Staff at a Virginia liquor store got a shock on Saturday when they came into work to find a raccoon had burgled the store, drinking its way through the spirits section.
The “masked bandit” was found passed out in the bathroom between the toilet and bin having helped itself to bottles on a bottom shelf.
Animal control officer Samantha Martin transported the “suspect” for questioning at Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter but not before it had a chance to sober up.
After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury (other than maybe a hangover), the animal was safely released back into the wild.
The Ashland ABC store had been closed for Thanksgiving when it suffered its “Black Friday break-in”.
When staff arrived on Saturday they found smashed bottles and liquor pooling on the floor, including its apparent tipple of choice, scotch.
Officer Martin said the animal had fallen through one of the ceiling tiles before going “on a full-blown rampage, drinking everything”.
Only one blurry CCTV image of the boozy break-in exists, so it’s unknown just how much alcohol the thirsty creature consumed before passing out in the bathroom.
In a social media post, the store thanked Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter for its professionalism and providing its visitor with a “sober ride home”.
Officer Martin said it was “just another day in the life of an animal control officer”.
Bitcoin is known for its volatility—and lately it’s living up to that reputation. After a weeks-long stretch of decline, Bitcoin’s price jumped around 11% in the last two days alone, climbing to just under $93,000.
The original cryptocurrency’s price hike follows Vanguard’s decision to let its customers buy and sell crypto ETFs, in a turnaround from its longtime aversion to the sector.
“Market jitters were calmed by the news that Vanguard was reversing its long held decision to ban crypto ETFs from its platform,” said Russell Thompson, chief investment officer at Hilbert Group. “That potentially opens up crypto access to its 50 million brokerage customers.”
Prior to the surge, the week had started off disastrously for Bitcoin. From Sunday into Monday, the major cryptocurrency dropped 8% in part because of Japan raising their two-year bond yield to a 17-year high. That dip punctuated a nearly two-month long slide for the original cryptocurrency. Six weeks after its $126,000 high in early October, Bitcoin plunged 35% to a low of $82,000.
Crypto’s struggles for much of October and November showed that the sector is often tied to macroeconomic factors. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats to China were followed by an October flash crash for crypto, where traders lost $19 billion in assets. And for much of those two months, a December rate cut from the Federal Reserve seemed unlikely, pulling investors away from risky assets.
The outlook appears to be a bit rosier for those in the crypto industry, as a Fed rate cut now seems likely. The shift in sentiment stems from recent remarks by New York Fed President John Williams, who spoke optimistically about cutting rates.
“With a Fed rate cut expected at the December meeting, liquidity should remain supportive of risk assets into 2026,” Thompson added.
Charles Shay, the last surviving Native American World War II D-Day veteran, died at his home in France on Wednesday. An army medic, he patched up US soldiers under heavy fire in the surf on the beaches of Normandy in 1944. He earned a Silver Star and three Bronze Stars. He was 101.
When Music Business Worldwide launched in 2015, streaming was still fighting to prove itself. Spotify had yet to turn a profit, Apple Music didn’t exist, and the recorded music industry was still nursing wounds from a decade of decline.
A lot has changed.
Today, MBW celebrates a milestone: ten years covering one of the most dynamic sectors of global entertainment.
We do so via MBW10: 2015-2025: a specially curated retrospective magazine that chronicles the seismic shifts, landmark deals, and defining moments that have shaped the music business across the past decade.
From the explosion of catalog acquisitions to Universal Music Group‘s historic IPO; from the global growth of the independent sector to fierce industry debates over streaming economics; from executive shake-ups to the emergence of AI as the music biz’s next great disruptor – the magazine revisits the stories that mattered most.
But MBW10 – supported by Chorus TM– is much more than a collection of headlines.
Featuring exclusive year-by-year insight and analysis, the retrospective offers context that only comes from having covered these developments as they unfolded.
