Russian troops have placed “objects resembling explosives” on roofs at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Tuesday that instantly sparked concerns around the world.

“Perhaps to simulate an attack on the plant. Perhaps they have some other scenario,” Zelensky speculated.

But on one point, he was unequivocal: “In any case, the world sees – can’t but see – that the only source of danger to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is Russia and no one else.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long flirted with the nuclear specter since mounting his invasion of Ukraine. Zelensky has now raised the prospect that he may cause a nuclear incident not by firing warheads, but by turning the ZNPP itself into a weapon.

But what would happen if the explosives that Ukraine claims to have found were detonated? Could Zaporizhzhia become another Chernobyl? And what good, if any, would this do for Russia in its war on Ukraine?

Here’s what you need to know.

What is the current situation?

In June, Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had “received information that Russia is considering a scenario of a terrorist attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP),” and that the alleged attack would involve “radiation leakage.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told state TV that the Russians had mined the Zaporizhzhia plant. “The most horrifying part is that a cooler is mined. If they disable it by blowing it up… there is a great chance that there will be significant problems.” The Kremlin denied the allegations.

Zelensky significantly escalated this rhetoric in his address on Tuesday night. “The whole world must now realize that common security depends entirely on global attention to the actions of the occupiers at the plant,” he said.

As Ukraine’s counteroffensive attempts to reclaim territory captured by Russia, including in the Zaporizhzhia region, analysts have said that Russia may be mounting a false flag operation – a military action designed to look like it was perpetrated by the opponent. That is, Russia may claim that any explosion at the power plant was the result of reckless Ukrainian shelling, rather than its own explosives.

Throughout the war, Russia has warned that Ukrainian shelling around the plant could lead to a radioactive incident.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that the situation at the plant is “quite tense,” but tried to deflect criticism, claiming that the potential for “sabotage by the Kyiv regime” is “high” and could have “catastrophic consequences.”

“Therefore, of course, all measures are being taken to counter this threat,” Peskov said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog – said in an update Wednesday that there were no visible indications of mines or explosives at the ZNPP, but requested additional access to the site for confirmation.

“Access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 is essential, as well as access to the turbine halls and some parts of the cooling system of the plant,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement.

Who controls the power plant?

The ZNPP – the largest in Europe – lies along the banks of the Dnipro River, next to the town of Enerhodar. It has been under full Russian control since March last year, but is operated mostly by Ukrainian staff, who were initially forced to work at “gunpoint” by invading Russian troops, according to Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s nuclear power operator Energoatom.

When the war began on February 24 2022, one of the plant’s six reactor units was closed for maintenance. After Russian forces took control of the plant, the Ukrainian workers shut down the remaining units.

But fighting continued to rage around the plant last summer, to the grave alarm of the IAEA.

Grossi, claiming that “every principle of nuclear safety” had been “violated” at the plant, managed to secure his staff a visit to the site in August, while it remained under Russian control.

Grossi’s “personal diplomacy,” and the “bravery” of the staff who accompanied him on this visit, played a huge role in decreasing the chance of a nuclear accident at the plant, according to William Alberque, Director of Strategy, Technology and Arms Control at the International Institute for Strategy Studies.

The IAEA staff’s mission, Alberque said, was to “establish a precedent here, that we’re willing to get involved and to try to take this chess piece off the board.”

Is the plant still active?

Russian occupiers, however, continued to prevent Ukrainian operators from putting each of the reactors into a safer “cold shutdown” status. This means when the reactor’s temperature is below boiling point but electrical pumps moving water through the core must still keep working to cool the fuel and avoid meltdown – which requires an external power supply.

The safety of the plant was threatened further by the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam on June 6, which lowered water levels used for cooling the plant precipitously. Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately destroying the dam – a claim that Moscow has denied. Shortly after this, the final reactor unit at ZNPP was put into cold shutdown status on June 8.

Hence, due to the actions of the IAEA and Ukrainian operating staff, the plant has been put into a more stable “cold shutdown” mode, limiting the chances of a large-scale nuclear disaster.

Could this be another Chernobyl?

“A plume will come off from the reactor where there will be radiation aerosolized,” he said. This would create a radiation zone where “you’ll have a higher chance of cancer over the next 40 years,” but will not recreate the sort of destruction seen after the meltdown of the active Chernobyl plant in 1986.

“The six reactors at ZNPP are not at all like the Chernobyl reactor and cannot, CAN NOT, have the same kind of accident,” Cheryl Rofer, a nuclear expert and former researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, wrote in a blog.

