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Alaska hunting party rescued after days trapped on ice

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (TNS) — Four people stranded on a Bering Sea ice floe for nearly two days were rescued Sunday via helicopter, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

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The Coast Guard said in a Wednesday statement that it rescued a subsistence seal hunting party of three adults and one child about 10 miles west of the Western Alaska community of Chefornak on Sunday morning, after the group was unable to reach the shore in their boat due to the ice.

No injuries were reported, the Coast Guard said.

Alaska State Troopers reported to the Coast Guard at about 4:24 p.m. Saturday that the hunting party had been trapped on the ice for more than 24 hours and needed help, according to the Coast Guard statement. The group freed their 18-foot boat at one point but were blocked by moving ice from reaching rescuers on the shore who had come from the village on snowmachines, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard crews in an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and HC-130 Hercules plane took off from Kodiak Island and reached the hunting party at about 5 a.m. Sunday, according to the statement.

The group was lifted into the helicopter and taken to Chefornak, the Coast Guard said.

Although it was a challenging mission, officials said, the hunting party was prepared with multiple forms of communication to make it easier for rescuers to locate them.

“We battled nearly every Alaska-centric aviation weather hazard imaginable, such as flying over 800 miles in near-zero visibility through mountainous terrain, blowing snow and icing conditions,” Lt. Cmdr. Alexis Chavarria-Aguilar, pilot-in-command of the helicopter, said in the statement. “It was a long, difficult night, but I’m so proud of everyone involved who worked seamlessly together to bring four people home safely.”

Temperatures hit 90 along the East Coast

(NYT) — Temperatures soared across much of the East Coast on Wednesday, and cities from New York to Washington, D.C., hit 90 degrees for the first time this year.

From the mid-Atlantic into the Southwest, highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s were 20 to 30 degrees above what is normal for this time of year. Similar temperatures were expected across the same areas today before relief begins to creep in by the weekend.

Richard Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center, called the weather “summer-like,” but he noted one key difference: Unlike in July and August, low humidity levels kept temperatures from feeling quite so sticky. Still, forecasters warned, the temperatures could be hazardous for people who are unable to access places to cool down and hydrate.

In New York City, the official weather station in Central Park recorded 90 degrees, the hottest temperature for April 15 since records began in 1869. The previous record was 87 degrees, set in 1941.

“This was the first 90-degree day of the 2026 calendar year,” said John Murray, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Upton, New York. “The last time we hit 90 degrees was in August of last year.”

In Washington, Ronald Reagan National Airport also reached 90 degrees, breaking a 154-year-old record for the date. Philadelphia hit 91, breaking a record set in 1941.

In the Atlanta area, temperatures didn’t quite break records but were hot nonetheless. The city’s downtown reached 84 degrees, and temperatures could climb close to 90 on Friday and Saturday, forecasters said.

The summery warmth was being caused by a robust area of high pressure spread across the region, and will be shoved out of the way this weekend by a weather system moving across the Central United States, Bann said.

Cooler weather will come first to the mid-Atlantic, with New York City’s highs by Saturday expected to be in the 60s, far more typical of April. Washington, Atlanta and areas across the South will likely cool down by Sunday.

Ye postpones concert in France

(NYT) — Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, has postponed a concert planned for June in Marseille, France, as the French Interior Ministry said it was considering banning the event.

“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” Ye wrote on social platform X on Wednesday morning. This month, the British government barred Ye from entering the country to play a series of concerts because of his history of antisemitism.

Laurent Nuñez, France’s interior minister, had been considering banning the event, scheduled for June 11, an official at the country’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

In a second post on X, Ye appeared to explain his decision. “I know it takes time to understand the sincerity of my commitment to make amends,” he wrote. “I take full responsibility for what’s mine, but I don’t want to put my fans in the middle of it.”

Opposition to Ye’s planned concert had been brewing in France. Last month, Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille, spoke out against it. “I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism,” Payan wrote on social media. “Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome, our temple of living together and of all Marseillais.”

Ye had been scheduled to headline the three-day Wireless festival in London in July, but the event was canceled this month after the British government refused the rapper’s application to travel because “his presence in the U.K. would not be conducive to the public good.”