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Ralph Macchio on Why Now Was the Right Time to End ‘Cobra Kai,’ the Future of Daniel LaRusso and That Coldplay Music Video

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Ralph Macchio on Why Now Was the Right Time to End ‘Cobra Kai,’ the Future of Daniel LaRusso and That Coldplay Music Video

Serendipity seems to follow Ralph Macchio — and it most recently took him to Australia.

In October, Coldplay released the song “The Karate Kid,” and it’s exactly what you think it’s about, down to the lyrics about “Daniel.” That, of course, is the name of the lead character played by Macchio in three “The Karate Kid” movies and six seasons of Netflix’s “Cobra Kai.” After Macchio heard the tune, he shared it on social media — and that’s when Coldplay concocted a plan. Frontman Chris Martin asked Macchio to come to Australia, where they were playing a series of dates, and film the music video. The ruse included bringing the actor on stage to help perform “The Karate Kid.”

“It was just one of those whirlwind things,” says Macchio, who just returned from Down Under. “It’s just a beautiful track. It blew my mind that he wrote the song, just from the film, which meant so much to him. We certainly had an impact 41 years ago, at least for a young Chris Martin and Coldplay. It never ceases to amaze me, the emotions and feelings that the original film still carries through the decades.”

Macchio is about to experience another one of those moments. As the final season of “Cobra Kai” posts its next five episodes (there are still five to go) this month, Macchio is set to receive his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And his honor will be fittingly placed near the plaque for his late co-star Pat Morita, aka Mr. Miyagi.

“That’s just perfectly wonderful at this point in my life,” Macchio says. The actor, at a youthful 63, is somehow a decade older than Morita was in the original 1984 film. “It’s only fitting I will be Miyagi-adjacent till the end of time, and I couldn’t be prouder and more honored to have that kind of placement. I remember him saying having a star on the Walk of Fame was probably the biggest highlight of his career, coming from humble beginnings. So I’ll get to channel a little bit of the love that he still sprinkles on this ‘Karate Kid’ universe.”

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It’s also a complete career full circle moment for Macchio, who remembers visiting the Walk of Fame as a teen in the late 1970s when he moved to Hollywood from his native Long Island, N.Y. to give acting a shot.

“It was the land of hopes and dreams, and I remember I would walk on Hollywood Boulevard looking for Gene Kelly’s star,” Macchio says. “I wanted to be Gene Kelly, ever since my youngest memory. I used to watch the old movie musicals with my mom. And so seeing all those names like Clark Gable, which come from a lot of the films and television shows that I grew up with, it never seemed obtainable.”

Before long, he had a regular role on “Eight Is Enough.” Then came his breakout role in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 feature “The Outsiders,” followed a year later by that life-changing moment in “The Karate Kid.” That crane kick. Wax on, wax off. Daniel-san. All iconic pop culture moments that are forever attached to Macchio. “People still remember where they saw ‘The Karate Kid,’” he says. “I’m incredibly grateful, and feel privileged to be blessed enough to bring joy to people through a character.”

He also starred in the first two “Karate Kid” sequels and held a major role in 1992’s “My Cousin Vinny,” the Joe Pesci starrer that is in endless heavy rotation on basic cable. “I always call it the late-for-dinner movie,” he says. “If it’s on, you’re going to be late for dinner because you have another setup that’s going to pay off and you have to stick to the next one.”

But then came the lean years, which Macchio chronicled in his recent memoir, “Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me.” Macchio was inspired by the philosophy of one of his idols, Michael Caine, who talked about capitalizing on the difficulties you might face in acting and in life.

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“I’ve learned to do that,” he says. “There were some difficult times as far as career goes and where I’d wanted it to be. But those are also the years that I was here for my kids at a very young age. It was perfect, especially with this great resurgence and groundswell act that I’m going through right now. I almost couldn’t have written it better, because I get to enjoy it, and it just keeps giving. I mean, the fans never let it disappear.”

Indeed, Macchio never stopped working. In the 2000s, he held a recurring role on “Ugly Betty” and was given several opportunities to play versions of himself — most of which he turned down. But he embraced a few, including on HBO’s “Entourage.”

“If I could tell you the amount of times it was pitched — I said no 90% of the time,” he says. “I went through a phase where I would joke that my name was more famous than I was. ‘Entourage’ was the first time I played myself, and so I was proud because it was a cool industry choice, and a pretty darn good episode as well.”

Then there was the Funny or Die parody “Wax On, F*ck Off,” from filmmaker Todd Holland, which toyed with Macchio’s nice guy persona by trying to turn him into a Hollywood bad boy. “It was the perfect time when people with bad behavior were being rewarded, and I considered myself a good guy,” he says. “So how could I try to make myself more relevant with what works in in Hollywood?

