Signal Hill decided to have a little barbecue without a permit, giving everyone a panic attack. Firefighting teams from the city and Table Mountain National Park went into overdrive to tackle a vegetation fire that ignited near the Bo-Kaap, close to Voetboog Street. Strong seasonal winds pushed flames and smoke toward neighborhoods like Fresnaye and Green Point, creating some properly cyberpunk sunsets for residents.
Ground crews and aerial units worked to establish containment lines, managing to subdue the blaze before it caused structural damage. Nobody was hurt, and no homes were burned, a fact that left locals massively relieved. Officials cleared hikers and sightseers from Signal Hill as a precaution, with road closures aiding the...
Courtroom popcorn alert as battered witness drags cops over alleged midnight beatdown in Meyiwa trial, and Pretoria High Court hears accusations that officers pummeled Sifiso Gwabini Zungu into signing a statement in the Senzo Meyiwa murder case; Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng orders those officers back to the stand, forcing prosecutors to reopen part of their narrative.
Zungu, who runs a tuck shop inside the Vosloorus hostel where the state says the five accused gathered before the 2014 shooting, swears no gun swap or plotting ever happened there. Defense argues his signature came under duress, turning cross-examination into a mini-hearing on whether that paperwork can survive or hit the shredder.
He recounts cops bursting into his room...
Floodwaters swallowed a bakkie, three shopkeepers vanished, and Limpopo is shaking. Rescue crews in Tswinga Village, near Thohoyandou, hunt for the Somali nationals after their pickup slipped off a submerged bridge during relentless rain, dragging them under raging currents, while worried families grip fading hope as bits of metal surface downstream.
Police divers fight murky swirls, boats hug riverbanks, and drones sweep the sky, yet nothing points to the men. Daadir Mohamed, speaking for relatives, admits hearts break with every empty dive, though crews keep combing spots where debris clogs bends.
Province-wide deluges have already ended at least seventeen lives, trashed four hundred thirty-nine roads, and pushed more than fifteen...
Big yikes, Chile’s south is literally on fire. President Gabriel Boric declared a catastrophe order covering Ñuble and Biobío as wind-whipped wildfires, driven by furnace-level heat, left at least 18 dead and sent over twenty-thousand residents racing from homes.
Scorching highs topping thirty-five degrees and gusts hitting sixty kilometers per hour turned dry hills into torches across twenty-four active fronts, torching roughly 8,500 hectares near Concepción, Penco, and Lirquén while thick smoke blanketed highways and ash drifted like gray confetti.
Evacuations topped fifty-thousand in the hardest-hit pockets, sirens wailing and alerts buzzing while families bolted through midnight orange skies. Firefighters, soldiers, and volunteers...
Hope cracks flood-hit Mpumalanga’s gloom as two unnamed donors pledge houses for homeless families. Premier Mandla Ndlovu, touring wrecked villages, said the business-backed builds will land in Nkomazi and Mkhondo while swollen rivers, collapsed bridges, and power cuts mark a R2-billion crisis that has killed about twenty people and hit eight-hundred households in Mbombela and Chief Albert Luthuli.
Relentless rain turned roads into sloppy rivers, ripping pavements apart and dropping bridges into torrents. Rescuers fighting bad visibility still ferried stranded residents from rooftops, while grain fields drowned and animals floated off. Weather gurus flag more downpours, warning residents to skip river crossings and flooded shortcuts...
School run turned nightmare, six gone after school van meets semi head-on, the packed shuttle swung out to pass on Vaal’s tight R42 near Unitas Park and slammed into the oncoming hauler, killing four kids aged ten to fifteen, the driver, and one adult passenger while tossing the semi into a ditch and rolling the van.
Paramedics pried eight wounded kids from the twisted shell, some with shattered bones and deep cuts, flying the worst to nearby hospitals while choppers hovered; one boy, scraped but standing, said they were belting out tunes when everything went black.
Firefighters sliced metal, police blocked lanes, and spill crews soaked fuel while the semi driver, shaken yet upright, helped haul kids clear before investigators checked...
Two kids vanished while Limpopo floodwaters kept flexing, villagers said the eight- and ten-year-olds slipped from Mashishimale’s muddy river edge, currents yanked them under, and rescuers from the South African Police Service, the National Defence Force, and local disaster crews hit the water with boats, drones, and divers, yet pounding rain and zero visibility keep the search circle empty.
While teams hunt, the province wrestles with gallons of rain topping four hundred millimeters, rivers Letaba, Mutale, and Sabie spilling over, a death toll hitting seventeen, and more than twelve hundred houses wrecked, pushing thousands into classrooms and halls turned shelters as broken roads, snapped bridges, and sagging power lines cut villages...
ChatGPT finally caved and is serving ads now. OpenAI announced it will test commercials within its chatbot, targeting people using the free version and its new Go plan. That cheaper plan costs eight dollars monthly. The goal is to make money from users who avoid pricier subscriptions like Pro, Plus, Business, and Enterprise, which stay ad-free.
These ads will pop up at the bottom of your chat. They will connect to the topic you are discussing. Users can shut them off, get rid of them, or see why an ad appeared. OpenAI claims it will not show ads to anyone suspected of being under eighteen years old.
The company insists its chatbot's answers won't change based on ads, calling it answer independence. They also state they will not sell...
Netflix is just throwing everything at the wall now, even sports talk. The streamer is adding a batch of video podcasts to its platform for no extra charge, calling the new section podcasts to watch. It features shows from popular names like Bill Simmons from The Ringer, Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take, and The Ryen Russillo Show.
This play extends Netflix's push into sports content. The company secured a deal with Barstool Sports, agreeing to pay ten million dollars each year. That effort follows a pact with the NFL to stream holiday football games, which performed well for the platform.
Lawmakers in Washington have taken note of Netflix's aggressive expansion. Antitrust concerns emerged, with Donald Trump stating the company's...
