RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) Irish public service broadcaster television studios as demonstrators call for an Irish boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if there is Israeli participation, in Dublin, Ireland, November 1, 2025. (Reuters)
Pro-Palestinian protestors hold a flag and a banner outside the RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) Irish public service broadcaster television studios as demonstrators call for an Irish boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if there is Israeli participation, in Dublin, Ireland, November 1, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israel Cleared to Stay in Eurovision; Spain, Ireland and Others Quit in Protest

Pro-Palestinian protestors hold a flag and a banner outside the RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) Irish public service broadcaster television studios as demonstrators call for an Irish boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if there is Israeli participation, in Dublin, Ireland, November 1, 2025. (Reuters)
Pro-Palestinian protestors hold a flag and a banner outside the RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) Irish public service broadcaster television studios as demonstrators call for an Irish boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if there is Israeli participation, in Dublin, Ireland, November 1, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel was cleared on Thursday to enter the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest by the organizer, prompting Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia to withdraw over the Gaza war and plunging the competition into one of the biggest rows in its history.

The broadcasters who had threatened to boycott the event cited the death count in Gaza and accused Israel of flouting rules meant to guard the contest's neutrality. Israel accuses its critics of mounting a global smear campaign against it.

After a meeting in Geneva, the European Broadcasting Union, or EBU, decided not to call a vote on Israel's participation, saying it had instead passed new rules aimed at discouraging governments from influencing the contest, Reuters said.

Right after that announcement by the contest organizer, the Dutch, Spanish, Irish and Slovenian broadcasters said they would withdraw, meaning singers from their countries would not compete in the contest that draws millions of viewers worldwide.

Ben Robertson, a Eurovision expert from fan website ESC Insight, said the contest's integrity was at its lowest ebb.

"Never in the history of the contest have we had such a vote, and such a split, between the member broadcasters of the European Broadcasting Union," he said.

Both the Israeli government and opposition leaders celebrated the country's inclusion.

Golan Yochpaz, CEO of Israeli broadcaster KAN, likened the efforts to exclude Israel to a form of "cultural boycott."

Rounding on the countries withdrawing, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on X: "The disgrace is upon them."

IRELAND SAYS ITS PARTICIPATION 'UNCONSCIONABLE'

The Eurovision Song Contest dates back to 1956 and reaches around 160 million viewers, according to the EBU - more than the almost 128 million recorded for this year's US Super Bowl, according to figures from Nielsen.

Israel's participation has divided opinion in the competition that has a history of entanglement in national rivalries, international issues and political voting.

Its 2025 entrant, Yuval Raphael, was at the Nova music festival, a target of the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

A total of 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in the assault by Hamas, according to Israeli tallies. More than 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the ensuing conflict, according to health authorities in the enclave.

Irish broadcaster RTE said it felt "Ireland's participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk".

Jose Pablo Lopez, head of Spanish state broadcaster RTVE said on X: "What happened in the EBU Assembly confirms that Eurovision is not a song contest but a festival dominated by geopolitical interests and fractured."

RTV Slovenija said it together with Spain, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Türkiye, Algeria and Iceland requested a secret vote on Israel's participation, but it was not held.

Icelandic public broadcaster RUV said its board will make a decision on Wednesday on whether to participate in the next Eurovision, which will be held in Vienna in May.

"I feel sad that other countries are not going to compete next year," said 33-year-old Tel Aviv Eurovision fan Jurij Vlasov, adding the Netherlands' song this year was his favorite.

In Austria, which backed Israel, Eurovision fans welcomed its inclusion, even as some in Spain took the opposite view.

"Why should the population, or a part of the population, not participate?," said Vienna resident Bernhard Kleemann. "If countries decide not to participate because they condemn the government and the prime minister, that's their decision."

"BORN FROM THE ASHES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR"

Instead of voting on Israel, the EBU said its members backed rules intended to discourage governments and third parties from disproportionately promoting songs to sway voters after allegations that Israel unfairly boosted its 2025 entrant.

"This vote means that all EBU Members who wish to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 and agree to comply with the new rules are eligible to take part," it said.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog thanked his country's supporters, saying he hoped the song contest would continue to champion "culture, music, friendship between nations".

Germany, a major Eurovision backer, had signaled it would not take part if Israel was barred. Germany's culture minister Wolfram Weimer told the Bild newspaper he welcomed the decision.

"Israel belongs to the Eurovision Song Contest like Germany belongs to Europe," he said.

Martin Green, the contest's director, said EBU members showed they wanted to protect the neutrality of the competition.

"Eurovision was born from the ashes of the Second World War," he said. "It was designed to bring us together, and it will hit bumps in the road, and we have a complicated world, but we hope it's a temporary situation, and we'll move forward."