Pallade Veneta - News from Venice, Veneto, Venetia and Italy, as well as from around the world

In an industrial wasteland in Los Angeles, Kreigh Hampel is uprooting California buckwheat with a pitchfork to find out how much lead it has absorbed.

Squinting in the bright light of a hot summer morning, Vu Thi Thinh perches on the edge of her small wooden boat and plucks a polystyrene block from the calm waters of Vietnam's Ha Long Bay.

Henry Kissinger, whose very name is synonymous with US diplomacy, turns 100 Saturday feted by the American elite as others seethe that the ruthless Cold Warrior has never faced accountability.

With a Bundesliga title just 90 minutes away, Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic called for calm on Thursday, saying "the key is to do nothing special".

Novak Djokovic will bid for a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam title at a French Open without his old rival Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, while Iga Swiatek attempts to become the first woman to defend the title in 16 years.

For the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia is taking an intense interest in Cuba as Moscow has become increasingly isolated over its invasion of Ukraine.

"Carlos," a 36-year-old coca grower in Colombia, is stuck hanging onto kilos of the valuable paste used to make cocaine stashed under his bed.

Wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson was added to Australia's squad for the Ashes against England Friday as cover for Josh Inglis who will head home for the birth of his first child after the opening Test.

Elon Musk's start-up Neuralink on Thursday said it has gotten approval from US regulators to test its brain implants in people.

To Stewart Rhodes, his conviction for leading the far-right Oath Keepers militia in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol made him America's premier political prisoner -- the equivalent of Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Tesla will open its network of superchargers in the United States and Canada to Ford electric vehicles from 2024, the companies said Thursday, doubling the stations available to Ford customers.

Mohamed Salah said there was "no excuse" for Liverpool's failure to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in seven seasons after Manchester United secured the final place in the Premier League top four on Thursday.

Japanese police on Friday detained a suspect who had been holed up in a building after allegedly killing four people including two police officers in a gun and knife attack, an official told AFP.

Anti-narcotics officers in Peru seized 58 kilograms of cocaine headed for Belgium in packages bearing Nazi symbols and the name Hitler, police said on Thursday.

English journeyman Harry Hall fired an eight-under-par 62 to grab the early clubhouse lead at the PGA Tour's Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas on Thursday.

Nearly 9,000 sea lions, penguins, otters and small cetaceans have died in an avian flu outbreak battering Chile's north coast, the South American country's fisheries service said Thursday.

Manchester United sealed qualification for next season's Champions League with a 4-1 thrashing of beleaguered Chelsea on Thursday.

Global stock markets wobbled Thursday as the US debt standoff dragged on and Germany entered recession, but tech shares surged after US chip firm Nvidia reported bumper earnings thanks to the AI boom.

A child abuse lawsuit over a nude scene filed by actors who played star-crossed lovers in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 "Romeo and Juliet" will be thrown out, a California judge said Thursday.

The US Supreme Court dealt a blow on Thursday to the federal government's authority to regulate wetlands under a landmark anti-pollution law.

Eastern Conference heavyweights New York City and the Philadelphia Union clash at Citi Field on Saturday with the home side desperate to kick-start a play-off push.

The market valuation of Nvidia, a US firm which specializes in chips coveted in the artificial intelligence boom, neared one trillion dollars on Thursday after the company blew past quarterly earnings expectations.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that Russia had begun moving nuclear weapons to its territory, which borders the European Union, ratcheting up tensions with the West over the Ukraine conflict.

Sudan's warring sides accused each other on Thursday of being behind breaches of the latest ceasefire that was negotiated by the US and Saudi Arabia, now in its third day.

La Liga chief Javier Tebas insisted Thursday he didn't mean "to criticise" Vinicius Junior following a charged exchange on Twitter after the Real Madrid forward was racially abused during a march.

President Joe Biden declared Thursday the United States would avoid a disastrous credit default even as lawmakers went on a 10-day break without a deal on raising the nation's borrowing limit to keep paying the bills.

A man sparked a major security alert Thursday after a car crashed into the gates of the UK prime minister's Downing Street complex in London, but police said they were not currently treating it as "terror-related".

As Alaska's bleak winter sets in, arctic ground squirrels burrow deep into the ground to begin an eight-month-hibernation before popping up again in spring, famished and eager to breed.

The founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia was handed an 18-year prison sentence Thursday for seditious conspiracy in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, the toughest penalty given yet over the January 6 assault.

As Alaska's bleak winter sets in, arctic ground squirrels burrow deep into the ground to begin an eight-month-hibernation before popping up again in spring, famished and eager to breed.

Lewis Hamilton on Thursday denied all reports that he has been approached by Ferrari and said he was set to re-sign with Mercedes "in the coming weeks".

Virgin Galactic successfully carried out its first spaceflight in nearly two years Thursday, the company said, after an "enhancement period" to make safety upgrades to its fleet.