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A life-sized statue of The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling is set to be erected in Binghamton, New York, where Serling spent much of his childhood. The hope is to unveil the statue in time for Serling's 100th birthday, which will be on 25 December 2024… And it’s about damn time. The writer / producer, who also developed The Planet of the Apes and Seven Days in May , left an indelible mark on sci-fi media and was a staunch activist who repeatedly butted heads with Hollywood over issues like censorship and racism.

Forgive them Father, for they have taken to the pole… A French priest has received death threats after a sold-out pole dance performance was held in his church. Daniel Boessenbacher, the priest at the Protestant Saint-Guillaume church in Strasbourg, eastern France, told AFP he had alerted police to the threats after receiving two anonymous letters. “There is no doubt, this is about a show involving Stabat Mater and pole dancing,” he said. A baroque music and performing arts association, Passions Croisées (Interwoven Passions), rented the church last week for two performances of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s lyrical sequence Stabat Mater, which they combined with dance and pole dance acts.

Police working with Immigration arrested seven illegal migrant workers coming from Thailand’s neighboring countries. The workers were captured at Amorn Nakorn fresh market, one of the biggest fresh markets in Pattaya. The operation which took place at 6 AM today, April 5th, was carried out in accordance with a policy of deputy national police chief Pol. Gen. Surachate Hakparn, more commonly known by his nickname Big Joke. The police raided the Amorn Nakorn fresh market and searched over 100 stalls, and found about 30 migrant workers mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. Raiding police told The Pattaya News that some of the workers fled the market when they spotted the Immigration officers. 23 out of the 30 captured workers were found to have valid documents including a passport and a work permit in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Ministry of Labor, and they were allowed to return to work after recording their personal information. However, the remaining 7 individuals could not produce their documents, so they were detained to wait for legal consequences, including deportation. Pattaya Police said they would continue their operation to arrest those who ran away. Full Story: https://thepattayanews.com/2023/04/05/pattaya-police-apprehend-7-illegal-migrant-workers-at-fresh-market/ - © Copyright The Pattaya News 2023-04-05 - Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here. The most versatile and flexible rental investment and holiday home solution in Thailand - click for more information.

King Charles and Camilla will celebrate their coronation on the Buckingham Palace balcony without Harry and Meghan if they decide to attend, it was revealed today. His Majesty is said to want to show the world how he is slimming down Britain's monarchy - and will reward his closest and most loyal family members including William, Kate and their three children. A total of 15 people will be on the balcony following the coronation at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6.

BBC News China has launched military drills in response to a much-anticipated meeting between Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. They met in California on Wednesday, a week after President Tsai was feted in New York with a leadership award. Ms Tsai hailed their "strong and unique partnership", and Mr McCarthy said that arms sales to Taiwan must continue. Beijing, in turn, has vowed a "resolute response" and sent warships into the waters around the self-governed island. Taiwan, it appears, is caught in the middle of a dangerous love triangle. The timing of Ms Tsai's visit is hardly a coincidence. In the US there is deep and growing hostility to China. And this is driving ever more open displays of support for Taiwan, with Democrats and Republicans competing to out-do each other.

The crisis facing the US banking system "is not yet over," the head of America's biggest bank has warned. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, made the comments in an annual letter to shareholders just weeks after the dramatic collapse of two major US banks. He said he did not expect the turmoil to lead to a global crisis akin to 2008, noting that it involved "involved fewer players and fewer issues". But he warned the impact would linger. "While this is nothing like 2008, it is not clear when this current crisis will end," he said. "Even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come." Mr Dimon is a veteran of Wall Street, who steered JPMorgan through the 2008 financial crisis, when exposure to bad home loans in the US caused problems throughout the global financial system. In recent weeks, he worked with government officials to coordinate a rescue plan for the California-based bank First Republic, which many feared was also on the verge of collapse.

China's military has adopted a policy of keeping at least one nuclear-capable submarine at sea at all times, the U.S. military has determined. The Pentagon announced the discovery in a little-known report in late November of last year. China maintains a fleet of six nuclear-capable submarines, carrying missiles that could hit the continental United States from the South China Sea. Analysts say China's new policy will place further strain on U.S. and allied forces in the region as they attempt to track China's vessels

The British pound crashed to a record low last fall as investors rebelled against budget plans by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. Now, it’s enjoying a comeback. Sterling hit its highest level against the US dollar in 10 months on Tuesday, topping $1.25 for the first time since June 2022. The pound, which has advanced about 3.3% versus the greenback since the start of 2023, is the best-performing currency among developed economies this year.

