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Trump congratulated the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia “on their brilliance in coming to this rapid and very fair conclusion”.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday (Dec 28) congratulated the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia on a ceasefire agreed the previous day after weeks of border clashes that have killed dozens.

“I want to congratulate both great leaders on their brilliance in coming to this rapid and very fair conclusion,” said Trump, who has claimed credit for a previous truce that was broken earlier this month when the border conflict reignited.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the eventual outcome “FAST & DECISIVE, as all of these situations should be!”.

He added that Washington, which has been involved in mediation efforts along with China and Malaysia, was “proud to help”.

Ahead of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later on Sunday, Trump lauded his self-proclaimed role in ending world conflicts, saying “perhaps the United States has become the REAL United Nations”.

“The United Nations must start getting active and involved in WORLD PEACE!”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire on Saturday, calling on both sides to “immediately honour this commitment”.

At least 47 people were killed and more than a million displaced in three weeks of fighting that spread to nearly every border province on both sides, according to official tallies.

Announcing their agreement on Saturday, Thailand and Cambodia pledged to cease fire, freeze troop movements, and allow civilians living in border areas to return home as soon as possible.

Following the truce, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi is hosting the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers for two days of talks that began Sunday.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-president-donald-trump-congratulates-thailand-cambodia-leaders-ceasefire-5725546

Campaigners, Western diplomats and the UN’s rights chief have all condemned the phased month-long vote, citing a ballot stacked with military allies and a stark crackdown on dissent.

A trickle of voters made their way to Myanmar’s heavily restricted polls on Sunday, with the ruling junta touting the exercise as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering civil war.

Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and was not taking part.

Campaigners, Western diplomats and the UN’s rights chief have all condemned the phased month-long vote, citing a ballot stacked with military allies and a stark crackdown on dissent.

The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party is widely expected to emerge as the largest one, in what critics say would be a rebranding of martial rule.

The Southeast Asian nation of around 50 million is riven by civil war, and there will be no voting in rebel-held areas.

In junta-controlled territory, the first of three rounds started at 6:00 am (2330 GMT Saturday), including in constituencies in the cities of Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyidaw.

“The election is very important and will bring the best for the country,” said Bo Saw, the first voter at a polling station in Yangon’s Kamayut Township near Aung San Suu Kyi’s vacant home.

“The first priority should be restoring a safe and peaceful situation,” the 63-year-old told AFP.

Slow start

Snaking queues of voters formed outside polling stations in the last election in 2020, which the military declared void a few months later when it ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power.

But this time journalists and polling staff outnumbered early voters at a downtown station near the gleaming Sule Pagoda — the site of huge pro-democracy protests after the coup.

Among a trickle of early voters, 45-year-old Swe Maw dismissed international criticism.

“It’s not an important matter,” he said. “There are always people who like and dislike.”

In total only around 100 people voted at the two stations during their first hour of operation, according to an AFP tally.

The run-up saw none of the feverish public rallies that Aung San Suu Kyi once commanded, and the junta has waged a withering pre-vote offensive to claw back territory.

“It is impossible for this election to be free and fair,” said Moe Moe Myint, who has spent the past two months “on the run” from junta air strikes.

“How can we support a junta-run election when this military has destroyed our lives?” she told AFP from a village in the central Mandalay region.

“We are homeless, hiding in jungles, and living between life and death,” said the 40-year-old.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has not responded to AFP requests for interview, but has consistently framed the polls as a path to reconciliation.

Electronic voting

The military ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history, before a 10-year interlude saw a civilian government take the reins in a burst of optimism and reform.

But after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party trounced pro-military opponents in the 2020 elections, Min Aung Hlaing snatched power in a coup, alleging widespread voter fraud.

Aung San Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence for charges rights groups dismiss as politically motivated.

“I don’t think she would consider these elections to be meaningful in any way,” her son Kim Aris said from his home in Britain.

Most parties from the 2020 vote, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s, have since been dissolved.

The Asian Network for Free Elections says 90 percent of the seats in the last elections went to organisations that do not appear on Sunday’s ballots.

New electronic voting machines will not allow write-in candidates or spoiled ballots.

‘Repression’

The junta is pursuing prosecutions against more than 200 people for violating draconian legislation forbidding “disruption” of the poll, including protest or criticism.

“These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said last week.

The second round of polling will take place in two weeks before the third and final round on January 25, but the junta has conceded elections cannot happen in almost one in five lower house constituencies.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/myanmar-junta-holds-elections-after-5-years-of-civil-war-with-aung-san-suu-kyi-in-jail-10040041?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The talks will address a plan that would stop the war along its current front lines and could require Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, allowing the creation of demilitarised buffer zones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sit down Sunday (Dec 28) with Donald Trump and seek to secure the US president’s stamp of approval for a new proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia.

The 20-point plan, which emerged from weeks of intense US-Ukraine negotiations, lacks Moscow’s approval, and the face-to-face in Florida comes in the wake of a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv.

The meeting, hosted by Trump at his opulent Mar-a-Lago residence, will be the pair’s first in-person encounter since October, when the US president refused to grant Zelenskyy’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles.

During a stopover in Canada on Saturday, Zelenskyy said he hoped the talks would be “very constructive” and said Russian leader Vladimir Putin had shown his hand with the latest assault on the Ukrainian capital.

“This attack is again, Russia’s answer on our peace efforts. And this really showed that Putin doesn’t want peace,” he said.

EUROPEANS VOW SUPPORT

While in Canada, Zelenskyy held a conference call with European leaders who, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, pledged their full support for his peace efforts.

Russia has accused Ukraine and its European backers of trying to “torpedo” a previous US-brokered plan to stop the fighting.

EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, who participated in the conference call, said the European Union’s backing for Ukraine would never falter and vowed to maintain pressure on the Kremlin to come to terms.

Trump has so far been non-committal on the new peace proposal.

Zelenskyy “doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” the president said in an interview with Politico on Friday. “So we’ll see what he’s got.”

The talks will address a plan that would stop the war along its current front lines and could require Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, allowing the creation of demilitarised buffer zones.

As such, it contains Kyiv’s most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions.

But it does not envisage Ukraine withdrawing from the 20 per cent of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls – Russia’s main territorial demand.

Trump has made ending the Ukraine and Gaza wars the centerpiece of his self-proclaimed second term as a “president of peace”.

But the Ukraine war has, by his own admission, proved far harder than he expected, and the president has repeatedly voiced his frustration with both sides for failing to secure a truce.

SECURITY GUARANTEES

In Canada, Zelenskyy told reporters that security guarantees would be a key focus of the talks in Florida.

“Security guarantees must be simultaneous with the end of the war, because we must be confident that Russia will not start aggression again,” he stressed.

“We need strong security guarantees. We will discuss this and we will discuss the terms.”

Ukraine insists it needs more European and US support in terms of funding and weaponry – especially drones.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/zelenskyy-trump-peace-deal-talks-ukraine-russia-war-5725036

A ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia has come into effect along the border, where almost three weeks of deadly clashes have forced nearly one million people from their homes.

In a joint statement, the defence ministers of the two countries agreed to freeze the front lines where they are now, ban reinforcements and allow civilians living in border areas to return as soon as possible.

The ceasefire took effect at noon local time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday. Once it has been in place for 72 hours, 18 Cambodian soldiers held by Thailand since July will be released, the statement said.

The breakthrough came after days of talks between the two countries, with diplomatic encouragement from China and the US.

The agreement prioritises getting the displaced back to their homes, and also includes an agreement to remove landmines.

Thailand’s Defence Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit described the ceasefire as a test for the “other party’s sincerity”.

“Should the ceasefire fail to materialise or be violated, Thailand retains its legitimate right to self-defence under international law,” he told reporters.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said he hopes the ceasefire will “pave the way” for peace, while an EU spokesperson urged “good faith” in its implementation.

Thailand had been reluctant to accept the ceasefire, saying the last one was not properly implemented. They also resented what they saw as Cambodia’s efforts to internationalise the conflict.

Unlike the last ceasefire in July, US President Donald Trump was conspicuously absent from this one, although the US State Department was involved.

