(COPENHAGEN, Denmark) — A beluga whale found in Arctic Norway wearing a harness that suggests links to a military facility in Russia is so tame that residents can pet the mammal on its nose.

The white whale frolicking in the frigid harbor of Tufjord, a hamlet near Norway’s northernmost point, has become “a huge attraction” for locals, one resident said Tuesday. The whale is so comfortable with people that it swims to the dock and retrieves plastic rings thrown into the sea.

“The whale is so tame that when you call it, it comes to you,” said Linn Saether, adding the whale also reacts to yells and when humans splash their hands in the water.

She said when she throws out a plastic ring, the Beluga whale brings it back to her as she sits on the dock.

“It is a fantastic experience, but we also see it as a tragedy. We can see that it has been trained to bring back stuff that is thrown at sea,” Saether, 37, told The Associated Press.

The whale was found with a tight harness reading “Equi..

(WASHINGTON) — Venezuelan opposition leaders calling for a military uprising against the government of President Nicolás Maduro gained quick messages of support Tuesday from the Trump administration amid a possible turning point in the South American nation’s political crisis.

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton all expressed support for the opposition as its two most prominent figures, Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo Lopez, stood with soldiers and called for the people, and the security forces, to rise up against Maduro.

“We are with you!” Pence tweeted to the opposition, in the most direct message of the three. “America will stand with you until freedom & democracy are restored.”

To @jguaido, the National Assembly and all the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in #operacionlibertad—Estamos con ustedes! We are with you! America will stand with you until freedom & democracy are restored. Vay..

The call for help came from half a world away to a windowless room at a remote airbase in South Dakota.

An American military advisor was calling from eastern Syria, asking the team at Ellsworth Air Force Base to deploy a drone to hunt down a small group of ISIS gunmen harassing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the U.S.-backed force fighting in the region. In a series of hit-and-run attacks, the ISIS gunmen had turned the SDF’s makeshift outpost into a shooting gallery, injuring several Syrian troops and putting the U.S. advisors at-risk before melting into the nearby civilian population.

Within minutes, the operators directed a MQ-9 Reaper drone “on-station” in the eastern town of Baghouz to wait for the gunmen to return. But when they appeared, the operators held fire. Rather than launch an airstrike, the operators watched the suspects mount another attack, speed away in a tan vehicle, and then drive to a low-slung building with a thatch-roof on the outskirts of town. There, the ..