President Trump on Wednesday ordered ICE to resume vehicle stops, reversing the temporary pause initiated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) just one day prior. The president declared on Truth

I started playing chess regularly about six months ago. I'm still terrible, if we're being honest, but I've been chipping away at it, and I even bought a smart chessboard to help me learn faster.

Strange events are the theme of Summer 2026. From wild conspiracies to unreal natural disasters, untimely deaths and proofs of life, we are halfway through the season, and every day seems to bring us

ForeignThe former mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, wants to do more to put pressure on the Israeli government while Trump calls him extremely liberal.Andy Burnham celebrates his victory

Scientists have identified a new species of monkey that has orange lips and makes unique roars and snorting sounds. The distinctive monkey lives in a remote region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is only the fifth new monkey species to be identified in Africa in the past 75 years, and there might be more unknown monkey species in the region, scientists behind a new study suggested. Researchers named the newly identified species of monkey Colobus congoensis, after the region, and it is known by the common name "likweli" in the local Kilanga language."This is remarkable because it's not very common these days to find a new, never-before-documented primate species, let alone a relatively large species of monkey," said Joshua Linder, an anthropologist and president and co-founder of the The Forest Collective, a nonprofit that aims to conserve and restore tropical rainforests. In 2008, conservationists in the dense rainforests of Lomami National Park, within the Congo Basin in the DRC, photographed an unidentified monkey, but it was partially obscured. Then, in 2018 a similar-looking animal was captured on camera, prompting study co-author Junior Amboko, a Lomami National Park researcher and a Florida Atlantic University anthropologist, to set out to find the mysterious monkey.To see what was already known, Amboko and his colleagues showed the pictures to people from 52 villages around the park."These people really know the fauna and flora in the forest," Amboko told Live Science. "In only eight villages, people knew the monkey and these were hunters, who know the economic value of animals or how much food each animal can provide, but even they didn't know much."The researchers worked in the Lomami National Park, within the Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Image credit: Daniel Rosengren, Frankfurt Zoological Society )Hunters of the Balanga ethnic group called the monkey "likweli," although the meaning of this name isn't known. Some in the Mituku local communities called the species "kasaba nkoni," which Amboko said means "the branch shaker." This refers to the way colobus monkeys leap from branch to branch, Amboko said. In their searches between 2018 and 2022, the researchers recorded 114 sightings of the species across an estimated range of about 660 square miles (1,700 square kilometers) naturally isolated between the Lomami and Lualaba rivers. They reported their findings July 15 in the journal PLOS One.The monkeys, seen hanging out in groups of between one and 20 individuals, are mainly glossy black, but they have a conspicuous orange patch around the mouth and nose. Bare gray skin on their cheekbones makes it look as if they're wearing masks. They also have a patch of white fur around the anus."We're going with the face and the rump as the two distinctive traits," said study co-author Kate Detwiler, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University. "If you see the face, you see this unique bare skin that's orange cream. And then if you're coming from behind, you see this white patch." DNA analysis confirmed C. congoensis was a previously unknown species. (Image credit: Daniel Rosengren, Frankfurt Zoological Society )The monkeys, which weigh about 15 pounds (7 kilograms), also make deep, loud roars, punctuated by distinctive snorts. These unique vocalizations distinguish them from other colobus monkeys, Detwiler told Live Science.By taking samples, and sequencing DNA, from monkeys killed by hunters and destined for the illegal bushmeat trade, and comparing the results with whats in museum collections and datasets of genetics, skulls, teeth and pelts for other colobus monkeys, the team confirmed that C. congoensis was a previously unknown species."My lab got the tissue sample and did the genetics, and we were shocked by how divergent the key area of the mitochondrial genome was from other colobus monkeys," Detwiler said.Researchers think the new species diverged up to 5.78 million years ago. (Image credit: Daniel Rosengren, Frankfurt Zoological Society )The monkeys live in the same forest as the Angola colobus (Colobus angolensis), but their closest relatives are black colobus monkeys (Colobus satanas), which live around 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) to the west, in Cameroon, Gabon and Bioko Island."The fact that the results show that the closest living relative to this new species is the black colobus located 1200 km away in West Africa is equally remarkable," Linder, who was not involved in the new study, told Live Science via email.Detwiler estimates that these close relatives diverged between 5.78 million and 3.44 million years ago the longest known split between species within the Colobus genus. "The discovery is reshaping our understanding of African monkey evolution," she said.Related storiesWhat's the difference between apes and monkeys?'Alpha male' primates are rare, with females about as likely to dominate the opposite sex, study finds52 million years ago, strange primates lived in complete darkness in the ArcticGiven the small geographic range, rare sightings and increasing habitat loss, the researchers recommend that C. congoensis be classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List.The discovery also emphasizes the importance of Lomami National Park, where another previously undescribed monkey, the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis), was reported in 2012 by a team that included Detwiler.The Congolian rainforest ranging across this part of Africa is the world's second-largest tropical forest, after the Amazon, and about 60% of it is in the DRC. "It is a paradise for biodiversity," Amboko said, adding that there might be more undescribed primate species there. "If we are able to discover two big new primate species, who knows how many other new mammals, fish, reptiles or plants there could be?"What do you know about chimpanzees and great apes? Test your smarts with our primate quiz!