“Chernobyl had a graphite moderator, and the building it was in was not the heavily reinforced concrete of the reactors at ZNPP. The ZNPP reactors have hard oxide fuel encased in metal, and are inside a stainless steel vessel. Chernobyl had no such vessel,” she added.

According to Alberque, the scale of the effects of any disaster at Zaporizhzhia would be more akin to that at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979, rather than Chernobyl (1986) – or even Fukushima (2011).

Would a nuclear incident benefit Russia?

It is unclear how Russia would benefit from causing an explosion at the plant.

“The winds are blowing east. So it’s going to affect Russians. In terms of military effectiveness: Zero. It’s just stupid,” Alberque said. Any nuclear incident would “just be self-harm. It would just harm Russian-held territory… I don’t get the play.”

As well as not providing clear military strategic gains for Russia, causing a nuclear incident may backfire diplomatically.

The Financial Times reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping has personally warned Putin against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, according to Western and Chinese officials.

The Kremlin denied the report, calling it “fiction.” However, it adds to the sense that Russia’s continued nuclear threats are causing reputational damage among its supposed allies.

Warring parties do not tend to raise the nuclear specter lightly. India and Pakistan, despite being locked in conflict for decades, agreed in 1988 to exclude nuclear facilities from their conflict zones, recognizing the risk that such attacks pose. They have exchanged a list of their nuclear facilities every year since 1992 to avoid any accidents.

Hence Russia’s reckless threats may contribute to further isolation on the world stage. “If Putin were to do this [cause an explosion at the ZNPP], how does India – whose line is, ‘unlike Pakistan, we’re the responsible nuclear power’ – how do they say that if we’re friends with the guy who just blew up a nuclear power plant?” Alberque said.

“I’m grateful to the US as the leaders of our support,” he told Burnett through a translator, “but I told them as well as the European leaders that we would like to start our counteroffensive earlier, and we need all the weapons and materiel for that. Why? Simply because if we start later, it will go slower.”

The Ukrainian leader added that difficulties on the battlefield were now leading to a “slowed down” counteroffensive.

“I wanted our counteroffensive to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive unfolds later, then a bigger part of our territory will be mined. We give our enemy the time and possibility to place more mines and prepare their defensive lines.”

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that while the counteroffensive is under way, the main push is yet to come.

Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said last month that Ukraine was holding back some of its reserves and that the “main strike” was still ahead.

In any direction Ukraine chooses to attack, however, time is the enemy, Zelensky told Burnett. “The later we start, the more difficult it will be for us.”

As he has done so often since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the president pleaded with Western governments to give Kyiv more advanced weaponry – such as the US-made long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems – now rather than later.

“In some directions it will give us an opportunity to start the counteroffensive,” he said. “In some directions we cannot even think of starting it, as we don’t have the relevant weapons. And throwing our people to be killed by Russian long-range weapons would be simply inhumane.”

He also re-emphasized his plea for American-made F-16 fighter jets. The United States has authorized its allies to begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly those aircraft, but has not yet allowed allies to re-export those planes to Ukraine.

“It’s not even about the Ukrainian advantage in the sky over the Russians,” Zelensky said. “This is only about being equal. F-16s help not only those on the battlefield to move forward. It is simply very difficult without cover from the air.”

‘Where did Putin go?’

Burnett’s interview with Zelensky comes at a crucial moment – weeks into Ukraine’s counteroffensive, but also in the wake of Wagner’s armed rebellion in Russia last month.

He also suggested that the Russian leader had been notably out of public sight since the secretive Kremlin deal that ended Wagner’s chaotic insurrection.

“After all these events, where did Putin go?” Zelensky said. “He rarely comes outside to the street. We see him in his offices, etc., but we never see him out and about.”

He claimed that Ukrainian intelligence indicated that the Kremlin was measuring support for Prigozhin. “Half of Russia supported Prigozhin. Half of Russia supported Putin,” Zelensky said. “Some of the Russian regions were balancing in the meantime without knowing for sure who to support.”

‘Alone I can be with music’

That Zelensky has a stressful job is certainly not in doubt. He’s running a war effort, motivating citizens and allies alike, and trying to avoid near-constant assassination attempts.

“I’ll be honest with you,” he told Burnett. “If I were thinking about it constantly I would just shut myself down, very much like Putin now who doesn’t leave his bunker.”

The constant threats on his life, Zelensky said, don’t bother him.

“You can put yourself in a cage like an animal and chain yourself there, constantly thinking that you are just about to get killed. Of course, my bodyguards should think how to prevent this from happening, and this is their task. I don’t think about it.”

Switching to English, Zelensky told Burnett that he values the solitary moments.

“Alone I can be with music, it’s true, or with a book. And early, early in the morning, when there are no sounds, no people, nobody.

