#UN human rights chief: U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats ‘unacceptable’.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a United Nations organization.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for Turk’s office, relayed his message on Friday at a regular UN briefing: “These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”

She said Turk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”

President Donald Trump has justified the attacks on the boats as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, but the campaign against drug cartels has been divisive among countries in the region.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the latest U.S. military strike in the campaign, against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people aboard were killed. It was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61.

Shamdasani noted the U.S. explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug and counter-terrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.

Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life,” she said. “Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right of life and constitute extrajudicial killings.”

The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, Shamdasani said.

The Associated Press

Young T. rex or a new dinosaur? New bones add to the debate. At first, researchers had only a tyrannosaur skull to go by, making it hard to tell if it belonged to a child or adult. Another skull and skeleton nicknamed Jane added to the debate, but didn’t settle the controversy.

Now a research team said there’s new evidence that resolves the case. The latest clue comes from a complete skeleton — first uncovered in 2006 in Montana — that scientists say identifies the mystery reptile as its own species and not a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex.

The discovery “rewrites decades of research on Earth’s most famous predator,” said study co-author Lindsay Zanno with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University.

Growth rings within the bones found in Montana’s Hell Creek Formation told scientists the new dinosaur was an adult about half the size of a fully-fledged T. rex. From growth comparisons to other reptiles like crocodiles, they also found that the major differences between the creature’s skull and an adult T. rex’s — changes in bone structure, nerve patterns and sinuses — were unlikely to form from simply going through puberty.

Signs pointed to a dinosaur that’s a distant T. rex cousin known as Nanotyrannus lancensis, the researchers reported in a study published Thursday in the journal Nature.

There’s now “more support and evidence than there ever has been” that this T. rex relative could exist, said Holly Woodward, a fossil bone expert from Oklahoma State University who had no role in the new study. But she’s not yet convinced that the other mystery skeletons like Jane are something new.

Other independent scientists also said the debate isn’t over. The new skeleton is indeed an adult, but it could be a sister species to T. rex and not a distant relative, said vertebrate paleontologist Thomas Carr of Carthage College.

There are similarities between the shape of T. rex’s skull and the mystery specimens that keep him from switching camps.

“I don’t think this study settles everything,” he said.

Resolving this case of mistaken identity is important to understanding how T. rex grew up, said study co-author James Napoli with Stony Brook University. Another big question is whether T. rex was the main predator prowling toward the end of the age of dinosaurs 67 million years ago — or whether a tinier, but still mighty predator also roamed.

The new skeleton is dubbed “Dueling Dinosaurs” because it was found intertwined with the bones of a Triceratops, and is currently on display at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

___

Adithi Ramakrishnan, The Associated Press

#Putin claims Russian troops have surrounded two Ukrainian cities but #Ukraine says that’s not true.


KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Wednesday that Russian troops have surrounded Ukrainian forces in two key eastern cities of Ukraine and offered to negotiate a deal for their surrender. Ukrainian military officials vigorously denied the claim.

Putin, speaking at a meeting with wounded soldiers at a Moscow military hospital, suggested that the Russian military was ready to open safe corridors for Ukrainian and Western journalists to “let them see with their own eyes what’s going on.”

He claimed Ukrainian troops are encircled in Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region, and in Kupiansk, an important rail junction in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Russia has recently been pushing its significant advantage in troops and weapons at key points along the around 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) front line, almost four years after it invaded its neighbor.

But the Ukrainian armed forces said claims of Kupiansk being surrounded are “fabrications and fantasies” while the spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces, Hryhorii Shapoval, told The Associated Press that the situation in Pokrovsk is “hard but under control.”

The Ukrainian Army’s 7th Rapid Reaction Corps, which is defending Pokrovsk, said Russia had deployed some 11,000 troops in a bid to encircle the city. Some Russian units had managed to infiltrate Pokrovsk, it acknowledged in a social media post.

Russian officials have in the past made claims about capturing Ukrainian strongholds that have turned out not to be true. Independent verification of the claims was not possible.

Putin’s comments coincided with his diplomatic efforts to persuade the United States, which is seeking a peace deal to end the war, that supporting Ukraine is pointless because it can’t hold out against Russian military superiority. He has also stressed what he says is Russia’s improving nuclear capability as he refuses to budge from his war aims.

Putin on Wednesday indicated that Russia is open for a deal for the Ukrainian troops in the two cities to surrender. A media visit to the areas would allow reporters to see “the condition the encircled Ukrainian troops are there so that Ukraine’s political leadership could make the relevant decisions regarding the fate of their citizens,” he said.

