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Bidens Host Final Halloween Trick-or-treat Event. First Lady Comes as Giant Panda

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a giant panda costume, host the annual Halloween celebration at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a giant panda costume, host the annual Halloween celebration at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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Bidens Host Final Halloween Trick-or-treat Event. First Lady Comes as Giant Panda

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a giant panda costume, host the annual Halloween celebration at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a giant panda costume, host the annual Halloween celebration at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

US President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, who dressed as a giant panda, hosted trick-or-treaters on the White House South Lawn on Wednesday for the last time.
The first lady had participated in the National Zoo's announcement earlier this year that pandas would be returning to Washington. They arrived in the nation's capital in mid-October and Jill Biden donned the panda suit Wednesday as a “welcoming gesture,” the White House said.
Jill Biden added an educational theme to the event and named it “Hallo-Read” to help encourage reading. She has been a teacher for 40 years. Earlier Wednesday, she read a short story about spooky pumpkins to a group of costumed children gathered on the lawn, The Associated Press reported.
She and the president later ventured outside at sunset and spent about an hour handing out treats. Biden, in a suit and tie, dropped boxes of White House Hershey's Kisses chocolates in the kids' tote bags while the first lady handed out copies of “10 Spooky Pumpkins.”
Up to 8,000 people, including students and children tied to the military, were expected to pass through the White House gates during the day.
A large orange moon and a sign that said “Hallow-Read at the White House” decorated the south face of the executive mansion. The decorations also included cardboard representations of Willow, the family cat who is rarely seen in public, and stacks of books. Giant pumpkin decorations flanked the door.
Biden dropped his bid for reelection in July. He leaves office in January.

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‘Secret City’ Discovered Underneath Greenland’s Ice Sheets

Construction on the mysterious base began in 1959 (Getty)
Construction on the mysterious base began in 1959 (Getty)
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‘Secret City’ Discovered Underneath Greenland’s Ice Sheets

Construction on the mysterious base began in 1959 (Getty)
Construction on the mysterious base began in 1959 (Getty)

Deep below the thick ice of Greenland lies a labyrinth of tunnels that were once thought to be the safest place on Earth in case of a war.

First created during the Cold War, Project Iceworm saw the US plan to store hundreds of ballistic missiles in a system of tunnels dubbed “Camp Century,” Britain’s the METRO newspaper reported on Wednesday.

At the time, it said, US military chiefs had hoped to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union during the height of Cold War tensions if things escalated.

But less than a decade after it was built, the base was abandoned in 1967 after researchers realized the glacier was moving.

Now, the sprawling sub-zero tunnels have been brought back to attention in the stunning new images.

Alex Gardner, a cryospheric scientist at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory said: “We were looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century. We didn’t know what it was at first. In the new data, individual structures in the secret city are visible in a way that they’ve never been before.”

The underground three-kilometer network of tunnels played host to labs, shops, a cinema, a hospital, and accommodation for hundreds of soldiers.

But the icy Greenland site is not without its dangers – it continues to store nuclear waste.

Assuming the site would remain frozen in perpetuity, the US army removed the nuclear reactor installed on site but allowed waste – equivalent to the mass of 30 Airbus A320 airplanes – to be entombed under the snow, the magazine said.

But other sites around the world – without nuclear waste – could also serve as a safe haven in case of World War 3.

Wood Norton is a tunnel network running deep into the Worcestershire forest, originally bought by the BBC during World War 2 in case of a crisis in London.

Peters Mountain in Virginia, US, serves as one of several secret centers also known as AT&T project offices, which are essential for the US government’s continuity planning.

Further north in the states, Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania is a base that could hold up to 1,400 people.

And Cheyenne Mountain Complex in El Paso County, Colorado, is an underground complex boasting five chambers of reservoirs for fuel and water – and in one section there’s even reportedly an underground lake.