“I can just read. Think, think. And the music helps really.”

Burnett asked him what his favorite music was.

“I like AC/DC. And Ukrainian music – of course, I like Ukrainian music a lot, because Ukraine is (my) native language. That’s why you understand not only music, you understand (the) words. AC/DC, I don’t understand all the words. I like (the) energy of AC/DC.”

A workout at six or seven in the morning, to the beat of AC/DC, he said, “gives you energy for all the day.”

Northwestern University president Michael Schill said he “may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction” after suspending head football coach Pat Fitzgerald for two weeks.

Fitzgerald’s immediate suspension without pay on Friday followed an investigation into allegations of hazing within the Wildcats’ program as the coach entered his 18th season leading the team.

“The confidential report concluded that while there was corroborating evidence that hazing had occurred, there was no direct evidence that Coach Fitzgerald was aware of the hazing,” Schill wrote in a letter to the university’s community on Saturday.

“In determining an appropriate penalty for the head coach, I focused too much on what the report concluded he didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known,” Schill’s statement read.

Fitzgerald has said he was not aware of the alleged hazing.

A former Illinois inspector general began conducting an independent investigation in December after an anonymous email address sent a complaint at the end of the 2022 season, according to an executive summary of the investigation made public by the university.

A former player said the alleged hazing incidents within the Wildcats program were “egregious and vile and inhumane behavior,” according to an article published Saturday by Northwestern’s student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern.

“It’s just a really abrasive and barbaric culture that has permeated throughout the program for years on end now,” the former player told the student publication.

A second anonymous player confirmed the practices to the newspaper.

“As the head coach of one of our athletics programs, Coach Fitzgerald is not only responsible for what happens within the program but also must take great care to uphold our institutional commitment to the student experience and our priority to ensure all students — undergraduate and graduate — can thrive during their time at Northwestern,” Schill said in his statement.

“Clearly, he failed to uphold that commitment, and I failed to sufficiently consider that failure in levying a sanction,” he said.

Schill added he recently learned the identity of the person that reported the allegations. The president said he spoke to the individual’s family offering his “sincere apologies” and has tried to reach out to the individual.

The Northwestern football team pushed back on the hazing allegations in a letter to the Northwestern community on Saturday, stating it doesn’t “tolerate hazing in any form” and that the allegations are “exaggerated and twisted into lies.”

The football team also said that Fitzgerald was unaware and not involved in the alleged incidents.

On Friday, Fitzgerald said he was “disappointed” to learn of the hazing allegations, adding he was not “aware” of any of the alleged activities.

“Northwestern football prides itself on producing not just athletes, but fine young men with character befitting the program and our University,” Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We hold our student-athletes and our program to the highest standards; we will continue to work to exceed those standards moving forward.”

Schill said he will meet with the leadership of the university as well as the Board of Trustees to discuss “future steps.”

In 17 seasons at the helm, 48-year-old Fitzgerald has a 110-101 regular season record and is 5-5 in bowl games. Since 2016, Northwestern has won four bowl games but was 1-11 last season.

The Wildcats are set to open the 2023 season at Rutgers University in New Jersey on September 3.

Mirra Andreeva is enjoying quite the year. A few months ago, the 16-year-old was relatively unknown, but she could soon become a household name – especially if she continues to produce sensational performances at Wimbledon.

Competing in just her second grand slam and for only the sixth time on a grass court, the teenager progressed to the second week in London after a brilliant straight-sets win over the 22nd seed Anastasia Potapova on Sunday.

The Russian received warm applause from the crowd after her 6-2 7-5 win earned her a place in the last 16, where she will face American Madison Keys.

Ranked No. 102 in the world, she had to qualify for Wimbledon. She is now the youngest player to reach the last 16 since Coco Gauff in 2019.

She was already the third-youngest player to reach the third round of Wimbledon in the Open Era after Kim Clijsters in 1999 and then Gauff four years ago.

Andreeva told reporters after her win that she was “just a normal teenager, normal girl,” and also revealed she still had to do schoolwork.

“I do, I think, everything that the girls my age do. I love to watch some series,” she said. “I have to do my school. I have no choice. I have to suffer for two more years, and that’s it.”

Of playing on grass for the first time, Andreeva added: “When I played my first match in quallies, I just didn’t have any expectations because it was my first match on grass. I just tried to give it all on the court.

“Since that first match, I actually found the right rhythm. Now it’s working pretty good. So honestly, as I said, I did not have any expectations. I just play. I always say that it’s a game. The game will decide who will win the match.”

In 2021, Emma Radacanu won the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier and Andreeva’s performances have inevitably drawn comparisons with the Briton.