That ceasefire agreement collapsed earlier this month, when fresh clashes erupted. Both sides blamed each other for the breakdown of the truce.

The Thai army said its troops had responded to Cambodian fire in Thailand’s Si Sa Ket province, in which two Thai soldiers were injured.

Cambodia’s defence ministry said it was Thai forces that had attacked first, in Preah Vihear province, and insisted that Cambodia did not retaliate.

Clashes have continued throughout December. On Friday, Thailand carried out more air strikes inside Cambodia.

The Thai Air Force said it had hit a Cambodian “fortified military position” after civilians had left the area. Cambodia’s defence ministry said the strikes were “indiscriminate attacks” against civilian houses.

How well the ceasefire holds this time depends to a large extent on political will. Nationalist sentiment has been inflamed in both countries.

Cambodia, in particular, has lost many soldiers and a lot of its military equipment. It has been driven back from positions it held on the border, and suffered extensive damage from the Thai air strikes, grievances which could make a lasting peace harder to achieve.

Disagreement over the border dates back more than a century, but tension increased early this year after a group of Cambodian women sang patriotic songs in a disputed temple.

A Cambodian soldier was killed in a clash in May, and two months later, in July, there were five days of intense fighting along the border, which left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead. Thousands more civilians were displaced.

Following intervention by Malaysia and President Trump, a fragile ceasefire was negotiated between the two countries, and signed in late October.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q5je8048xo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the recognition had been extended “in the spirit of Abraham Accords”.

Israel became the first country to formally recognise the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, triggering backlash from nations in the Horn of Africa.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the recognition had been extended “in the spirit of Abraham Accords”, and on the initiative of United States President Donald Trump. The 2020 Abraham Accords had been brokered by the US administration during Trump’s first term. It included Israel formalising diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with other countries joining later, Reuters reported.

“I announced today the official recognition of the Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state. Together with Foreign Minister Sa’ar and the President of the Republic of Somaliland, we signed a joint and mutual declaration,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.

The Israeli PM said he had congratulated Dr Abdirahman Mohamed Abdallah, the President of Somaliland, and “praised his leadership and commitment to promoting stability and peace.” Netanyahu also invited Abdallah for an official visit to Israel.

The Israeli PM said the country plans to immediately expand its relations with Somaliland “through extensive cooperation in the fields of agriculture, health, technology, and economy.”

Significance of Israel’s formal recognition, backlash from nations

Israel’s decision to formally recognise Somaliland could reshape regional dynamics, and test Somalia’s opposition to its secession, Reuters reported.

While Somaliland has enjoyed effective autonomy and relative peace and stability since 1991, but had failed to receive recognition from any other country.

The move to recognise the country comes after reports emerged that Somaliland was among several countries who were in talks with Israel over the potential resettlement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, according to the Times of Israel.

However, Somalia and Somaliland had denied receiving any proposal from Israel or US for the alleged resettlement, Reuters reported. Mogadishu categorically denied any such proposal.

After Israel’s recognition, Egypt said the country’s foreign minister Badr Abdelatty had held phone calls with his counterparts from Somalia, Turkey and Djibouti on Friday. Abdelatty discussed what the countries described as dangerous developments in the Horn of Africa, according to the Reuters report.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/israel-first-country-to-recognise-somaliland-why-is-it-significant-101766763987683.html

Japan is seeking to bolster its defense capabilities in the face of “the most severe” security environment since the end of World War II.

The Japanese Cabinet on Friday approved a record budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The 122.3-trillion-yen ($782 billion) budget will include more than 9 trillion yen for defense, setting an all-time record.

This comes as Tokyo looks to strengthen its coastal defense due to the rising tensions in the region, while seeking to double its spending on weapons to 2% of its gross domestic product.

The draft budget for 2026, which will officially begin in April and still requires the parliament’s approval, is up 9.4% from 2025.

Why is Japan increasing its defense budget?

The Japanese government pledged to reach its 2% goal by March, two years earlier than planned, also due to pressure from its ally the US.

A briefing document by the Japanese Defense Ministry states that Tokyo “faces the most severe and complex security environment” since the end of the Second World War, adding the situations required to “fundamentally strengthen” its defense capabilities.

Due to Japan’s struggles with manning its military, the country sees unmanned weapons as essential to its defense efforts, with drones playing a vital role.

To ensure quick weapons procurement, Tokyo plans on relying on imports, potentially from allies Turkey or Israel.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/japan-cabinet-approves-record-defense-budget-to-deter-china/a-75307361

Right-wing activist Matt Forney has issued alarming warnings about potential violence against the Indian community in the US in 2026 and suggested they all must be deported back to India.

Right-wing activist and American Journalist Matt Forney has warned of targeted attacks against members of the Indian community and on Hindu temples in 2026 in the United States. Under the argument that he is someone who wants peace, Forney pushed his propaganda that all members of the Indian origin should be deported back to the India.

Matt Forney is an infamous American journalist for his anti-immigrant stance and has been fired from the job for making hateful remarks targeted against the Indian community residing in the United States.

In his latest post, Matt Forney took to X, formerly Twitter, and suggested that the United States must “deport every Indian”.

Issuing a threat to Indian origin people in the US, Forney warned that in 2026, the hatred towards them (Indian-origin people) may reach a boiling point that would put their homes, businesses, temple far more vulnerable to violent attacks like mass shootings and bombings.

Boasting himself as someone who wants peace, Forney said that all Indian-Americans should be deported back to India to save their lives and preserve harmony in United States.

In his now deleted X post, Matt Forney said, “In 2026, Indian hatred will hit a boiling point in the form of anti-Indian attacks. Indians will be racially singled out for violence, Indian-owned businesses will be vandalised, Hindu temples will be hit with bombings and mass shootings. The perpetrators will be black, Latino, or Pakistani, not white, which will lead the media to cover up hate crimes they would otherwise eagerly blame on MAGA and Trump, like how the “anti-Asian” hate crimes at the beginning of COVID were shushed up when it was discovered that blacks, not whites, were assaulting Asians.”

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/deport-all-indians-from-united-states-us-journalist-matt-forney-targets-indian-community-in-racist-hateful-post-on-x-article-153354107

Poland scrambled fighter jets on Thursday (Dec 25) to intercept a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying near its airspace over the Baltic Sea, while also reporting that dozens of objects crossed into Polish airspace overnight from neighbouring Belarus.

The Polish armed forces said the Russian aircraft was intercepted over international waters, visually identified and escorted away from Poland’s area of responsibility, adding that the incident occurred close to the country’s airspace boundary.

The developments come during the Christmas holiday period, with Polish authorities warning the timing and scale of the incidents could point to a deliberate provocation.

POLAND WARNS OF POSSIBLE PROVOCATION

Poland’s National Security Bureau said several dozen objects entered Polish airspace from the Belarusian side overnight, with four identified so far as likely smuggling balloons.

“The mass nature of the violation of Polish airspace, its occurrence during the special holiday season, the assessment of the Russian aircraft’s activity in the Baltic Sea, and the fact that similar incidents have recently occurred in Lithuania, may indicate that this was a provocation disguised as a smuggling operation,” the bureau said in a statement.

Countries on NATO’s eastern flank have been on heightened alert over potential airspace incursions since September, when three Russian military jets violated Estonia’s airspace for about 12 minutes, shortly after more than 20 Russian drones were detected entering Polish airspace.

SMUGGLING BALLOONS AND REGIONAL TENSIONS

Smuggling balloons launched from Belarus have repeatedly disrupted air traffic in neighbouring Lithuania, at times forcing temporary airport closures in Vilnius.

Lithuanian authorities say the balloons are used by smugglers transporting cigarettes and describe them as part of a “hybrid attack” by Belarus, a close ally of Russia. Belarus has denied responsibility.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/poland-intercepts-russian-aircraft-over-baltic-reports-multiple-airspace-breaches-belarus-5709271

Donald Trump said US forces conducted “powerful and deadly” strikes against Islamic State in Nigeria for killing Christians in the country.

President Donald Trump said US forces conducted “powerful and deadly” strikes Thursday against Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria, after he warned the group to stop killing Christians in the country.

The Department of Defense said “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in an attack conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities, but few details were provided.

