A massive and notoriously mischievous black bear has been captured after more than a year on the run following a string of break-ins in California.
The 500lbs (227kg) bear, known to fans as Hank the Tank, is believed to have broken into 21 homes in the Lake Tahoe area since 2022.
Hank - who is actually a female bear registered as 64F - will be moved to a sanctuary in Colorado.
Her three cubs may be transferred to a facility in California's Sonoma County.
In a statement released on Friday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said that biologists had "safely immobilised" the bear, who had been linked to 21 break-ins by DNA evidence.
Pending a successful health check, Hank will be taken to the Wild Animal Sanctuary near Springfield, Colorado.
While California authorities have noted that relocation is "not typically an option", Hank's fame has given her a reprieve.
"Given the widespread interest in this bear, and the significant risk of a serious incident involving the bear, CDFW is employing an alternative solution to safeguard the bear family as well as the people in the South Lake Tahoe community," the statement said.
Hank's three cubs will be taken to a different facility in Petaluma, California "in hopes they can discontinue the negative behaviours they learned from the sow and can be returned to the wild".
On the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, Colorado Governor Jared Polis welcomed Hank - and joked that she should have been named "Henrietta the Tank".
Hank was originally believed to have been responsible for over 40 break-ins, but DNA samples proved that the break-ins were also the work of at least two other large bears with a voracious appetite for human food.
The discovery that Hank was not alone in the crime spree prompted California officials to reassure the public that "no bears will be be euthanised, harmed, relocated to some facility or placed in a zoo".
Biologists believe that Hank, who is considerably larger than most black bears, had grown unafraid of humans and had learned to use her strength to force her way into people's homes.
"When you have a bear forcibly crashing its way through a garage door or ripping open a front door with people inside, that's pretty brazen and unusual," CDFW spokesperson Peter Tira told the BBC in February 2022.
The whereabouts and potential fate of the other two bears involved in the spree of California break-ins is unclear.
The BBC has reached out to CDFW for comment.
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By Kathryn Armstrong in London & Nduka Orjinmo in Abuja
BBC News
Niger's coup leaders have closed the country's airspace until further notice, citing the threat of military intervention from their neighbours.
It comes after the Ecowas group of West African states demanded President Mohamed Bazoum be reinstated by Sunday.
Ecowas had warned that the junta could face military action and will now meet on Thursday to discuss next steps.
Meanwhile Mali and Burkina Faso, both also ruled by juntas, said they would send officials to Niger in solidarity.
Flightradar24 showed a transport plane had flown from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and landed in Niger hours after airspace was closed.
The growing instability in the region compelled former colonial power France on Monday to warn its citizens against travelling to the Sahel region, and for those still there to be cautious due to anti-France sentiment.
"It is essential to limit travel, to stay away from any gatherings and to keep themselves regularly informed of the situation," read a statement from the foreign ministry.
The junta in Niger on Sunday said it had information that "a foreign power" was preparing to attack the country, after military chiefs from Ecowas, a bloc of 15 countries including Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Ghana, drew up a detailed plan for use of force.
It had issued a 23:00 GMT Sunday deadline to Niger's junta leaders to stand down and restore the elected president.
Earlier, Abdel-Fatau Musah, the bloc's commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, said that while "all the elements" had been worked out about an "eventual intervention", the body wanted "diplomacy to work".
Bola Tinubu, president of the main regional power Nigeria, faced domestic political opposition to intervention, with senators voting against military action.
Local media reported that there was strong protests from senators from states near the long border between the two countries.
Mr Tinubu has repeatedly threatened Niger's junta with force but needs approval from the National Assembly for any foreign venture.
Italy and Germany have both called for an extension to the deadline to reinstate President Bazoum so that a diplomatic solution can be found.
Mr Bazoum was deposed on 26 July, and Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, commander of the presidential guard, later proclaimed himself the new leader.
The military takeover has been internationally condemned, France and the rest of the EU, as well as the UN and the US.
Hundreds of foreigners have been evacuated from Niger.
The coup leaders seem to be showing no sign of willingness to cede power, and on Sunday thousands of their supporters rallied defiantly at a stadium in the capital Niamey.