Asked if she could repeat Radacanu’s feat, the Russian was poised in her reply.

“Of course, in 2021 she did an amazing job. Everyone was impressed. I think she was impressed also to pass the quallies and to win the slam at 18. It’s amazing,” she said.

“But me, I just try to not think about it. I think it will disturb me, all these thoughts. I just try to play every match and don’t think how far I have gone already or which round I’m playing, against who I’m playing.

“I just try to play every point. Doesn’t matter against who. Doesn’t matter which round. I just play my game. I don’t change anything mental-wise, tennis-wise. So, yeah, I’m just playing.”

Competing without a flag or national representation amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Andreeva has enjoyed a successful year so far, finishing runner-up at the junior Australian Open and reaching the fourth round of the Madrid Open in April, where she eventually lost to world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.

Her sudden rise this year has caught the attention of Netflix cameras filming the next instalment of the “Break Point” docuseries, which have been following her during Wimbledon.

Former West Virginia University men’s head basketball coach Bob Huggins claims he did not resign from the school after he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Pittsburgh last month, his attorney said.

Huggins wants to be reinstated as head coach or he’ll sue the university for breach of contract, according to his attorney.

“However, although the press statements purport to have resignation communications directly from Coach Huggins to you and/or the Athletic Director, Coach Huggins has never communicated his resignation to you, the Athletic Director, or anyone at WVU. To the contrary, we understand that the purported ‘resignation’ is incredibly based on a text message from Coach Huggins’ wife.”

According to a statement attributed to Huggins posted on the school’s athletic website on June 17, Huggins sent a letter to Gee and West Virginia Director of Athletic Directors Wren Baker of his “resignation and intention to retire as head men’s basketball coach at West Virginia University effective immediately.”

In a joint statement that day, Gee and Baker said they accepted his resignation “in light of recent events,” one of which was the University reducing Huggins’ salary by $1 million per year and suspending him for three games in May after Huggins used a homophobic slur while appearing on a Cincinnati radio show.

In the email thread, Baker responded: “We accept your resignation and wish you the best in retirement. We appreciate your many years of dedication to WVU.”

But according to the letter from Huggins’ attorney to the school president Friday, “there was never a resignation” because his employment agreement required him to send notice of early termination in writing via registered or certified mail to the school’s athletic director and general counsel.

The university responded to Campbell’s letter to the school stating Huggins met with the team and staff on June 17 – which was widely reported – to announce he’ll be stepping down.

“The conflicting communications and correspondence from various counsel on Mr. Huggins’s behalf leave the University unclear as to its next steps: continue working collaboratively with Mr. Fitzsimmons on common resignation/retirement benefits for a former University employee and as outlined in Mr. Huggins’ contract; or respond to meritless demand letters and possible frivolous litigation brought forth by you,” West Virginia Vice President and General Counsel Stephanie Taylor wrote in a July 8 reply to Campbell.

“What is clear however, is that on the evening of June 17, 2023, Mr. Huggins met with members of the men’s basketball staff and student-athletes to announce that he would no longer be coaching the team.

“The same evening at 9:38 p.m., following a series of written and verbal communications with Mr. Gianola, who was acting as his counsel, Mr. Huggins clearly communicated his resignation and retirement to the University in writing via email (not text message as asserted in your letter). Later that same night at 9:42 p.m., Wren Baker, the University’s Athletics Director, with a cc to me as General Counsel, wrote back via email, accepting Mr. Huggins’ resignation and retirement,” Taylor wrote.

Huggins’ attorney said that the former West Virginia head coach wants to return to his coaching duties at the school after completing his rehabilitation program he voluntarily entered after the Pittsburgh incident.

“Had WVU simply waited a weekend and looked at the situation with the benefit of speaking with Coach Huggins, we are confident that WVU would have chosen a different path,” Campbell wrote. He said Huggins “does not desire litigation.”

On June 24, West Virginia named Josh Eilert interim head men’s basketball coach.

In a statement following the Pittsburgh incident, Huggins said, “I am solely responsible for my conduct and sincerely apologize to the University community – particularly to the student-athletes, coaches and staff in our program. I must do better, and I plan to spend the next few months focused on my health and my family so that I can be the person they deserve.”

Huggins won 935 victories, which ranks as the third-most wins in college basketball history among Division I head coaches, in his 41 seasons as head coach.

During his tenure as West Virginia head coach, he led his alma mater to 345 wins while reaching the NCAA Tournament 11 times, including five NCAA Sweet 16’s and the 2010 NCAA Final Four.