But the real groundwork for “Cobra Kai” came when he and William Zabka guest starred on “How I Met Your Mother” — in which Neil Patrick Harris’ character Barney wanted the hero of the “The Karate Kid” at his party. When Macchio showed up, he was disappointed as he’d considered Johnny Lawrence (Zabka) the good guy.

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That dynamic, of course, became the heart of “Cobra Kai,” a new take on the “Karate Kid” characters from Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. Around the time that show began development (originally at YouTube Originals), Macchio had landed a very different kind of role as a vice cop in HBO’s gritty drama “The Deuce.”

“He’s everything that you dream of when you’re think about meeting your heroes,” Hurwitz says. “He’s a kind person. He’s a family man. It extends to how he carries himself on set as the No. 1 on the call sheet. He’s a role model to a whole group of young actors on our show.”

Heald interjects: “It’s easy to see, upon meeting him for the very first time, that he’s one of the most authentic people you’ll ever meet. He is thoughtful as a performer and a producer and now a director, and in the way that you want as a collaborator.”

Now, as “Cobra Kai” ends, Macchio says the timing “just feels right” to “land it but in a great way.” But this isn’t the end for Macchio as Daniel LaRusso. He will revive the character again opposite Jackie Chan in “The Karate Kid: Legends,” which takes place three years after the events of “Cobra Kai.”

“It was not a quick decision, because it was about protecting the Daniel LaRusso character, and finding where he would be at that point, and then protecting the whole legacy in the Miyagi-verse,” says Macchio. “Once we were able to line that up, for the ‘Cobra Kai’ story to lead into the new film — even though they’re separate ecosystems — it all made sense for me. Then, working with Jackie was just super exciting. I started this on the big screen. How cool is it to get it back to the big screen?”

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As for what’s next, Macchio is keen on pursuing more directing and hopes to help Heald, Hurwitz and Schlossberg turn a Mr. Miyagi origins series into fruition. Plus, he wants to explore other characters beyond the “Karate Kid” universe.

Will “The Karate Kid: Legends” mark his final bow as Daniel? “I don’t want to overstay the welcome of a character that’s so beloved,” he says. “But he’s aging like I am, so there could be other areas to explore as well. Never say never.”

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Team Races Against Time to Save a Tangled Sea Lion in British Columbia

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Team Races Against Time to Save a Tangled Sea Lion in British Columbia

A team of marine mammal experts had spent several days in Cowichan Bay, British Columbia, searching for a sea lion with an orange rope wrapped around its neck. As the sun set on Dec. 8, they were packing up, for good, when a call came in.

The tangled animal, a female Steller sea lion weighing 330 pounds, had been spotted on a dock in front of an inn, leading into the bay in southwestern Canada.

The rope was wrenched four times around her neck, carving a deep gash. Without help, the sea lion would die.

The team had been trying to find the sea lion for a month, and on that day, with daylight running out, the nine members that day knew they needed to work fast. They relaunched their boats and a team member loaded a dart gun and shot her with a sedative.

“Launching the dart is the easiest part of the whole operation,” said Dr. Martin Haulena, executive director of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, which conducted the rescue alongside Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “It’s everything that happens after that, that you just have no control over.”

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Steller sea lions, also known as northern sea lions, are the largest such breed. They are found as far south as Northern California and in parts of Russia and Japan. A male Steller sea lion can weigh up to 2,500 pounds.

The Cowichan Tribes Marine Monitoring Team assisted the rescue society, calling it whenever the sea lion was spotted. The tribe named her Stl’eluqum, meaning “fierce” or “exceptional” in Hul’q’umi’num’, an Indigenous language, according to the rescue society.

After Stl’eluqum was sedated, she jumped from the dock into the water. Recent torrential rains and flooding had stirred up debris, making the water brown, and harder to spot the sea lion, Dr. Haulena said.

Several minutes after the sea lion dived into the bay, the drone spotted her and the team moved in.

The rope had multiple strands and it was wrapped so deeply that she most likely wasn’t able to eat, Dr. Haulena said. At first, the team had trouble freeing her.

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“You couldn’t see it because it was way dug in underneath the skin and blubber of the animal,” Dr. Haulena said.

After unraveling the rope, the team tagged her flipper, gave her some antibiotics and released her.

Freeing the sea lion was the culmination of weeks of searching and missed moments. The first call about the tangled marine mammal was made to the Fisheries and Oceans Canada hotline on Nov. 7, according to a news release from the rescue society. Then the society logged more calls.

