Dad greets son at airport with traditional Māori Haka: ‘Not a dry eye in the house’

This dad performed a traditional Māori Haka—a traditional ceremonial performance—to greet his son at the airport, and it had everyone in the terminal tearing up!

The Māori Haka is a ceremonial dance that involves chanting, foot stamping, and some pretty impressive choreography. While in the past it was often associated with battle preparations, the ceremonial Haka was also performed for a more heartwarming purpose: the welcoming of honored guests.

In a video shared on Reddit, one Māori dad decided to surprise his son at the airport with his very own Haka. After returning from a trip, the son might have been expecting his dad to pick him up, but he almost certainly didn’t anticipate how epic and emotional his dad’s welcome would be! Not only was the son visibly moved by his dad’s performance, but other airport visitors stopped to watch the moving performance and even teared up!

United States Women's National Team earns more money from men's World Cup than its previous two women's tournaments

The United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) earned more money from its male equivalent reaching the knockout stages of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar than it did from winning its own tournaments in 2015 and 2019.

As a result of the equal pay agreement forged earlier this year between the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), the United States Women’s National Team Players Association (USWNTPA) and the United States National Soccer Team Players Association (USNSTPA), the men and women’s teams split all World Cup earnings.

Under the landmark agreement, US Soccer became “the first Federation in the world to equalize FIFA World Cup prize money” awarded to the teams for participating in World Cups.

"This is a truly historic moment,” US Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement in May. “These agreements have changed the game forever here in the United States and have the potential to change the game around the world.”

Why many Iranians are happy their team lost to the U.S.

Usually when a team gets knocked out of an international tournament like the soccer World Cup, the nation is united in grief, pride in their performance or a mixture of both. After Iran's loss to the United States on Tuesday, however, many Iranians cheered their players' failure, saying they represented the repressive theocratic regime rather than the people it violently oppresses.

On Tuesday, those criticizing the team made their voices heard: This was the Islamic Republic's loss, not Iran's. Horn-honking cars flooded the streets of Tehran and other cities, according to footage posted on social media.

In one of the videos, which was posted after the match, the man filming said those honking their horns on the capital’s Pirouzi Street were expressing "the joy of the people due to the loss."

Meanwhile, there were thousands of tweets in Persian, or in English from prominent Iranians, saying how happy they were their own team had fallen at the first hurdle of the competition.

Minnesota DFL to reintroduce gun control legislation in January

When the Minnesota Legislature convenes in January, House Democrats plan to reintroduce a Red Flag bill and a separate bill that would require criminal background checks for all firearm transfers and sales.

Rep. Dave Pinto, (DFL) St. Paul, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS his background check bill would require anyone purchasing a gun to have a criminal background check done by the local law enforcement agency where the sale is taking place, but it would also have exceptions for the transfer of guns between immediate family members.

“We have background checks on all gun sales and this would require them on all gun sales,” said Pinto. “Immediate family members, siblings, spouses, parents, grandparents, the background check would not apply. But, if you have a second cousin, you may not know about that person’s criminal record.”

First Asian Santa to greet children at Mall of America

For the first time in three years, children are back sitting on Santa's lap at the Mall Of America (MOA), but that's not the only change you may notice at The Santa Experience this year.

Five years ago, Larry Jefferson became the first African American jolly old elf at the MOA.

This year, he won't be the only one bringing some diversity to the North Pole.

"I think it's fantastic because it gives children and parents a different option of selecting a Santa they want their families to see," Jefferson told FOX 9.

We’re taking an ostrich approach to enforcing gun laws — with deadly results

The Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ nightclub shooting shows the limits of red-flag laws and the need for multiple approaches to prevent mass shootings. In 2021, the suspect in this shooting was arrested after reportedly threatening violence with a bomb, “multiple weapons” and ammunition.  The threat was serious enough that police evacuated neighbors. Still, law enforcement did not seek a red-flag order, perhaps because the county commission had declared the county to be a Second Amendment sanctuary.  

States such as Colorado with red-flag laws clearly need to use them more, especially where there is violent hate speech. The 31 states that do not have red-flag laws should pass them immediately. But, as a supplement to red-flag laws, we should empower law enforcement to prevent mass shootings by removing firearms from people who are prohibited from possessing firearms without a red-flag order. 

The St. Louis school shooting in October illustrates. Just nine days before the deadly rampage, police said the shooter’s mother called 911 and asked them to remove her troubled son’s AR-style rifle. The police declined to do so, explaining that they did not have “clear authority” to confiscate the rifle that day because Missouri does not have a red-flag law. But unbeknownst to the officers, the shooter was committing a crime simply by possessing the firearm. 

We know gun possession was a crime because earlier that month the shooter failed a federal instant background check. Licensed gun dealers in every state must run a background check to see if would-be purchasers fall into any of the federal or state prohibited categories. But bizarrely, police are not allowed to use the background check system, even when they have good reason to suspect that a person standing right in front of them is in illegal possession of a firearm.  Blindfolding the police in this way likely contributed to the St. Louis tragedy and may lead to more gun deaths until the policy is changed.   

Poland, NATO say missile strike wasn’t a Russian attack

NATO member Poland and the head of the military alliance both said Wednesday a missile strike in Polish farmland that killed two people did not appear to be an intentional attack, and that air defenses in neighboring Ukraine likely launched the Soviet-era projectile against a Russian bombardment that savaged its power grid.

“Ukraine’s defense was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the 30-nation military alliance in Brussels, echoed the preliminary Polish findings, saying: “We have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack.”

The initial assessments of Tuesday’s deadly missile landing appeared to dial back the likelihood of the strike triggering another major escalation in the nearly 9-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine. If Russia had deliberately targeted Poland, that could have risked drawing NATO into the conflict