Before becoming the head coach of the Mountaineers, Huggins was a head coach at the University of Akron (1984-1989), University of Cincinnati (1989-2005), and Kansas State University (2006-2007).

Huggins was selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.

International travelers must keep up with all kinds of sobering rules as they cross borders: Entry regulations, currency exchanges, customs reporting and such.

Younger globetrotters – at least those with a penchant to imbibe – have one extra thing to keep up with: the legal drinking age.

It’s not a uniform figure across the world. Some nations with a party reputation have a legal drinking age that might be a surprise as well as a buzzkill.

A couple of things to keep in mind about drinking while traveling abroad: Enforcement of laws is not always consistent. Just because a destination has a well-deserved reputation for “looking the other way” on underage drinking doesn’t mean that’s always the case. Also, laws for buying wine, beer and liquor might be stricter or different than for consuming it.

So, it’s best to learn about the alcohol laws and drinking customs of your destination before you eagerly quaff that adult beverage and perhaps land in hot water.

In that spirit, here’s a brief look at the legal drinking ages in 21 popular travel destinations plus some extremes in the laws.

Argentina

Legal drinking age: 18

Don’t cry for an alcoholic beverage in Argentina if you’re 17 or younger. You must be 18 or older to have a drink. It’s also forbidden in public spaces or during sports and entertainment events in stadiums. However, you can drink up in restaurants, bars and nightclubs until 5 a.m. to fuel all-night tango dancing.

Australia

Legal drinking age: 18

Whether you want some local red wine in a tony Melbourne café, a shot of liquor before clubbing in Sydney or a refreshing beer in the blistering Outback, you must be 18 or older to enjoy it legally. Be aware that Australia has a mishmash of local laws about where and when you can drink in public. For instance, you can’t drink in many outdoor public areas on New Year’s Eve in Sydney.

Bahamas

Legal drinking age: 18

Brazil

Legal drinking age: 18

You’re supposed to be 18 or older before you say olá to that caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil. The country does not have a reputation for enforcing that law very strongly – though the US State Department for one warns about the hazards of flouting overseas drinking laws. Brazil does have reputation for strict enforcement of laws against drinking and driving.

Canada

Legal drinking age: 19 (with notable exceptions)

If you’re looking forward to a Molson or a Labatt in the Great White North, you’ll need to be 19 or older. That’s unless you’re in Alberta, Manitoba or Quebec, where they’ll cut you a 12-month break. You’re legally OK to drink alcoholic beverages at 18 in those three destinations. In Canada, each province and territory gets to set its own rules.

Czech Republic

Legal drinking age: 18

The citizens of the Czech Republic consume more beer per person than any nation, according to stats from World Population Review, almost doubling their closest competitors of Austria and Poland. To legally join in the drinking of a Pilsner Urquell or other favorite beer, you must be 18. Be mindful of Prague’s public drinking laws; it’s illegal in most streets of the Old Town. Pay attention to the signs.

France

Legal drinking age: 18

Americans and others might still have the notion that French teens just grow up drinking wine like it’s no big deal. But things aren’t quite as laissez-faire as they once were. For example, France raised the minimum age from 16 to 18 in 2009. It’s not a total crackdown though. People 16 and 17 can drink in public venues if they are accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Germany

Legal drinking age: 16 or 18 (depending on the type of drink)

If you wish to explore your budding tastes in beer and wine, you can do so at 16 years old at Germany’s Oktoberfests, other festivals and bars. In fact, you can take your first sips at 14 if a parent or guardian is present. However, it’s verboten to purchase and drink the harder stuff until you’re 18. Neighbors Belgium and Denmark also allow 16-year-olds to buy and drink beverages containing less than 1.2% of distilled alcohol.

Ghana

Legal drinking age: 18

Ghana has become a popular destination in West Africa, drawing in visitors with beaches and wildlife as well as cultural and culinary allures. The national spirit is akpeteshie (a traditional sugar cane alcohol). If you want to enjoy it legally, you must be 18.

Ireland

Legal drinking age: 18

It’s a big part of Irish travel immersion: pub life! If you want to enjoy a Guinness or Baileys Irish Cream in the free and clear, you’ll have to be 18 or older. Younger folks can go to the pubs, too, if they can pass through a few legal loopholes. Parents are allowed to take their children into pubs if the owner consents. But there are time restrictions for how long a person can remain in the pub based on the child’s age and even the time of year.

Israel

Legal drinking age: 18

You must be 18 or older to drink alcoholic beverages there. Guidebooks advise you to be ready to present ID at bars, nightclubs and restaurants. Don’t expect alcoholic drinks to be available in Islamic and Arabic communities inside Israel. Known more for religious sites than roistering, Jerusalem nonetheless has drinking options. In party central Tel Aviv, you might be surprised that bars and nightclubs have the right to set their own minimum ages for drinking and for entry, which can run as high as 25.

