Variety

The spectacular meltdown in this week’s episode of hit TV show Game of Thrones has inspired a meme that perfectly encapsulates how US foreign policy is portrayed and the reality on the ground. Daenerys Targaryen’s decision to lay waste to King’s Landing and torch thousands of civilians in the penultimate …

Iron is crucial for the healthy functioning of your body. But one Indian man clearly overdid it when he snacked on as many as 116 iron nails, several pellets, and a long wire, which doctors had to remove from his stomach. A surgeon in Bundi, north-western India, was puzzled after …

Japan is about to start testing its fastest ever bullet train, which can reach speeds of up to 400kph. The Alfa-X train will be put into service in 2030, with plans to run it at 360kph. This will make it faster than China’s Fuxing Hao service linking Beijing and Shanghai …

Leonardo da Vinci could have experienced nerve damage in a fall, impeding his ability to paint in later life, Italian doctors suggest. They diagnosed ulnar palsy, or “claw hand”, by analyzing the depiction of his right hand in two artworks. It had been suggested that Leonardo’s hand impairment was caused …

David Beckham has been banned for driving for six months and given a £750 fine after he admitted to using his phone while driving in November. During the hearing at Bromley Magistrates’ Court, the former England captain appeared and confirmed his name and west London address. He had previously pleaded …

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was rudely accosted by an unlikely assailant during a campaign rally on Wednesday night in the form of a rather large cockroach. The 74-year-old was mid-sentence when his aide tried to shoo the bug away but it merely scrambled down Duterte’s chest before he nonchalantly swatted …

The small French Alps village of Crets en Belledonne is counting sheep, but not to cure insomnia. Instead, they’re enrolling them in school to make up for low attendance. Yes, you read that right: the Jules Ferry elementary school registered some 15 sheep as pupils on Tuesday in order to …

The BBC has fired a British radio presenter who tweeted an image of a chimpanzee dressed in clothes below the caption “Royal Baby leaves the hospital”. Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, gave birth in the early hours of Monday morning to a baby boy, Archie, the first mixed-race child …

A relentless pursuit of economic growth, twinned with the impact of climate change, has put an “unprecedented” one million species at risk of extinction, scientists say in a landmark report on the damage done by modern civilization to the natural world. Only a wide-ranging transformation of the global economic and …

Sri Lanka’s $4.4 billion tourism industry is reeling from cancellations as travelers shun the sun and sand Indian Ocean island after multiple suicide bombings that killed over 250 people two weeks ago. Suspected suicide bombers from little-known Islamic groups in Sri Lanka attacked churches and luxury hotels in the country …

Camlica Mosque, which has a combination of Ottoman and Seljuk architectural style, can accommodate 63,000 worshippers. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated Turkey’s largest and newest mosque on Friday. Construction on the Camlica Mosque Complex began in 2013 and has a capacity of 63,000 worshippers. The previous Turkish record holder in …

Mohammed was found to be a popular name in several German states last year and managed 24th in the national rankings. Mohammed was among the most popular baby names for boys born in Berlin in 2018, according to a study commissioned by Germany’s government language society. The Association for the …

The head of the auction house which is now selling Hitler’s note observed how in the document, the Nazi head tried to “portray himself as a valiant leader of his men until the end”, while in reality, his demise was far less glorious. A telegram sent by Adolf Hitler in …

The UAE has issued a birth certificate for a child born to a Muslim mother and a Hindu father, despite its laws against interfaith marriage. Under the country’s legislation, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man. Kiran Babu and Sanam Saboo Siddique married in 2016 in south India, before …

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) is setting up a UK life insurance venture which will see it offer significant discounts to smokers who quit or switch to one of its alternative products. The new firm, Reviti, is wholly owned by PMI and will offer customers a programme of health …

Americans are among the most stressed and worried people in the world, with negative emotions in the US reaching the highest level in a decade, according to a new survey. About 55 percent of US adults said they had experienced stress during “a lot of the day” prior, compared with …

Under the Arabian sun, a monumental construction effort is making headway. Located deep within Dubai’s desert interior, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park — named after the emirate’s ruler and the UAE’s vice president and prime minister — continues to grow and has just passed another milestone. In …

Six years ago, Martin Hobbs had never swum a mile. This week, he cemented a world record by swimming 361 miles — the full length of Lake Malawi in Africa. Hobbs, 45, set the record Wednesday for a longest solo swim in a lake and became the first person to …

Critics have been left dazzled by the latest Avengers film, describing it as “glorious”, “irresistible”, “intensely satisfying” and “masterful”. In his five-star review, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw says the film delivers “a huge sugar rush of excitement”. Empire and the Telegraph both call the film “a victory lap”, while Screen …

One of the top 50 richest Russians, banker Oleg Tinkov, wants to present what he calls a first private icebreaker to the public next year, before the €100 million vessel sets sail to the Antarctic among other destinations. Founder and owner of Tinkoff Bank, worth $2.2 billion, is going to …