Small groups of Russian soldiers are engaging in house-to-house battles in both Kupiansk and Pokrovsk, Ukrainian officials and Russian war bloggers have said, while artillery and drones target roads. The Ukrainian military is increasingly relying on drones to supply troops.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said late Tuesday that Russian forces had advanced in the Pokrovsk area but “almost certainly do not currently control any positions within the city of Pokrovsk itself.”

It added that the advances “are unlikely to cause an immediate collapse of the Ukrainian pocket in the Pokrovsk direction.”

Asked about the situation in Kupiansk, the spokesman of Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task Force, Viktor Trehubov, said Putin’s claim does not match the reality on the ground. “To put it simply, there is no encirclement,” Trehubov told The AP.

Russian forces have been trying for more than a year to take Pokrovsk, which Ukraine stopped using as a logistical hub in the region as Russia piled on the pressure at the end of last year. The city, which was home to around 60,000 people before the war, is largely in ruins.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has kept up its long-range drone and missile attacks on Russian rear areas in an effort to disrupt logistics by striking oil refineries and manufacturing plants.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 100 Ukrainian drones over five regions overnight, with 13 airports, including three in the Moscow region, briefly suspending flights because of the attack.

Russia, in the meantime, continued its campaign against Ukraine’s power grid and civilian infrastructure in at least six regions. At least 13 people, including a nine-year-old, were injured, officials said.

The #Ukrainian air force said #Russia fired 126 strike and decoy drones overnight.

Judge extends order barring the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the shutdown.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted a preliminary injunction that bars the firings while a lawsuit challenging them plays out. She had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the job cuts that was set to expire Wednesday.

Illston, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, has said she believes the evidence will ultimately show the mass firings were illegal and in excess of authority.

Federal agencies are enjoined from issuing layoff notices or acting on notices issued since the government shut down Oct. 1. Illston said that her order does not apply to notices sent before the shutdown.

The Republican administration has slashed jobs in education, health and other areas it says are favored by Democrats. The administration has also said it will not tap roughly US$5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP, flowing into November.

The American Federation of Government Employees and other labor unions have sued to stop the “reductions in force” layoffs, saying the firings were an abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Congress.

Lawyers for the government say the district court does not have the authority to hear personnel challenges, and that Trump has broad authority to reduce the federal workforce as he pledged to do during the campaign.

“The president was elected on this specific platform,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Velchik. “The American people selected someone known above all else for his eloquence in communicating to employees that you’re fired, this is what they voted for.”

Trump starred on a long-running reality TV series called “The Apprentice” in which his signature catchphrase was telling candidates they were fired.

About 4,100 layoff notices have gone out since Oct. 10, some sent to work email addresses that furloughed employees are not allowed to check. Some personnel were called back to work, without pay, to issue layoff notices to others.

Democratic lawmakers are demanding that any deal to reopen the federal government address expiring health care subsidies that have made health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. They also want any government funding bill to reverse the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill passed this summer.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to negotiate with Democrats until they first agree to reopen the government.

This is now the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

The longest shutdown occurred during Trump’s first term over his demands for funds to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall. That one ended in 2019 after 35 days.

Janie Har, The Associated Press

Uncontacted Indigenous groups could vanish within a decade without stronger protections, experts say.


A railway line now planned in Brazil could potentially affect three uncontacted peoples, she said, but the rise of organized crime poses an even greater risk.

Across Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, drug traffickers and illegal gold miners have moved deep into Indigenous territories. “Any chance encounter runs the risk of transmitting the flu, which can easily wipe out an uncontacted people within a year of contact,” she said. “And bows and arrows are no match for guns.”

Evangelical missionary incursions have also caused outbreaks. Watson recalled how, under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, an evangelical pastor was placed in charge of the government’s unit for uncontacted peoples and gained access to their coordinates. “Their mission was to force contact — to ‘save souls,’” she said. “That is incredibly dangerous.”
Ways to protect uncontacted peoples

Protecting uncontacted peoples, experts say, will require both stronger laws and a shift in how the world views them — not as relics of the past, but as citizens of the planet whose survival affects everyone’s future.

Advocates have several recommendations.

First, governments must formally recognize and enforce Indigenous territories, making them off-limits to extractive industries.

Mapping is crucial, Bhattacharjee said, because identifying the approximate territories of uncontacted peoples allows governments to protect those areas from loggers or miners. But, she added, it must be done with extreme caution and from a distance to avoid contact that could endanger the groups’ health or autonomy.

