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Japan has confirmed it has killed its first fin whale in over a decade. A male fin whale, measuring 19.6 meters (64 feet) long and weighing 55 tonnes, was recently caught off the coast of Iwate Prefecture by the whaling company Kyodo Senpaku, according to OceanCare.The catch comes after a controversial decision in May 2024 when fin whales were added to the list of species that can be caught in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. The country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries announced that they would allow the hunting of 59 fin whales, along with its existing quotas for minke whales, Bryde’s whales, and sei whales.Just in time for the announcement, Kyodo Senpaku unveiled their new whaling factory ship, the Kangei Maru, a 112.6-meter (369-foot) long vessel with an onboard butchering hub.Fin whales are the second-largest animal on Earth in terms of length, second only to the blue whale, and are considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Japan argues that the species’ population numbers in the North Pacific have bounced back to the extent that whaling can be considered sustainable. However, many experts disagree and have heavily criticized the decision to commence the killing of fin whales, citing conservation and ethical concerns.“The fin whale is the second largest animal on earth. Putting it in the gunsights in 2024 is a big mistake for Japan, for whales, and for the international community working to protect them. We call on Japan immediately to withdraw this indefensible decision,” Catherine Bell, Director of International Policy at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement sent to IFLScience.“There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea and we have profound concerns about the welfare implications of this proposed hunt. Japanese whalers have not killed fin whales since 2011 and current harpoon operators may have no experience in killing a species that is significantly bigger - longer and heavier - than the largest species they currently hunt. Harpoons are usually not effective at killing whales on impact, leading to a slow and painful death,” added Bell.Japan resumed commercial whaling in June 2019 after its controversial withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the intergovernmental panel that regulates the whaling industry.Their relationship with whaling has long been out of step with the international community, which widely condemns the practice – with some notable exceptions.The Australian government has been especially vocal in their opposition, saying it was “deeply disappointed” by the recent news from Japan, adding, “Australia is opposed to all commercial whaling and urges all countries to end this practice.”

A beast that weighed in at around 3.5 tonnes once stomped across the grasslands of Eurasia, known as the Elasmotherium. It’s been coined the Siberian unicorn for the frankly outrageous horn atop its head, unsurprising as an ancient ancestor of the rhinoceros.What is surprising is that this near-mythical beast may have walked the Earth at the same time as humans. Once thought to have gone extinct around 200,000 to 100,000 years ago, recent dating of fossil evidence bumped its extinction to a mere 39,000 years ago.Nice to meet you, Elasmotherium.While a relative of the rhinoceros, the Siberian unicorn was more comparable in size to a modern-day elephant at around 4.5 meters (15 feet) long. Perhaps most impressive, however, was its horn that could add 2 meters (6.5 feet) to its face. It was probably made of keratin, like the horns on rhinos alive today, but we’ve yet to find a preserved example as keratin doesn’t survive in the fossil record as well as bone.One of the most remarkable Siberian unicorn fossils to date was a complete skull that’s now housed at the Natural History Museum, London. When this rare find was dated, Professor Adrian Lister and colleagues faced a surprising realization: the fossil was less than 40,000 years old.As skulls go, this thing was pretty impressive.Image credit: Vpales / Shutterstock.comThe shock result wasn’t alone for long. After teaming up with scientists across Russia and the Netherlands, the team ascertained that there were many fossils around the same age, blowing the idea that they had gone extinct 200,000 to 100,000 years ago right out of the water.The study was also able to establish that Elasmotheriinae separated from Rhinocerotinae right back in the Eocene. This meant that by the time the Siberian unicorn was kicking the bucket, it marked the extinction of an entire subfamily.It seems it endured until around 39,000 to 35,000 years ago, which is about the same time Neanderthals were going extinct. As for what triggered the Siberian unicorn’s demise, there are arguments to be made for both sides of a compelling coin, but environmental drivers appear to be the most likely.“The persistently restricted geographical range of Elasmotherium (also probably linked to its specialized habitat), as well as the low population size and slow reproductive rate associated with its large body size, would have predisposed it to extinction in the face of environmental change, while the ecologically similar, but much smaller species (S. tatarica) survived,” wrote the study authors.“The extinction of E. sibiricum could in theory have been exacerbated by human hunting pressure, given the replacement of H. neanderthalensis by H. sapiens in Eurasia around 45–40 ka58. [But] there is currently no record of the species’ remains from any archaeological site, and the very few suggested depictions of Elasmotherium in Palaeolithic art are unconvincing.”So, phew on that count, but what about the woolly mammoth?