Burkina Faso and Mali earlier warned they would treat any outside military intervention in Niger as "a declaration of war" against them. The countries are both Ecowas members but have been suspended from the bloc since being taken over by the military.
Niger is a significant uranium producer - a fuel that is vital for nuclear power - and under Mr Bazoum was a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in West Africa's Sahel region.
Where is Niger? It's a vast country in West Africa, and one of the poorest countries in the world.
Why was there a coup? The military said it seized power because of insecurity and the economic situation, but there have been suggestions it came after reports the coup leader was about to be sacked.
What next? It's feared the military may seek to switch allegiance to Russia and close French and US bases there; for their part, Niger's neighbours have threatened to use force to end the coup.
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Donald Trump has called for the judge in his most recent federal indictment to be removed from the case after she issued a ruling against him.
The ex-president launched his attack on District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan on Sunday morning, days after he appeared before her in court to plead not guilty to four federal charges stemming from a Department of Justice investigation into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent January 6 attack on the Capitol.
“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” the ex-president wrote.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team cited that post in a Friday request for Judge Chutkan to issue a protective order that would limit what discovery evidence Mr Trump and his legal can share publicly.
The judge responded by giving Mr Trump’s team until 5pm Monday to respond to the request and pitch amendments to the prosecution’s proposed order.
Mr Trump’s team asked for a three-day extension to respond, but that request was denied by Judge Chutkan.
Then came another Truth Social post attacking the judge.
“THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE ‘ASSIGNED’ TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE!” he wrote.
“WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF (sic) D.C.”
That post goes to the heart of prosecutors’ argument for why the protective order is needed: Mr Trump’s prolific use of social media.
“All the proposed order seeks to prevent is the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public,” prosecutors wrote in the protective order request.
"Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him,” it continued.
Mr Trump has continuously attacked prosecutors, judges, witnesses and more involved in his many legal battles to maintain his innocence and discredit their arguments.
The protective order would limit what Mr Trump and his attorneys could publicly say in order to protect the integrity of the case.
Mr Trump’s campaign issued a statement regarding the request for the protective order saying, “The Truth post cited is the definition of political speech, and was in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs, like the ones funded by the Koch brothers and the Club for No Growth.”
Mr Trump’s attorneys have publicly used the First Amendment as a defence against the indictment which charges Mr Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights and obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding.
They have argued that the statements Mr Trump issued claiming there was election fraud and he actually won the 2020 election were only “political speech” and he had a right to say them.
The indictment clearly mentions that while Mr Trump had the right to say what he wanted he unlawfully took steps to try and change election results in his favour.
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Before Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Olexsandr, 32, had been an IT guy at a logistics company. “Flextronics company,” he says. “I think you know it because we have a big warehouse in, let me remember, not so far from Manchester: Warrington. I haven’t been.”
Today, Olexsandr’s reputation is not built on his skills in fixing software glitches for a multinational company, but on a kill tally that makes him perhaps Ukraine’s deadliest kamikaze drone pilot on the frontline. “I haven’t met anyone who has destroyed more,” he reluctantly admits.
Since last May, Olexsandr, who has not enlisted in the army but floats around the frontline offering his deadly thumbs to brigades in need, has acted as a one-man wrecking ball through the Russian army.
He pulls up his mobile phone to examine an inventory. He has destroyed five tanks, five combat infantry vehicles, one armoured personnel carrier, one combat reconnaissance vehicle, two multipurpose lightly armed transporters, an infantry fighting vehicle and an airborne combat vehicle. That is 20 pieces of deadly and highly valuable pieces of Russian hardware taken off the battlefield.
Then there are the six tanks and 10 armoured vehicles that he damaged sufficiently to put them out of combat.
He prefers not to think of the lives that have been taken in the process but he concedes that, on Friday morning at 7.15am, his explosive-packed drones killed two Russian soldiers and injured six in a fortified trench position near the village of Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where Ukraine’s counter-offensive forces are inching forward through a phalanx of tripwires and anti-personnel and anti-armour mines. Word had just reached him that the position has since been taken. “We did good work,” he says.
Olexsandr – he has asked for his full name not to be used – has footage to prove his deadly work. A video from Friday morning shows Russian soldiers, unaware of the peril from above, firing over the trench at Ukrainian soldiers seeking to storm their position, only for one of Olexsandr’s Mavic 3 drones to make its lethal swoop.