A four-legged robot has learned to change the way it runs while navigating forests, staircases and obstacle courses. seamlessly switching between a steady trot and a faster bounding gait without instructions from a human operator. The 100-pound (45 kilograms) robot, called KAIST HOUND, uses cameras and lidar to scan the ground ahead, then selects an appropriate gait and adjusts its movements in real time. In outdoor tests, it crossed a 0.7-mile (1.1- kilometers) university campus route and a 0.2-mile (0.3 km) forest trail strewn with roots, logs and slippery leaves.The researchers described the robotic framework on July 15 in the journal Science Robotics. Changing gaitAnimals naturally change their gait depending on their speed and surroundings. A dog might trot carefully across uneven ground, for example, before bounding over a fallen branch. Reproducing this adaptability in robots is tricky because different movements are often controlled by separate, highly specialized coding systems, and transitions between them can cause a lag that drives the robot to stumble. To overcome this issue, researchers developed a special training framework called action pretrained transformerbased reinforcement learning (APT-RL). This is an artificial intelligence (AI) training system that first studies many examples of actions, uses a transformer to understand patterns across those actions, and then improves through rewards and penalties. The training began with a simple, two-dimensional computer model of the robot. Using trajectory optimization a technique that calculates physically workable movements for the robot the team generated 180,000 short trotting and bounding sequences, including the joint forces the robot's legs need to perform. The dataset represented about 15.5 hours of movement but took only around eight minutes to produce. During reinforcement learning a machine learning technique where AI learns to make the best decisions by engaging with a particular environment through trial and error an AI system then learned how to select and modify those skills while negotiating simulated stairs, stepping stones, hurdles, gaps and rough ground. In digital simulations, the robot dog was not limited to copying its prerecorded movements. It could also make corrections for three-dimensional terrain and unexpected situations, such as jumping over a log a behavior that wasn't included in the original, flat-ground training data. The KAIST HOUND quadrupedal robot navigates a forested terrain (Image credit: Jun-Gill Kang, Jaehyun Park)Related storiesScientists found the optimal robot body, and it has 20 legs watch it scale walls and move through treesThis humanoid robot does all your housework for you and its makers say it's ready for your homeAI compressed billions of years of evolution into seconds to create 'Lego-like robots' that can recover even when they lose limbsFinally, the researchers configured the system to include the robot's depth camera and lidar scanner in the simulation. In one indoor test, HOUND bounded across an obstacle 2 feet (60 centimeters) high while briefly achieving 9.5 mph (15 km/h). It also jumped down a three-step staircase. The robot generally chose trotting at lower speeds on irregular ground, while bounding became more common at higher speeds or when it encountered larger steps, hurdles or gaps. The AI system that could select either gait performed more consistently across the different simulated environments than the version restricted to trotting or bounding alone. The researchers suggest the technology could eventually help robots navigate disaster zones or other places inaccessible for wheeled machines. However, the current framework only allows two gait choices and mainly handles forward movement. Rapid turning, sideways motion and other behaviors like crawling remain future goals for the research team.

On July 16, 2024, one man heard a loud bang. Walking into the bedroom, he found a hole in the ceiling, a room covered in black debris, and the stench of sulfur.

The species was first heard about in 2008 but not properly described until now.

After many, many years of extremely awful-to-middling tie-in video games, the Avatar franchise has finally gotten a proper one-on-one fighting game, something I think weve all wanted for a long time. Its great to see characters from both Last Airbender and Legend of Korra pummeling each other, not to mention an excellent excuse to see more high-impact Bending action. The only question on the docket, then, is whos going to throw down.

The relationship between video games and films is long-standing but uneven, as it has yet to solidify into a branch of cinema whose representatives are widely praised and admired.