DES MOINES — Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was a guest Wednesday on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” — though he seemed earlier in the day not to know that he would be crossing a picket line to appear.
Huckabee flew from Iowa to make the appearance, a day before the state’s first-in-the- nation caucuses. The candidate made no mention of the Writers Guild strike during his appearance and instead joked about having lived in a “triple-wide” trailer when he was governor of Arkansas. The amateur musician also played his guitar in Leno’s band.
Strike supporters outside the NBC studios carried signs calling Huckabee a scab. One read: “Huckabee you can’t deny this cross.”
The Leno show is among those being struck by the Writers Guild of America.
Until Wednesday, the show had been off the air since the strike began in November.
“ ‘The Tonight Show’ continues to be a stop on the campaign trail,” NBC spokeswoman Tracy St. Pierre said in a statement.
Separately, Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made a brief taped appearance on David Letterman’s show. But Letterman, who owns his own production company, broke from other producers and reached an accord with writers last week. There is no such deal with Leno’s show.
Writers Guild strike coordinator Jeff Hermanson said there was “no doubt about it” that Huckabee would be crossing a picket line by appearing on Leno’s show, which is not part of any settlement.
Democratic candidates have vowed to honor the writers’ picket line.
Earlier Wednesday, Huckabee, while campaigning in Iowa, said he did not believe he would be crossing a picket line to appear with Leno because he thought writers had settled their differences with the late-night shows.
“My understanding is that there was a special arrangement made for the late-night shows, and the writers have made this agreement to let the late-night shows to come back on, so I don’t anticipate that it’s crossing a picket line,” Huckabee told journalists.
When reporters noted that the writers settled with only Letterman’s show, Huckabee protested: “But my understanding is there’s a sort of dispensation given to the late-night shows, is that right?”
Huckabee added that he supports the writers, “unequivocally, absolutely.”
“They’re dead right on this one,” he said.
On the show Leno asked Huckabee to explain his recent surge in the political polls.
“People are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them more of the guy they work with rather than the guy that laid them off,” Huckabee said.
“I think that’s part of what’s going on right now.”
SEOUL, July 4 (UPI) — A North Korean man who identified himself as a civilian crossed the heavily fortified military demarcation line between the two Koreas and was taken into custody, the South’s military said Friday.
The individual was picked up by the South Korean military on Thursday night, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters. No motive was immediately given for his crossing.
“The military identified the individual in the MDL area, tracked and monitored him, conducted a normal induction operation and secured the individual,” the JCS said. “The relevant organizations will investigate the details of the southward movement.”
“There have been no unusual movements by the North Korean military as of now,” the message added.
In a background briefing with reporters, a JCS official said the North Korean man was first detected by a military monitoring device on the South Korean side of the border around 3 a.m. Thursday.
The operation to secure and guide the individual out of the demilitarized zone took 20 hours total, the official said.
The two Koreas are separated by the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ, which is one of the most heavily fortified and mined borders on earth.
A North Korean soldier defected across the DMZ in August, but direct land crossings have been historically rare. Most escapees traverse the northern border with China.
Over 34,000 North Koreans have fled to the South to escape dire economic conditions and the country’s brutally repressive regime. However, arrivals plummeted after Pyongyang sealed its borders and ramped up security in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of North Korean defectors who arrived in South Korea reached 236 in 2024, up 20% from the previous year, according to data from the South’s Unification Ministry.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung was briefed on the crossing, spokesperson Kang Yu-jun told reporters Friday. Lee has moved to lower tensions in the border area during his first month in office and recently ordered the suspension of propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at the DMZ.
The unarmed man was found in the central-west border section before being led to safety by South Korean troops.
A North Korean man has crossed the heavily fortified land border with South Korea and is now being held in custody, the South Korean military has confirmed.
The unarmed individual was located on Thursday in the central-west section of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), before being guided by South Korean troops to safety, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Seoul’s army carried out “a standard guiding operation to secure custody”, a process that involved a considerable number of soldiers, it said.
After the North Korean was detected early on Thursday morning, the task of bringing him to safety took about 20 hours to complete, the Joint Chiefs of Staff added.
