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London's Restored Big Ben Clocktower is Up for a Top Architecture Prize

A view of Big Ben clock's dial frame with numbers, with no glass and before being stripped on the Elizabeth Tower at Westminster Palace in London, Britain in this undated handout photo. UK Parliament/Mark Duffy/Handout via REUTERS
A view of Big Ben clock's dial frame with numbers, with no glass and before being stripped on the Elizabeth Tower at Westminster Palace in London, Britain in this undated handout photo. UK Parliament/Mark Duffy/Handout via REUTERS
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London's Restored Big Ben Clocktower is Up for a Top Architecture Prize

A view of Big Ben clock's dial frame with numbers, with no glass and before being stripped on the Elizabeth Tower at Westminster Palace in London, Britain in this undated handout photo. UK Parliament/Mark Duffy/Handout via REUTERS
A view of Big Ben clock's dial frame with numbers, with no glass and before being stripped on the Elizabeth Tower at Westminster Palace in London, Britain in this undated handout photo. UK Parliament/Mark Duffy/Handout via REUTERS

A facelift that restored London’s 166-year-old Big Ben clocktower to a sparkling shine was nominated Thursday for Britain’s leading architecture award.

The RIBA Stirling Prize committee said the five-year refurbishment of the tower at Parliament is “a veritable masterclass in conservation and craftsmanship” that preserves a “defining symbol of British heritage.”

The 96-meter (316-foot) structure, formally known as the Elizabeth Tower, houses Big Ben, the giant bell whose bong has sounded the hours since 1859.

It fell silent in 2017 when the tower was covered in scaffolding for repairs. The original cost estimate of 29 million pounds ($39 million) more than doubled, but the renovation unveiled in 2022 has been widely praised.

As well as repairing the corroded cast-iron roof and damaged stonework, craftspeople returned the clock to its original blue and gold color scheme after decades of being painted black.

The repair work used traditional materials and skills in stonemasonry, gilding, glass cutting and clockmaking, though some modernizations were made, including replacing lightbulbs behind each clock face with energy-efficient LED bulbs. Workers also installed an elevator as an alternative to the 334 steps up to the belfry.

The Stirling Prize, organized by the Royal Institute of British Architects, usually goes to a new building, though last year’s winner was a railway project, London’s Elizabeth Line.

Other contenders this year include pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca’s new Discovery Center in Cambridge, the London College of Fashion in east London and three housing developments.

The winner will be announced Oct. 16.

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2 Humpback Whales Set Records Swimming between Australia and Brazil

This photo provided by the Pacific Whale Foundation in May 2026, shows a humpback whale breaching off the coast of Australia. (Pacific Whale Foundation via AP)
This photo provided by the Pacific Whale Foundation in May 2026, shows a humpback whale breaching off the coast of Australia. (Pacific Whale Foundation via AP)
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2 Humpback Whales Set Records Swimming between Australia and Brazil

This photo provided by the Pacific Whale Foundation in May 2026, shows a humpback whale breaching off the coast of Australia. (Pacific Whale Foundation via AP)
This photo provided by the Pacific Whale Foundation in May 2026, shows a humpback whale breaching off the coast of Australia. (Pacific Whale Foundation via AP)

Scientists have spotted two humpback whales that made separate, record-breaking crossings between Australia and Brazil.

The whales were identified by their distinctive tail markings at the two locations about 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) apart. They traveled in opposite directions and journeyed farther than any humpback known so far.

“It’s a very rare event, but it is a really wonderful demonstration of just how wide-ranging these animals are,” said Phillip Clapham, former head of a NOAA whale research program who was not involved with the new findings.

Humpback whales are known for roaming long distances across major oceans in predictable patterns, typically following migration routes learned from their mothers. They feed on krill and small fish in the warmer months and breed in tropical waters over winter.

It's difficult to track the movements of creatures that spend most of their lives underwater. In the new study, scientists analyzed over 19,000 whale images taken in the past four decades by research groups and citizen scientists, The Associated Press reported.

Recognition software helped to identify the whales based on their tails' color patterns and jagged edges. Researchers pinpointed two different whales at breeding sites in eastern Australia and Brazil over the years, suggesting they had crossed from one place to the other.

One whale traveled just over 9,300 miles (15,000 kilometers), outranking previous recordholders including a humpback that swam from Colombia to Zanzibar.

The findings were published Tuesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Since the photos only depict the whales at the beginning and end of their journeys, researchers don't know the exact route they took.

Whales don't typically travel between mating sites so it's not yet clear why these two separately embarked on their journeys. They may have met other whales on shared feeding grounds and split off instead of returning to where they came from, study co-author Stephanie Stack with the Pacific Whale Foundation said in an email.

“Finding not one but two individuals that have crossed between Australia and Brazil challenges what we thought we knew about how separate these populations really are,” Stack said.

Such odysseys are more difficult for whales in the Northern Hemisphere, where massive continents make traveling across oceans tougher.

Scientists said the record journey shows just how far humpback whales can go. These methods can also help keep track of them as climate change warms oceans, possibly changing where krill live and where humpbacks might go to feed and breed.

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Animal Welfare Groups: 3 South African Zoo Elephants Are Depressed, Sue to Move Them

FILE - Charley, an ageing four-ton African elephant, is trained to enter a transport container, on Aug. 9, 2024 at the Pretoria, South Africa's, National Zoological Gardens. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Charley, an ageing four-ton African elephant, is trained to enter a transport container, on Aug. 9, 2024 at the Pretoria, South Africa's, National Zoological Gardens. (AP Photo, File)
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Animal Welfare Groups: 3 South African Zoo Elephants Are Depressed, Sue to Move Them

FILE - Charley, an ageing four-ton African elephant, is trained to enter a transport container, on Aug. 9, 2024 at the Pretoria, South Africa's, National Zoological Gardens. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Charley, an ageing four-ton African elephant, is trained to enter a transport container, on Aug. 9, 2024 at the Pretoria, South Africa's, National Zoological Gardens. (AP Photo, File)

The mental well-being of three elephants in a zoo in South Africa is the subject of an unusual court case, with animal welfare groups saying they are depressed and should be moved to a larger conservation park where they can be happy.