Algeria's Imane Khelif, one of two boxers participating in the Paris Olympics disqualified last year from the 2023 Women's Boxing World Championships for failing gender eligibility tests, crushed yet another female competitor over the weekend. After the beating, Khelif assumed the mantle of victim. Criticism has mounted in recent days over the recently reinforced allegations that Khelif, like Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, is an individual possessing male sex chromosomes thrashing his way through a women's sporting competition. International outrage reached fever pitch when Khelif hammered Italy's Angela Carini hard enough Thursday to prompt the 25-year-old Italian to abandon the fight after 46 seconds. 'Refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects.' The Hungarian Boxing Association reportedly sent letters of protest to the International Olympic Committee and to Hungary's Olympic committee ahead of Khelif's Saturday match in the women's 66 kg welterweight quarterfinal with Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori. The Hungarians evidently failed to sway the relevant authorities, as Khelif ultimately entered the ring with Hamori and beat her 5-0. Khelif is now guaranteed to take home a medal and will now fight Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semifinals. After beating the female Hungarian boxer, Khelif fought to reshape the narrative surrounding the Olympics gender controversy. According to the Associated Press, Khelif said in an Arabic interview, "I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects." "It can destroy people, it can kill people's thoughts, spirit, and mind," continued Khelif. "It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying." Khelif also thanked the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, stating, "I know that the Olympic Committee has done me justice, and I am happy with this remedy because it shows the truth." At a press conference Saturday, Bach defended Khelif and Yu-ting, saying, "We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman." "We will not take part in a sometimes politically motivated cultural war," said Bach. In addition to suggesting that criticism of the allegedly male boxers amounted to "hate speech," Bach alleged that the International Boxing Association, which expelled Khelif and Yu-ting last year and was itself banished by the IOC over a long-standing dispute, was waging a "defamation campaign against France, against the games, against the IOC." 'They are impostors promoting gender parity while deliberately deceiving the public and athletes about the true sex of competitors.' Reuters indicated that Khelif's coach, Mohamed Chaoua, similarly attempted to paint his fighter as a victim. "It is hard, she has suffered a lot — as a child and now as a champion, she has suffered so much during these games," said Chaoua. "Where is the humanity? Where are the associations for women's rights? She is a victim." Associations for women's rights are speaking up, but not expressing the sentiment Chaoua likely wants to hear. Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women's Sports, recently told the feminist publication Reduxx, "The cover-up and championing of male athletes in women's Olympic sports is the greatest sports scandal of our lifetime." "The IOC MUST reinstate sex verification testing TODAY to begin to prove their commitment to the rights of female athletes," continued Smith. "They are impostors promoting gender parity while deliberately deceiving the public and athletes about the true sex of competitors in the world's most elite and dangerous competition." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Evangelical leaders are selling out to the LGBTQ agenda, and Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham, who just released her new book “Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda,” has the receipts. “You have organizations that claim to be ministries that are taking funding from secular, left-wing, gay lobbying groups,” Basham tells Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable,” noting that the Arcus Foundation is one of them. The Foundation was founded in 2000, and it’s the country’s largest LGBTQ grant maker. “What that foundation started to do, the Arcus Foundation, was look at, ‘Okay, how can we reform church doctrine in conservative ministries and in conservative denominations,’ and that’s what they did,” Basham says. “They’re bringing this curriculum in,” she continues. “I think a lot of churches don’t realize that activists are being trained to come change your doctrine on this.” Stuckey knows of one pastor in particular who’s embraced this change, referencing a recent sermon pastor Andy Stanley gave. “He basically said that homosexuality is different than any other sin because saying that homosexuality is a sin is saying that who someone is is a sin,” Stuckey says. “Which is a completely unbiblical way to look at sexuality and identity.” A more widely known name has also been pushing a left-wing agenda on the church. That name is George Soros. “His foundation started funding a secular-left immigration NGO called the National Immigration Forum, and around 2013, 2015, they realized that they needed to move the evangelical vote on this particular issue if they wanted to get some of these immigration reform policies, what I would call very lax border policies, across the finish line,” Basham tells Stuckey. So, they partnered with the National Association of Evangelicals and launched what Basham calls a “front group”: the Evangelical Immigration Table. “Its purpose, to be very clear, is not to do things like spread the gospel to illegal immigrants. It’s not to feed and clothe people regardless of how they got there,” Basham explains. “It’s specifically policy-focused.” Groups like the ERLC and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities have also been heavily involved in these groups. “They all became involved with this group,” Basham continues, “that is under the umbrella of a secular left immigration NGO that is taking funding from people like George Soros in this program that was specifically designed to target conservative voters, specifically evangelical.” Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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