Italy

Legal drinking age: 18

If you think la dolce vita involves buying fine Italian wines, Limoncello and other alcoholic fare at a café, then you’ll need to be 18 to do so on your own. You should have ID at the ready, though the age rules might not be strictly enforced. Italy is rather relaxed about alcohol in general. People 17 and younger can have a drink with their parents and no one will likely look askance. But the parents need to be the ones doing the buying.

Japan

Legal drinking age: 20

Japan has a reputation for a hard-charging drinking scene, but you’ll have to be 20 or older to enjoy a night of carousing for sake and shochu. (That’s the same minimum age you’re allowed to smoke and gamble, too). Alcohol is rather easy to find in convenience stores, supermarkets and chain restaurants as well as bars and izakaya (Japanese style pubs). You can also drink alcoholic beverages on the high-speed Shinkansen trains and other public spaces.

Mexico

Legal drinking age: 18

The sunny, festive home of tequila permits legal drinking at 18 or older, and it’s rather easy to buy alcohol in many spots day or night. Despite its reputation as a party destination, some of Mexico’s laws around drinking might surprise you. Open alcohol containers in public are illegal, and drinking on public streets is prohibited. It’s against the law to be drunk in public, too.

The Philippines

Legal drinking age: 18

The Philippines – where the beaches come warm and the beer comes cold. If you want to enjoy an icy San Miguel legally, you’ll need to be 18 or older. Warning: This status might not last forever. In 2022, there was movement afoot to change the minimum drinking age to 21. And if you have thoughts of getting bashed on the beaches of Boracay, think again. They cracked down on that years ago.

South Africa

Legal drinking age: 18

Dramatic coastlines. Stunning wildlife. Epic hiking trails. Rich cultural offerings. If that wasn’t enough, South Africa is also making quite a name for itself in global wine circles. You’ll need to be 18 or older to legally share a vintage in the place where it’s made. Like the Philippines, there’s also been a movement in South Africa to make the legal age to drink 21.

Spain

Legal drinking age: 18

If you long for “más sangría” while visiting Madrid, Seville or other popular spots, you’ll need to be 18 or older to order it and drink it legally on your own. Decades ago, the legal drinking age in Spain was 16, but the regional governments in the nation began raising it to 18. Be careful where you drink. People in Madrid, for instance, can’t consume alcohol on the street, except in outdoor cafés and bars and at tables placed by the doors of bars. Walking around with an open beer in Barcelona can get you a fine. There are no age-limit laws about drinking in the privacy of a home.

Thailand

Legal drinking age: 20

Here’s another country where the reputation for revelry might not line up with drinking age expectations. The legal drinking age in Thailand is 20 or older. If you’re 19 and younger and banking on lax enforcement of the laws or tourist exemptions, just know this limit can be taken seriously, including fines and possible jail time. In the trendy resort of Phuket, venues were raided on suspicion of selling alcohol to people below the age limit.

United Arab Emirates

Legal drinking age: It depends on the emirate

One of the biggest tourism magnets of the 21st century, the UAE is a federation of seven emirates on the Arabian Peninsula. Each one has its own way of doing things – that includes age limits on drinking. According to the Australian government’s Smart Traveller website, “The legal drinking age in Abu Dhabi is 18 years. However, a Ministry of Tourism by-law means hotels can only serve alcohol to people aged over 21 years. The legal drinking age in Dubai and the northern Emirates is 21 years.” In the emirate of Sharjah, any alcoholic beverage is illegal for any age.

United Kingdom

Legal drinking age: 18

If you want to salute your visit to the UK (be it England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) with a pint, you’ll need to be 18 or older. As with other places, there are a few exceptions: If you’re 16 or 17, you’re sanctioned to drink some types of alcohol – beer, cider and wine. But it must be with a meal, and you must be with an adult. If you’re 15 or younger, you may enter licensed premises such as pubs with an adult, but no drinking alcohol. And then Northern Ireland has its own set of additional, very specific rules if you go there.

United States

Legal drinking age: 21

The 16- to 20-year-old set in much of Europe and other places with more liberal drinking laws can have a sobering adjustment visiting the United States. The Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act of 1984 sets 21 as the legal age to buy alcohol. Every state currently follows the standard. And here we come with the exceptions again: A critical word is buying. States do have differing laws on consumption.

