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    Nick Visser

    Nick Visser

    Senior Reporter, HuffPost

  • New Storm Threatens Puerto Rico As Karen Churns In The Caribbean

    The island is still recovering from the devastation left by 2017's Hurricane Maria.

  • EPA Tells California It Has The ‘Worst Air Quality’ In America, Threatens Highway Funds

    In a new letter, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler alleged the state has failed to “carry out its most basic tasks under the Clean Air Act."

  • NYT Publisher Details Troubling Moment U.S. Refused To Help Reporter In Danger

    A.G. Sulzberger said the Trump administration has been complicit in a global effort to delegitimize the media, threatening reporters both at home and abroad.

  • ‘Flagrant Disregard For The Law Cannot Stand': First-Term Democrats Slam Trump In Op-Ed

    The seven lawmakers, who are military vets or had worked in national security and defense, wrote that the Ukraine report is “a threat to all we have sworn to protect.”

  • Drone Photo Contest Draws Some Of The Most Stunning Aerial Shots Of The Year

    When they're not falling on unassuming parade-goers or the White House lawn, drones can take some strikingly good photographs. Organized by Dronestagram and sponsored by the likes of National Geographic and Kodak, the competition features stunning shots overlooking Brazil, French Polynesia, Bulgaria and more. Dronestagram just announced the winners in three categories: places, nature and "dronies," or selfies made with drones.

  • Orphaned Baby Kangaroo Finds New Home With Surrogate Wallaby Mom

    Makaia is an 8 1/2-month-old Goodfellow's tree kangaroo who was orphaned at the Adelaide Zoo in South Australia after a tree branch crushed his mother in November. Attempting to save the little joey, caretakers rushed to transplant him to the pouch of a surrogate mother. In a move the zoo is calling a "world first," they relocated Makaia to the pouch of a yellow-foot rock wallaby, an unrelated species that has shown great success with proxy parenting.

  • Find Your Inner Adventurer With These Stunning Photos From America's Public Lands

    The Department of the Interior has been chronicling the beauty of America's public lands on its Instagram account. This includes more than 400 national park sites (find one near you here) overseen by the National Park Service, a division of the agency.

  • One Of The World's 'Worst' Invasive Species Has Been Found In Florida

    A worm called one of the world's "worst" invasive species by conservationists has been found in the United States for the first time, an international team of researchers announced on Tuesday. The Platydemus manokwari, also called the New Guinea flatworm, poses a major threat to the planet's snail biodiversity, according to an article published in the scientific journal PeerJ. The flatworm is thought to originate in New Guinea, but researchers say it has spread to Florida, New Caledonia, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, and the Wallis and Futuna Islands. Jean-Lou Justine, who led the research team, said that scientists had previously found the animal in other Pacific islands and in France.

  • First Edition Of 'The Hobbit' Sets Record For Tolkien's Novel

    The book had been given to one of his former students, Katherine Kilbride, in 1937. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. Tolkien inscribed very few copies of the novel upon publication, Sotheby's said.

  • Tanzania Has Lost 60 Percent Of Its Elephants In 5 Years

    The startling new estimates were announced Monday by Tanzania's minister for natural resources and tourism, who said populations fell catastrophically from 109,051 in 2009 to 43,330 in 2014. “It is evident that elephant population in Tanzania has reached unprecedented low level,” Lazaro Nyalandu, Tanzania's environment minister, said. Tanzania has even turned to drones to help curb elephant deaths, and a former environment minster for the country urged poachers be shot on the spot if they're seen in pursuit of an animal.

  • Half Of Mozambique's Elephants Were Slaughtered In The Past 5 Years

    "The numbers from Mozambique are depressing," James Deutsch, vice president of conservation strategy for the Wildlife Conservation Society, told The Huffington Post. The effort, which is funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's investment company, has already documented "unsustainable rates of killing" across swaths of the African continent.

  • This Woman Takes Photographs Of Your Older Pet So You Have Time To Say Goodbye

    "Owning a dog always ended with this sadness because dogs just don't live as long as people do," John Grogan, author of Marley and Me, wrote in a memoir about his infamously misbehaving pup. Kristin Zabawa, a former zookeeper, began shooting what she calls "SoulSessions" to give pets and their humans a chance to say goodbye to each other. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

  • Pamela Anderson Reenacts Psycho Shower Scene For PETA

    Pamela Anderson has stripped down once again to protest the horrors of the meat and dairy industries. The 47-year-old actress and longtime PETA advocate posed nude in a "Psycho"-inspired ad that also targets the ongoing drought in California, now in its fourth year. "Rivers are siphoned off, not just for the animals but also for crops grown to feed animals on factory farms," Anderson said in a statement released with the ad.

  • Poachers Are On Track To Kill More Rhinos This Year Than Ever

    Poachers in South Africa, home to some 20,700 rhinos, are on track to top last year's record slaughter of the creatures as the country struggles to halt the growing scourge. A majority of those rhinos, 290, were gunned down in Kruger National Park, according to South Africa's national parks service. The battle between park rangers and poachers has grown deadly over the past year.

  • Dairy Queen Makes Major Move For Kids' Health

    Dairy Queen locations around the country will stop listing soda on kids' menus later this year in a move praised by healthy-eating advocates who have long pushed for these menus to not include sugar-laden beverages. Beginning Sept. 1, most franchises will receive new menu boards that only list healthy drink options -- like water and milk -- to accompany kids' meals, a Dairy Queen executive wrote in a letter this week. Other fast food chains, including McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, have made similar changes over the past few years, and Subway, Chipotle, Arby's and Panera Bread do not list soda as a default option.

  • Warren Buffet, Drinker Of Five Cokes A Day, Sings Ukulele Ode To The Soda

    Billionaire Warren Buffett took to his ukulele to sing an ode to Coke in honor of the 100th anniversary of the beverage's contoured bottle. The avid strummer played his own version of the popular "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" commercial from the 1970s, as part of a new ad celebrating the brand's iconic container. Buffett, 84, made headlines earlier this year when he told Fortune's Patricia Sellers he was "one quarter Coca-Cola," and eats "like a six-year-old." He said he drinks at least five, 12-ounce servings of the beverage every day: regular Coke at the office and Cherry Coke at home. Buffett may imbibe massive amounts of cola — and appear in their commercials — but he hasn't always been a fan of the company's decisions.

  • These Flies Are Getting More Action Than You

    Spring is officially upon us, which means a fresh crop of mosquitos, the buzzing of hungry honey bees and apparently, a lot of promiscuous flies. Getty photographer Nicholas Kamm captured these aroused arthropods in Washington, DC on Thursday.

  • GRAPHIC VIDEO: Seals Shot, Brutally Beaten During Annual Canadian Hunt

    The Canadian government in early March announced this year's quota for its annual, and highly controversial, seal hunt. In an effort to minimize inhumane treatment, the Canadian government mandates that seals can only be killed using a high-powered rifle or shotgun, a club or a hunting tool called a hakapik. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

  • Rescued Baby Orangutans Become Best Friends At Wildlife Center

    Budi the baby orangutan had a rough introduction to the world. When he was saved by International Animal Rescue in December, his body was so malnourished that he couldn't even be touched without crying out in pain.

  • Take A Ride On The Back Of A Giant Endangered Turtle

    As far as adaptation goes, many turtle species have been unable to keep up with our rapidly changing planet. The giant South American river turtle is no exception, as habitat destruction has stripped the giant reptiles of historic breeding grounds. Researchers with National Geographic released this incredible point-of-view video shot from the back of one of the animals, also called Arrau turtles, as she interacts with her young.