NASA has announced who the next four humans will be to fly around the Moon, in the next leg of the Artemis mission launching next year. They include the first woman and the first Black astronaut to travel to the Moon. More than 50 years since the last mission to the Moon, the next team of astronauts to go includes three US astronauts and one Canadian. They will be the first astronauts to fly in NASA's Orion capsule, which will be launched by NASA's most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). Late last year, the SLS fired an unmanned Orion capsule to the Moon, with the spacecraft conducting a flyby and returning safely to Earth, in a hotly anticipated - and much-delayed - test flight.

In the Sau reservoir, teams in small boats are hard at work hauling out fish with nets. The idea is to remove them before they die and rot in the water, making it unusable for human consumption. The water level has dropped so low here - to below 10% of the reservoir's capacity - that there is already a risk the water will be contaminated by silt. Therefore, while the fish are removed, Sau's remaining water is being emptied downstream to another reservoir. "We are trying to transfer the water as quickly as we can, because the quality right now in the winter was good [but] in the spring it will become really, really bad, and we're trying to extract all the fish we can find there," said Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan Water Agency (ACA). The Sau reservoir, 100km (about 62 miles) inland from Barcelona, has been supplying water to the city and other towns in the north-eastern region of Catalonia for half a century. But in recent months it has become the most visible symbol of the worst drought this area has seen in living memory.

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's rocket company Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy in the US after failing to secure new investment. The satellite launch company halted operations weeks ago but it hopes to find a buyer for the business. The company, based in California, announced last week that it would cut 85% of its 750-strong workforce. Earlier this year, a Virgin Orbit rocket failed to complete its first-ever satellite launch from UK soil. Virgin Orbit's boss Dan Hart said that although the company had "taken great efforts" to address its finances and secure more funding, "we ultimately must do what is best for the business." He said that Virgin Orbit will now concentrate on finding a buyer for the business "to provide clarity on the future of the company to its customers, vendors, and employees".

BBC News Finland has become the 31st member of the Nato security alliance, and its flag will soon be raised at the alliance's headquarters. The Finnish foreign minister handed the accession document to the US secretary of state who declared Finland a member. Finland's accession is a setback for Russia's Vladimir Putin, who repeatedly complained of Nato's expansion before his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The length of Russia's border with Nato member states has now doubled. Finland shares a 1,340-km (832-mile) eastern frontier with Russia and formally applied to join Nato with Sweden last May because of Russia's war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that Russia would be "watching closely" what happens in Finland, describing Nato's enlargement as a "violation of our security and our national interests". Finland and Sweden had previously both adopted a policy of non-alignment. But after the Ukraine invasion, they chose the protection of Nato's Article Five, which says an attack on one member is an attack on all.

North Korea is warning its southern neighbors and the United States that it is not making "empty talk" on its nuclear capabilities. The rhetoric came in a commentary published on the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) which condemned South Korea and the United States for the joint 11-day Freedom Shield exercise held last month.

The New York Times has lost its blue tick on Twitter after it said it would not pay to remain verified. Twitter has started removing verification badges from accounts which already had a blue tick, after announcing they would be part of a paid subscription from 1 April. The New York Times, along with several other organisations and celebrities, said they would not pay for the tick. It prompted Elon Musk to launch a volley of insults at the newspaper. "The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn't even interesting", Mr Musk, who owns Twitter, wrote on the platform. "Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It's unreadable," he added.

Former US president Donald Trump is "gearing up for a battle" ahead of his scheduled court hearing on Tuesday, his lawyer has said. Mr Trump is expected to fly to New York City from his Mar-a-Lago home on Monday to face charges related to hush money payments made to a porn star. He then plans to return to Florida following his court hearing, where he will address his supporters. Mr Trump has continued to deny any wrongdoing. His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, promised that any charges against the former president will be fought vigorously. "He's someone who's going to be ready for this fight," Mr Tacopina told ABC's This Week programme on Sunday. "We're ready for this fight. And I look forward to moving this thing along as quickly as possible to exonerate him." Media reports have said that Mr Trump will be facing more than 30 charges related to business fraud over a $130,000 (£105,000) pay-out to Stormy Daniels in 2016 that was made in an attempt to buy her silence over an alleged affair. What happened between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump? 'He'll be our next president': Florida protesters stay faithful to Trump Trump indictment: A simple guide to what it means