Second, corporations and consumers must help stop the flow of money driving destruction. Survival’s report calls for companies to trace their supply chains to ensure that commodities such as gold, timber and soy are not sourced from Indigenous lands.

“Public opinion and pressure are essential,” Watson said. “It’s largely through citizens and the media that so much has already been achieved to recognize uncontacted peoples and their rights.”

Finally, advocates say the world must recognize why their protection matters. Beyond human rights, these communities play an outsized role in stabilizing the global climate.

“With the world under pressure from climate change, we will sink or swim together,” Bhattacharjee said.
Governments’ uneven response

International treaties such as the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirm the right to self-determination and to remain uncontacted if they choose. But enforcement varies widely.

In Peru, Congress recently rejected a proposal to create the Yavari-Mirim Indigenous Reserve, a move Indigenous federations said leaves isolated groups exposed to loggers and traffickers.

In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to rebuild protections weakened under Bolsonaro, boosting budgets and patrols.

And in Ecuador, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled this year that the government failed to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples who live in voluntary isolation in Yasuni National Park.

Watson warned that political forces tied to agribusiness and evangelical blocs are now working to roll back earlier gains.

“Achievements of the last 20 or 30 years are in danger of being dismantled,” she said.
What the new report calls for

Survival International’s report urges a global no-contact policy: legal recognition of uncontacted territories, suspension of mining, oil and agribusiness projects in or near those lands and prosecution of crimes against Indigenous groups.

Watson said logging remains the biggest single threat, but mining is close behind. She pointed to the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island, where nickel for electric-vehicle batteries is being mined.

“People think electric cars are a green alternative,” she said, “but mining companies are operating on the land of uncontacted peoples and posing enormous threats.”

In South America, illegal gold miners in the Yanomami territory of Brazil and Venezuela continue to use mercury to extract gold — contamination that has poisoned rivers and fish.

“The impact is devastating — socially and physically,” Watson said.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content.

Steven Grattan, The Associated Press

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake hits western Turkiye. ANKARA, Turkiye — A strong earthquake shook western Turkiye on Monday, causing at least three buildings that were damaged in a previous tremor to collapse, officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The magnitude 6.1 quake was centered in the town of Sindirgi in Balikesir province, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management agency, AFAD. It struck at 22:48 local time (1948 GMT) at a depth of 5.99 kilometres (3.72 miles.)

The quake, which was followed by several aftershocks, was felt in Istanbul, and the nearby provinces of Bursa, Manisa and Izmir.

At least three unoccupied buildings and a two-story shop collapsed in Sindirgi, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. The structures had already been damaged in a previous earthquake.

A total of 22 people were injured due to panic-related falls, which can occur because of the physical and psychological impact of earthquakes, according to Balikesir’s governor, Ismail Ustaoglu.

“So far, we have not identified any loss of life, but we are continuing our assessment,” Sindirgi’s district administrator Dogukan Koyuncu told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

Many people remained outdoors too afraid to return to their homes, Haberturk television reported. As rain began to fall, Ustaoglu said mosques, schools and sports halls were being kept open to shelter people reluctant to go back.

Sindirgi also was struck in August by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake, which killed one person and injured dozens of other people. Since then, the region around Balikesir had been hit by smaller shocks.

Turkiye sits on top of major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent.

In 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 53,000 people in Turkiye and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighbouring Syria.

U.S. navy loses two aircraft from USS Nimitz #aircraft carrier within 30 minutes.

#WASHINGTON — A #fighter jet and a helicopter based off the aircraft carrier #USS Nimitz both crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other on Sunday afternoon, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said.

The three crew members of the MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter were rescued, and the two aviators in the F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet ejected and were recovered safely, and all five “are safe and in stable condition,” the fleet said in a statement.

The causes of the two crashes were under investigation, the statement said.

The USS Nimitz is returning to its home port in Naval Base Kitsap in Washington state after having been deployed to the Middle East for most of the summer as part of the U.S. response to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial shipping. The carrier is on its final deployment before decommissioning.

Another aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, suffered a series of mishaps in recent months while deployed to the Middle East.

In December, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 jet from the Truman.

Then, in April, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the Truman’s hangar deck and fell into the Red Sea.

And in May, an F/A fighter jet landing on the carrier in the Red Sea went overboard after apparently failing to catch the steel cables used to stop landing planes and forcing its two pilots to eject.

No sailors were killed in any of those mishaps. The results of investigations into those incidents have yet to be released.