The strikes hit IS targets on Christmas Day, according to Trump.

“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“May God Bless our Military,” he said, adding provocatively, “MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”

US Africa Command said in an X post that it conducted a strike “at the request of Nigerian authorities in (Sokoto state) killing multiple ISIS terrorists.”

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth also took to X to praise his department’s readiness to take action in Nigeria, and said he was “grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation.”

The attacks mark the first by US forces in Nigeria under Trump, and come after the Republican leader unexpectedly berated the west African nation in October and November, saying Christians there faced an “existential threat” that amounted to “genocide” amid Nigeria’s myriad armed conflicts.

The diplomatic offensive was welcomed by some but interpreted by others as inflaming religious tensions in Africa’s most populous country, which has seen bouts of sectarian violence in the past.

Nigeria’s government and independent analysts reject framing the country’s violence in terms of religious persecution — a narrative long used by the Christian right in the United States and Europe.

But Trump, spotlighting what his administration says is global persecution of Christians, stressed that Washington was ready to take military action in Nigeria to counter such killings.

The United States this year placed Nigeria back on the list of countries of “particular concern” regarding religious freedom, and has restricted the issuance of visas to Nigerians.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-launches-strikes-against-isis-terrorists-in-nigeria-donald-trump-9966992?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Christmas Eve Mass as pontiff, as Christians flocked to Bethlehem after “two years of darkness” during the war in Gaza. Follow for the latest Christmas news.

Two weeks after Australia’s social media ban for children under 16 took effect, debate continues over how effective and enforceable the new law will be.

It is the start of summer holidays in Australia and school is out.

For many teenagers, that usually means spending more time online. For 15-year-old Amber Hunter, social media was the main way she stayed connected with friends during the holidays.

But a new law that came into effect two weeks ago has changed that. It bans Australians under the age of 16 from major social media platforms including TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

Amber said she used to “doomscroll” through social media excessively – referring to the habit of endlessly scrolling through online content.

“Like TikTok, I (used to use) most days. Snapchat as well. I used that every morning to check what’s going on, where my friends are and talk to them,” she told CNA.

“A lot of us don’t like (the new law). I know a lot of people are annoyed by it. Everything that I (used to) search for … things that I enjoy, they’re not going to be there anymore.”

Still, Amber admits the ban may have some upside – she hopes it will help her spend less time scrolling and more time on hobbies like dancing and reading.

Her mother Lindsay Hunter is broadly supportive of the move, saying it eases the burden on parents.

“(It) makes parenting much easier. It takes away those arguments you have to have. It takes away the risks,” she said. “If the government can do (that for parents) or the apps can do it, then that’s great,” she said.

But she also has doubts about how effective the law will be, saying that so far, the changes appear limited.

“I don’t know how they’re going to police it. How can you really tell that she’s (Amber’s) only 15?” she asked.

“Nothing’s changed on my apps yet, except getting certain scans. The kids who look young have been taken off, (but) anyone who can get past those verification scans are still on the apps. I find it hard to believe that it will work.”

BAN IS WORLD’S FIRST

Australia on Dec 10 became the first country in the world to ban social media for children.

Under the nationwide law, 10 of the biggest platforms are required to block users under 16 years of age, or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$33 million).

Firms must enforce stringent age verification measures such as identity checks or facial scanning to comply with the new rules.

Platforms are using a mix of methods to determine users’ ages, including age inference based on online activity, age estimation through selfies, and official documents such as identification cards or bank account details.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the aim is to protect children and take back control from big technology companies.

The government said it understands the challenges but insists young Australians must be shielded from online harms such as cyberbullying, body image issues, grooming and addictive algorithms.

While the ban has broad public support, concerns have been raised about data privacy, freedom of expression and the risk of online harms moving to less regulated spaces.

UNDER GLOBAL SCRUTINY

Ross Tapsell, a researcher at the Australian National University, said the debate itself is already having a positive impact.

“The immediate benefit (is that) people are talking about the role that social media is having on young people,” the associate professor told CNA.

“From my experiences talking to university students, even at 18 or 19 years old, students are not necessarily able to critically reflect on the impact that social media has on their lives.”

However, he cautioned that government regulation could overreach, warning that overly strict enforcement could lead to unintended consequences.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/australia-social-media-ban-children-under16s-school-holidays-5702676

President Donald Trump flew on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported,” according to an email from a New York prosecutor that forms part of a new batch of documents about Epstein released Tuesday by the U.S. Justice Department.
In an email dated January 7, 2020, the unidentified prosecutor wrote that flight records showed Trump had flown on Epstein’s private jet eight times during the 1990s. Among those were at least four flights on which Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was also aboard. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping late financier Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

In a social media post in 2024, Trump said he “was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island.” There was no allegation in the prosecutor’s email that Trump had committed any crime. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the email.
On one flight described in the newly released records, the only three passengers were Epstein, Trump and a 20-year-old woman whose name was redacted. “On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case,” the document stated.
Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. Trump has said their association ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of the financier’s sexual abuse. Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. The Justice Department charged him with sex trafficking in 2019.

The Department of Justice posted a statement on X saying: “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.
“Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims,” it said.
The latest release of Epstein files includes around 30,000 pages of documents, with many redactions, and dozens of video clips, including several purporting to be shot inside a federal detention center. Epstein was found dead in 2019 in a New York jail. His death was ruled a suicide.

In another email, an unidentified person wrote in 2021 that they had recently been looking through data the government obtained from former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s cellphone and found an “image of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell.” The government redacted parts of the message indicating who sent and received it.
Another file in the government’s release included a grainy photo of Trump seated next to Maxwell. It matches an image of the two at a New York fashion show in 2000.
The disclosures included a scattering of other records that reference Trump, though they give little indication that the government considered them to be credible.

Among them was an image of a card purporting to be from Epstein to Larry Nassar, a former gymnastics doctor who was convicted of sexually abusing girls under his care. A handwritten message in the card referenced Trump without using his name.
The Justice Department later labeled the card a “fake” and said it will continue to release Epstein file documents as required by law.
The government also disclosed several reports of phone calls to an FBI tip line that reference Trump, though they did not identify the people who made the calls or give an indication of whether investigators followed up on the calls or found them to be credible.
One caller claimed that he had driven a limousine for Trump in 1995 and overheard him making a phone call in the back in which he addressed someone as “Jeffrey” and at one point mentioned abusing a girl.
The government Tuesday also released a video that purports to show Epstein kneeling inside his jail cell, but a Reuters examination found it appears to be a computer-generated clip that first surfaced on social media in 2020, a year after his death. It was submitted to the Justice Department by a person who said it purported to show Epstein’s death, according to an email also released on Tuesday.

TRANSPARENCY LAW

The Trump administration last week published a large cache of Epstein files in an attempt to comply with a new law forcing disclosure on the politically fraught topic.
However, the releases on Friday and Saturday contained extensive redactions, angering some Republicans and doing little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of 2026 midterm elections.
On Monday, Trump downplayed the importance of the Epstein files. Speaking to reporters, he said the material was “just used to deflect against tremendous success” by him and his fellow Republicans.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-department-releases-new-tranche-epstein-files-2025-12-23/

A PROTECTIVE dome which stops radiation leaking from Chernobyl could collapse after it was hit by a Russian drone.

The director of the defunct nuclear power plant has warned that the shelter is now at risk of falling down completely.

Chernobyl director Sergiy Tarakanov said that a further Russian hit could even knock down the inner protective shell.

Tarakanov said: “If a missile or drone hits it directly, or even falls somewhere nearby, for example, an Iskander, God forbid, it will cause a mini-earthquake in the area.

“No one can guarantee that the shelter facility will remain standing after that. That is the main threat.”

The shelter was built to contain radiation from reactor four, which exploded in 1986, causing the world’s worst nuclear meltdown.

But a Russian drone strike hit the dome on February 14 this year, inflicting serious damage.

The attack punched a hole in the radiation shield, leading to fears of a radiation leak.

Director Tarakanov warned that fully re-building the shelter could take three to four years.

The hole from the drone hit has been covered with a protective layer, he said.

But the plant director warned that there are still 300 smaller holes in the shelter, made by firefighters as they tackled the blaze.