The case this week will ask a South African court to decide if the state is meeting its legal obligations with regard to the welfare of the animals and the conditions in which they are kept, according to David Bilchitz, a board member at Animal Law Reform South Africa, one of the groups bringing the case.

Experts would show in court that the elephants are unhappy, The Associated Press quoted Bilchitz as saying. The animal welfare groups said a part of the South African Constitution puts an obligation on authorities to look after animals.

The zoo in question in Johannesburg is publicly owned and has defended its management of the elephants, saying they are well cared for.

Bilchitz said elephants have highly complex social structures and specific physical and mental needs, and generally live in herds of 20-50 animals that roam large areas in the wild.

He said that the three elephants at the zoo — named Lammie, Ramadiba and Mopane — live in an enclosure not much bigger than a soccer field with none of the typical stimulation that elephants need, like trees to forage from and mud pools to bathe in.

“They are sad, depressed and frustrated,” Bilchitz told AP. “They are listless and stand around.”
He said the elephants had shown signs of psychological distress, like standing and rocking and other “repetitive compulsive behavior.”

Johannesburg Zoo said in a statement that there had been a “media scourge” over the condition of the elephants and maintained they were healthy and also popular with zoo staff and visitors. It also said that relocating elephants from zoos to semiwild sanctuaries is not always successful.

There is a kind of precedent for the case. In 2024, an old bull elephant called Charley was relocated from another South African zoo to a game reserve after he outlived his elephant companions at the zoo and animal experts believed he was lonely.

The zoo agreed that Charley should be taken to the reserve to retire after he spent decades in captivity, including around 16 years in a circus.

Varieties

Starbucks Korea Fires CEO Over Controversial 'Tank Day' Promotion

A customer leaves a Starbucks coffee shop in Seoul on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
A customer leaves a Starbucks coffee shop in Seoul on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
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Starbucks Korea Fires CEO Over Controversial 'Tank Day' Promotion

A customer leaves a Starbucks coffee shop in Seoul on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
A customer leaves a Starbucks coffee shop in Seoul on May 19, 2026. (AFP)

Starbucks Korea's chief executive has been sacked over a campaign perceived as referring to a bloody historical incident, according to BBC.

The promotion, which used the English words “Tank Day,” was for Starbucks Korea’s Tank Series drink tumblers touted to have “spacious volume” for a large amount of coffee.

Launched on Monday, the campaign coincided with the anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising crackdown, sparking calls to boycott Starbucks Korea and prompted a harsh rebuke from President Lee Jae Myung.

Many felt the “tank” motif referenced the vehicles deployed by the military government in May 1980 to crush pro-democracy protesters, BBC wrote.

Starbucks Korea rolled back the promotion hours after it launched. Shinsegae, the conglomerate that owns the majority stake in the coffee chain, apologized for “inappropriate marketing” and fired the chain's chief executive Sohn Jeong-hyun.

According to local reports, Starbucks Korea initially clarified that the Tank Series was one of several series of tumblers it was rolling out in a campaign running from May 15 to 26.

“We sincerely apologize for causing inconvenience and concern to our customers due to this,” the company said. “We have immediately suspended the event and will review and improve our internal processes to prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future.”

Starbucks' headquarters in the US also issued an apology, acknowledging that “while unintentional, [the incident] should never have happened.”

“We recognize the deep pain and offense this has caused, particularly to those who honor the victims, their families, and all who contributed to Korea's democratization,” it said.

“I can't believe they thought they could pull off something like this and people would just let it slide... it's utterly absurd and infuriating,” an X user wrote early on Tuesday.

Several also put out calls on social media to boycott both Starbucks Korea and Shinsegae.

South Korea's president was among those who criticized the campaign, saying it “insults the victims and the bloody struggle” of the residents of the southern city of Gwangju.

“What on earth were they thinking, knowing how many lives were taken that day and how seriously that set back our country's justice and history?

“I am outraged by such a low-class merchant's inhumane behavior, which denies our country's values of basic human rights and democracy,” Lee wrote on an X post.

Reports estimate that hundreds of demonstrators were killed in the southern city of Gwangju on May 18, 1980.

Further investigations into the massacre later confirmed that troops deployed by the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan committed rape and sexual assault.

Since then, May 18 has frequently been depicted in films and television shows as a day of national trauma for South Korea while also commemorated annually as a day of democracy.

The Gwangju Uprising set South Korea on its path toward democracy. It became a rallying cry for activists over the following seven years, culminating in a movement in June 1987 which toppled Chun's regime.

Some in South Korea claim the Starbucks Korea campaign also references the 1987 movement.

Shinsegae's group chairman Chung Yong-jin called the Starbucks campaign “an inexcusable mistake that trivialized the suffering and sacrifices of all those who have dedicated themselves to the democracy of this country.”

In a statement on Tuesday, he pledged to “thoroughly investigate” the approval procedures behind the event and “re-examine the review process” for marketing content across all its affiliates.

Since it sold off its stakes in July 2021, Starbucks Coffee Company, headquartered in the US, no longer has any involvement in Starbucks's operations in South Korea.

Shinsegae's subsidiary E-mart owns a 67.5% controlling stake in Starbucks Korea, while the remaining share is owned by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC.