Emmerdale have confirmed they will be airing three special standalone episodes featuring key storylines this autumn as we delve deeper into the biggest storylines in the Dales
Emmerdale will air three special standalone episodes featuring key storylines this autumn
Emmerdale will air three special standalone episodes featuring key storylines this autumn including a reflective look behind the bars of Robert Sugden’s incarceration and Bear’s recent disappearance.
Earlier this year, Emmerdale fans were left in shock when Ryan Hawley made his dramatic return to the soap, reprising his role as Robert Sugden, crashing the wedding of his brother John Sugden and Aaron Dingle. Robert was sent to prison in 2019 after being sentenced to life for the murder of Lee Posner.
Now, this autumn, fans will be able to see what really went down over those six years – and if it changed him forever. Fans are aware that Robert has a ‘secret husband’, Kev, whom he met in prison, who has recently been released and is living in the village.
Elsewhere, another episode will answer all the unanswered questions about Bear’s disappearance. The soap will explore the hundred missing days of Bear’s life, and viewers will learn that he is sadly trapped in an all too common situation for a forgotten generation…
When Paddy and Bear found life under the same roof difficult, Bear decided to leave for another life in Ireland. Paddy believed his estranged father was safe with friends in Ireland, but it becomes apparent that he wasn’t there at all – but where did he disappear to?
Lastly, another special episode set to air in Autumn will explore this fragile and possibly broken relationship between April Dingle and her father, Marlon, as she slips further away from his grasp.
It comes after April’s storyline in which the teen is at the mercy of the merciless drug dealers.
Emmerdale have not confirmed an exact date for these standalone episodes, but fans can expect them to air sometime this autumn.
Fans of the ITV soap can expect a lot more twists and turns over the final months of 2026 as stars including Bradley Riches, Shebz Miah, Lisa Riley, Ash Palmisciano, Beth Cordingly, Rosie Bentham and Bradley Johnson spilled the beans to the Mirror at the Inside Soap Awards.
After the special standalone episode, we’ll be getting ready for all the Christmas drama – and it’s set to be dramatic.
So much so, Lewis Barton actor Bradley said fans would be saying “what the f**k” when they see what goes down.
Vinny Dingle star Bradley Johnson and Mandy Dingle star Lisa also teased a devastating storyline for Bear, which will run through to Christmas and then past Christmas too. Bradley said: “We’ve got the Bear storyline coming up!” whilst Lisa added: “We don’t know where Bear is.
The drama on Emmerdale continues Friday at 7:30 PM on ITV1 and STV, or from 7:00 AM on ITVX and STV Player.
In Monday night’s other game, a last-gasp 38-yard Jake Moody field goal with three seconds left gave the Chicago Bears a thrilling 25-24 victory at the Washington Commanders.
The San Francisco 49ers took Moody with a rare pick on a kicker in round three of the 2023 draft but they then cut him a poor week one performance this season.
He signed to the Bears practice squad and was activated for Monday’s game after an injury to Cairo Santos.
“It feels amazing,” said Moody. “To get all that support from all my team-mates after the game, it was an amazing feeling.”
Two Moody field goals and a rushing touchdown from quarterback Caleb Williams put Chicago 13-0 up before Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels found Chris Moore to reduce the deficit to six points at Northwest Stadium.
Matt Gay and Moody traded field goals before Daniels threw to Luke McCaffrey and Zach Ertz for touchdowns as Washington opened up a 24-16 lead.
A 55-yard D’Andre Swift receiving touchdown gave the Bears a chance to tie the game but they missed a two-point conversion, leaving the Commanders 24-22 ahead.
But a Daniels fumble gave possession back to the Bears, who drove down the field to set up Moody’s winning kick with three seconds left, leaving the Commaneders with a 3-3 record.
“That’s who we are. We fight,” said Williams, who threw for one touchdown and 252 yards as his team moved to 3-2.
“We’re 3-2 because of our fight, because of how we face adversity and come together.”
BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine — Republican lawmakers are targeting one of the country’s longest-standing pieces of environmental legislation, credited with helping save rare whales from extinction.
GOP leaders believe they now have the political will to remove key pieces of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, enacted in 1972 to protect whales, seals, polar bears and other sea animals. The law also places restrictions on commercial fishermen, shippers and other marine industries.
A Republican-led bill in the works has support from fishermen in Maine who say the law makes lobster fishing more difficult, lobbyists for big-money species such as tuna in Hawaii and crab in Alaska, and marine manufacturers who see the law as antiquated.
Conservation groups adamantly oppose the changes and say weakening the law will erase years of hard-won gains for jeopardized species such as the vanishing North Atlantic right whale, which is vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear. There are fewer than 400 right whales remaining.
Here’s what to know about the protection act and the proposed changes.
Why the 1972 law still matters
“The Marine Mammal Protection Act is important because it’s one of our bedrock laws that help us to base conservation measures on the best available science,” said Kathleen Collins, senior marine campaign manager with International Fund for Animal Welfare. “Species on the brink of extinction have been brought back.”
It was enacted the year before the Endangered Species Act, at a time when the movement to save whales from extinction was growing. Scientist Roger Payne had discovered that whales could sing in the late 1960s, and their voices soon appeared on record albums and throughout popular culture.
The law protects all marine mammals and prohibits capturing or killing them in U.S. waters or by U.S. citizens on the high seas. It allowed for preventative measures to stop commercial fishing ships and other businesses from accidentally harming animals such as whales and seals. The animals can be harmed by entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships and other hazards at sea.
The law also prevents the hunting of marine mammals, including polar bears, with exceptions for Indigenous groups. Some of those animals can be legally hunted in other countries.
Changes to oil and gas operations
Republican Rep. Nick Begich of Alaska, a state with a large fishing industry, submitted a draft this summer that would roll back aspects of the law. The bill says the act has “unduly and unnecessarily constrained government, tribes and the regulated community” since its inception.
The proposal states that it would make changes such as lowering population goals for marine mammals from “maximum productivity” to the level needed to “support continued survival.” It would also ease rules on what constitutes harm to marine mammals.
For example, the law prevents harassment of sea mammals such as whales and defines harassment as activities that have “the potential to injure a marine mammal.” The proposed changes would limit the definition to activities that actually injure the animals. That change could have major implications for industries such as oil and gas exploration where rare whales live.
That poses an existential threat to the Rice’s whale, which numbers only in the dozens and lives in the Gulf of Mexico, conservationists said. And the proposal takes specific aim at the North Atlantic right whale protections with a clause that would delay rules designed to protect that declining whale population until 2035.
Begich and his staff did not return calls for comment on the bill, and his staff declined to provide an update about where it stands in Congress. Begich has said he wants “a bill that protects marine mammals and also works for the people who live and work alongside them, especially in Alaska.”
Fishing groups want restrictions loosened
A coalition of fishing groups from both coasts has come out in support of the proposed changes. Some of the same groups lauded a previous effort by the Trump administration to reduce regulatory burdens on commercial fishing.
The groups said in a July letter to House members that they believe Begich’s changes reflect “a positive and necessary step” for American fisheries’ success.
Restrictions imposed on lobster fishermen of Maine are designed to protect the right whale, but they often provide little protection for the animals while limiting one of America’s signature fisheries, said Virginia Olsen, political director of the Maine Lobstering Union. The restrictions stipulate where lobstermen can fish and what kinds of gear they can use. The whales are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in heavy fishing rope.
Gathering more accurate data about right whales while revising the original law would help protect the animals, Olsen said.
“We do not want to see marine mammals harmed; we need a healthy, vibrant ocean and a plentiful marine habitat to continue Maine’s heritage fishery,” Olsen said.
Some members of other maritime industries have also called on Congress to update the law. The National Marine Manufacturers Assn. said in a statement that the rules have not kept pace with advancements in the marine industry, making innovation in the business difficult.
Environmentalists fight back
Numerous environmental groups have vowed to fight to save the protection act. They characterized the proposed changes as part of the Trump administration’s assault on environmental protections.
The act was instrumental in protecting the humpback whale, one of the species most beloved by whale watchers, said Gib Brogan, senior campaign director with Oceana. Along with other sea mammals, humpbacks would be in jeopardy without it, he said.
“The Marine Mammal Protection Act is flexible. It works. It’s effective. We don’t need to overhaul this law at this point,” Brogan said.
What does this mean for seafood imports
The original law makes it illegal to import marine mammal products without a permit and allows the U.S. to impose import prohibitions on seafood products from foreign fisheries that don’t meet U.S. standards.
The import embargoes are a major sticking point because they punish American businesses, said Gavin Gibbons, chief strategy officer of the National Fisheries Institute, a Virginia-based seafood industry trade group. It’s critical to source seafood globally to be able to meet American demand for seafood, he said.
The National Fisheries Institute and a coalition of industry groups sued the federal government Thursday over what they described as unlawful implementation of the protection act. Gibbons said the groups don’t oppose the act but want to see it responsibly implemented.
“Our fisheries are well regulated and appropriately fished to their maximum sustainable yield,” Gibbons said. “The men and women who work our waters are iconic and responsible. They can’t be expected to just fish more here to make up a deficit while jeopardizing the sustainability they’ve worked so hard to maintain.”
Some environmental groups said the Republican lawmakers’ proposed changes could weaken American seafood competitiveness by allowing imports from poorly regulated foreign fisheries.
DAVE ALLEN could become a British boxing cult hero and break into the mainstream by toppling a Russian ‘Bond villain’ who wrestles bears.
In 2017, the Doncaster lad weighed in for a heavyweight clash on a David Haye undercard with a pair of XXL socks stuffed down his pants and a huge grin across his handsome face.
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Dave Allen is set to fight giant Dagestan fighter Arslanbek MakhmudovCredit: Getty
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Makhmudov has wrestled with BEARS on camera
The clip went viral, especially among the gay community, getting 16 million views and earning him countless proposals in his social media inboxes.
In the ring, he earned total respect from hardcore boxing fans who watched through their fingers as he funded a gambling addiction with brave defeats to prime versions of Dillian Whyte, Luis Ortiz, Olympic gold winner Tony Yoka and David Price.
Online followers also loved Allen’s relationship with nan Betty, which he shared in touching videos and photos.
We worried about his life going off the rails again when she passed away in 2022. But in a beautiful stroke of fate, Allen fathered his first child shortly after and named her Betty.
If you are a British boxing fan of a certain age, you will have watched the White Rhino’s career rollercoaster from exploited punchbag, to shock LGBT icon, to early retirement, to doting dad and budding property tycoon.
The honesty and humour he has always shared has made us cheer and fear — in equal measure — for Allen, who speaks openly about his former fighter father being tough on him.
But following a sensational knockout rematch win over Essex fighter Johnny Fisher in May, he is now at the peak of his pulling power.
Saturday night’s homecoming headline slot in Sheffield — against terrifying 6ft 6in Arslanbek Makhmudov of Dagestan — will provide a life-changing purse.
And a victory could take him closer to his very modest dream — for a man with his record and profile — of winning the often-overlooked British title.
He has the perfect dance partner in the grizzly-grappling knockout artist, 36, who even has a trademark tic of twisting his neck like a 007 foe.
Anthony Joshua sends emotional message to Dave Allen after boxer’s heroic battle with suicide and gambling demons
And Allen insists he has ditched his infamous ice-cream sandwiches to be in the best shape of his career.
So much so that he apologised for the first photos from the underwear modelling contract he unveiled, coming complete with paunch as the snaps were taken before he committed totally to this 34th professional training camp.
Despite being a hard and witty Yorkshireman — who has done hundreds of sparring rounds with the likes of Anthony Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury — Allen has never trash-talked or bad-mouthed an opponent.
He has built a loyal and invested fanbase by being brutally open and uncensored with his back story and struggles, while being humble and self-deprecating about his recent successes.
Even after the original 2024 draw with Fisher, he begged his 26-year-old pal and sparring partner not to take the rerun and to prolong his potential and profile with a different route.
And he seemed genuinely gutted to inflict such a thorough pasting upon him when he ignored the advice.
As a man and a fighter, Allen is a throwback. As a modern boxer, though, he has harnessed social media and YouTube to become a star.
The mismatched and utterly predictable defeats were horrible to watch but — combined with Allen’s unshakably authentic personality — they have made his underdog story one we are all desperate to see finish with a gloriously happy ending.
Allen vs Makhmudov – all the info
DAVE ALLEN returns to the ring for one of the biggest tests of his career this weekend!
The Chargers are reuniting with a former franchise star to bolster their receivers unit.
Keenan Allen, who racked up more than 10,000 receiving yards during an 11-season stint with the Chargers before being traded away in a salary-cap move, agreed to a deal with the team Tuesday.
“Obviously, we know how good he’s been throughout his career,” Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz said, “and he’s out there on the market still, and [it was the] chance to bring someone of his caliber back we know can help us win games.”
Allen spent last season in Chicago after the Chargers traded their then-longest tenured player to the Bears in an attempt to become salary-cap compliant after the start of free agency. He caught 70 passes for 744 yards and seven touchdowns in the Caleb Williams-led offense but was not re-signed by Chicago.
Allen worked out with the Chargers on Friday, with coach Jim Harbaugh remarking that Allen did “a lot of Keenan Allen things.” Responding to a viewer on Twitch stream over the weekend, Allen said his meeting with the team “went good, man. The meeting was straight.”
After the sudden retirement of Mike Williams at the start of training camp, the Chargers were in need of a wide receiver, and Allen was among the top options remaining on the free-agent market. At 33, Allen’s best days are probably behind him, but the six-time Pro Bowl selection proved last season he is capable of staying healthy and being productive.
Still, the idea of signing Allen didn’t materialize entirely after Williams retired.
“I think Mike leaving may have opened more opportunity, but … Keenan was an option throughout,” Hortiz said. “We’ve had conversations with him and his agent … and it kind of came to fruition.”
Second only to Hall of Famer Antonio Gates atop the Chargers’ all-time receiving yards list, Allen joins a pass-catching corps led by second-year standout Ladd McConkey and former first-round pick Quentin Johnston, who had a promising sophomore season in 2024 after struggling as a rookie.
Allen will be the graybeard of a Chargers receivers group that has several promising pass-catchers. Jalen Reagor is the only receiver other than Allen on the roster with more than five years of NFL experience. Highly touted rookies Tre’ Harris and KeAndre Lambert-Smith, in addition to Reagor, Derius Davis and Brenden Rice, will be competing with Allen for targets.
As for a potential redundancy with Ladd at slot receiver, Hortiz is confident Allen can adjust to the Chargers’ needs.
“I think he can help us in multiple roles. I really believe that,” Hortiz said.”I think he’s been that way his whole career, and don’t see that being any different now. … You guys know how Keenan has been used everywhere he’s been, you’ll see the same thing. A lot of versatility.”
The wild card in all of this might rest on how well Allen can reestablish chemistry with quarterback Justin Herbert. In four seasons together, Allen caught 380 passes for 4,125 yards and 25 touchdowns.
If Allen can get close to the numbers he posted in 2023 (108 catches, 1,243 yards, seven touchdowns), the rest of the AFC West should be wary.
“This is where he grew up. This is where he became Keenan Allen,” Hortiz said.
Jimmy Doherty has been a familiar face on our TV screens for more than 20 years and he is back with a new series this weekend
Jimmy Doherty is behind the new Channel 4 show Jimmy Doherty’s Big Bear Rescue(Image: Submitted pic)
Jimmy Doherty first graced our television screens over two decades ago, featuring in his best mate Jamie Oliver‘s cooking programmes.
After training to be a pig farmer, he established his own farm and founded the Essex Pig Company, which became the focus of the reality TV documentary, Jimmy’s Farm.
These days, Jimmy juggles his farming duties with his television career, and this weekend he’s in the new Channel 4 show, Jimmy Doherty’s Big Bear Rescue.
The programme follows Jimmy, 50, at his Suffolk farm and wildlife refuge, where he welcomes some homeless polar bears, a pack of wolves, and two brown bears looking for their forever homes.
All of the action is filmed on his sprawling 70-acre family farm. He shares this idyllic setting with his telly producer wife Michaela Furney and their four daughters, not to mention a host of pets. Let’s delve into his life, reports Essex Live.
Enjoying life at Jimmy’s Farm(Image: Shared Content Unit)
Early life
Born in Ilford before relocating to Essex at three years old, Jimmy struck up a friendship with a young Jamie Oliver at primary school, and they’ve remained close ever since.
He’s always had a passion for animals and wildlife, and from the tender age of 13, he worked in the tropical butterfly house at Mole Hall Wildlife Park in Saffron Walden, helping care for a variety of animals ranging from otters to chimpanzees.
Jimmy pursued animal biology at university and served for five years in the Royal Corps of Signals. He later trained as a pig farmer and now owns his own farm and operates The Essex Pig Company.
TV star wife and daughters
Jimmy Doherty’s wife, Michaela Furney, first crossed paths with her future husband while working as a runner on Jamie Oliver’s show, Jamie’s Kitchen, back in 2002. The shoot led her to the Cumbrian farm where Jimmy was employed at the time.
Michaela eventually chose to leave her bustling London career behind to embrace farm life with Jimmy. In a candid chat with MailOnline, she reflected: “One of the biggest things was giving up my career; I was very focused and it was a good lifestyle. But it was my decision: Jim didn’t put any pressure on me.”
With wife Michaela(Image: Getty Images)
Although she stepped away from TV production, Michaela found herself in front of the lens for the documentary series, Jimmy’s Farm. Initially resistant to the idea due to the intrusive nature of filming, she confessed: “We’re just normal people and the attention can be scary and hurtful,” adding, “I was still commuting when they began filming, so at first I thought I wouldn’t be involved – that was how Jim persuaded me.”
She also revealed the emotional toll of being filmed: “They used lots of shots of me crying, but it was just in frustration at all the setbacks, the worst of which were the fights with the council over planning permission [for outbuildings and, retrospectively, the shop]. I don’t cry that often – they just seemed to catch it on camera every time I did.”
The couple tied the knot in August 2009 with a reception held at their farm, and they have since become doting parents to four daughters.
Showbiz pals
Since their primary school days, Jimmy and Jamie Oliver have remained steadfast mates, presenting television programmes together such as Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, whilst pursuing various other joint ventures – and remarkably, they appear never to have had a serious falling-out (save for the occasional spat during TV challenges).
Jimmy’s with best pal Jamie(Image: Channel 4)
It was actually Jimmy who played cupid, introducing Jamie to his future wife Jools when he was just 18. Speaking to MailOnLine, Jimmy recalled: “We went on a double date to the cinema in Cambridge – me, Jamie, Juliette and Sue Stump. He had a Fiesta with big fog lights and an exhaust like a tractor on it. We were going over a hill listening to Bob Marley, Buffalo Soldier. We’re all singing, the guy braked in front of us and Jamie smashed into him and knocked his front lights out.”
Their profound friendship was particularly touching when Jamie dedicated his book, Jamie Cooks Italy, to Jimmy’s late father. Jimmy revealed: “There’s a picture of him at my brother’s wedding on there. Jamie gave me the book and I’m used to my dad being dead, but sorrow is a weird thing. I couldn’t control it, I had to go away on my own. Then I came back and said thank you and it started again. But luckily I had an eye infection so I could blame it on that. Pink eyes, weeping.”
Jimmy on his farm(Image: Submitted)
On the farm
Jimmy’s Suffolk farm, which serves as the backdrop for the ITV series Jimmy and Shivi’s Farmhouse Breakfast, is rather extraordinary given its collection of exotic creatures, including polar bears and monkeys – the website actually claims it’s Europe’s largest polar bear reserve. In a chat with the Express, he shared: “And then you’ve got the wildlife park where we’ve got polar bears, we’ve got monkeys, we’ve got our anteaters. So we do different activities with them.
“One morning we played hide and seek with our monkeys. We hid all their food around and they had to go and find it. And I remember that for the camera system, it took him about 15 minutes trying to get the GoPro in this special box and tighten it all up. It took the monkey about five seconds to undo or and grab the camera, bite it and run off with it. But we’ve got some brilliant monkey selfies!”
Jimmy Doherty’s Big Bear Rescue is on Channel 4 on Sunday, July 20 at 8pm
FX and Disney+’s The Bear is back for a fourth season and foodies will be treated to more delightful looking dishes as well as hard-hitting stories in the psychological comedy-drama
22:00, 25 Jun 2025Updated 22:09, 25 Jun 2025
Food fans get ready as the psychological comedy-drama The Bear series four hits our screens today. After breaking global streaming records, the hit Disney+ offering will get straight into it with the fallout from the Chicago Tribune’s review of eatery.
And while the show starring Jeremy Allen White is certainly about more than just culinary delights, the chance for this always-hungry reporter to try some of the viral sensations from the hit series was something my belly couldn’t say no to.
In the FX and Disney+ show, viewers watch White portray the role of a young chef called Carmy come from the fine dining world and return home to Chicago following a death to run his family sandwich shop. And it was one of those dishes that allowed me to tickle my taste buds.
The Bear is back for a fourth season(Image: Copyright 2025, FX. All rights reserved.)
Carmy may be a world away from what he is used to by running his business in the drama, but let’s just say cooking isn’t my forte either. And while an award-winning chef I am most certainly not, I was left craving a trip to Chicago to try the real deal after the three dishes I whipped up.
For this extremely basic cook, a Chicago-Style Steak Sandwich and Fries was the clear winner. As part of Gousto’s The Bare limited edition package, which helps recreate the show’s most viral dishes, I knew I was onto a winner when I first saw it.
Mirror reporter Jamie Roberts tried recipes inspired by the show(Image: Jamie Roberts/ Daily Mirror)
“Can’t handle the heat? Go easy!” was the warning on the handy step-by-step guide. Challenge accepted! In it all went to hopefully pack a punch. While there was definitely a kick, it was just right – without sounding like one of the three bears.
TikTok feeds have been overflowing with takes on this iconic Chicago Beef Sandwich and it’s clear to see why. Recreating the Italian beef sandwich by moodily frying tender steak with green peppers and smothering in a savoury jus reduction left little to be desired.
Loading it handsomely into a soft baguette and serve with home-cooked fries and dip. Let’s just say it’s a big fat yes from me.
Gousto has released three limited edition meals(Image: Gousto)
The other dishes up for grabs were THAT Crispy Omelette that got viewers drooling. It might have divided viewers in episode nine, but it got an impressive thumbs up from yours truly.
Stuffed full of garlic and herb soft cheese and topped with crisps for crunch, it’s safe to see why viewers became obsessed.
To finish on a hat-trick of culinary delights (not all in one sitting!) was a family spaghetti with cheesy garlic bread. While I might not have had the presentation of a well-run Chicago restaurant, I was able to capture the spirit and soul of Chicago cooking right here in my North East home.
And let’s face it, it all went down the gullet in prompt fashion anyway!
It’s safe to that while a career change is definitely not on the horizon, these dishes were a huge success and left me wondering what delicacies might come from season four.
Exclusively available until 15th July, ‘The Bare’ range includes three limited-edition recipes and also helps Trussell support families who’d otherwise go without the bare essentials this summer.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Israel’s attacks on his country could not have materialised without the agreement and support of the United States.
“We have well-documented and solid evidence of the support provided by American forces in the region and their bases for the military attacks of the Zionist regime,” Iran’s top diplomat told reporters during a news conference in the capital, Tehran, on Sunday.
He said, more importantly, US President Donald Trump has publicly and explicitly confirmed he knew about the attacks, that they could not have happened without US weapons and equipment, and that more attacks are coming.
“Therefore, the US, in our opinion, is a partner in these attacks and must accept its responsibility.”
Araghchi said Tehran has received messages from Washington through various intermediaries that it was not involved with Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in Isfahan’s Natanz, but it “does not believe this claim” due to evidence to the contrary.
“It is necessary for the US government to clearly state its position and explicitly condemn the attack on nuclear facilities,” he said. “This act is condemned under international law, and our expectation is that the US government, in order to prove its good faith regarding nuclear weapons, will condemn the attack on a peaceful nuclear facility and distance itself from this conflict.”
Pointing out that the Israeli attacks came as Iran and the US were slated to hold a sixth round of nuclear negotiations mediated by Oman on Sunday, Araghchi emphasised that Israel “will do anything” to stop the talks and diplomacy, as it has done in the past.
‘Major strategic mistake’
Iranian authorities said the Israeli attacks, which have targeted residential and military areas in Tehran as well as many cities across the country since Friday, have killed at least 80 people, including civilians.
Multiple top-ranking commanders of the Iranian armed forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were also assassinated, as were a number of nuclear scientists and university professors.
Iran has so far launched two nights of retaliatory attacks on Israel’s Tel Aviv and Haifa, using hundreds of missiles and drones, which have led to at least 10 deaths and dozens of injuries.
Araghchi told reporters that Iran’s attacks overnight into Sunday started targeting Israel’s energy infrastructure after the Israeli army hit refineries, power stations and oil reserves across Iran.
As sounds of explosions and air defences rang across Tehran in the early hours of Sunday, Israel hit a fuel reserve in western Tehran’s Shahran neighbourhood that caused a massive fire. Authorities said the fire was contained after several hours and that most of the fuel in the reserve was taken out before the air raids.
On Saturday, the Israeli military hit Asaluyeh on Iran’s southern shores in the province of Bushehr, hitting Phase 14 of South Pars, the largest gasfield in the world.
Araghchi said the attack was a “major strategic mistake” that was likely carried out deliberately with the intention of dragging other nations into the war.
“The Persian Gulf region is extremely sensitive and complex, and any military development there could involve the entire region, and even the whole world,” he said, using the name of the Gulf, which is also commonly known as the Arabian Gulf.
Iran and Israel have said their attacks will continue for now, and the Israeli military on Sunday issued a threat to Iranians to stay away from what it called “military weapons production factories and their support institutions”, or risk being killed.
But Araghchi said Tehran is willing to stop if Israel halts its attacks, and urged the international community to intervene and condemn Israel.
‘National battle’
Iranian newspapers on Sunday dedicated their front pages to the war, with more hardline outlets manoeuvring on Iran’s attacks while others focusing on a sense of national unity.
Keyhan, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published the headline: “We will finish the war and Israel together”, and wrote about “unprecedented damages in occupied territories” caused by the Iranian missiles.
“National battle”, read a headline from the reformist Ham-Mihan, with Etemad newspaper writing about “Israel’s gamble on a minefield” and Sazandegi highlighting “Slap for Tel Aviv” in its headline story.
For the first time in nearly four decades, Iranian state television on Saturday broadcast a victory march. It was last heard in the 1980s during Iran’s eight-year invasion by neighbouring Iraq, which was backed and armed by major powers.
Mehdi Chamran, chairman of the City Council of Tehran, said the capital will soon be forced to use the same shelters used during that war, as well as metro stations and some car parks, as no new dedicated shelters have been built.
Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Sunday that all flights are cancelled until further notice and tried to assure people that measures are under way to ensure the state can provide basic necessities, including fuel, in case of a prolonged conflict.
Vehicles jam a highway as a fire blazes nearby in the oil depots of Shahran, northwest of Tehran, on June 15, 2025 [Atta Kenare/AFP]
The Tehran Chamber of Guilds announced that all business associations, grand bazaars and malls were open in the capital, but government workers were told to work remotely until at least Wednesday, in an indication that Tehran is expected to be hit again.
The Tehran Stock Exchange was also closed on Sunday, with its director saying the decision to keep it closed or open it for Monday will be taken on the day, considering Sunday night’s developments.
Iran’s currency, the rial, has taken another nosedive since the start of the latest conflict, having depreciated from about 840,000 against the US dollar before the Israeli attacks to about 955,000 on Sunday.
In something of a grand gesture, Caleb Williams stood at a lectern Wednesday to explain that excerpts from an upcoming book were old news. A year after scheming to avoid playing for the Bears, he is committed to turning around the franchise.
Leaping from the USC campus to the top rung of the NFL draft a year ago, Williams aspired to be like John Elway and Eli Manning.
Just not in the way one might expect.
Sure, he wanted to lead a team to multiple Super Bowl titles like those two quarterbacks, whose career statistics were remarkably similar. Both played 16 years in the NFL for only one team — Elway with the Denver Broncos and Manning with the New York Giants — and both passed for 50,000 yards and 300 touchdowns.
But Williams, egged on by his father, is described in American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback by ESPN journalist Seth Wickersham as entertaining creative ways to spurn the team that held the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft.
Just like Elway and Manning had done.
Elway proclaimed his refusal to play for the Baltimore Colts after they drafted him first overall in 1983, leading to a trade to the Broncos. Manning refused to play for the San Diego Chargers after being drafted first overall in 2004, forcing a trade to the Giants.
However, Williams was unsuccessful in his effort. The Bears drafted him and he pledged his allegiance to them while enduring a rocky rookie season in which he was sacked more than any other NFL quarterback and the team struggled to a 5-12 record.
Yet he felt compelled to hold a news conference at the Bears training camp in Lake Forest, Ill., to explain why he entertained thoughts of spurning Chicago and instead landing in, say, Minnesota. Williams admitted he and his parents discussed ways to dodge the Bears.
Williams couldn’t speak for his father. Carl Williams told Wickersham that “Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die,” and consulted with Manning’s father, Archie, a former NFL quarterback who had helped strategize his son’s trade from the Chargers to the Giants.
But Williams made it clear he is all in with new Bears head coach Ben Johnson and the franchise’s commitment to turning around its fortunes. He said he changed his tune about Chicago after meeting with Bears brass ahead of last year’s draft.
“After I came on my visit here, it was a … deliberate and determined answer that I wanted to come here,” Williams said. “I wanted to be here. I love being here.”
“I wanted to come here and be the guy and be a part and be a reason why the Chicago Bears turn this thing around.”
“This thing” is a franchise that hasn’t posted a winning record since 2018 and whose all-time leading passer is the middling Jay Cutler. The Bears’ most renowned quarterback is Sid Luckman, who helped them win four NFL championships in the 1940s while passing for a paltry 14,686 yards in 11 seasons. They won one more pre-Super Bowl title, in 1963, and have won only one of the LIX (59) Super Bowls, in 1985.
No wonder Carl Williams was against his son — a Heisman Trophy winner at USC in 2022 — getting locked into what amounts to a five-year rookie contract with Chicago. That son, now a 23-year-old man, said he no longer responds unquestioningly to his father’s marching orders.
“I shut him down quite a bit,” Williams said. “He has ideas and he’s a smart man and so I listen. I always listen.
“I’m very fortunate to be in this position in the sense of playing quarterback, but also very fortunate to have a very strong-minded father. We talk very often, my mom and my dad are my best friends, so being able to have conversations with them to understand that everything they say is also portrayed on me.”
Wickersham’s book will be published in September. Another excerpt describes Williams as becoming enamored with the idea of playing for Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell after they had a predraft meeting.
But the overriding theme of his four-minute opening statement at the news conference was that he is focused on becoming the best quarterback possible for the Chicago Bears. He’d prefer that everyone just forget that he had misgivings a year ago.
“We are here focused on the future,” he said, “we are here focused on the present and really trying to get this train going, picking up steam and choo-chooing along.”
Pyramiden, a town in the Arctic Circle that has stood empty of humans since 1998, is a living museum to Soviet life. Visit today and you will find cups left on the table, skiing equipment abandoned in the hallway and newspaper cuttings on the wall
Pyramiden in Svalbard has been abandoned and empty for 27 years(Image: Sebastian Kahnert/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
An eerie ghost town has been left exactly as it was when crews abandoned it 27 years ago.
The Mary Celeste ship has been etched into the memories of school children for decades. The American merchant brigantine was discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores on December 4, 1872, with food still on plates as if the crew was about to sit down to dinner. The mystery surrounding the abandoned ship has captivated people for over 150 years, leading to numerous theories about the fate of its crew.
Far less well known is the story of Pyramiden, a town in the Arctic Circle that has stood empty of humans since 1998. Visit today and you will find cups left on the table, skiing equipment abandoned in the hallway and newspaper cuttings on the wall.
“Walking Pyramiden today gives you a glimpes into the Soviet-style nostalgia, outdoor as well as indoor. Best of all, its not an artificial scenery aimed for some kind of movie-production. This is real. The smell of papirosa, likely the strongest cigarette ever made, stains on the indoor walls. Hammer and Sickle ornaments and the Soviet star are used as decoration around the town,” the Barent Observer writes of Pyramiden.
Pyramiden now stands as a ghost town (Image: Getty Images)
“In a remote room inside the Palace of Culture are a few empty bottles of the cheap domestic Rossiya- and Priviet vodka. A book with the transcripts from the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union lays on a desk. That was the first congress presided over by Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Central Committee.”
There are few signs of life beyond the occasional hardy seabird, an Arctic fox or a polar bear looking for its next meal.
Unlike the Mary Celeste, there is no mystery around why the occupants of Pyramiden left in such a hurry. The Russian state-owned mining company Trust Arktikugol closed down Pyramiden’s mining operations in April 1998, following 53 years of continuous activity.
Locals left in 1998(Image: Sebastian Kahnert/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
The end of the settlement neared as coal prices dwindled, difficulties with coal extraction from the mountain became more apparent, and 141 people tragically lost their lives in 1996 at Operafjellet. Miners and their families perished in the plane crash that had been ferrying them from Pyramiden to Barentsburg. Such was the scale of the tragedy and the impact it had on the town of 1,000 that its continued operation proved impossible.
The town was first founded by Sweden in 1910 but was sold to the USSR 17 years later. From 1955 to 1998, up to nine million tonnes of coal were thought to have been pumped out of Pyramiden. Svalbard belongs to Norway under the Svalbard treaty, which allows citizens from all its member countries to become residents. The treaty reads: “All citizens and all companies of every nation under the treaty are allowed to become residents and to have access to Svalbard including the right to fish, hunt or undertake any kind of maritime, industrial, mining or trade activity.”
The town was once home ot 1,000 people(Image: Getty Images)
In its pomp, it boasted a theatre, studios for creative arts, and a library. The schools, 24-hour canteen, and sports complex are all gone. All that remains is a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, the northernmost monument to him in the world.
Today, the main thing occupying the ghost town now are the terrifying polar bears. However, six people operate as rifle-carrying warders in the summer. Despite the nearest settlement being some 31 miles away, dark tourism has been gently ticking along since 2013, but you can only access Pyramiden by boat or snowmobile for nine months of the year. One visitor to the town in 2018 wrote in Haaretz : “There are thousands of angry polar bears all around us.”
1 of 2 | A photo from the Mississippi Highway Patrol shows destruction and emergency services at the scene after tornadoes tore through the the state in 2023. Nineteen people were confirmed dead. EPA-EFE/Mississippi Highway Patrol
May 15 (UPI) — A wide swath of the Midwest and Plains states is under a tornado watch and severe weather conditions are forecast to persist into next week, the National Weather service said Thursday.
The storms could prompt large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain. Tornadoes have already touched down in Wisconsin and Minnesota, where a twister damaged parts of a home and a grain bin in Swift County.
A dark and dominant cloud wall, which often presages a tornado, prompted officials to issue a tornado warning in downtown Minneapolis Thursday. The storms were moving West to East, and severe weather was threatening Chicago and Tennessee. Severe storms were expected in Nashville.
The Chicago metro area and northwest Indiana were under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. CDT., and the NWS issued a severe thunderstorm warning for a wider portion of the region.
Dangerous storms are likely to drop gold ball-sized hail and whip Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville and St. Louis with 75 mph winds which could down trees and power lines Thursday into Friday. The severe weather threat extends to the common border between Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. — Patrice Miller, 71, lived by herself in a small yellow house beneath towering mountain peaks on the edge of a burbling river in this Sierra County village. She doted on her cats and her exotic orchids, and was known to neighbors for her delicious homemade bread. One fall afternoon in 2023, after Miller had failed for several days to make her customary appearance at the town market, a store clerk asked authorities to check on her.
A short time later, a sheriff’s deputy found Miller’s lifeless body in her kitchen. Her right leg and left arm had been partially gnawed off. On the floor around her were the large paw prints of a bear.
Months after her death, officials would make a stunning disclosure, revealing that an autopsy had determined that Miller had likely been killed by the animal after it broke into her home. It marked the first known instance in California history of a fatal bear attack on a human.
But amid the contentious politics around black bears and other apex predators in California, not everyone accepts the official version of how she died.
“We don’t believe the bear did it,” said Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League in the Tahoe Basin. “And I will go on record as saying that. … We’ve never had a bear kill anybody.”
The story of Miller’s grisly end — and the increasingly heated battles around predators in California — have come roaring into the state Capitol this spring. Lawmakers representing conservative rural districts in the state’s rugged northern reaches argue that their communities are under attack, and point to Miller as one example of the worst that can happen. One solution they have pushed is changing the law to allow people to set packs of hunting dogs after bears to haze them. A similar measure has been floated — for now unsuccessfully — to ward off mountain lions considered a threat.
Wildlife conservation advocates are aghast. They say turning dogs on bears is barbaric and won’t make anyone safer. They contend the proposed laws don’t reflect a scientifically backed approach to managing wild populations but instead are pro-hunting bills dressed up in the guise of public safety. The real solution, they say, is for humans living near bears to learn to safely co-exist by not leaving out food or otherwise attracting them.
“These people are using [Miller’s death] to try to start hounding bears again,” said Bryant, who maintains that Miller, who was in poor health, must have died before the bear came into her home and devoured her. “She would roll in her grave if she knew that in her death people would create a situation where people were going to mistreat bears, because she loved bears.”
In a recent report, the Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates there are now 60,000 black bears roaming California and notes a marked increase in reports of human-bear conflicts.
(John Axtell / Nevada Department of Wildlife)
Founded in 1849, Downieville, population 300, is one of California’s oldest towns, and also one of its quaintest. Colorfully painted wooden buildings sit at the junction of two rivers, beneath majestic pines and mountain peaks.
Along with tourists, who flood in in the summer for rafting and mountain biking, the town also receives frequent visits from bears and mountain lions. More recently, wolves have arrived with deadly force, snatching domesticated cattle off the open pastures that stretch across the plains on the other side of the mountains east of town.
Miller wound up here about a decade ago, at the end of a rich, complicated life. She had worked in an oil refinery, and also as a contractor. She was a master gardener, expert at transplanting Japanese maples, according to her neighbor, Patty Hall. She was a voracious reader and a skilled pianist. But she also struggled with a variety of serious ailments and substance abuse, according to neighbors and officials.
Longtime residents in the area were used to the challenges of living among wild animals. But in the summer of 2023, Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher said he started getting an overwhelming number of calls about problem bears.
“We had three or four habituated bears that were constantly here in town,” said Fisher. “They had zero fear. I would say, almost daily, we were having to go out and chase these bears away, haze them.”
But bears have a sharp sense of smell, a long memory for food sources and an incredible sense of direction. If a tourist tosses them a pizza crust or the last bits of an ice cream cone, or leaves the lid off a trash can, they will return again and again, even if they are relocated miles away.
That summer, Fisher said, no matter what he did, the bears kept lumbering back into town. It was unlike anything he had experienced, he said, and he had grown up in Downieville. “A police car with an air horn or the siren, we would push the bear up out of the community. Fifteen minutes later, they were right back downtown,” he said.
Founded in 1849, Downieville, population 300, is one of California’s oldest towns and also one of its quaintest.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
And then there were the bears harassing Miller and her neighbors.
“There were three bears,” recalled Hall, who lives just up the hill from the home Miller rented. “Twice a night they would walk up and down our [porch] stairs. The Ring cameras were constantly going off.”
Fisher said some of Miller’s neighbors complained that she was part of the lure, because she was not disposing of her garbage properly. Some also alleged she was tossing food on her porch for her cats — and that the bears were coming for it. Miller’s daughter later told sheriff’s officials that bears were “constantly trying” to get into her house, and that “her mother had physically hit one” to keep it out. One particular bear, which Miller had nicknamed “Big Bastard,” was a frequent pest.
Fifty miles from Downieville, in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the Bear League was getting calls about Miller, too. The organization, which Bryant founded more than two decades ago, seeks to protect bears by helping residents coexist with them. This includes educating people about locking down their trash and helping to haze bears away from homes.
“We got calls [from her neighbors] that told us she had been feeding the bears, tossing food out to them, and let them come into her house,” Bryant said. She added that some thought, erroneously, that the Bear League was a government organization, and “maybe we had the ability to enforce the law” against feeding bears.
Hall, Miller’s friend, told The Times that Miller was not feeding bears. Still, the problems continued.
Eventually, officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were called and told Miller she could sign a “depredation permit,” after which authorities could kill bears trying to get into her house. But Miller declined to do so, Fisher said.
In early November, Miller stopped showing up around town, prompting calls for a welfare check.
A little before 3 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2023, Deputy Malcolm Fadden approached Miller’s home, which was a short walk from the sheriff’s office. The security bars on the kitchen window had been ripped off. The window itself had been busted from the outside.
“I knocked on the door,” Fadden wrote in his report, but got no answer.
Patrice Miller was found dead in her rental cottage in November 2023. Bear advocates take issue with an autopsy report that said she probably was killed in a bear attack.
(Jessica Garrison / Los Angeles Times)
Through the window, he saw blood streaked across the living room floor. He took out his gun and burst into the house, where he was greeted by a giant pile of bear scat. He found Miller in the kitchen, her half-eaten body surrounded by food and garbage, which, Fadden wrote, had been “apparently scattered by bears.”
Fisher was horrified. Already frustrated at what he saw as the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s lackluster response to the escalating bear incursions that summer, now he wanted the bear that had fed on Miller to be trapped and killed.
He said the department told him that for the bear to be killed, “the person who lives at the house has to sign the [depredation] permit.” Fisher said he responded: “How many times do I have to tell you the person who lives at that house was eaten by the bear?”
This was the start of a long-running conflict between the sheriff and agency officials that would complicate the release of the autopsy findings about Miller’s death, and also convince Fisher that more aggressive steps were needed to protect his community.
Eventually, Fisher managed to get a depredation permit for the bear that had fed on Miller; his deputies tracked down her landlord, who as the homeowner could sign it. Wildlife officials set up a trap near Miller’s house, and in short order, a bear was caught.
But, according to Fisher, officials initially said it wasn’t the same bear. They said DNA tests showed that the bear who had eaten her was male, and the bear they had caught appeared to be female. They intended to release the bear, he said.
Fisher padlocked the cage, and threatened to call the media. In response, he said, wildlife officials sent a biologist, who determined the bear in the trap was male. It was shot that night.
At that point, few people, including Fisher, believed that the bear had actually killed Miller, as opposed to feeding on her after she died of natural causes. Though there are recorded instances of fatal black bear maulings in other U.S. states, they are rare, and there had been no reports of one in California. Fisher issued a news release saying that the death was under investigation, but that “it is believed that Patrice Miller passed away before a bear, possibly drawn by the scent or other factors, accessed the residence.”
After performing an autopsy, however, the pathologist on contract with Sierra County came to a different conclusion. She issued a report that found that Miller had “deep hemorrhage of the face and neck“ as well as “puncture injuries (consistent with claw ‘swipe’ or ‘slap’).” These injuries, she noted, were “characteristics more suggestive of a vital reaction by a living person.” In short: The pathologist found that Miller was probably killed by the bear.
Because of Fisher’s feud with Fish and Wildlife, that autopsy report, dated Jan. 4, 2024, wouldn’t become public for months.
Fisher said the state agency was refusing to provide him with copies of the DNA analysis of the bear that had been trapped in Miller’s yard. He wanted to see for himself that it matched the DNA evidence collected at her home, saying he hated the thought that a bear that had feasted on a person might still be roaming his town.
“I requested DNA from Fish and Wildlife, and they refused to provide it to me,” he said. “So I withheld the coroner’s report. We stopped talking.”
He said he verbally told department officials that the pathologist believed Miller had been killed by the bear — a seemingly noteworthy development. He said that officials responded: “I guess we’ll see when we get the report.”
In an email to The Times, state wildlife officials confirmed that Fisher had verbally shared the results of the autopsy report, but said they felt they needed to see the report to do their “due diligence before making an announcement about the first fatal bear attack in California.” The agency had sent an investigator to the scene after Miller’s death, who like Fisher and his deputies, thought the evidence suggested she had died of natural causes, said agency spokesperson Peter Tira.
By the time Fisher got the autopsy report, it was deep winter in the mountains, and bear activity decreased. Then came spring, and along with the blossoms, the bears came back to Downieville.
Bears were knocking over trash cans and breaking into cars. In May, residents on Main Street reported that a bear had broken into multiple houses, including one incursion that involved a bear standing over 82-year-old Dale Hunter as he napped on his couch.
A few days later, a bear tried to break into the cafeteria at Downieville High School while students were at school.
Fisher declared the bear a threat to public safety. Fish and Wildlife eventually issued a depredation permit, and the bear was shot.
That led to a story in the Mountain Messenger, the local paper. In it, the sheriff dropped a bombshell: “Miller was mauled to death after a black bear entered her home,” the paper reported. The story went on to say that the sheriff had made “numerous attempts” to inform Fish and Wildlife “about Miller’s death and more recent dangerous situations.”
After the story ran, state Sen. Megan Dahle, a Lassen County Republican who at the time served in the Assembly, set up a conciliatory meeting between Fish and Wildlife and Fisher. They have been meeting regularly ever since, Fisher said.
Fisher got his DNA results confirming that the bear trapped in Miller’s yard was the same bear that had eaten her. And Fish and Wildlife officials finally got a copy of the pathology report, which said Miller was probably alive when she encountered the bear.
The revelation made headlines around the state. “We’re in new territory,” Capt. Patrick Foy of Fish and Wildlife’s law enforcement division told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Bryant and other bear advocates found the release of such a significant finding so long after the fact confounding.
“I absolutely do not believe it,” Bryant said. If the bear had killed her, Bryant added, “the evidence should have been so clear, like immediately.”
“We don’t believe the bear did it,” Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League, says of Patrice Miller’s death. “We’ve never had a bear kill anybody.”
(Max Whittaker / For The Times)
The Downieville saga unfolded as bears seemed to be making news all over California.
To many, it seemed there were just many more bears encroaching on human settlements. A Fish and Wildlife report released last month estimated there are now 60,000 black bears roaming the Golden State, roughly triple the figure from 1998, the last time the department issued a bear management plan. That’s the highest population estimate for anywhere in the contiguous U.S., although the report also suggests that California’s bear population has been stable for the last decade.
In the Lake Tahoe area, where 50,000 people live year-round and tens of thousands more crowd in on busy tourist weekends, bears were breaking into houses and raiding refrigerators; they were bursting into ice cream shops and strolling along packed beaches.
State and local officials went into overdrive, trying to teach residents and tourists how to avoid attracting bears. The state set money aside for distribution of bear-proof trash cans and “unwelcome mats” that deliver a jolt of electricity if bears try to break into homes.
The Bear League will loan Tahoe Basin residents “unwelcome mats” that deliver a little jolt of electricity to bears if they try to break into homes.
(Max Whittaker / For The Times)
The Bear League stepped up its efforts. From a small office on Bryant’s property, the organization’s 24-hour hotline was ringing, and volunteers were rushing out with paintball guns to haze bears and to advise people on how to bear-proof their houses.
The tensions continued to escalate, nonetheless, between people who wanted to protect bears at all costs and those who wanted some problem bears trapped and relocated — or killed. In 2024, after a homeowner in the Tahoe area fatally shot a bear he said had broken into his home, many people were outraged that the Department of Fish and Wildlife declined to file charges.
Advocates also complained that the state has fallen behind in its efforts to help people and bears coexist. In recent years, the state had hired dedicated staff to help people in bear country, but the money ran out and some of those people were laid off, said Jennifer Fearing, a wildlife advocate and lobbyist.
“We have the tools to minimize human-wildlife conflict in California,” Fearing said. “We need the state to invest in using them.”
In Sierra County, the sheriff had come to a different conclusion. “We’ve swung the pendulum too far on the environmental side on these apex predators,” Fisher said.
Earlier this year, Fisher found common cause with newly elected GOP Assemblymember Heather Hadwick. “Mountain lions, bears and wolves are my biggest issue. I get calls every day about some kind of predator, which is crazy,” said Hadwick, who represents 11 northern counties.
In February, she introduced a bill, AB 1038, that would allow hunters to sic trained dogs on bears to chase them through the woods, but not kill them. While California has a legal hunting season for bears, it is strictly regulated; the use of hounds to aid the chase has been banned since 2013.
Hadwick argued that hounding bears would increase their fear of humans, which she said some are starting to lose: “We’re keeping them in the forest, where they belong.”
Bears have a long memory for food sources and an incredible sense of direction. If a tourist tosses them a pizza crust or leaves the lid off a trash can, they will return again and again.
(California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Wildlife advocates showed up in force last month to oppose Hadwick’s bill in an Assembly committee hearing. Sending hounds after bears is cruel, they said. Plus, hounding bears in the woods would have no impact on the bears knocking over neighborhood trash cans and sneaking into ice cream stores.
Fisher testified in favor of the bill, and spoke of Miller’s death.
Lawmakers listened, some with stricken looks on their faces. But in a Legislature controlled by Democrats, Hadwick did not garner enough votes to send her bill on to the full Assembly; it became a two-year bill, meaning it could come back next year.
Fisher returned to Sierra County, where he has continued to advocate for locals to have more power to go after predators. The current situation, he said, is “out of control.”