Tarakanov added that current radiation levels at the site are “stable and within normal limits”.

It comes after fears at the start of this month that radiation would leak through the damaged dome.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the protective cover had “lost its primary safety functions”.

The February hit punched a hole in the dome, triggering a warning from the IAEA.

Rafael Grossi, IAEA director general, said some repairs had been carried out “but comprehensive restoration remains essential to prevent further degradation and ensure long-term nuclear safety”.

The UN said in February that there had been no reports of radiation leaks and that levels remained stable and normal.

The shelter was designed to arch over a concrete sarcophagus, further sealing off radiation and allowing the safe dismantling of the reactor beneath.

It also acts as a containment zone to trap radioactive dust, using negative pressure and a sealed membrane.

But the outer shelter was never built to withstand the force of a brutal Russian attack.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15685231/russian-strike-collapse-chernobyl-shelter-radiation-leak-fears/

President Trump revealed that he does not like the Justice Department’s release of embarrassing photos of a half-naked Bill Clinton swimming with late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein’s madam, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“No, I don’t like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown,” he told reporters Monday. “I don’t like the pictures of other people being shown. I think it’s a terrible thing.”

“But you probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago.”

The DOJ has been forced to release the Epstein files due to a law Trump signed last month amid mounting political pressure. The Epstein Files Transparency Act had cleared the House and Senate nearly unanimously, with only one vote against it.

The law gave the DOJ a deadline of Dec. 19 — last Friday — to release all the files with redactions to protect the notorious pedophile’s victims.

While the Trump administration released thousands of pages of files, many more remain sealed, and top officials have said they will be released on a rolling basis.

One of the headline-making disclosures was the photo of Clinton in a jacuzzi with Maxwell. Another picture showed him next to Epstein and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.

Notably, the disclosures had few new images of Trump. There was one photo of him in a batch on Friday that the DOJ scrubbed from its website due to concerns from several of Epstein’s victims, according to US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Clinton’s team fired back at the Trump administration, highlighting how there’s a deluge of documents still outstanding.

“What the Department of Justice has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected,” Clinton’s rep Angel Ureña needled Trump in a statement.

“We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/12/22/us-news/trump-decries-the-release-of-embarrassing-pics-of-bill-clinton-with-jeffrey-epstein/

Thailand and Cambodia will resume talks later this week to work toward a more durable ceasefire along their border, Thailand’s foreign minister said Monday, stressing that progress depends on detailed bilateral negotiations rather than public declarations that internationalize the dispute.

A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by U.S. President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said Monday after an Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

While Cambodia has publicy said it is ready for an unconditional ceasefire, Bangkok never received any direct proposal and Thailand believed such statements were aimed at increasing international pressure rather than resolving the issue, Sihasak said following the meeting that was arranged to seek ways to end the crisis.

The general border committee involving both nations will meet Wednesday to iron out detailed measures toward a lasting ceasefire, he said.

“This time, let’s thrash out the details and make sure the ceasefire reflect the situation on the ground and the ceasefire is one that really holds, and both sides are going to fully respect the ceasefire,” Sihasak told a news conference.

The border conflict escalated into deadly combat two weeks ago and derailed the agreement promoted by Trump, which ended five days of fighting in July. The agreement was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through under pressure from Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. The ceasefire was formalized with more detail at an October regional summit in Malaysia attended by Trump.

The fighting has drawn international concern. The U.S. Department of State on Sunday released a statement calling for Thailand and Cambodia to “end hostilities, withdraw heavy weapons, cease emplacement of landmines, and fully implement the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords, which include mechanisms to accelerate humanitarian demining and address border issues.”

The fighting is a result of a dispute over patches of territory claimed by both nations along their shared border.

The latest round of fighting began Dec. 8, a day after a border skirmish wounded two Thai soldiers. Since then combat has broken out on several fronts, with Thailand carrying out airstrikes in Cambodia with F-16 fighter jets and Cambodia firing thousands of medium-range BM-21 rockets from truck-mounted launchers that can launch up to 40 rockets simultaneously.

More than three dozen people on both sides of the border have officially been reported killed in the past week of fighting, while more than half a million have been displaced, according to officials.

Under the October truce Thailand was to to release 18 Cambodian soldiers held prisoner and both sides were to begin removing heavy weapons and land mines along the border. But the two countries have carried on a bitter propaganda war with minor cross-border violence.

Land mine explosions have been a particularly sensitive issue for Thailand, which has lodged several protests after alleging Cambodia laid new mines that wounded soldiers patrolling the frontier. Cambodia insists the mines were remnants of its decades-long civil war, which ended in 1999.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/thailand-cambodia-border-conflict-malaysia-asean-meeting-f1c7ff58bd8c59a7e3bbd506a0af9729

“Kablooey!”

That’s the word U.S. Geological Survey volcanic experts used to describe a muddy eruption at Black Diamond Pool in Yellowstone National Park on Saturday morning.

Video shared by the USGS on social media shows mud spraying up and out from the pool just before 9:23 a.m. in Biscuit Basin about midway between park favorites Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic.

Other recent eruptions have mostly been audible and not visible, because they happened either at night or when the camera was obscured by ice.

The agency said the Black Diamond Pool was previously the site of a hydrothermal explosion, in July 2024, that sent rocks and mud flying hundreds of feet high and damaged a boardwalk. It prompted the closure of the area to visitors due to the damage and the potential for additional hazardous activity.

So-called dirty eruptions reaching up to 40 feet (about 12 meters) have occurred sporadically since then.

Researchers installed a new camera and a seismic and acoustic monitoring station this summer, and they say the instruments, along with temperature sensors maintained by the Yellowstone National Park Geology Program, can better detect and characterize the eruptions.

The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory webcam at Black Diamond Pool didn’t disappoint Saturday.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/yellowstone-muddy-eruption-biscuit-basin-ddf4429e17c0a900fe29654ba4dbd73e

THE horrifying scale of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual depravity has been exposed, with newly-released phone messages revealing his twisted interest in girls as young as 14.

Handwritten notes taken by staff at Epstein’s Florida mansion were published by the US government this weekend after Friday’s initial tranche of files related to the disgraced billionaire were released.

The messages include chilling phrases such as “I have a female for him” and “[caller] has girl for tonight”.

One note also refers to Donald Trump attempting to call Epstein at his Palm Beach home.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the US president.

The messages were shown by an FBI special agent to a federal grand jury in New York in June 2019, less than two months before the notorious paedophile was found dead aged 66.

Epstein died in a prison cell while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking offences.

Other material released in the first batch includes an unusual picture showing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor sprawled across the laps of five women as Ghislaine Maxwell laughs along.

The image was taken at the Sandringham royal estate, with details matching the saloon room.

The files also reveal how Epstein pulled Maxwell out of a “dark depression” after meeting the British socialite following the death of her father, newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell.

Victims and US Democrats voiced fury after only a fraction of the Epstein files were released on time, with many documents heavily redacted.

Trump, who opposed publication of the files for years, left the White House for a 16-day Christmas break in Florida without comment.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are quizzing Attorney General Pam Bondi on why a photograph from the release, “File 468”, featuring Trump and shared on Friday, had since been removed.

It was unclear in the first instance if any grand jury proceedings would be released as they are strictly confidential in nature.

But US District Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that the court docs must be released in line with the Epstein Transparency Act.

Documents unsealed from those proceedings on Saturday contained distressing new evidence with much more context to them.

Details of a 14-year-old girl who visited Epstein’s Manhattan pad “dozens” of time was included in data set six as part of an FBI agent’s testimony at the 2019 federal case against Maxwell

She had dropped out of school and another teen had told the girl “she could make money if she massaged this rich guy”.

The agent added: “Things progressed each time she went.

“She would have to massage him while she was in her panties or without underwear or without any clothes on.

“And then eventually he would touch her.”

The vile predator then performed a graphic sex act on the girl he knew to be only 14 and who was paid $300 for each trip to his mansion.

The documents include testimony describing how a girl spoke about the library in Epstein’s Manhattan lair, where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has previously stayed, saying it “looked like it was something out of [Disney film] Beauty and the Beast“.

