UPI – A feline, displeased with a rescue attempt from a utility pole, made a daring leap captured on camera.

Canadian resident Alice Reid shared the story of her cat, Coco, who was likely chased up the pole by a neighbourhood dog.

After spending two hours atop the pole and crying for help, utility workers initiated a rescue.

Reid recorded the event, capturing the moment when Coco skillfully evaded the workers’ grasp by taking a flying leap from the pole’s summit.

“I never, in a million years, thought that he was going to jump on his own,” Reid told CTV News.

Reid said Coco took off running after landing on the ground and later showed up at home, miraculously uninjured.

“He came up the step and went on in,” she said. “Then he lied down on the floor and started washing himself like, you know, nothing ever happened.”

Reid said the daredevil cat is on house arrest for the time being.

“He’s crying to get outdoors and I’m trying to keep him in,” she said. “He’s going to have to get used to being in the house more.”

UPI – Crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have confirmed that astronaut Frank Rubio has been exonerated from accusations of consuming one of the initial tomatoes cultivated in space.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli announced in a live-streamed event commemorating the 25th anniversary of the station that the remnants of the small tomato were discovered eight months after being inadvertently misplaced by Rubio.

“Our good friend Frank Rubio, who headed home (already), has been blamed for quite a while for eating the tomato. But we can exonerate him. We found the tomato,” Moghbeli said.

Rubio, who returned to Earth in September, had been the target of joking accusations for months that he had eaten the space-grown fruit.

“I spent so many hours looking for that thing,” Rubio said during a September ISS live stream. “I’m sure the desiccated tomato will show up at some point and vindicate me, years  in the future.”

The astronauts did not reveal where the tomato was found or what its condition was, but Rubio had earlier predicted it would be in a state of advanced decay due to the humidity aboard the station.

SYDNEY (AFP) – A heatwave scorched Australia’s eastern coast and sent temperatures in Sydney to a three-year high yesterday as firefighters battled runaway bushfires.

Many people crowded Sydney’s beaches or sought relief in the shade. Authorities warned the most vulnerable, including the elderly and very young, to shelter in cool buildings.

Sydney city centre’s Observatory Hill weather station reached 40 degrees Celsius (˚C) in the afternoon – the hottest since November 2020, according to weather bureau data.

In Richmond on Sydney’s far western fringes, the thermometer crept up to 43.8˚C.

“Today, with the high heat levels, I do say that it’s a time to ensure that we look after each other and stay safe,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference.

“Climate change is a threat to people’s health as well as to our environment and we need to acknowledge there’s a need for a comprehensive response.”

More than 70 bushfires and grass fires burned across New South Wales, with over a dozen out of control in the late afternoon, the state’s rural fire service said.

“With very hot, dry and windy conditions, and total fire bans in place, know your risk and what you will do if threatened by fire,” the fire service said in a message on social media.

Temperatures were set to cool in the evening, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

It urged vulnerable people to use fans and air conditioners or seek cool spots in libraries, community centres and shopping centres.

The number of calls for ambulances rose by about 20 per cent compared to a normal day, New South Wales Ambulance chief superintendent Mark Gibbs told a news conference.

“Follow up on elderly relatives. Check in on your neighbours. Ensure that people are rehydrating,” Gibbs said.

“Monitor people for signs of dehydration or effects from the heat – and that may be a decreased level of consciousness, vomiting, lethargy, feeling fatigued, potentially muscle twitching.”

State health authorities called on people attending music festivals to protect themselves, with thousands expected at an event in western Sydney’s Olympic Park.

“Make sure you take breaks from dancing, seek shade when you can, drink water regularly, wear sun protection,” NSW Health said in a statement.

“Make use of festival-provided shade, water stations and misting fans.”

After several wet years, experts are expecting Australia’s summer to bring the most intense bushfire season since the 2019-2020 disaster.

SEOUL (AP) – The national security advisers of the United States (US), South Korea and Japan yesterdaycalled for a stronger international push to suppress North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and missiles, its cybertheft activities and alleged arms transfers to Russia.

The meeting in Seoul came as tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accelerating the expansion of his nuclear and missile program and flaunting an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons.

The US and its Asian allies have responded by increasing the visibility of their trilateral partnership in the region and strengthening their combined military exercises, which Kim condemns as invasion rehearsals.

Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have also expressed concerns about a potential arms alignment between North Korea and Russia.

Speaking after the meeting, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington is working with Seoul and Tokyo to strengthen defence cooperation and improve its response to North Korean missile testing and space-launch activities, including a real-time information sharing arrangement on North Korean missile launches that the countries plan to start at an unspecified date in December.

He also said the countries have agreed to new initiatives to more effectively respond to North Korean efforts to bypass US-led international sanctions that aim to choke off funds for its nuclear weapons and missile programme.

“This will be a new effort with respect to cryptocurrency and money laundering and how we disrupt North Korea’s capacity to gain revenue from the hacking and stealing of cryptocurrency and then laundering it through exchanges,” he said.