He was mainly still during the day, with South Korean soldiers approaching him at night, it noted.
Seoul has not commented on whether it viewed the border crossing as a defection attempt.
There were no immediate signs of unusual military activity in North Korea, the South Korean army said.
Crossing between the two Koreas is relatively rare and extremely risky, as the border area is strewn with mines.
It is more common for defectors to first travel across North Korea’s border with China, before heading on to South Korea.
And then in April, South Korean troops fired warning shots after roughly 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the military demarcation line. Pyongyang’s officers returned to their own territory without returning fire, Seoul said.
The crossing on Thursday comes a month after the liberal politician Lee Jae-myung was elected as the new South Korean president, following months of political chaos, which began with the conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived attempt to impose martial law in December.
Lee has taken a different stance from his predecessor on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, promising to “open a communication channel with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula through talks and cooperation”.
“Politics and diplomacy must be handled without emotion and approached with reason and logic,” he said on Thursday. “Completely cutting off dialogue is really a foolish thing to do.”
As part of his attempt to rebuild trust with his neighbour, Lee has banned loudspeaker broadcasts at the border and attempted to stop activists flying balloons with propaganda into North Korea.
However, it remains to be seen whether Kim will cooperate.
In response to Yoon’s decision to strengthen military alliances with Washington, DC, and Tokyo, Kim called South Korea his country’s “principal enemy” last January.
Diplomatic efforts have stalled on the Korean Peninsula since the collapse of denuclearisation talks between Washington and Pyongyang in 2019 during the first US President Donald Trump administration, after a series of Trump-Kim summits, globally watched spectacles that bore little concrete progress.
At least 3,018 people displaced and 265 houses destroyed in the floods in central Nigeria as more rains are feared.
More than 150 people have been killed and thousands displaced after floods devastated parts of central Nigeria, local authorities said, as rescue teams continue to recover bodies and search for the missing.
The flooding struck the rural town of Mokwa in Niger State following torrential rains that began late on Wednesday and continued into Thursday.
The death toll has risen to 151 after more bodies were recovered nearly 10km (6 miles) from Mokwa, said Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) on Saturday.
At least 3,018 people have been displaced, while 265 houses were “completely destroyed” in the floods, he said, adding that many victims were believed to have been swept down the Niger River, warning that the toll could still rise.
President Bola Tinubu extended his condolences overnight and said search-and-rescue operations were ongoing with the support of Nigeria’s security forces.
“Relief materials and temporary shelter assistance are being deployed without delay,” he wrote in a post on social media.
“We lost everything, the families. We don’t have anywhere else to go, the property has gone,” Mohammed Tanko, a local, told Al Jazeera. “We lost at least 15 from this house.”
Another survivor said: “I escaped with only my nightdress. Right now, I can’t even identify where our home used to be.”
More rains feared
Meteorologists warn that more rain is expected in the coming days, raising fears of further flooding across the region.
Flooding is a regular threat during Nigeria’s six-month rainy season, but experts say the frequency and severity of these disasters are increasing due to climate change, unregulated construction, and poor drainage infrastructure.
“Flooding has become an annual event, between the months of April and October,” Ugonna Nkwunonwo, a flood risk analyst at the University of Nigeria, told Al Jazeera.
He warned that while flood risks have long been identified, “there has not been much political power to implement this change”.
“This flooding is a result of climate change, which is affecting the frequency and intensity of rainfall,” he said. “The amount of rain you expect in a year could probably come in one or two months, and people are not prepared for that kind of rainfall.”
Last year, more than 1,200 people died and up to two million were displaced by similar disasters across Nigeria.
“This tragic incident serves as a timely reminder of the dangers associated with building on waterways and the critical importance of keeping drainage channels and river paths clear,” the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.
Bitcoin’s low speeds and high costs have held back its utility for day-to-day payments and uses. Bitcoin Hyper solves these issues with a Layer 2 solution that enables Bitcoin transactions virtually instantly at little cost.
By connecting Bitcoin’s primary blockchain with a faster processing layer, the platform makes Bitcoin viable for retail payments, microtransactions, and decentralized applications.