Another piece of testimony from the agent reveals how Epstein and Maxwell befriended a 13-year-old girl at a summer camp in 1994 at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.

The sex trafficking pair swooped in on her while she was eating with friends at a picnic table.

Eventually, Epstein managed to sway the girl’s mother with boastful claims that he “gives scholarships” and “likes to mentor people”, according to the agent.

After wooing the girl to their Palm Beach pad, the sick duo began their grooming routine.

Epstein discovered the girl wanted to become a model and actress, and claimed to be “best friends” with the Victoria’s Secret owner – a line he used frequently with girls who shared that ambition.

The agent alleged that Epstein then pulled the teen onto his lap, exposed himself and sexually abused her.

The grand jury documents also paint Maxwell as his enforcer, telling one girl she would “get in trouble” if she didn’t give the monster his daily massage in an attempt to guilt her.

She was also accused of groping the underage girls herself during massage instructions, and parading topless around the pool area of the estate.

Comments made during the grand jury trial in 2007 reveal that Epstein would turn his less susceptible victims into recruiters, shelling out $200 per girl procured.

One such accuser added that the billionaire paedo was unyielding about the age of the girls, saying: “There were a few girls he wasn’t crazy about.

“He didn’t favor [redacted] for instance, 23, he thought she was kind of too old.

“The more you did is the more you make. Basically, the more clothes that come off, the more you let him touch you, the more you just let him have his way with you is the more that you would make, otherwise, you would be demoted down to bringing girls over and just making money that way.”

Another 14-year-old introduced to Epstein through her 17-year-old boyfriend was coaxed into massaging the paedo in a lewd massage room fitted with cameras.

She began bringing more victims and was promised “she could earn more money” if “she could bring younger girls”.

The recruiters would receive lavish gifts on top of their $300 fee paid in “crisp $100 bills“.

These presents included flowers, Victoria’s Secret lingerie and a Massage for Dummies book, according to the FBI agent.

Jurors were also shown phone messages taken by an assistant at Epstein’s Florida home in 2004 and 2005.

One message from an unidentified caller reads: “She had female for Mr JE.”

Another states: “Wondering if you would want her to work tomorrow and at what time.”

The FBI agent told jurors that “work” was a euphemism for sex.

A third message refers to a girl cancelling an appointment, adding: “She would like to speak to you. I believe about college.”

Most caller identities have been blacked out in the logs.

Trump’s name appears in one note from 2004, though no message was recorded.

British supermodel Naomi Campbell is also named in the files.

An email logged by Epstein’s staff on November 4, 2005, reads: “Hello, Naomi here. Would like to know when I can speak to Jeffery [sic], regarding my swimsuit line… I have pics and some of the suits with me. Hope all is well.”

Campbell has previously branded Epstein’s behaviour “indefensible”, saying: “When I heard what he had done, it sickened me to my stomach … I stand with the victims.”

Trump and Epstein once moved in the same elite circles before falling out.

While the US president resisted releasing the Epstein files for years, he backed a Congressional vote last month calling for the documents to be made public.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15674366/epstein-files-reveal-women-young-14/

Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were found guilty of corruption in relation to selling state gifts. The ruling is the latest legal setback for the former prime minister, who has been jailed since 2023.

The court’s decision is the latest setback for Khan, who has been accused in multiple cases since he was ousted in 2022.

Khan, who is 73, has been in prison since 2023. He denies the charges, accusing Pakistani authorities of politically persecuting him.

What was the case against Khan and his wife?

Khan and Bibi were found guilty of retaining, selling and underpricing state gifts while the former prime minister was in office.

The gifts they were accused of selling at vastly reduced prices included jewelry from the Saudi Arabian government.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented a jewellery set made by the Italian luxury brand Bulgari to Khan and his wife in May 2021.

Prosecutors said Khan and his wife had said the value of the gifts was just over $10,000, well short of their real market value of $285,521 (€243,780).

According to Pakistani law, government officials and politicians are allowed to keep gifts received from foreign dignitaries if they are under a certain value. To keep the gifts, they must purchase them at market value and declare the proceeds from any sale.

Khan and Bibi were sentenced to 10 years for criminal breach of trust and seven years for corruption.

Saturday’s sentencing is separate from an earlier case against the couple. In that case, Khan and his wife were sentenced to 14 and seven years, respectively.

What has been the reaction to Khan’s sentencing?

Khan’s lawyer, Salman Safdar, has said the couple will appeal the ruling.

A spokesperson for Khan, Zulfiquar Bukhari, slammed the sentence, which he said “raises serious questions about the fairness and impartiality of the process, turning justice into a tool for selective prosecution.”

Khan’s party, the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), also condemned the ruling.

In a statement, it called the decision “a black chapter in history.”

In a post on X, the party said Khan’s family had been barred from the court when the verdict was announced at the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-sentences-former-prime-minister-imran-khan-wife-bushra-bibi-to-17-years-in-prison/a-75253492

The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers.

At least 16 files disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein – including a photograph showing President Donald Trump – less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.

The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Justice Department did not say why the files were removed or whether their disappearance was intentional. A spokesperson for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Online, the unexplained missing files fueled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”

The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions.

Some of the most consequential records expected about Epstein are nowhere to be found in the Justice Department’s initial disclosures, which span tens of thousands of pages.

Missing are FBI interviews with survivors and internal Justice Department memos examining charging decisions – records that could have helped explain how investigators viewed the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead guilty to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.

The gaps go further.

The records, required to be released under a recent law passed by Congress, hardly reference several powerful figures long associated with Epstein, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions about who was scrutinized, who was not, and how much the disclosures truly advance public accountability

Among the fresh nuggets: insight into the Justice Department’s decision to abandon an investigation into Epstein in the 2000s, which enabled him to plead guilty to that state-level charge, and a previously unseen 1996 complaint accusing Epstein of stealing photographs of children.

The releases so far have been heavy on images of Epstein’s homes in New York City and the US Virgin Islands, with some photos of celebrities and politicians.

There was a series of never-before-seen photos of former President Bill Clinton but fleetingly few of Trump. Both have been associated with Epstein, but both have since disowned those friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and there was no indication the photos played a role in the criminal cases brought against him.

Despite a Friday deadline set by Congress to make everything public, the Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring survivors’ names and other identifying information. The department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.

That approach angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the law forced the department to act. Instead of marking the end of a yearslong battle for transparency, the document release Friday was merely the beginning of an indefinite wait for a complete picture of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to investigate them.

“I feel like again the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” said Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York City mansion when she was 14.

Federal prosecutors in New York brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail after his arrest.

The documents just made public were a sliver of potentially millions of pages records in the department’s possession. In one example, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, though many duplicated material already turned over by the FBI.

Many of the records released so far had been made public in court filings, congressional releases or freedom of information requests, though, for the first time, they were all in one place and available for the public to search for free.

Ones that were new were often lacking necessary context or heavily blacked out. A 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY,” likely from one of the federal sex trafficking investigations that led to the charges against Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was entirely blacked out.

Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton images, including photos of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There were also photos of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. But none of the photos had captions and was no explanation given for why any of them were together.

The meatiest records released so far showed that federal prosecutors had what appeared to be a strong case against Epstein in 2007 yet never charged him.

Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, released publicly for the first time, included testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.

One had told investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances during a massage.

Another, then 21, testified before the grand jury about how Epstein had hired her when she was 16 to perform a sexual massage and how she had gone on to recruit other girls to do the same.

“For every girl that I brought to the table he would give me $200,” she said. They were mostly people she knew from high school, she said. “I also told them that if they are under age, just lie about it and tell him that you are 18.”

The documents also contain a transcript of an interview Justice Department lawyers did more than a decade later with the U.S. attorney who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his ultimate decision not to bring federal charges.

Acosta, who was labor secretary during Trump’s first term, cited concerns about whether a jury would believe Epstein’s accusers.

He also said the Justice Department might have been more reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the legal border between sex trafficking and soliciting prostitution, something more commonly handled by state prosecutors.

“I’m not saying it was the right view,” Acosta added. He also said that the public today would likely view the survivors differently.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-donald-trumps-pic-among-16-epstein-files-disappeared-from-us-justice-department-website-jeffrey-epstein-documents-9856705?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

US officials said the strikes were aimed at IS targets, not the Syrian state, in retaliation for an attack which killed two American servicemen and an interpreter last week.