Konstantin Toropin, The Associated Press

#Hamas expands search for the remains of hostages in Gaza, Trump watches 48-hour period `very closely’

Hamas’ chief in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, said the group started searching new areas for bodies of the remaining 13 hostages, according to comments the group shared Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned Saturday he was “watching very closely” to ensure Hamas returns more bodies in the next 48 hours. “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote on social media.

Hamas has repeatedly said efforts to retrieve remains face challenges because of the massive destruction.

An Egyptian team with equipment including an excavator and bulldozers entered Gaza on Saturday as part of mediators’ efforts to shore up the ceasefire, two Egyptian officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

#Kurdish rebel group PKK says it is withdrawing its fighters from Türkiye to Iraq.

The statement delivered in northern Iraq by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, follows a symbolic disarmament ceremony held months earlier, where a group of its fighters began laying down their weapons to show its commitment to the peace process.

The group has been waging a decades-long insurgency in Türkiye that has led to tens of thousands of deaths since the 1980s.

In a news conference, Sabri Ok, a member of the Kurdish umbrella organization, the Kurdistan Communities Union, said all PKK forces in Türkiye were being withdrawn to areas in northern Iraq “to avoid clashes or provocations.”
PKK calls for concessions from Türkiye

In a statement read in Turkish, Ok said the move was made with the approval of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Vejin Dersim, a member of the PKK’s women’s wing, read the statement in Kurdish.

“Also, similar regulatory measures are being taken with regard to those positions along the border which could carry the risk of clashes and possible provocations,” Ok said.

The statement also called for legal and political concessions on the part of the Turkish state.

“It is quite clear that we are committed to the resolutions of the 12th congress and decisive in implementing them,” the statement said. “However, for these resolutions to be implemented, certain legal and political approaches ... need to be adopted.”

A group of some 25 fighters who had recently arrived from Türkiye were present at the news conference.

The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.
Türkiye says decision is a significant step

In Türkiye, Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, said the PKK’s announcement was a step toward the state’s long-term goal of eradicating security threats in Türkiye.

“The PKK’s announcement that it is withdrawing from Türkiye and taking new steps toward disarmament are concrete results of the ‘Terror-free Turkey’ road map,” he wrote on X.

He warned against external and internal sabotage efforts, saying “maximum care must be taken to protect the process from any kind of provocation.”

Efkan Ala, a ruling party deputy chairman, described the announcement as “the completion of another significant phase in the elimination of terrorism.”
Erdogan to discuss peace efforts with Kurdish legislators

Sunday’s announcement comes days before Erdogan is scheduled to hold his third meeting with a group Kurdish legislators who have been holding talks with Ocalan on the prison island of Imrali.

A separate 51-member parliamentary committee was formed in August to propose and supervise legal and political reforms aimed at advancing the peace process following the PKK’s decision to disband and disarm. Their next meeting is scheduled for Thursday.

PKK spokesman Zagros Hiwa said Sunday’s announcement aimed to show the PKK’s determination to move the process forward.

“This is a one-sided step to show our assertiveness and seriousness that we wholeheartedly want this process to move forward,” he told The Associated Press.

Hiwa, however, also expressed disappointment with the Turkish government, accusing it of not taking steps to advance the process, including allowing Kurdish to be spoken in Parliament and improving Ocalan’s conditions.

“So far, there have been no signs that the Turkish state has changed its mentality or politics,” he said. “They haven’t even allowed the peace initiators to speak in Kurdish at the parliament. This is a sign that their denial politics is still ongoing and leader Ocalan is still in prison from 27 years.”

Nuda Arin, one of the 25 fighters who arrived from Türkiye, said: “We are ready to move by leader Ocalan’s word and do everything to make this process successful.”

The PKK launched its armed insurgency against Türkiye initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Türkiye.

The group is considered to be a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.

Previous peace efforts between Türkiye and the PKK have ended in failure — most recently in 2015.

Stella Martany And Cinar Kiper, The Associated Press

Kiper reported from Bodrum, Türkiye. Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Türkiye, contributed to this report.

June Lockhart, beloved mother figure from ‘Lassie’ and ‘Lost In Space,’ dies at 100.

Lockhart died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Santa Monica, family spokesman Lyle Gregory, a friend of 40 years, said Saturday.

“She was very happy up until the very end, reading the New York Times and LA Times everyday,” he said. “It was very important to her to stay focused on the news of the day.”

The daughter of prolific character actor Gene Lockhart, Lockhart was cast frequently in ingenue roles as a young film actor. Television made her a star.