Solving Bitcoin’s Speed and Cost Problems
Bitcoin is also subject to two inherent difficulties that hinder it from being used daily. Transactions take time to get an initial confirmation, and merchants must wait for several confirmations before accepting payments. The lag makes Bitcoin unusable in retail checkout scenarios where customers anticipate instantaneous processing.
Second, the limited block space in Bitcoin increases transaction fees at peak times. These are so high that small payments become economically nonsensical. Sending Bitcoin worth $5 is meaningless when the fee is $15 or higher.
Bitcoin Hyper addresses these concerns by building a secondary processing layer that is still connected to Bitcoin’s primary blockchain. When users bridge their Bitcoin to this Layer 2 system, they can make transactions that settle in seconds instead of minutes, with fees in fractions of a cent.
This design maintains Bitcoin’s underlying security model and decentralization while introducing the speed required for coffee shop purchases, content tips, or in-app payments. The users have full control of their funds with the possibility of returning back to the main chain at any time.
By removing these friction points, Bitcoin Hyper expands what’s possible with Bitcoin. The technology turns Bitcoin from primarily a store of value into a practical medium of exchange for everyday situations.
Practical Applications for Everyday Users
Bitcoin Hyper brings several real-world uses that were previously difficult with Bitcoin’s main chain. Retail merchants can now accept Bitcoin payments with immediate confirmation. This removes the awkward waiting period at checkout counters. This speed makes Bitcoin viable for both online stores and physical retail locations where transaction finality matters.
Content creators gain access to functional micropayment systems. Writers, artists, and musicians can receive small tips or payments for individual pieces of content without fee concerns. A $0.25 tip becomes economically sensible when the transaction fee is less than a penny.
Gaming platforms benefit from the faster processing speed. Players can make in-game purchases, trade virtual items, or receive rewards without gameplay interruptions. The low fees also support frequent, small-value transactions typical in gaming economies.
Subscription services gain more flexibility with recurring micropayments. Rather than monthly billing, services can charge per use, per minute, or per article. This creates more granular pricing models that better match actual consumption patterns.
For regular Bitcoin users, the platform simplifies splitting bills, sending allowances, or making small transfers between friends and family. These everyday financial activities no longer require calculation of fee economics or waiting for confirmations.
How Bitcoin Hyper’s Technology Works
Bitcoin Hyper operates through a four-part technical system that connects Bitcoin’s main chain with a faster Layer 2 environment. The process begins at the Bridge stage, where users deposit Bitcoin to addresses monitored by the Canonical Bridge. This component tracks Bitcoin block headers and transaction proofs through a smart contract called the Bitcoin Relay Program.
After verification, the system creates an equivalent amount of Bitcoin on Layer 2 in a trustless process. This maintains a strict 1:1 relationship between assets on both layers.
On Layer 2, transactions happen with near-instant finality using Solana’s Virtual Machine (SVM) for processing. This architecture supports not only basic transfers but also complex operations like staking protocols and decentralized trading.
For security, the platform uses zero-knowledge proofs to validate transactions while maintaining privacy. The system periodically commits the Layer 2 state back to Bitcoin’s main chain.
When users want to exit Layer 2, they start a withdrawal request. The system generates cryptographic proofs that get submitted to the Canonical Bridge. After validation, the original Bitcoin is released back to the user’s address on Layer 1.
The HYPER Token Presale
The $HYPER token functions as the native currency of the Bitcoin Hyper ecosystem. Priced at $0.0115 during the presale phase, it powers transactions, governance voting, and staking rewards on the platform. The token’s supply follows a structured distribution with 30% allocated to ongoing development efforts and technical improvements.
The staking program offers a 6,000% annual percentage yield for early participants. This high rate aims to build liquidity and network participation during the launch phase.
Joining the presale follows a simple four-step process. Users first acquire cryptocurrency from their preferred exchange if they don’t already have it. They then visit the Bitcoin Hyper website and connect their wallet using the provided buttons. After selecting their desired amount, they can choose either “Buy” or “Buy and Stake” options, with the latter automatically enrolling tokens in the rewards program.
For those without crypto experience, the platform offers card payment options through supported wallets. The presale has currently raised over $100,000 in presale.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.