It also includes comprehensive annual global data from IFPI, charting the remarkable financial recovery of the recorded music industry.
The past decade has seen worldwide recorded music revenues more than double, driven by streaming’s dominance.
It’s also witnessed the birth of new power players, the return of music as an attractive asset class, and fundamental questions about how artists, labels, and platforms should share the spoils.
MBW has been there for all of it – breaking news, interrogating the numbers, and providing analysis that industry professionals rely on daily.
Whether you’ve followed MBW from the beginning or discovered us more recently, this retrospective offers a chance to revisit the stories that brought us here – and consider where the next decade might take us.
Commemorative physical copies of the magazine are now on their way to global industry leaders as well as MBW+ physical magazine subscribers (just in time for the Holidays).
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has accused Vladimir Putin of “wasting the world’s time”, a day after high-stakes talks between the US and Russia over ending the war in Ukraine failed to produce tangible results.
“Russia must end the bloodshed it has started. If this doesn’t happen and Putin just spits into the world’s face once again, there must be consequences,” Sybiha said.
Still, Sybiha added that the US delegation had told his colleagues that the talks had been of “positive significance for the peace process” and they had invited Ukrainian officials to continue talks in the US in the near future.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner spent almost five hours with Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday and the White House said on Wednesday they had briefed Trump after a “thorough, productive meeting”.
The US-Russia talks followed days of US meetings with Ukrainian and European leaders, after concerns had been expressed that a deal was being hatched that was too slanted towards Russia’s demands.
Little concrete headway appears to have been made during the Kremlin talks in reconciling Moscow and Kyiv’s positions.
Reuters/Pool/Sputnik
Putin (R) and Yuri Ushakov took part in almost five hours of talks with the US envoys on Tuesday
Putin’s senior policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said “no compromise” on ending the war had been found. “Some of the US proposals look more or less acceptable, though they need to be discussed further”, he said, while adding that others had been openly criticised by Russia’s leader.
Although Ushakov did not elaborate further, at least two major points of contention remain between Moscow and Kyiv – the fate of Ukrainian territory seized by Russian forces and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Kyiv and its European partners believe that, even in the event of a peace deal, the most effective way to deter Russia from attacking again in the future would be to grant Ukraine membership of Nato.
Russia is vehemently opposed to such a proposal, and Trump too has repeatedly signalled he has no intention of letting Kyiv into the alliance.
The prospect of Ukraine joining Nato was a “key question” that was tackled in Moscow, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Ushakov implied that the Russian negotiating position had been strengthened thanks to recent successes on the battlefield.
Russian soldiers had “helped make the assessments of our foreign partners regarding the paths to a peace settlement more appropriate,” he said.
Ahead of the US visit to the Kremlin, Putin was filmed in army fatigues at a Russian command post, being briefed by commanders claiming the conquest of the key strategic city of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, as well as other nearby settlements.
Fighting in Pokrovsk is continuing and Russian forces do not control the whole city, but Russian officials clearly believe their message of military gains has been heard by the US.
Russian forces have made some incremental advances in the east and appear to have stepped up their campaign in recent weeks. They seized about 701 sq km (270 sq miles) of Ukrainian territory in November, according to AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and they now control 19.3% of Ukrainian territory.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said Putin was ready to keep meeting with the Americans “as many times as needed”.
But as Russian-American relations appear to grow more cordial, the gulf between Moscow and Europe widens.
Putin has accused Europe of sabotaging Russia’s relations with the US, of putting forward demands Moscow could not accept and of blocking the peace process. Shortly before meeting Witkoff and Kushner, Putin told a forum in Moscow that while he did not want conflict with Europe, he was “ready for war”.
Reuters
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has hailed a deal to end Russian imports of gas to the EU by 2027
UK government officials rejected Putin’s message as “yet more Kremlin claptrap from a president who isn’t serious about peace”.