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for the Middle East, said on social media that US forces “have commenced a large-scale strike against ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites in Syria.”

Syrian state television reported that strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces as well as in the Jabal al-Amour area near Palmyra.

It said they targeted “weapons storage sites and headquarters used by IS as launching points for its operations in the region.”

A Pentagon official told the Associated Press that the attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle fighter jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters.

“Earlier today, US forces commenced OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE in Syria to eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites in direct response to the attack on US forces that occurred on December 13 in Palmyra, Syria,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post.

“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” he continued. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.”

Recap: Two US soldiers killed in Syria

Two Iowa National Guard members and a civilian interpreter were killed on December 13 in an attack in the Syrian desert that the Trump administration has blamed on the Islamic State group.

The US Army named the soldiers as Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown. The interpreter was Ayad Mansoor Sakat of Macomb, Michigan.

Soon after the attack, which occurred when a Syrian security guard burst into a meeting of US and Syrian security officials and opened fire, US President Donald Trump promised “very serious retaliation.”

He insisted the target of the response would be IS, not Syria, stressing that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”

On Friday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry released a statement reading: “Syria reiterates its commitment to combat Islamic State and intensify military operations against the group after the US strikes.” It said there could be “no safe havens on Syrian territory” for the terrorist group.

Trump said on Friday that the US was “striking very strongly against ISIS strongholds in Syria, a place soaked in blood which has many problems, but one that has a bright future if ISIS can be eradicated.”

Earlier this week, Trump met privately with the families of the dead Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/syria-us-launches-airstrikes-on-is-targets-after-attack/a-75250651

Elon Musk’s 2018 pay package from Tesla, once worth $56 billion, was restored by the Delaware Supreme Court on Friday, nearly two years after a lower court struck down the compensation deal as “unfathomable.”

The ruling overturns a decision that had prompted a furious backlash from Musk and damaged Delaware’s business-friendly reputation. It assures Musk greater control over the company, which he has said is his main concern, even after shareholders recently approved a new pay package that could be worth $878 billion if Tesla meets certain targets.

The Supreme Court said a 2024 ruling that rescinded the pay package had been improper and inequitable to Musk.

The remedy of total rescission “leaves Musk uncompensated for his time and efforts over a period of six years,” the 49-page ruling issued on Friday stated.

The 2018 pay package is now worth about $139 billion based on the price of ‌Tesla’s stock at the close of trading on Friday.

“For Elon, this is a win because he gets control faster,” said Gene ‌Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management.

If Musk exercises all the stock options from the 2018 package, his stake in Tesla would grow from about 12.4 per cent to 18.1 per cent of an expanded share base. The company is issuing shares tied to his new pay package, although he must earn them by hitting performance goals.

Tesla shares were up less than 1 per cent in after-hours trading following the ruling.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk posted on X that he was “vindicated.”

Lawyers who challenged the pay package said in a statement that they were considering their next steps and were “proud to have participated in the historic verdict below, calling to account the Tesla board and its largest stockholder for their breaches of fiduciary duty.”

The pay package was by far the largest ‍ever until Tesla shareholders approved the new pay plan in November. If Tesla’s appeal had failed, it could have triggered a $26 billion hit to profit over two years to account for the replacement stock-compensation package it had promised Musk – at today’s much higher stock price.

The 2018 pay deal provided Musk options to acquire about 304 million Tesla shares at a deeply discounted price if the company hit various milestones, which it did. The options represent around 9 per cent of Tesla’s outstanding stock.

Musk never collected his stock options because soon after shareholders approved the 2018 compensation, the board was sued by Richard Tornetta, an ​investor with nine Tesla shares.

UNFRIENDLY TO BUSINESS?

In 2024, after a five-day trial, ‌Delaware Judge Kathaleen McCormick concluded that Tesla’s directors were conflicted and key facts were hidden from shareholders when they voted to approve the plan. She ordered that the 2018 plan be rescinded.

Musk accused Delaware judges of being activists who are hostile to tech founders and he urged businesses to follow Tesla and reincorporate elsewhere. Dropbox, Roblox, ​Trade Desk and Coinbase were among the handful of large companies that moved their legal homes to Nevada or Texas. However, Delaware remains by far the most popular legal home for U.S. public companies.

Tesla’s ⁠board had warned that Musk, the world’s richest person who also leads the SpaceX ‌rocket venture and artificial intelligence startup xAI, could leave the electric car company if he did not get the pay he wanted and an increase in his voting power.

The Delaware Supreme Court ​may have been reluctant to annul Musk’s pay package because shareholders had overwhelmingly voted in favor of it, said Brian Dunn, director of the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

“I think that there’s some belief that maybe the courts shouldn’t get between the shareholders and the ‍decisions that they make,” said Dunn.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/musk-wins-appeal-restores-2018-tesla-pay-deal-now-worth-about-139-billion-5652936

U.S. President Donald Trump is getting into the fusion power business through a $6 billion merger of his social media firm and Google-backed TAE Technologies, announced just days after industry leaders met with U.S. Energy Department representatives to urge federal funding.
The all-stock deal announced on Thursday is an ambitious bet on the power boom spurred by artificial intelligence data-centers and adds to the Trump family’s growing roster of diverse ventures from cryptocurrency to real estate holdings and mobile services.

After his return to office this year, Trump’s close relatives have pursued ventures leveraging his political power and policy shifts. The Trump family has, for instance, amassed billions in crypto-related wealth as Trump throws his support behind digital financial assets. Greater support from the federal government could potentially boost the value of this investment, as well.
The news put a charge into shares of the money-losing Trump Media (DJT.O), on Thursday, sending them up 35%. The stock, popular with retail traders, had lost more than 70% of its value over the last 12 months following a big surge during the 2024 campaign.

“At face value, this is a Barbenheimer mashup. Trump Media gets a dramatic new growth story tied to the AI power crunch and data-center (hyperscaler) electricity demand, while TAE gets a fast lane to being publicly traded via an all stock merger valued above $6 billion,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors.

EFFORTS IN FUSION

The growing electricity needs of the technology industry have in recent months revived interest in nuclear power, including restarting fully shuttered reactors, expanding existing plants and signing contracts for future small modular reactors.
Despite decades of global efforts, nuclear fusion, often seen as a cleaner and reliable power source, has yet to produce a commercially viable reactor.
Shareholders of both companies will own about 50% of the combined entity after the deal closes in mid-2026. Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT.O), will be the holding company for businesses including Truth Social platform, TAE Power Solutions, and TAE Life Sciences.

Trump has 114 million shares in Trump Media, roughly 40% of the company. In the new merger, his ownership stake would be roughly 20%. The company, which mainly generates revenue from advertising on the Truth Social platform, has consistently clocked losses since its inception, including a loss of $54.8 million in its September-end quarter.
Thursday’s rally was a salve for some retail investors who have watched the stock’s price fizzle for most of 2025.
Chad Nedohin, an Edmonton-based pastor and mechanical engineer in the energy sector, leads one of the largest Trump Media retail investor groups on Truth Social, which has more than 190,000 followers. Up until the past year, Nedohin had been one of Truth Social’s most influential hype men – but has been frustrated as the stock slumped all year.

“I can’t sit here and just be excited about a stock that’s done nothing but stupid stuff until today,” he said. “But today was awesome, I think it’s a brilliant move.”

WAVE OF THE FUTURE?

Companies and physicists at national laboratories have been trying for decades to foster fusion reactions, in which light atoms are forced together under extreme temperatures to release huge amounts of energy, a process that fuels the sun.
Big hurdles to commercialize fusion include getting more energy out of a reaction than what goes into it and developing plants that can withstand streams of fusion reactions to power the grid.
TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer and other fusion company leaders met with U.S. Energy Department officials this month, weeks after the department formed its first ever fusion office.
Trump Media agreed to provide up to $200 million in cash to TAE at signing and $100 million more upon initial filing of the registration. The deal has been approved by the companies’ boards.

