Author: rpnadmin

MIAMI — Two South Florida police officers claim Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s recent action thriller “The Rip” used too many real-life details in its fictionalized narrative, causing harm to the officers’ personal and professional reputations, according to a defamation lawsuit. Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court earlier this month against Artists Equity, a film production company owned by Affleck and Damon. Court filings don’t say how much the officers are suing for, but the civil complaint says they’re seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney fees, as…

A growing number of users of popular GLP-1 drugs for weight loss are experiencing foul-smelling breath as an unexpected side effect, driving up gum and mint sales as they seek relief. Online influencers have dubbed it “Ozempic breath,” referring to the anti-diabetes medication that made GLP-1s a household name. Experts describe it as a mix of dry mouth, rotten-egg burps and “a funky smell” that arises as the appetite-suppressing drugs slow digestion, leaving food to ferment in the stomach as the gastrointestinal equivalent of cabbage turning into sauerkraut. “Some users describe it as fishy smelling, while others say sulfuric or…

Two kittens who were rescued from the rubble of a tornado-flattened Mississippi trailer park now have a new family. Tornado and Twister, as they’ve been aptly named, are in the hands of two young girls, 10-year-old Mia Whittington and her 7-year-old sister Airlie Whittington. Tornado, a four-week-old dark-colored kitten, was discovered by storm chaser Ashton Lemley early Thursday morning as he was aiding in search-and-rescue efforts at a trailer park in Bogue Chitto, Mississippi. Lemley gave the kitten to United Cajun Navy Incident Commander Josh Gill. During the search-and-rescue, a second kitten, Twister, who is white and two weeks old,…

Residents of Alaska’s northernmost town will work and sleep beneath a “midnight sun” until Aug. 2, multiple news outlets report. Utqiagvik, Alaska — formerly known as Barrow — sits about 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, making it one of the few American communities to experience 84 consecutive days of round-the-clock daylight. The sun made its last dip below the horizon early Sunday and won’t set again until Aug. 2. The phenomenon occurs near the summer solstice, when the tilt of the North Pole makes the sun appear in the sky continuously without setting. All locations north of the…

LA PAZ, Bolivia — Tired of gasoline shortages and skyrocketing prices, Simón Huanca took matters into his own hands. The 53-year-old Indigenous artisan imported a Chinese electric car to navigate El Alto, Bolivia’s highest city, using the vehicle to transport both his family and the alpaca wool for his weaving workshop. He also installed a dedicated charger in his own garage, mainly for convenience, but also because there are only three public charging stations serving the vast metropolitan area of El Alto and neighboring La Paz, home to more than 1.6 million people. “Since last year, I’ve been trying to…

JAKARTA, Indonesia — More than 300 foreign nationals were arrested in a raid on an alleged online gambling operation in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, police said Saturday, in one of the country’s largest crackdowns on illegal digital betting networks. The 321 foreigners, mainly from Vietnam, were arrested at a commercial building near the city’s Chinatown section that investigators described as a hub for more than 70 online gambling websites, targeting players outside Indonesia, based on marketing records and digital evidence collected during the raid. Those arrested include 228 Vietnamese, 57 Chinese and the rest came from Laos, Myanmar, Thailand,…

TENERIFE, Canary Islands — One the 17 American passengers evacuated from a cruise ship In the Canary Islands has tested positive for the hantavirus but is not showing any symptoms, U.S. health officials said late Sunday. The charter flight was carrying 17 Americans evacuated off the MV Hondius following its arrival in Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the West African coast. The aircraft was due to arrive in Omaha, Nebraska, early Monday. The Americans would first be flown to the University of Nebraska, which has a federally funded quarantine facility, to assess whether they have been…

Russia accused Kyiv of breaking a U.S.-brokered ceasefire on Sunday, while Ukrainian officials said that one person had been killed and more injured by Russian drone and artillery strikes in the past 24 hours. Two people were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, the area’s Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo said. Separately, Russia’s Ministry of Defense accused Kyiv of committing more than 1,000 ceasefire violations, state media reported, citing a daily briefing on Sunday. The ministry said Ukrainian forces had attacked civilian targets in several Russian regions and carried out strikes against Russian military positions…

The public should not panic about the deadly hantavirus outbreak that started on a cruise ship whose passengers and crew began disembarking Sunday at Spain’s Canary Islands, a U.S. health official said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been preparing for the 17 Americans who are disembarking to return to the United States, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the agency’s acting director, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This is not COVID. This is not going to lead to [that] kind of outbreak,” Dr. Bhattacharya said. “We shouldn’t be panicking when the evidence doesn’t warrant it.” Hantaviruses are carried…

In a box office battle of the sequels, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” had the slight edge over “Mortal Kombat II” in North American theaters this weekend. According to studio estimates Sunday, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” earned a chart topping $43 million in its second weekend, while “Mortal Kombat II” took in $40 million in its first. This weekend had wide variety of newcomers playing in wide release, including the family-friendly whodunnit “The Sheep Detectives” and a James Cameron co-directed Billie Eilish concert film. But it was the holdover that triumphed. “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” which has grossed…