From 1958 to 1964, she portrayed Ruth Martin, who raised the orphaned Timmy (Jon Provost), in the popular CBS series “Lassie.” From 1965 to 1968, she traveled aboard the spaceship Jupiter II as mother to the Robinson family in the campy CBS adventure “Lost in Space.”

Her portrayals of warm, compassionate mothers endeared her to young viewers, and decades later baby boomers flocked to nostalgia conventions to meet Lockhart and buy her autographed photos.

Offscreen, Lockhart insisted, she was nothing like the women she portrayed.

“I must quote Dan Rather,” she said in a 1994 interview. “I can control my reputation, but not my image, because my image is how you see me.

“I love rock `n’ roll and going to the concerts. I have driven Army tanks and flown in hot air balloons. And I go plane-gliding -- the ones with no motors. I do a lot of things that don’t go with my image.”

Early in her career, Lockhart appeared in numerous films. Among them: “All This and Heaven Too,” “Adam Had Four Sons,” “Sergeant York,” “Miss Annie Rooney,” “Forever and a Day” and “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

She also made “Son of Lassie,” the 1945 sequel to “Lassie, Come Home,” playing the grown-up version of the role created by Elizabeth Taylor.
New life on television

When her movie career as an adult faltered, Lockhart shifted to television, appearing in live drama from New York and game and talk shows. She was the third actress to play the female lead in “Lassie” on TV, following Jan Clayton and Cloris Leachman. (Provost had replaced the show’s original child star, Tommy Rettig, in 1957.)

Lockhart spoke frankly about her canine co-star. In the first place, she said in 1989, Lassie was a laddie, because male collies “are bigger, the ruff is bigger, they’re more imposing looking.”

She added: “I worked with four Lassies. There was only one main Lassie at a time. Then there was a dog that did the running, a dog that did the fighting, and a dog that was a stand-in, because only humans can work 14 hours a day without needing a nap.

“Lassie was not especially friendly with anybody. Lassie was wholly concentrated on the trainers.”

After six years in the rural setting of “Lassie,” Lockhart moved to outer space, embarking on the role of Maureen Robinson, the wise, reassuring mother of a family that departs on a five-year flight to a faraway planet in “Lost in Space.”

After their mission is sabotaged by a fellow passenger, the nefarious Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), the party bounces from planet to planet, encountering weird creatures and near-disasters that required viewers to tune in the following week to learn of the escape. Throughout the three-year run, Mrs. Robinson offered consolation and a slice of her “space pie.”

As with “Lassie,” Lockhart enjoyed working on “Lost in Space”: “It was like going to work at Disneyland every day.”

In 1968, Lockhart joined the cast of “Petticoat Junction” for the rural comedy’s last two seasons, playing Dr. Janet Craig. The original star, Bea Benaderet, had been diagnosed with cancer and died, also in 1968.
A little bit of everything

Lockhart remained active long after “Lost in Space,” appearing often in episodic television as well as in recurring roles in the daytime soap opera “General Hospital” and nighttime soaps, “Knots Landing” and “The Colbys.” Her film credits included “The Remake” and the animated “Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm,” for which she provided the voice for Mindy the Owl.

She also used her own media pass to attend presidential news conferences, narrated beauty pageants and holiday parades, appeared in B pictures and toured in the plays “Steel Magnolias,” “Bedroom Farce” and “Once More with Feeling.”

“Her true passion was journalism,” Gregory said. “She loved going to the White House briefing rooms.”

Lockhart liked to tell the story of how her parents met, saying they were hired separately for a touring production sponsored by inventor Thomas A. Edison and decided on marriage during a stop at Lake Louise, Alberta.

Their daughter was born June 25, 1925, in New York City. The family moved to Hollywood 10 years later, and Gene Lockhart worked steadily as a character actor, usually in avuncular roles, sometimes as a villain. His wife, Kathleen, often appeared with him.

Young June made her stage debut at 8, dancing in a children’s ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House. Her first film appearance was a small role in the 1938 “A Christmas Carol,” playing the daughter of Bob Cratchit and his wife, who were played by her parents.

She was married and divorced twice: to John Maloney, a physician, father of her daughters Anne Kathleen and June Elizabeth; and architect John C. Lindsay.

Throughout her later career, Lockhart was connected in the public mind with “Lassie.”

Even though she sometimes mocked the show, she conceded: “How wonderful that in a career there is one role for which you are known. Many actors work all their lives and never have one part that is really theirs.”

By Bob Thomas And Beth Harris.

Bob Thomas, a longtime Associated Press journalist who died in 2014, was the principal writer of this obituary.