UPI – A skateboarding cat in China showcased his skills and earned a Guinness World Record (GWR) by skateboarding a distance of 32 feet, 9.2 inches in just 12.85 seconds.

Bao Zi, an American Shorthair cat, broke the record for the fastest 10 metres on a skateboard by a cat at the age of just one year and 8 months.

Bao Zi’s owner, professional dog trainer Li Jiangtao, said his original intention when he brought a cat home was to help with a rodent problem.

“We had mice running around the ceiling at night, so I got Bao Zi to scare them away,” he told GWR.

Jiangtao said he soon realised Bao Zi might have talents beyond mousing. “I’ve been training dogs for over a decade, and I started skateboarding with my own dog for fun. But Bao Zi showed a keen interest in skateboards, so I decided to nurture this behaviour,” Jiangtao said.

He said it took about a year for the feline to master the art of skateboarding.

“Actually, it’s quite challenging to train a cat, because they don’t learn things as quickly as dogs do,” he said.

“Dogs make improvements day by day and they remember it. As for cats, they can learn a trick, and then forget it the next second.” Jiangtao said his experience teaching Bao Zi led him to expand his business into training cats. His specialty is teaching felines to use toilets and flush when they finish.

UPI – A couple magnet fishing in a New York waterway discovered a safe containing approximately USD100,000, and they are now attempting to preserve the cash before it deteriorates.

James Kane and Barbi Agostini were at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, United States (US) earlier this month when their magnet latched onto something heavy.

The couple said the incident was not the first time they had reeled in a safe while magnet fishing, but it was the first time such a container turned out to contain treasure – about USD100,000 in water-damaged USD100 bills.

The New York Police Department told the couple the cash was theirs to keep as investigators were unable to find any evidence connecting the safe or its contents to a crime.

“This is the most significant find in poor-people treasure-hunting history,” Kane told a news agency.

Kane and Agostini took a bus to Washington DC, with the most salvageable-seeming cash from the safe in the hopes of having it catalogued and replaced at the US Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing. They said the cash was badly damaged and getting worse by the day.

A Treasury employee estimated there appeared to be USD50,000-USD70,000 worth of recoverable cash in the plastic bag brought in by the couple.

ANN/THE KOREAN HERALD – Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung yesterday said both Koreas need to engage in dialogue to reduce escalating tensions caused by Pyongyang’s recent trash-carrying balloon campaign and Seoul’s response.

In a social media post, Lee warned that the fragile peace on the Korean Peninsula is under threat due to retaliatory measures between the two sides.

Lee pointed out the provocative actions such as North Korea’s trash-carrying balloons, South Korean civic groups’ anti-Pyongyang leaflets, and the suspension of the inter-Korean military pact. He urged North Korea to cease its provocative behaviours and strive towards establishing a lasting peace regime, as envisioned in the June 15, 2000 Declaration from the first inter-Korean summit.

“The South Korean government should realise that ordinary citizens and residents near the border will bear any damage should it stick to a hard-line, eye-for-eye stance,” Lee said.

Tensions have recently heightened on the Korean Peninsula after Pyongyang sent over 1,000 balloons carrying trash to the South since late May in what it claims is a response to anti Pyongyang leafleting.

The move eventually led South Korea to fully suspend a 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction pact and resume propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts near the border for the first time in six years.

Defector groups in the South have sent balloons carrying leaflets and other goods across the border, although such acts are banned in the country under a law that was legislated during the previous administration to help reduce tensions in the border regions.

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea’s military has been building roads and walls inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that separates it from the South, the Yonhap news agency reported yesterday.

The construction activities are taking place north of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that runs through the middle of the DMZ, the South Korean agency said, citing an unnamed military source.

The report follows an incident last week when South Korean forces fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the MDL.

South Korean authorities said it was likely accidental, and Yonhap quoted a military spokesman as saying some of the North Koreans were carrying work tools.

“Recently, the North Korean military has been erecting walls, digging the ground and constructing roads in some areas between the MDL and the Northern Limit Line in the DMZ,” the military source said, according to Yonhap yesterday.

It was not clear what they were building, the source told.

When asked about the report, the South Korean military said in a statement that it was “closely tracking and monitoring the activities of the North Korean military”, and that “further analysis is required”.

It said it could not share the South Korean response to these actions “to ensure the safety of the personnel proceeding with an operation”, without offering further details.

South Korea’s spy agency told AFP this week that it had detected signs that North Korea was demolishing sections of a railway line connecting the two countries.

SKARDU (AFP) – One of two Japanese climbers was found dead and his body recovered from a mountain in northern Pakistan yesterday, with a search ongoing for the second man, an official said.

Ryuseki Hiraoka and Atsushi Taguchi were attempting to summit the 7,027-metre Spantik mountain in the Karakoram range before they went missing this week.

“The dead body of a Japanese climber was found, and a search is ongoing for the second climber,” said the Shigar district deputy commissioner Wali Ullah Falahi told AFP.

The body was found 300 metres below Camp 3, he said, set at around 6,200 metres from where climbers prepare for the final summit.