For instance, Wisconsin law says that “persons under age 21 may possess and consume alcohol beverages if they are with their parents, guardians or spouses of legal drinking age; but this is at the discretion of the licensee” of the bar. The word state is also critical. The legal drinking age in the territory of Puerto Rico is 18 (though you must be 21 to enter some bars and clubs.) It’s also 18 for the US Virgin Islands.

Drinking age extremes and oddities

According to a 2018 report from the UN’s World Health Organization, most of the world’s nations allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages. And most have 18 as their minimum drinking age. There are some noteworthy deviations from the norm in the report, however:

Early starts: If you think Germany has an early legal drinking age, then check out Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation in West Africa where on-premises drinking at bars and such is allowed at 13. In neighboring Mali (home of Timbuktu), beer and wine can be bought and consumed at 15.

Late starts: Another African nation offers another age extreme. In Eritrea, you can’t drink alcoholic beverages unless you’re 25 or older.

No age law at all: A few nations don’t even address the issue. That includes Cambodia, home to the ancient Angkor Wat city. However, there is a movement to set a minimum drinking age in this Southeast Asian country.

A real patchwork: India is another nation where the drinking laws vary by state. For instance, the legal drinking age in beach haven Goa and mountainous Sikkim is 18. For Uttar Pradesh (home of the Taj Mahal), it’s 21. Gujarat, known for its temples and White Desert, is officially dry. But news reports indicate the alcohol still flows.

Speaking of dry: If the easy flow of alcohol is an important part of your travel experience, it might be best to pass on places such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran. They have alcohol bans for their citizens, and workarounds, if any, for foreigners and tourists are cumbersome and possibly expensive.

Males and females: There have even been laws that set different rules for males and females regarding alcohol purchases. In 1976, the US Supreme Court struck down an Oklahoma law that allowed women to make purchases of low-strength beers at 18 while men had to wait until 21. None other than future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then the counsel to the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, helped argue against the law.

At least 17 people have died from nitrate gas inhalation following a gas leak at an informal settlement camp in South Africa, according to state media.

A disaster management agency official earlier said on Wednesday night that at least 24 people had died at the Angelo squatter camp in the city of Boksburg , but the death toll was revised to 17, public broadcaster SABC said, citing the Premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi.

Lesufi confirmed that 16 people had died and according to SABC, another person died at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in the early hours of the morning.

Children are among the dead and search and rescue operations are ongoing, local media reported.

The leak came from a gas cylinder containing nitrate oxide at the informal settlement, William Ntlad, spokesperson for the Disaster and Emergency Management Services said.

Ntladi said emergency services received the call just after 8 pm local time Wednesday.

He said an initial investigation indicates the leak could be linked to illegal mining activity in the area.

Illegal mining, mostly for gold, has remained rife in South Africa and costs the country millions of dollars each year.

Known as “zama zamas,” they make up thousands of illegal miners who swarm the disused gold mines of Johannesburg.

Last month, the country’s Department of Mineral and Energy Resources said around 31 suspected illegal miners who were believed to be nationals of neighboring Lesotho had died in a ventilation shaft in the country’s Free State province.

You can’t hurry love,” the Supremes sang, but in the animal kingdom, finding a potential mate as quickly as possible can be crucial for passing on genes.

Researchers described an extreme example of this behavior in a new study published Friday in the journal iScience: Male spider mites peel the molting skin off newly mature females to ensure they are first in line to mate.

Spider mites are tiny arachnids, distant cousins of spiders, smaller than the tip of a standard ballpoint pen. These eight-legged creatures live in large groups, feeding on plants by piercing the tissues with their sharp mouthparts and sucking out the juices.

Living together in dense colonies can make for fierce competition in finding a mate, especially because female spider mites only use the sperm from the first male with which they mate. They even store this sperm in a specialized internal pouch to fertilize their eggs for the rest of their lives.

Since being the first to mate with a female is the only way for a male spider mite to pass along his genes, males have developed strategies to improve their chances. Males will guard females that are nearly mature, so that as soon as the females are set to mate, the males will be ready. Some males fight off competitors that approach the nearly adult females, while others, nicknamed “sneakers” by researchers, stealthily lie in wait. As soon as the female sheds her old skin and emerges as a mature adult, the males rush in.

Molt and mate

Dr. Peter Schausberger, a principal investigator of arthropod behavioral ecology and docent at the University of Vienna, studies the mating behavior of spider mites. He and his colleagues were reviewing video footage taken via digital microscope when they noticed something strange happening.

“We observed that the guarding male becomes highly active and starts to pull on the skin of the female and strip it off,” said Schausberger, who was the lead author of the new paper. “The males then pull off the hind parts (of the skin) to get access to the genital opening” to do the deed. “Sometimes they copulate when the front part (of the female) is still covered,” he said — there’s no time to fully undress.

