Rachel Treisman

Christchurch, New Zealand, is parting ways with its official city wizard after more than two decades. His offensive remarks about women and the local government's new tourism strategy reportedly spelled his doom.

La Niña will most likely be joining us for the winter again, according to federal forecasters.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center announced on Thursday that La Niña conditions have developed and are expected to continue, with an 87% chance that they will be in place from December to February.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is vowing to prosecute the staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the newspaper says it uncovered security vulnerabilities on a state agency website.

The governor is characterizing the paper's actions as a hacking that the state will investigate. He said it could cost taxpayers $50 million.

Educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune will soon make history as the first Black person to have a state-commissioned statue in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall, when her statue replaces that of a Confederate general.

It's a milestone many years in the making. So what exactly will that groundbreaking statue look like?

The winning images of the 2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition are here, and they're enthralling.

Eddie Jaku, who survived the Holocaust and dedicated the rest of his life to promoting kindness, tolerance and resilience, has died in Sydney at age 101.

The self-proclaimed "happiest man on Earth" shared his story with the world in a popular TED Talk, a best-selling memoir and as a volunteer at the Sydney Jewish Museum, which he helped create.

Some lucky Kiwis will soon be able to board a plane for the first time in a while — to get their COVID-19 shot.

The Minneapolis-based footwear company Minnetonka is not actually run by Native Americans, its CEO acknowledged on Monday.

David Miller issued the statement on Indigenous People's Day apologizing for profiting off Native culture and pledging to do more to support Indigenous communities going forward. He noted that Minnetonka first publicly apologized for this appropriation in the summer of 2020, calling that step "long overdue."

Ruthie Tompson liked to tell people that she and Mickey Mouse "grew up together."

And that wasn't an exaggeration: The legendary animator spent nearly 40 years with the Walt Disney Company, working on virtually every film from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Rescuers until her retirement in 1975. She even earned the title "Disney Legend" at the turn of the millennium, as the employee with the longest history with Walt and Roy O. Disney.

The Lego Group hopes its iconic blocks can help build not just trains and houses, but a more inclusive society.

The Danish toy company announced Monday that it will work to remove gender stereotypes from its products and marketing, citing the results of a worldwide survey that found general attitudes toward kids' play and creative careers remain "unequal and restrictive."

The 125th Boston Marathon was two-and-a-half years in the making. Its champions, however, needed just over two hours to cross the finish line.

Southwest Airlines travelers are facing another day of disruptions. The carrier suspended hundreds of additional flights on Monday, after canceling and delaying thousands over the weekend — reportedly due to air traffic control issues and weather.

Some U.S. coins will soon feature female trailblazers from different eras of American history, representing their accomplishments in fields spanning civil rights, politics, humanities and science.

That's thanks to the U.S. Mint's American Women Quarters Program, which was authorized by Congress earlier this year. The four-year program will introduce five coins, with tails honoring a diverse group of historical icons, each year between 2022 and 2025.

Polish police are investigating vandalism at the site of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the largest of the World War II-era Nazi extermination camps used during the Holocaust.

Auschwitz Memorial officials said spray-painted inscriptions in both English and German were found on nine wooden barracks on the property on Tuesday, and some of them were "antisemitic in nature."

They pointed specifically to two references to the Old Testament "often used by antisemites," as well as "denial slogans."

A prestigious panel of more than 1,000 culinary experts has released its annual list of the world's best restaurants, after a rigorous voting process that we can only hope involved a lot of taste-testing.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has directed federal authorities to meet with local law enforcement over the next month to discuss strategies for addressing the increase in "harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers" in public schools across the country.

Rising ocean temperatures killed about 14% of the world's coral reefs in just under a decade, according to a new analysis from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

Put another way: The amount of coral lost between 2008 and 2019 is equivalent to more than all of the living coral in Australia.

The report — the first of its kind since 2008 — found that warming caused by climate change, overfishing, coastal development and declining water quality has placed coral reefs around the world under "relentless stress."

Thursday is Canada's first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

A tape of John Lennon speaking with a group of student journalists and singing an unpublished song fetched 370,000 kroner — or $58,240 — at an auction in Denmark on Tuesday.

The 33-minute conversation, which was recorded in January 1970, spans several of the topics that Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneer says "defined Lennon in that period": His peace campaign with Yoko Ono, The Beatles and his hair.

A judge in a Los Angeles court granted a request from Britney Spears' lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, to remove Jamie Spears, the pop star's father, as conservator of her estate on Wednesday. Here are the details.

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Dozens of workers trapped in a Canadian mine are in the process of making a dramatic escape that involves climbing vertically for up to 10 hours.

Thirty-nine employees at the Totten mine in northern Ontario were trapped underground starting midday Sunday when its elevator system was damaged, according to Brazilian mining company Vale.

It's not delivery, it's a recall. The frozen pizza brand known for its declarative slogan is recalling thousands of pounds of pies due to "misbranding and undeclared allergens," according to federal officials.

Nestlé USA Inc. is recalling some 27,872 pounds of frozen DiGiorno Crispy Pan Crust pepperoni pizza, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced on Sunday.

Authorities are investigating a fire that broke out at the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House in Rochester, N.Y., over the weekend, but stopped short of destroying the building and its artifacts.

Deborah Hughes, the museum's president and CEO, said in a statement that damage was limited to the back porch, where the fire started. She credited the Rochester Fire Department with arriving in minutes and quickly containing the blaze before it could spread to the interior of the historic building.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame has been around for nearly five decades but hasn't included any Black women in its ranks — until now.

Engineer Marian Croak and the late ophthalmologist Patricia Bath will make history as part of the next cohort of inductees, the nonprofit announced this past week. They are the first Black female inventors to receive this honor, which has been bestowed on some 600 other innovators both living and dead.

New York state officials are bracing for staffing shortages when the state's health care worker vaccination mandate takes effect on Monday, and could be looking to the National Guard — as well as medical professionals from other states and countries — to help address them.

A Republican state lawmaker in Florida is proposing a bill that would ban most abortions as early as around six weeks, allow members of the public to sue anyone who helps end a pregnancy beyond that point and fine physicians $10,000 for each abortion they perform later in pregnancy.

There has been national focus over the last few days on the unfolding story of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old white woman whose death was ruled a homicide on Tuesday, nearly a month after she was last seen on a cross-country road trip with her now-missing boyfriend.

It's been a violent few days in Melbourne, Australia, where construction workers and other demonstrators are clashing with police as they protest the government's COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

Amid the surging delta variant, officials in Victoria state — where Melbourne is the largest city — recently announced a vaccination mandate for construction workers that requires each employee to show proof of at least one dose by Thursday.

The trademark gondolas of Venice's Grand Canal played second fiddle this weekend to a very unusual vessel: A giant violin carrying a live string quartet.

"Noah's Violin" is the most recent creation of Venetian artist Livio De Marchi. He's sent plenty of other wooden works out to sea, including a giant shoe and an origami hat.

The Queen's Gambit on Netflix won over tens of millions of viewers last year, triggering a national run on chess sets and making an instant icon out of its fictional protagonist.