DEMOCRAT CAUTIONS ON DEAL

U.S. Representative Don Beyer, a Democrat and advocate for fusion, said on X the deal raises “significant concerns about conflicts of interest and avenues for potential corruption.”
The merger will need congressional oversight, Beyer said, to ensure that U.S. and public funds are directed toward ways that benefit Americans and not of Trump, his family, and allies.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-media-tae-technologies-combine-6-billion-deal-2025-12-18/

Chanting slogans and waving placards, protesters accused authorities of failing to protect Osman Hadi, the convener of political platform Inquilab Mancha and a radical leader known for his fierce anti-India and anti–Sheikh Hasina rhetoric.

Massive protests broke out across Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, with thousands gathering at Shahbag following the death of radical leader Sharif Osman Hadi, a polarising figure known for his strong anti-India rhetoric.

Chanting slogans and waving placards, protesters accused authorities of failing to protect Hadi, the convener of the political platform Inquilab Mancha and a key organiser of the July uprising. The demonstrations soon escalated, with a group vandalising the office of Daily Prothom Alo, the country’s largest newspaper, amid heightened outrage.

In Rajshahi, protesters set fire to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence and an Awami League office, causing extensive damage.

Local media reports that several people are stranded inside the building that houses the offices of Prothom Alo & Daily Star. Protesters first vandalised these offices and then set them ablaze. According to the Associated Press, soldiers and paramilitary border guards were deployed outside the two buildings but did not take action to disperse the protesters. Security officials tried to persuade them to leave peacefully as firefighters arrived outside The Daily Star building.

Protesters also gathered at the residence of India’s Deputy High Commissioner in Chattogram after news broke of the death of Sharif Osman bin Hadi and threw stones at the premises.

The demonstrators assembled outside the Khulshi premises around 11 pm on Thursday, shouting slogans over Hadi’s killing and raising chants against the Awami League and India.

Some protesters raised overtly anti-India and anti-Awami League slogans, including “Demolish Indian agression!” and “Catch and slaughter those who belong to the League (Awami League)”.

Bangladesh’s foreign office earlier confirmed that Hadi had died while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Singapore. He had been in critical condition since December 12, when he was shot in the head by unidentified assailants while campaigning in Dhaka’s Bijoynagar area. He was later airlifted to Singapore for advanced medical care but did not survive.

Amid the unrest, interim government chief Muhammad Yunus appealed for calm, urging citizens not to take the law into their own hands. He announced a day of national mourning on Friday, with special prayers to be held at mosques across the country, and vowed that those involved in what he called the “heinous murder” would not be spared.

“Hadi was the enemy of the defeated fascist terrorist forces. We shall again defeat those who tried to silence his voice and instil fear among the revolutionaries,” Yunus said, describing Sharif Osman Hadi as a martyr.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/dhaka-erupts-in-protests-after-anti-india-bangladeshi-leader-sharif-osman-hadis-death-security-tightened-glbs-2838239-2025-12-19

Trump said his administration sealed the southern border, reversing Democratic policies and stopping undocumented migrants and violent criminals from entering.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a one-time $1,776 “warrior dividend” for American military personnel, saying more than 1.45 million service members will receive the payment before Christmas as part of what he described as the economic gains from his tariff policy.

Speaking at a public address, Trump said the payout was timed to mark the year 1776, calling it a tribute to the country’s founding and to members of the armed forces. “We are sending every soldier $1,776. The checks are already on the way,” he said.

Trump credited tariffs for driving what he claimed was a revival in American manufacturing and national security, arguing that companies were returning to the US to avoid import duties. He said factory construction across sectors such as artificial intelligence and automobiles was happening at levels “never seen before”.

The Republican said his administration had delivered the largest tax cuts in American history through what he repeatedly described as a “big, beautiful bill”, which combined multiple pieces of legislation. He said the package included no tax on tips, overtime or Social Security benefits and claimed families would save between $11,000 and $20,000 annually, with next spring expected to bring the largest tax refunds on record.

Trump also repeated claims that wages were rising faster than inflation and that employment was at an all-time high. He said all jobs created since he took office were in the private sector and cited wage increases for factory workers, construction workers and miners as evidence of economic turnaround.

Turning to immigration, Trump accused the previous Democratic administration of allowing what he described as a mass influx of illegal migrants, alleging criminal activity and blaming open border policies for economic and social decline. He claimed that for the past seven months, no illegal migrants had been allowed into the country, calling it an outcome many had said was impossible.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/zero-illegal-aliens-in-last-7-months-trump-says-he-stopped-invasion-of-us-southern-border-9777144.html

FIFA slashed the price of some World Cup tickets for teams’ most loyal fans following a global backlash and some will get $60 seats for the final instead of being asked to pay $4,185.

It was a rare climbdown by the soccer body and its president Gianni Infantino after soaking up waves of criticism for World Cup strategies, including top-dollar prices and closer political alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump.

FIFA said Tuesday that $60 tickets will be made available for every game at the tournament in North America, going to the national federations whose teams are playing. Those federations decide how to distribute them to loyal fans who have attended previous games at home and on the road.

The number of $60 tickets for each game is likely to be from 400 to 750 per team, in what FIFA is now calling a “Supporter Entry Tier” price category. FIFA is using 16 host cities, including 11 NFL stadiums in the United States, plus two in Canada and three in Mexico.

FIFA did not specify exactly why it so dramatically changed strategy, but said the lower prices are “designed to further support traveling fans following their national teams across the tournament.”

However, the Football Supporters Europe group, which represents grassroots fan groups, said the limited price cut was “an appeasement tactic due to the global negative backlash.”

“This shows that FIFA’s ticketing policy is not set in stone, was decided in a rush, and without proper consultation,” the group said in a statement.

The World Cup in North America will be the first edition that features 48 teams — up from 32 — and is expected to earn FIFA at least $10 billion in revenue while being the most expensive ever for fans.

Despite the outcry over prices, FIFA says it has already received more than 20 million ticket requests in its latest sales phase.

The FSE group said that even with Tuesday’s announcement, “the vast majority would still have to pay extortionate prices, way higher than at any tournament before.”

Initial pledge for cheap tickets

DRAMATIC footage shows the moment an enormous ‘Statue of Liberty’ crashes to the ground in southern Brazil.

The 78ft statue can be seen leaning precariously before smashing into a car park in Guaíba, Brazil.

High winds reached up to 55mph as Brazil was struck by a powerful storm on December 15.

Footage shows cars driving away from the statue as it toppled over, but no injuries were reported.

The structure came crashing down at 3pm at the height of the storm which ravaged the whole state of Rio Grande do Sul.

The enormous statue landed on its head, which smashed into pieces on impact.

The replica Statue of Liberty stood in the car park of a Havan retail mega store, and measured 78 feet.

The 36ft pedestal on which it was perched remained intact.

The statue had been in place since 2020, Havan confirmed.

A severe weather warning had been given by Defesa Civil, Brazil’s civil defence authority.

Other areas in the state reported power cuts, fallen trees, damaged roofs and hail.

Heavy rain also caused flooding in nearby Lajeado.

The company said the area had been immediately cordoned off to protect staff and customers.

Within hours, specialist teams were sent in to remove debris, the company told local media.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15647304/horror-moment-massive-statue-of-liberty-collapses-storm/

United States President Donald Trump sued the BBC on Monday (Dec 15) for defamation over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the US Capitol, opening an international front in his fight against media coverage he deems untrue or unfair.

Trump accused Britain’s publicly owned broadcaster of defaming him by splicing together parts of a Jan 6, 2021 speech, including one section where he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another where he said “fight like hell”. It omitted a section in which he called for peaceful protest.

Trump’s lawsuit alleges the BBC defamed him and violated a Florida law that bars deceptive and unfair trade practices. He is seeking US$5 billion in damages for each of the lawsuit’s two counts.

The BBC has apologised to Trump, admitted an error of judgment and acknowledged that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he had made a direct call for violent action. But it has said there is no legal basis to sue.

Trump, in his lawsuit filed Monday in Miami federal court, said the BBC despite its apology “has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses”.

The BBC is funded through a mandatory license fee on all TV viewers, which UK lawyers say could make any payout to Trump politically fraught.

