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Snakes like these are giants. Black mambas can stretch up to 14 feet, and the longest king cobra ever recorded was 19 feet.Puff adders are small, by contrast, up to six inches short and no longer than six feet, but very thick. They have long, retractable fangs that can deliver venom to muscles.Their venom destroys blood clotting factors and victims die a slow, gruesome death, bleeding into the brain, eyes and mouth.Identifying the attacker can help personalize treatment. But many people never see the snake that bites them, or if they do, they can't identify it. To the untrained eye, venomous snakes may appear indistinguishable from harmless ones.The names don't make it any easier. Green mambas are green, but black mambas are light gray to dark brown; they are so called because the inside o...

Aleksandr had just two weeks of training in Russia before being sent to the front lines in Ukraine in the summer of 2023. About a month later, he was an amputee.Learning to live without your left leg takes much longer than two weeks.“At first there was a lot of pain,” said Aleksandr, 38, referred to only by his first name according to military protocol. But, he added, “eventually, your brain rewires itself and you get used to it.”Aleksandr spoke in an interview at a sanatorium on the outskirts of Moscow as a doctor readjusted his prosthetic leg. He is one of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers returning home after a third year of war to rejoin government institutions and a society struggling to provide for veterans in a time of sanctions and the parallel realities of the seemingly un...

In recent years, Mr. White and Mr. Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, have combined their passion for professional fighting, including mixed martial arts, which Mr. Zuckerberg took up in 2022.“Dana is the president and CEO of UFC and has built it into one of the most valuable, fastest growing and most popular sports enterprises in the world,” Zuckerberg said in his post. “I admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand.”In 2023, White attempted to broker a cage match between Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX. Musk, who has become a close ally of Trump, eventually withdrew from the fight, citing an old injury. He said Mr Zuckerberg was guilty of not making himself available to fight afterwards.Meta, which owns Facebook, In...

The Islamic State has lost thousands of fighters to death or prison and suffered the end of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria. But the global reach of the group, also known as ISIS, is still vast, in part because of its sophisticated media output and the people around the world who consume it.On New Year's Day, a man carrying an Islamic State flag killed at least 14 people as he ran into a crowd in New Orleans. Authorities say there was no evidence that the man, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, had active links to the terrorist group. But the FBI said it was “100% inspired by ISIS.”It is not yet clear what specific online content Mr. Jabbar may have viewed or how else he may have been radicalized. Experts noted that the placement of the flag on the truck resembled that depicted by I...

Can Paxlovid treat long Covid? A new report suggests it may help some patients, but which patients might benefit is unclear.The report, published Monday in the journal Communications Medicine, describes the cases of 13 long-Covid patients who took extended courses of the antiviral drug. The results were decidedly mixed: Nine patients reported some improvement, but only five said it lasted. Four reported no improvement.Perhaps more than anything, the report highlights that, nearly five years into the pandemic, little is known about what can help millions of people with long-term Covid. Although some people improve on their own or with various therapies and medications, no treatment has yet proven to be widely successful.“People with long-Covid are eager for treatments that can help,” said A...

James Lee Williams, a drag artist and winner of the inaugural season of “RuPaul's Drag Race UK,” better known by his stage name The Vivienne, died over the weekend. There were 32 of them.Williams' death was announced in a statement by their manager, Simon Jones, who cited no cause.Williams, who adopted the stage name out of a love of dressing in Vivienne Westwood clothing, became known as one of the world's most recognizable drag queens after winning the first season of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK."On the show, The Vivienne was known for her comedic and vocal impersonations - particularly that of Donald Trump - and spoke about struggling with substance abuse and recovery.“La Viv is a perfect example of a 21st century British queen,” RuPaul said in the 2019 finale.James Lee Williams was born on ...

“A journalist finds himself in the woods.” Marc Da Costa, a digital artist with a Ph.D. in anthropology, spoke from the controls of an AI-driven video installation at the Onassis Foundation's ONX Studio, a high-tech multimedia laboratory in the Olympic Tower in Midtown Manhattan. He was talking to the computer running this installation. About me.“A huge fleet of food delivery bicycles appears,” Da Costa continued, telling a nonsensical story that AI would soon render on screen. “The heavens open and a friendly, galactic being descends with a scepter. Frank and the galactic being meet the delivery men and share a meal under the forest canopy. ..."Moments later, a fleet of food delivery bikes actually appeared on the three enormous screens surrounding us, the entire scene rendered in a charm...

Dozens of Israeli attacks hit the Gaza Strip over the weekend as Israeli and Hamas officials continued indirect ceasefire talks through mediators in Qatar.The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had hit more than 100 targets across the enclave over the weekend, including sites from which militants had fired at least four projectiles into Israeli territory on Friday and Saturday. It said the strikes killed Hamas militants and that the military took measures to mitigate the risk of harming civilians. The claims could not be independently verified.Gaza's Health Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that 88 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours. The ministry's data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Gaza Civil Defense, an emergency services a...

The day was sultry. The 61-year-old woman pushed her donkey into a trot. He loved riding around the ring on the beautiful white beast: at a walk, then a trot, then a gallop. Suddenly he noticed a tingling in his hands and feet that spread towards his torso. He recognized the feeling but forced himself to ignore it. It didn't work. His strength seemed to fade, and before he could say or do anything, he felt himself slump forward. As the world turned grey, the donkey stopped. His arms, and then his body, slid down the animal's sweaty neck and fell to the ground. Then everything went black.He woke up looking at the snow-white belly of his donkey. He bent down and neighed softly, then brayed at the approaching instructor. Are you OK? The instructor shouted in alarm. Should I call an ambulance?...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni traveled to Mar-a-Lago to visit President-elect Donald J. Trump for an informal meeting on Saturday, three people familiar with the trip said.The trip comes just days before Meloni welcomes President Biden to Rome for an official visit to Italy and the Vatican from January 9 to 12.Meloni and Trump have expressed mutual appreciation in the past, and her trip is one of the first visits by a foreign leader to the president-elect's Florida estate since his election. The meeting strengthens the hopes of Meloni's supporters that the conservative Italian prime minister will become Trump's go-to ally in Europe.Much of that role would involve mediating tensions between other European leaders and Trump, who has threatened to start a trade war with the continent ...