Head of Adventure Tours Pakistan Naiknam Karim which organised the expedition, told AFP that “it is not clear whose dead body has been found”.

The search by high-altitude climbers and experts was backed by two Pakistan Army  helicopters.

The pair had reached base camp on last Monday and were attempting the climb without the help of porters.

They were last seen on Monday and the alarm raised the following day by fellow climbers who had expected to cross paths with them.

A military helicopter spotted the climbers on Thursday, but the search was suspended due to poor weather conditions.

PORTLAND (AP) – Emergency crews in Oregon, United States rescued 28 people yesterday after they were stuck for about half an hour dangling upside down high on a ride at a century-old amusement park.

Portland Fire and Rescue said on X that firefighters worked with engineers at Oaks Park to manually lower the ride, but crews had been preparing to conduct a high-angle ropes rescue if necessary. All riders were being evacuated and medically evaluated, and there were no reports of injuries.

One rider with a pre-existing medical condition was taken to a hospital for further evaluation as a precaution, Oaks Amusement Park said in a statement posted on social media. Medics released all other passengers.

The ride, called AtmosFEAR, operates like a pendulum, with the capacity to swing riders completely upside down. Chris Ryan and his wife, from nearby Gresham, were at the park for his birthday. He told The Associated Press in a Facebook message that they had just been planning to ride AtmosFEAR when they saw it was stuck and heard people saying, “Oh no, they are upside down”.

They decided to walk away because of “how scary the situation was”, he said. They eventually got on the Ferris wheel and heard a loudspeaker announcement that the park was closed and that people should evacuate.

When the ride stopped, park staff immediately called 911 and emergency responders arrived about 25 minutes later, the park statement said. Park maintenance workers were able to return the ride to its unloading position minutes after first responders arrived.

Portland Fire said about 30 people were on board. The amusement park statement said there were 28 riders.

The ride has been in operation since 2021 and has not had any prior incidents, the park said.

It will remain closed until further notice.

HOUSTON (AP) – A federal judge yesterday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets but dismissed his company’s separate bankruptcy case, leaving the immediate future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he owes USD1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

Judge Christopher Lopez approved converting Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganisation to a liquidation. But Lopez threw out the case of his company, Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems, after failed attempts by Jones to reach an agreement with Sandy Hook families on his proposals to reorganise and keep operating the company while paying them millions of dollars.

It wasn’t immediately clear what will happen in the coming weeks to Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, which Jones built into a multimillion-dollar moneymaker over the past 25 years by selling dietary supplements and other products. But both Jones and lawyers for the Sandy Hook families said they expect Infowars to cease operating at some point because of the huge debt.

A trustee appointed yesterday in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case to oversee the liquidation now has control over his assets, including Infowars, according to lawyers for Sandy Hook families.

Dismissal of Free Speech Systems’ case means the families can now move immediately to collect on the USD1.5 billion in state courts in Texas and Connecticut where they won defamation lawsuits against Jones and the company. It’s possible Infowars will continue operating during the collection efforts, which could include selling off the company’s assets.

Jones, who smiled as the judge dismissed the company’s case, called in to Infowars after the court hearing and predicted more battles in the state courts.

“The bizarre political attempts to hijack the operation have failed,” he said, and added that he would find another way to broadcast his shows if he loses Infowars.

FORT LAUDERDALE (AP) – Although more rain could trigger additional isolated Florida flooding on Friday, forecasters said the strong, persistent storms that dumped up to 50 centimetres in southern parts of the state appear to have passed.

Some neighbourhood streets in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas still have standing water, although it is rapidly receding, officials said.

“The worst flooding risk was the last three days,” said Sammy Hadi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami. “The heaviest rainfall has concluded.”

The no-name storm system pushed across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico at roughly the same time as the early June start of hurricane season, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity.

Florida Governior Ron DeSantis held a media briefing in Hollywood, south of Fort Lauderdale, and said while more rain was coming, it’s likely to be more typical of South Florida afternoon showers this time of year.

“We are going to get some more rain today, maybe throughout the balance of the weekend. Hopefully it’s not approaching the levels that it was, but we have a lot of resources staged here and we’ll be able to offer the state’s assistance,” he said.

VIÑA DEL MAR (AFP) – A luxury apartment building standing just a few metres away from the beach with breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean was meant to awe visitors.

However, intense rains that have lashed Chile in recent days caused a giant sinkhole to open underneath this high-end property in the resort city of Vina del Mar, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

The 13-floor building with 200 apartments worth up to USD500,000 each is now sitting atop a hole that is 15 metres long and 30 metres deep, the third such hole that opened here in less than a year. Sergio Silva, 77, one of the few residents still left at Euromarina II, was trying to shove some of his belongings into a car to take them to a safer place because more rains are expected.

“We are taking important things, not everything,” Silva told AFP.

Residents of the building that stands below Euromarina II, at sea level, have also had to abandon their homes for fear that it would collapse on them.

“Some people have left out of precaution. Those of us who remain are prepared in case of emergency or if we have to evacuate,” said Claudio Camus, 43, a resident of the Eurovista building that stands beneath Euromarina II.