Nato foreign ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday and Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that it was positive that peace talks were taking place but Ukraine had to be put in “the strongest position to keep the fight going”.
Meanwhile, EU member states have reached a deal with members of the European Parliament to make Europe fully independent of Russian gas before the end of 2027.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed “the dawn of a new era”, under a deal that means long-term gas pipeline contracts with Russia will be banned from September 2027 and long-term contracts for liquefied natural gas will be banned from January 2027.
“We’ve chosen energy security and independence for Europe. No more blackmail. No more market manipulation by Putin. We stand strong with Ukraine,” EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Wednesday.
The Commission is also proposing to raise €90bn for Ukraine to fund its military and basic services while Russia’s war continues.
The plan would either require Belgium to agree to a “reparations loan” using frozen Russian assets held in a financial institution in Brussels, or the money would be funded by international borrowing.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has welcomed the proposal, which would cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs for the next two years.
Belgium has resisted the plan to use frozen assets held on its territory, over concerns about legal repercussions from Moscow. The European Central Bank (ECB) has also opposed the idea, saying it would not act as a backstop for a reparations loan.
The proposed loan is smaller than the planned €140bn loan initially planned and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said “we support this and, of course, take Belgium’s concerns seriously”.
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‘AJ’ has not fought since his fifth-round stoppage defeat to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, where he touched the canvas four times.
Since then, the 36-year-old has opted to leave Ben Davison, the head coach for his last three outings, and join the training team of heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk.
This, Joshua believes, should allow the two-time world champion to not only rediscover his prior form, but also add a few extra strings to his bow.
After his fight with Paul, which he expects to come through in emphatic fashion, Joshua is then set to return to action as soon as February rolls around.
Expecting a far tougher challenge than what his upcoming assignment will likely offer, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Olympic champion has made these major changes to his training set-up.
In fact, there are some who have suggested that the matchup could be scripted, or at least includes several elements that may make it a more competitive spectacle.
One of those more sceptical onlookers, it seems, is Duran, who has revealed his view of the controversial fight in an interview with IFL TV.
“This is obviously not a real fight; it’s just a pure film. I’m very interested to see what happens but, if it was a real fight, I think we all know what would happen.
“Will it be a film or will it be the real thing? If it’s going to be scripted, talk to my sons – they’ll know what will happen.”
The extent of an incredible dinosaur highway has been revealed in Bolivia, a country where actual skeletal fossils are rare. More than 16,000 footprints, along with tail impressions from creatures of all sizes, have been fully documented – and the scale of theropod activity alone is unlike anything that’s been seen before.
A team of scientists including Raúl Esperante from California’s Geoscience Research Institute has released its documentation of this new global megasite, the Carreras Pampas trackway, on a single Cretaceous mudflat in Torotoro National Park, Bolivia. Here, the scientists detail nine separate sites, each housing an unprecedented number and variety of tracks that reveal fascinating insight into not just species diversity but their behavior.
Earlier research had identified the area as a hotspot for historical tracks, but the extent of it has been unknown until now.
“This site is a stunning window into this area’s past,” Esperante said. “Not just how many dinosaurs were moving through this area, but also what they were doing as they moved through.”
Unlike typical trackways that accumulate across multiple layers and detail different periods of time, this one is a single stretch of sediment covering about 7,500 m² (1.85 acres), with dinosaurs of all sizes crisscrossing it within what may have been a period of only hours. Researchers counted 1,321 trackways, 289 isolated prints, hundreds of continuous swim traces, several tail-drag marks and a scattering of bird footprints, all preserved under near-ideal geological conditions.
Individual prints have been meticulously studied and replicated
While it may seem far-fetched to think the site had all this foot traffic and then none – the prints suggest this was the case. All the activity happened perhaps within hours, and once the dinosaurs left, no more animals came across that surface before it began drying. This explains why there are so many overlapping trackways but almost no evidence of later trampling. As for the rest of the story, that’s not entirely clear.
