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    Nick Visser

    Nick Visser

    Senior Reporter, HuffPost

  • Jane Castor Wins Tampa Mayoral Race, Becoming City’s First Openly Gay Leader

    “How exciting is this!” the retired police chief said in her victory speech.

  • Democrats Running For President In 2020 Remain Divided On Impeaching Trump

    Some candidates are ready to launch the proceedings while others worry doing so would only aid the president in the next election.

  • Bernie Sanders Evasive On Impeachment, Worries Proceedings Could Help Trump

    "What I worry about is that works to Trump’s advantage," the Vermont senator said during a CNN town hall.

  • WhatsApp, Facebook And Other Messaging Services May Soon Be Banned In The UK

    A March headline from The New York Times points toward the Islamic State's adeptness at Twitter, and 16 people were arrested in Belgium last month after incriminating messages were sent through WhatsApp. Al Qaeda, al-Shabab and the Taliban all have an active web presence, a troubling notion when you take into account the secretive nature of encrypted social networks like iMessage and Snapchat. The proposed legislation -- referred to as the Investigatory Powers Bill and nicknamed the "Snooper's Charter" -- would ban encrypted apps like Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, iMessage and WhatsApp unless the material sent via the services were accessible by the government.

  • Russia Released Some Selfie PSAs, And They're Oh-So-Russian

    If Russia has one thing to say about the selfie revolution sweeping the globe, it's: stop with the duck face, or die. The Russian Interior Ministry released a series of selfie PSAs earlier this month, warning the photo-happy about the dangers of the documentarian trend. The ads, which look like caution signs often found near construction sites or on machinery, warn against (apparently?) commonplace practices like taking a selfie with a firearm, from the top of an electrical tower or in front of an oncoming train.

  • In Show Of Strength Against Poaching, Mozambique Burns Illicit Rhino Horn

    Mozambique doesn't have any living rhinos left, but the country is still a hub for the illicit, and highly lucrative, trade in endangered animal parts. In an increasingly common show of force against poachers, wildlife officials destroyed more than 425 pounds of rhino horn and two tons of elephant ivory on Monday. The cache was seized in Maputo, Mozambique's capital, earlier this year in what The Guardian calls the biggest haul of rhino horn ever.

  • Adorable Rats Are Being Trained To Hunt Out Land Mines In Cambodia

    Pol Pot, the notorious leader of the Khmer Rouge, used to call land mines his "perfect soldiers." Decades after the end of the deadly regime, the Cambodian countryside is still littered with millions of the explosives, and more than 63,000 people have been in mine-related accidents. APOPO, a Belgian NGO, has begun training African giant pouched rats -- a common species in sub-Saharan Africa -- to help detect deadly land mines buried throughout Cambodia. The project has been highly successful in war-torn regions of Africa, and the animals have helped clear more than 13,000 mines in Mozambique, The Guardian reports.

  • You Can Unlock These Never-Before-Seen Photos Of Tiananmen Square With Your Phone

    Photographer Xu Yong was in Tiananmen Square 26 years ago when Chinese government troops opened fire on their own people -- and he captured those moments. Xu has held on to his camera negatives for decades and recently decided to publish them in an art book, titled Negatives, in what The New York Times called a "provocative" move against hard-liners in the current government. Xu's book release coincides with the candle light vigil held Thursday night in Hong Kong by tens of thousands of students in solidarity with those killed during the Tiananmen Square protests.

  • Sweden Just Made It So Much Easier To Be A Father

    Sweden is a great place to be a dad, and the country is about to make things even better for soon-to-be fathers. Beginning in 2016, men in the country will be entitled to a third (yes, third) month of paid paternal leave based on a new government proposal. Swedish parents are entitled to 480 days of paid parental leave when a child is born or adopted; 390 of those are paid at 80 percent of normal pay and, as of now, 60 of those are reserved exclusively for fathers.

  • This Photo Captures The Grim Reality Of The Mediterranean Refugee Crisis

    A startling image from a recent accident in the Mediterranean Sea has cast a harsh light on the ongoing refugee crisis in that region, where thousands of migrants have been trying to cross from northern Africa into Europe to escape poverty and war. The photo shows a man taking ashore the body of a young boy after a boat carrying migrants ran aground near the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday. Such disasters have become commonplace in the region. As many as 900 migrants are feared dead after another vessel sunk off the coast of Libya late Saturday night.

  • This Video Of Dutch Flower Fields Will Give You The Touch Of Spring You Needed

    For a month and a half ever year, millions of brightly colored blooms turn the landscape into a panorama of color. The video above, shot with a DJI Inspire 1 drone, was captured above some epic flower fields in the Netherlands. Take a look at the stunning drone footage above, and check out other beautiful images of the flower fields below.

  • Beijing Was Covered In A Massive Sandstorm, And Locals Freaked Out

    Visibility plummeted and authorities urged people to stay indoors after the national observatory, China's environmental monitoring center, issued a heightened "yellow" alert before the storm hit. Some residents wrote they felt like it was "the end of the world" and questioned how they could "survive such bad weather." But many cities have grown accustomed to darkened skies as smog levels in China continue to reach hazardous levels. In February, China's Ministry of Environmental Protection said 66 of the country's 74 major cities were failing to meet basic air quality standards last year.

  • Typhoon Could Be One Of The Strongest Storms In World History

    Super Typhoon Haiyan — which is one of the strongest storms in world history based on maximum windspeed — is about to plow through the Central Philippines, producing a potentially deadly storm surge and dumping heavy rainfall that could cause widespread flooding. The densely populated city of Manila, home to 12 million, is in the storm’s path, although it is predicted to escape the worst of the winds and storm surge. Enhanced satellite image of Super Typhoon Haiyan showing the telltale "donut" appearance of an intense tropical cyclone.