The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, a nonprofit that works in partnership with the Vancouver Aquarium, searched for several days for the sea lion. The day they found her was the last of the rescue effort because bad weather was forecast for the area around the bay. The call that led them to Stl’eluqum came from the Cowichan Tribes, Dr. Haulena said.

The society, Dr. Haulena said, cares for about 150 marine mammals from its rescues every year — sea lions, otters, harbor seals and the occasional sea turtle. The group gives medical care to animals it takes in, such as Luna, an abandoned newborn sea otter who was three pounds when she was found and still had her umbilical cord attached.

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Many of the society’s rescues involve animals tangled in garbage or debris, Dr. Haulena said.

Stl’eluqum was tangled in nylon rope commonly used to tie boats or crab traps, he said. When sea lions get something caught around their necks it can grow tighter until it cuts into their organs, sometimes fatally, he said.

“It’s our garbage; it’s our fault,” Dr. Haulena said. “It’s a large amount of animal suffering and not a good outcome unless we can do something.”

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Poland foils ISIS-type bomb plot as Sydney attack triggers UK, Europe terror alerts

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Poland foils ISIS-type bomb plot as Sydney attack triggers UK, Europe terror alerts

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Polish authorities have foiled a suspected ISIS-inspired plot to attack a Christmas market, charging a student accused of preparing a mass casualty bombing, according to officials.

The case comes as Germany and the U.K. also raised security measures around religious and cultural events after the Sydney shooting Sunday in which 16 people were shot dead at a Jewish Hanukkah party on Bondi Beach.

Polish authorities say the suspect, identified as Mateusz W., 19, was detained in late November at an apartment in Lublin by officers from the Internal Security Agency (ABW).

According to Jacek Dobrzyński, a spokesperson for the Minister’s Coordinator of Special Services, investigators believe the teen had been studying how to make explosives and intended to join a terrorist organization to help carry out the attack.

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EUROPEAN CHRISTMAS MARKETS FORTIFY SECURITY MEASURES AS TERROR THREATS FORCE MAJOR OPERATIONAL CHANGES

Polish authorities foil an alleged ISIS Christmas market bombing plot targeting holiday shoppers. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“The purpose of the crime was to intimidate many people, as well as to support the Islamic State,” Dobrzyński said in a statement shared on X.

Items linked to Islam and digital storage devices were seized, and the suspect has been remanded for three months as the Szczecin branch of ABW continues its investigation.

At a news conference, Dobrzyński also referenced a June case in which three 19-year-olds were charged over alleged extremist plots, including a reported plan to attack a school in Olsztyn.

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MOSSAD–EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE OPERATION LAUNCHES SWEEPING CRACKDOWN ON HAMAS GLOBAL TERROR NETWORK

Authorities arrested five on suspicion of plotting a terror attack on a Christmas market in Bavaria.  (Juergen Sack/Getty Images)

“You are familiar with this issue from Olsztyn; now we have another example of preparing an attack before Christmas,” he told reporters, according to GB News.

In Germany, police in Lower Bavaria also arrested five men on Dec. 12 on suspicion of preparing an attack on a Christmas market, according to reports.

Authorities said an Egyptian national described as an Islamic preacher had allegedly called for an assault during gatherings at a mosque in the Dingolfing-Landau area, per Euronews.

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CANADIAN SPY CHIEF WARNS OF ALARMING RISE IN TEEN TERROR SUSPECTS, ‘POTENTIALLY LETHAL’ THREATS BY IRAN

In the U.K., counterterrorism officials have stepped up armed patrols and public alert messaging across London and other major cities. (Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing via Getty Image)

Special operations forces carried out the arrests, and investigators believe the group had begun early-stage preparations.

In the U.K., counterterrorism officials stepped up armed patrols and public alert messaging across London and other major cities on Tuesday.

“Sadly, as shown by the appalling attack on Sydney’s Jewish community during a Hanukkah event, we know they can also be a target for terrorist activity,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jon Savell said in a press release.

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He cited large festive gatherings, religious services and Christmas markets as potential targets.

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In the release posted Tuesday, he urged the British public to report anything that “doesn’t feel right” as part of the annual winter vigilance campaign.

Meanwhile, U.S. authorities say they separately disrupted a New Year’s Eve plot in Southern California.

Four alleged members of an extremist anti-capitalist, anti-government group suspected of rehearsing coordinated bombings against sites linked to two U.S. companies were arrested on Monday.

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Thousands of dinosaur footprints discovered on rock faces in northern Italy

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Thousands of dinosaur footprints have been found in a national part in northern Italy known as the Parco Nazionale dello Stelvio Branchi.

Experts say they are from enormous herbivores that lived there 210 million years ago in the Triassic period.

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