What the discovery has revealed is that it appears the area formed part of a tidal mudflat, and ripple marks in the preserved sediment suggest most of the foot traffic was close to the water’s edge. The vast majority of the tracks belong to theropods – ranging from bird-sized to large, predatory individuals – with around 16,600 prints preserved. Smaller prints, some just an inch or two long, show tiny animals trotting or darting across the mud, while mid-sized carnivores left their three-toed marks complete with claw indentations. Meanwhile, larger theropods left broad, deep tracks with long strides, including sections that suggested short bursts of running or sprinting.
One of the most extraordinary findings is the section of swim trackways – the highest number documented to date. These impressions show spaced-out toes marks, indicative of a buoyant animal only touching the sediment intermittently. Some show spaced-out “punting” where the dinosaur briefly contacted the bottom before floating again. Together, they capture rare evidence of how dinosaurs moved in shallow water.
“Swim tracks are abundant at the tracksite, with many forming trackways consisting of sets of 1–3 scratches that alternate between right and left with regular spacing,” the researchers noted. “The traces are in excellent preservation condition, and we identified three different morphotypes. Some swim tracks cross-cut walking tracks, and most swim trackways are oriented toward the SSE. The swim tracks are tentatively assigned to the ichnotaxon Characichnos based on their morphological traits.”
The treasure trove of prints that scientists have now described in detail
Equally striking are several tail-drag marks that leave no guesswork as to what they are – because they appear behind distinctive footprints. Clear tail drags are extremely rare in the fossil record and often disputed, because of how open to interpretation partial marks are – unlike here. Mixed among the dinosaur traffic are small, thin-toed impressions suggesting shorebird-like foragers were also present.
“The tail traces suggest that dinosaurs exhibited some form of locomotive behavior in response to sinking into soft substrate, which resulted in their tails coming into contact with the surface,” the researchers noted. “However, the presence of tail traces associated with shallow tracks indicates that some mechanism, aside from sinking into the substrate, also contributed to the formation of tail traces in certain instances.”
Curiously, some of the footprints contain small “rosette” burrows made later by invertebrates tunneling through the drying mud. Because those burrows sit inside the dinosaur tracks, they confirm the prints are genuine surface impressions rather than deeper tracks created by pressure alone.
In addition to this, most of the tracks are oriented roughly northwest to southeast, with ripple marks preserved in the sediment, suggesting these dinosaurs were roaming alongside an ancient shoreline. Many dinosaurs moved roughly parallel to the water, suggesting a natural travel corridor used by many species. The density of these prints also tell of a snapshot in time, but one with sustained foot traffic.
The scientists note that most prints head in one direction, suggesting mass movement occurred during the short period captured in the sediment
“Aside from tracksites with very small vertebrate footprints and miniature dinosaur tracks, the Carreras Pampa tracksite may boast one of the highest densities of theropod tracks known worldwide,” the researchers wrote. “The abundant parallel and subparallel trackways, along with the bimodal orientation, strongly suggest the presence of some form of group behavior. The overlapping and crossing of trackways indicate that groups of theropods walked at different times in both preferred orientations.”
As we noted, dinosaur bones are rare in Bolivia – much of the country’s paleobiology is in the form of trace fossils. However thanks to the Carreras Pampa discovery, scientists now have an enormous snapshot of a thriving hub of activity to study further. This makes Torotoro National Park one of the world’s most important windows into dinosaur life and behavior.
“It’s amazing working at this site, because everywhere you look, the ground is covered in dinosaur tracks,” Esperante added.
The research was published in the journal PLOS One.
new video loaded: “I Want to Find My Wife”: Indonesians Despair After Flooding
Indonesians reeled from devastating floods caused by heavy rains that killed least 700 people. Similar extreme weather tearing through South and Southeast Asia also ravaged parts of Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.
By Nader Ibrahim and Atul Loke For The New York Times