The process might sound gruesome, but Schausberger said it doesn’t hurt the females — the skin the males pull off is dead and would come off on its own without their help.

Stiff competition

Schausberger and his colleagues studied the mites’ undressing behavior in the lab. The team found that when the males helped the females remove their old skin, the molting process went faster and the males’ chances of being the first to mate were maximized. “Even a couple of minutes earlier, it pays for the guarding male to not lose his guarding investment to another one,” Schausberger said.

While this study was limited to one species of spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, Schausberger suspects that it could be applicable to other species. “This guarding behavior is observed in different mite species, so I assume that this undressing behavior will also be found in other spider mites, because they all have the same pressure — if they must be the first mating partner, then it’s highly stressful for them when the female comes out,” Schausberger said.

Dr. Yukie Sato, an assistant professor at the University of Tsukuba in Japan who was not involved with the paper, praised the study’s experimental design. “Many spider mite researchers have observed males helping females molt and wondered why the male’s mouth often touches the point where the female’s skin first breaks off when the male is mounting,” Sato said. “This study is excellent evidence showing that males are effectively helping females molt and shortening the time to molt.”

Pests or tiny wonders?

While farmers and gardeners often revile spider mites as plant-eating pests, many biologists use them as model organisms.

“Because they’re so easy to rear in the lab, you can also ask these really cool basic behavioral questions of them. There’s also a lot of work that’s been done on their genetics,” said Dr. Rebecca Schmidt-Jeffris, a research entomologist at the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, who was not involved with the study. “Very long down the road, maybe as people are developing more very specific kinds of pest management strategies, maybe they could exploit this behavior in some way. Like maybe you could create a spider mite that’s not good at mate-guarding anymore.”

In the meantime, Schausberger said he hopes this study will lead people to reconsider these often overlooked creatures. “I hope they are fascinated about what type of sophisticated behaviors have evolved, even in such tiny animals as spider mites,” he said.

Kate Golembiewski is a freelance science writer based in Chicago who geeks out about zoology, thermodynamics and death. She hosts the comedy talk show “A Scientist Walks Into a Bar.”

The BBC has suspended “a male member of staff” following allegations of sexual misconduct.

UK tabloid The Sun first reported Friday that a woman had accused an unnamed male BBC presenter of paying her teen child for sexually explicit photographs.

The BBC said in the statement that it first became aware of a complaint in May.

“New allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature and in addition to our own enquiries we have also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols,” it said.

“We have been clear that if – at any point – new information comes to light or is provided to us, this will be acted upon appropriately and actively followed up,” it added.

The broadcaster said that it would provide a further update in the coming days as the process continues. It has not confirmed the identity of the presenter in question or their current status at the organization.

The Sun report has led to several BBC presenters releasing public statements on Twitter denying that they were the subject of the article.

‘Deeply concerning’ allegations

“These allegations are deeply concerning,” DCMS said in the statement.

The UK culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, also responded to the report Sunday, saying she has been assured by the head of the BBC that the broadcaster is investigating the allegations.

Frazer spoke to BBC Director-General Tim Davie on Sunday. In a tweet posted after the conversation, Frazer said Davie had “assured me the BBC are investigating swiftly and sensitively.”

“Given the nature of the allegations it is important that the BBC is now given the space to conduct its investigation, establish the facts and take appropriate action. I will be kept updated,” Frazer continued.

The National Basketball Association on Saturday unveiled the format and groups for its in-season tournament set to debut next season.

The new annual competition will tip off on November 3 with group play and run through December 9 with the championship game.

All 30 NBA teams will participate in the group stage, with each team being placed in three groups of five teams within both the Eastern and Western conferences. All teams were randomly drawn into their groups based on win-loss records from the 2022-23 regular season, according to the NBA.

Eastern Conference:

Western Conference:

Each team will play four games during the group stage, which include two home games and two away games, the league said. All games will be exclusively played on Tuesdays and Thursdays between November 3-28. No games will be played on November 7 due to Election Day.

The team with the best record in each group and two wild-card teams will then advance to the knockout stage. The wild cards will include the team in each conference that finished with the best record in group play, but second within its group.

The knockout stage will be single elimination, hosted by the teams with the best record in group play on December 4-5.

The semifinals and championship game will be held on December 7 and December 9 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. All games will count toward regular season standings except the championship game.

Teams that advance to the knockout stage and beyond will be allocated a prize pool.

The league will name an MVP after the conclusion of the tournament along with an all-tournament team. Selections “will be based on the players’ performance in both Group Play and the Knockout Rounds,” according to the NBA.