It is not to brag, however, that he has agreed to meet by a sunflower field in Zaporizhzhia, near to where he was killing and maiming just a few hours earlier. “War is nothing to boast about,” he says. Olexsandr is here to complain.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, announced the 10th model of first person view drone (FPV) “that officially goes into operation in the armed forces of Ukraine”.
Not only has Olexsandr, nor any of his colleagues, not seen this drone, but they say they have not received any such hardware from the ministry of defence. “Fuck this ministry of defence,” he mutters.
Olexsandr’s drones are all made from components bought online from China and then put together by two of his friends on the 24th floor of an apartment block in Kyiv.
He either picks them up on his monthly trips back to Ukraine’s capital where he lives or they are delivered by post to him close to his field of operation.
The price is about $400 (£314) a drone and the costs are largely met by generous unnamed donors. That is said to be significantly less than the $650 being paid by the big voluntary organisations that are buying up drones for other army units due to the lack of equipment from the defence ministry. “We can win this war with drones,” says Olexsandr. And yet the Russian drive to build them in their thousands and provide them cheaply to the frontline is not being replicated on the Ukrainian side, he adds.
“It is why even now I am not joining the armed forces – if you join the commander can be a fool and not know how to conduct quality operations,” he says. “I’m very effective by myself. I am ready to fight until the end of the war like this. According to official information, Russia produces 3,000 drones from the plants. In Ukraine, some small rich tsars [profiteering businessmen] produce these drones for selling, volunteer funds buy them and then charge them $650 a drone.”
He has lost eight reconnaissance drones to Russian fire, including two last month when a tank shot close to his position leaving him with a deep gash to his leg. “The Russians have changed their strategy to try and kill drone crews,” he says. Olexsandr, who would normally expect to get through around 10 kamikaze drones a month, used five the previous night and so will need to resupply.
Olexsandr’s nom de guerre is Majeur, which can be translated as “rich boy”. It stuck after he was teasingly called it by a friend on the basis that Olexsandr’s Kalashnikov rifle, when they both used to help man checkpoints during the battle for Kyiv last March, was of a slightly newer model. “I don’t like it really but I will call myself it because my friend is dead now and out of respect,” he says.
Olexsandr had little experience of drones before February 2022 but could see they could be crucial to the war effort and so practised with one purchased from the internet. “I wanted to find something where I could be most useful,” he says.
He met Oleg Sentsov, a film-maker, writer and activist at a checkpoint; the pair became friends, and it was thanks to Sentsov and his connections that Olexsandr was first introduced to a brigade in the field as a drone pilot with a difference.
Since then, it is his reputation that brings Olexsandr work. On a reconnaissance mission, Olexsandr prefers to be alone. He will typically be set a kilometre square piece of ground to monitor, working from as close as 800m from the target and as far away as 12km.
When he is working with kamikaze drones, he operates in teams of three to four. One will operate a reconnaissance drone and another pilots the kamikaze drone itself, which is attached to up to 600g of C4 explosive material. Then there will be at least one other person overseeing the signal and wider communications.
The Ukrainian crew could be as close as 400m from the target or as distant as 5.5km away. Those with whom Olexsandr works in the field are collectively known as Force Majeur.
Jr Sgt Petro Shttanko, 33, who started collaborating with Force Majeur in June and gives the green light on operations, said he had been inspired by Oleksandr’s determination. “You can’t find everywhere this motivation to fight with such energy,” he says of his colleague.
Olexsandr says he is constantly trying to improve. On the morning before the interview, he found a fully laden Russian kamikaze drone that had lost connection and fallen out of the sky. He shows it off, now it has been disconnected from its explosive load. “It’s not so bad quality but we make it better. It has a very good battery but not so good motor. I need to check everything, its motherboard, its fusing.”
The key when in the field, Olexsandr says, is to relax. “I will start at 2am and be drinking coffee by 8am,” he adds.
“It’s like playing a computer game, you know?” Olexsandr says of his deadly and unenviable task, which, in the pervasive climate of war, has become almost shockingly routine for him. “It’s fun, you know? When it’s fun, when you relax, it’s easy. When you are tense, it is not possible to work correctly. Anyone can do it.”
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