Reese Oxner

World leaders are condemning pro-Trump extremists' storming of the U.S. Capitol in a futile bid to stop members of Congress from certifying the Electoral College ballots for President-elect Joe Biden. The spectacle transfixed people around the globe.

An art dealer hid a treasure chest filled with gold and gems somewhere in the Rocky Mountains for the world to find. A map and poem were the only clues.

For a decade, thousands searched. Five people reportedly died looking for it. And the treasure was finally found in June by Jack Stuef, a 32-year-old medical student.

He was the last surviving member of the first climbing team to scale El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. And he spent his life fighting for conservation, protecting the Sierra Nevada in California.

But on New Year's Day, famed climber George Whitmore passed away at 89 due to COVID-19 complications, his wife Nancy told NPR.

Whitmore was one of the three-man team of climbers who were the first to reach the top of El Capitan in 1958 — carving a path known as "The Nose."

England will go under a new strict national lockdown through mid-February in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a Monday address.

A hospital worker donned an inflatable, air-powered costume to spread cheer in a California emergency department on Christmas Day.

But now, dozens of hospital staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus, and the hospital said the costume may be to blame.

Hospital officials said 44 staff members tested positive between Dec. 27 and Jan. 3 in the emergency department at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center. One emergency department worker who had a shift on Christmas died from COVID-19 complications.

Updated at 6:41 p.m. ET

The United States has reached a sobering milestone while marking the new year.

On Friday, the first day of 2021, the U.S. recorded its 20 millionth confirmed coronavirus case since the beginning of the pandemic.

George Blake, the former British spy-turned-KGB double agent during the height of the Cold War, was buried Wednesday in Moscow, honored as a Russian national hero. The KGB mole escaped a U.K. prison in 1966 and fled to the Soviet Union.

Blake died Saturday in Moscow at the age of 98.

She was a lawyer. But when the coronavirus began raging in Wuhan, China, Zhang Zhan started reporting as a citizen journalist — offering a candid look at the situation on the ground.

Then, after months of sharing videos and text updates on WeChat, Twitter and YouTube — the 37-year-old's social media feeds went dark in May. Authorities detained her, claiming she was spreading lies, according to The New York Times.

A powerful earthquake sent shockwaves through Croatia on Tuesday, causing major damage to a town south of the country's capital, Zagreb, and killing at least six, according to news reports quoting officials and residents.

The earthquake, with a magnitude 6.4, struck at about 6:20 a.m. ET., according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center. The initial tremor was followed by a series of weaker aftershocks.

The U.S. is regulating greenhouse gas emissions from commercial aircraft for the first time. But critics are saying the rules will be ineffective.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday the rules are being finalized after first being made public in July.

The rules — modeled after international standards — require aircraft manufacturers to use fuel-efficient engines that release less heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

They require all new aircraft sold to commercial airlines to meet the requirements by 2028. The EPA acknowledges many already do.

Updated at 8 p.m. ET

An early-morning explosion ripped through downtown Nashville on Friday, injuring at least three people, shattering windows and damaging buildings.

Authorities believe the explosion was "an intentional act."

Police responded to reports of shots fired in the area at about 5:30 a.m. CT, when they encountered a recreational vehicle parked in front of the downtown AT&T building.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, people around the world are celebrating a Christmas unlike any other.

Here are some scenes from this year's holiday season.

The so-called balloon boy incident captivated television audiences in 2009 as the parents of a 6-year-old — appropriately named Falcon — reported he had been carried away in a large, UFO-like balloon, thousands of feet in the air.

News media helicopters tracked the balloon. The National Guard sent another two helicopters in a rescue attempt. Denver International Airport was temporarily closed as thousands awaited news of the boy's fate.

How many followers does the U.S. president's official Twitter account have?

Right now it's over 33.2 million, but that number will drop to zero after President-elect Joe Biden takes over the official @POTUS account on Inauguration Day.

Twitter has confirmed that the institutional White House Twitter accounts will not "automatically retain their existing followers."

Updated at 8:30 a.m. ET

President-elect Joe Biden told Stephen Colbert he is "not concerned" about accusations against his son Hunter Biden amid the investigation by federal prosecutors into his son's tax affairs.

Colbert asked Biden about people in Washington who "are going to try to use your adult son as a cudgel against you," during The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that aired Thursday night.

Updated at 5:53 p.m. ET

Editor's note: This is a story about the pervasive nature of racial insensitivity in America and how it persists to this day, and contains terms some might find offensive.

On Monday, armed and masked gangsters attacked the Southern Brazilian city of Criciúma, in Santa Catarina state, just before midnight.

Updated at 7:17 p.m. ET

California hospitals are in a new surge of COVID-19 cases, and if trends continue, state intensive care units could be overwhelmed by Christmas Eve.

The state saw a new daily high for coronavirus cases, reaching 14,034 and an overall total of 1,212,968. An additional 20 deaths were reported for a total of 19,141.

Comedian Dave Chappelle had a strange request for his fans. Don't stream his show.

"I'm begging you. If you ever liked me," he said in a video of a stand-up routine he shared on Tuesday. "Boycott Chappelle's Show. Do not watch it unless they pay me."

Chappelle was calling out the network Comedy Central, which first aired Chappelle's Show from 2003 to 2006. He said in the video the company licensed the show to Netflix and HBO Max without paying him or informing him about the deal.

We know a lot about the Industrial Revolution. What it looked like, its historical significance and details of life during the time.

But what about how it smelled?

A new team of researchers, historians and computer scientists will explore the answer to that question and others like it. Funded by the European Union, the team behind the $3.3 million project called Odeuropa will spend three years identifying and recreating historical smells. It was announced this week and begins in January.

Nearly 46 years ago, terrorists placed bombs in Birmingham, England. The explosions ripped apart two pubs, killing 21 people and injuring about 200.

Six men were sentenced to life in prison in 1975 in connection with the terrorist act, but 16 years later their convictions were thrown out. The men were released and compensated in one of the country's most notorious miscarriages of justice.

For years the case has been quiet, with no additional arrests.

Twitter wants you to think twice before sending a tweet to drafts.

The social platform, with more than 330 million users, on Tuesday debuted a new sharing feature worldwide called "fleets." Users can share photos, text or even repost tweets in posts that vanish after 24 hours.

The fleets are pinned to the top of the timeline and are only available via mobile apps. The company has not shared plans to roll out the feature on desktop.

Visit the famed Stonehenge in England and you'll encounter a mysterious landmark that's stood for millennia.

But as you gaze on the prehistoric standing stones that are visited by thousands and is a World Heritage Site, you might notice something else.

Cars.

After briefly picking up hurricane strength, Eta weakened into a tropical storm and hit the Gulf Coast of Florida early Thursday.

Tropical Storm Eta made landfall with winds of 50 mph at 4 a.m. near Cedar Key, Fla., according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm is cutting across Florida and is forecast to reach the Atlantic by early Thursday afternoon local time.

A meat manufacturer is suing New Mexico, saying the state violated an executive order from President Trump by ordering a plant to temporarily close.

Health officials ordered Stampede Meat to close its Sunland Park, N.M., plant last week after six employees tested positive for the coronavirus in a five-day period in late October. A state directive calls for businesses to be shut down for 14 days if four or more employees test positive within a 14-day period.