Sullivan declined to share detailed US assessments on the types and volume of North Korean arms being shipped to Russia and didn’t comment on the specifics of his discussions with South Korean and Japanese officials over the issue, but insisted that “there’s no daylight among us in terms of the types of weapons transfers that we are seeing. And those continue and they represent a grave concern for us.”

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – Prosecutors in Guatemala asked a court on Friday to strip President-elect Bernardo Arévalo of his immunity, saying there could be enough irregularities to annul the election results, a move the Organization of American States (OAS) called part of “a  coup attempt”.

It was the third time prosecutors have sought to lift Arévalo’s immunity since he won election in August, and the OAS said prosecutors were seeking to subvert “the will of the people” with a coup.

Arévalo is scheduled to take office on January 14, and it was unclear whether the prosecutors’ continued targeting of him and his party could interfere with the inauguration.

The most recent request from prosecutors cites alleged irregularities in the way Arévalo’s Seed Movement party gathered signatures to register years earlier, something previously raised by prosecutors just before electoral authorities confirmed Arévalo’s spot in the runoff after a first round of voting. At a news conference on Friday, prosecutors said there were alleged irregularities in some precinct vote tallies that could lead to the election results being annulled.

Special prosecutor against impunity Rafael Curruchiche said the Supreme Electoral Tribunal would have to resolve the situation. “All of the political parties and all of the candidates in all of the elections were affected here,” he said.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal responded almost immediately that the election results were inalterable. “The results are valid, certified, and the people (who won their races) are necessarily accredited and must take office January 14.

“If not, it would be a rupture of the constitutional order,” tribunal President Blanca Alfaro said.

PONTIAC (AP) – A judge sentenced a Michigan teenager to life in prison on Friday for killing four students and terrorising others at Oxford High School, United States (US) after listening to hours of gripping anguish from parents and wounded survivors.

Judge Kwame Rowe rejected pleas from defence lawyers for a shorter sentence and ensured that Ethan Crumbley, 17, will not get an opportunity for parole.

Moments before learning his fate, the teen apologised and appeared to agree with his victims that the stiffest punishment was appropriate.

“Any sentence that they ask for, I ask that you do impose it on me,” the shooter said. “I want them to be happy, and I want them to feel secure and safe. I do not want them to worry another day. I really am sorry for what I’ve done. … But I can try my best in the future to help other people, and that is what I will do.”

Life sentences for teenagers are rare in Michigan since the US Supreme Court and the state’s highest court said the acts of minors must be viewed differently than the crimes of adults.

But Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said a no-parole order fit the Oxford case.

“It’s not a moment to celebrate,” McDonald said outside court. “It’s tragic. And the voices today, I think, profoundly show that.”

Indeed, Rowe’s decision followed deeply emotional remarks by families of the deceased and survivors who said the tragedy had irreparably turned their lives upside down.

Crumbley, who was 15 when he committed the shooting, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and terrorism. He brought a gun to school, but his backpack was never checked, even after his parents were summoned that same day about their son’s drawings, which included a gun and words: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”

The judge said the shooting was planned well in advance, and he noted that the shooter had plenty of time to stop as he walked through school. Rowe was especially troubled by how victim Hana St Juliana was repeatedly shot and that another, Justin Shilling, was shot at point-blank range in a bathroom while another student was forced to watch. He described it as “execution” and “torture”.

“The court cannot ignore the trauma caused to Michigan and the Oxford community,” the judge said.

AP – Vladimir Putin moved to prolong his reign on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election next March.

Putin commands wide support after nearly a quarter-century in power.

A short-lived rebellion in June by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin raised widespread speculation that Putin could be losing his grip, but he emerged with no permanent scars.

Prigozhin’s died in a plane crash two months later.

Putin, who was first elected president in March 2000, announced his decision to run in the March 17 presidential election after a Kremlin award ceremony, when war veterans and others pleaded with him to seek reelection in what Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described as “spontaneous” remarks.

“I won’t hide it from you – I had various thoughts about it over time, but now, you’re right, it’s necessary to make a decision,” Putin said in a video released by the Kremlin after the event. “I will run for president of the Russian Federation.”

Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center noted that the announcement was made in a low-key way instead of a live televised speech, probably reflecting the Kremlin’s spin effort to emphasise Putin’s modesty and his perceived focus on doing his job as opposed to loud campaigning.

About 80 per cent of the populace approves of Putin’s performance, according to the independent pollster Levada Center.

That support might come from the heart or it might reflect submission to a leader whose crackdown on any opposition has made even relatively mild criticism perilous. Putin is expected to face only token opposition on the ballot. Putin, 71, has twice used his leverage to amend the constitution so he could theoretically stay in power until he’s in his mid-80s.

In 2008, he stepped aside to become prime minister due to term limits but continued calling the shots while his close associate Dmitry Medvedev served as a placeholder president.

Presidential terms were then extended to six years from four, while another package of amendments he pushed through three years ago reset the count for two consecutive terms to begin in 2024.

For the first time, voting in the presidential election will take place over three days from March 15 to 17, 2024.

The election commission argued that the practice of multi-day voting, used in other elections since the COVID-19 pandemic, is more convenient for voters.