Trump’s lawyers and a spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A BBC spokesperson told Reuters earlier on Monday that it had “no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same”. The broadcaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the lawsuit was filed.

CRISIS LED TO RESIGNATIONS

Facing one of the biggest crises in its 103-year history, the BBC has said it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any of its platforms.

The dispute over the clip, featured on the BBC’s “Panorama” documentary show shortly before the 2024 presidential election, sparked a public relations crisis for the broadcaster, leading to the resignations of its two most senior officials.

Trump’s lawyers say the BBC caused him overwhelming reputational and financial harm.

The documentary drew scrutiny after the leak of a BBC memo by an external standards adviser that raised concerns about how it was edited, part of a wider investigation of political bias at the publicly funded broadcaster.

The documentary was not broadcast in the United States.

Trump may have sued in the US because defamation claims in Britain must be brought within a year of publication, a window that has closed for the “Panorama” episode.

To overcome the US Constitution’s legal protections for free speech and the press, Trump will need to prove not only that the edit was false and defamatory but also that the BBC knowingly misled viewers or acted recklessly.

The broadcaster could argue that the documentary was substantially true and its editing decisions did not create a false impression, legal experts said. It could also claim the program did not damage Trump’s reputation.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-sues-bbc-defamation-seeks-up-us-10-billion-damages-5593346

The Southeast Asian neighbours have resorted to arms several times this year since a Cambodian soldier was killed in a May skirmish.

Thailand’s military said on Sunday (Dec 14) it was considering blocking fuel exports to Cambodia, as fighting between the two countries spread to coastal areas of a disputed border region two days after US President Donald Trump said the sides had agreed to a new ceasefire.

The Southeast Asian neighbours have resorted to arms several times this year since a Cambodian soldier was killed in a May skirmish, reigniting a conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

Thai military commanders have been discussing blocking fuel exports to Cambodia, including asking the navy to be “vigilant against” ships carrying strategic supplies and designating maritime zones near Cambodian ports as “high-risk”, a navy official told a press conference on Sunday.

“At this time, there are no orders on these measures,” said Captain Nara Khunkothom, assistant spokesperson for the Royal Thai Navy, adding that the matter would be discussed at a security meeting on Monday.

The Thai energy ministry said on Friday that Thailand had halted exporting oil to Cambodia since June. Thailand, last year, exported 2.2 billion litres of fuel to Cambodia, according to the energy ministry’s data.

THAILAND IMPOSES CURFEW IN SOUTHEAST

Cambodia accused Thailand of striking civilian infrastructure, including the use of fighter jets and shelling in civilian areas. Thailand said it has targeted only military targets.

Thailand announced a curfew in its southeastern Trat province on Sunday as fighting continues across the two countries’ 817-km border. A soldier and a civilian were killed by BM-21 rockets fired by Cambodia on Sunday, Thai authorities said.

At least 16 soldiers and 10 civilians have died, and hundreds have been injured in the latest round of clashes, which started on Monday, with 258,626 civilians displaced, according to the Thai authorities.

Cambodia did not report any new deaths or injuries on Sunday. At least 11 have died, 74 have been injured, and 394,706 have been displaced since Monday, according to Cambodia’s interior ministry.

Thai forces said on Saturday they had destroyed a bridge that Cambodia used to deliver heavy weapons and other equipment to the region and launched an operation targeting pre-positioned artillery in Cambodia’s coastal Koh Kong province.

“Overall, there have been clashes continuously” since Cambodia again reiterated its openness to a ceasefire on Saturday, Thai Defence Ministry spokesman Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri told a press conference in Bangkok later on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump, who brokered a ceasefire in the long-running dispute in October, said he spoke to Thailand’s caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Premier Hun Manet on Friday, and said they had agreed to “cease all shooting”.

But Anutin vowed on Saturday to keep fighting “until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people”.

A White House spokesperson later said Trump expected all parties to honour commitments and that “he will hold anyone accountable as necessary to stop the killing and ensure durable peace”.

Thailand is open to a diplomatic solution, but “Cambodia has to cease hostility first before we can negotiate”, Surasant said.

While both Cambodia and Thailand would benefit from good relations with Trump to negotiate favourable tariff rates with the US, they are unlikely to “bow to any economic carrots or sticks” from Washington, said Southeast Asia security expert Japhet Quitzon.

In July, the US president had threatened to raise tariff rates and withdraw from negotiations if both sides did not stop fighting.

“Both Cambodia and Thailand are plateauing economically … but at this point, it seems as though nationalism trumps, so to speak, President Trump,” added Quitzon, who is an associate fellow with the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-considers-blocking-fuel-exports-cambodia-border-conflict-escalates-5581741

Three other American soldiers were injured in the shooting, which took place in a volatile area near Palmyra.

Three Americans, including two US service members and a civilian, were killed in an attack in central Syria on Saturday. The United States has blamed the Islamic State (IS) group for the assault. Three other American soldiers were injured in the shooting, which took place in a volatile area near the historic city of Palmyra.

US Central Command said the attack was carried out by a lone IS gunman, who was later killed.

Trump warns of strong response

President Donald Trump said there would be “very serious retaliation” for the attack. In a social media post, he described the incident as an IS attack in a dangerous part of Syria that is not fully under government control.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was deeply affected by the incident. He said Syria was fighting alongside US forces and that al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed” by the attack.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst said the two soldiers killed were members of the Iowa National Guard. She said the loss had deeply affected the Guard’s close-knit community. “Our Iowa National Guard family is hurting,” she said, while praying for the recovery of the wounded.

The Pentagon confirmed that the civilian killed was a US interpreter working with American forces. Trump said the injured soldiers were doing well.

What we know about the shooting?

According to Syrian officials, the gunman opened fire at the gate of a military post. The wounded were airlifted by helicopter to the al-Tanf garrison near the borders with Iraq and Jordan. Syrian security personnel were also injured in the attack.

The Interior Ministry said the attacker was linked to IS ideology. Later, officials revealed he was a member of Syria’s Internal Security forces in the desert region but did not hold any command position. An earlier evaluation had raised concerns about his extremist views, though no action had yet been taken.

US and Syria relations

US officials did not confirm claims that the attacker was part of Syrian forces. A Pentagon official said the attack happened in an area not controlled by Syria’s president.

The attack was the first to kill US personnel in Syria since the fall of Bashar Assad a year ago. Since then, relations between Washington and Damascus have improved. President al-Sharaa visited the White House last month after the US lifted long-standing sanctions.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/trump-warns-of-very-serious-retaliation-after-isis-kills-3-americans-in-syria-9768835.html

Global fashion brand Prada has announced a line of limited-edition footwear inspired by Indian-made Kolhapuri sandals, months after it faced backlash for allegedly appropriating the sandal’s design.

The Italian luxury brand will make 2,000 pairs of sandals in India’s Maharashtra and Karnataka states, under a deal with two state-backed entities, Reuters news agency reports.

“We’ll mix the original manufacturer’s standard capabilities with our manufacturing techniques”, Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s head of Corporate Social Responsibility, said.

The collection is set to go on sale in February 2026, online and in 40 Prada stores across the world.

A pair of sandals are reportedly set to be sold for $939, which amounts to around £800 and 84,000 rupees.

The agreement was signed on Thursday during the Italy-India Business Forum 2025.

In June, Prada courted controversy after it showcased sandals that had an open-toe braided pattern that closely resembled the traditional Kolhapuri sandals made in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Prada described the sandals as “leather footwear” but did not mention its Indian origins, prompting backlash and allegations of cultural appropriation in India.

The brand later acknowledged the footwear design’s Indian roots.

A Prada spokesperson at that time told the BBC that the company has “always celebrated craftsmanship, heritage and design traditions”, adding that it was “in contact with the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture on this topic”. This is a prominent industry trade body in the state.

On Friday, Maharashtra’s Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat told BBC Marathi that the new initiative will be called ‘Prada Made in India – Inspired by Kolhapuri Chappals [sandals]’.

“Keeping in mind Prada’s requirements and demand, some artisans will receive special training from Prada and LIDCOM [a state-backed entity supporting the leather industry in Maharashtra]. Additionally, around 200 Kolhapuri chappal artisans will be given three years of training in Italy,” he said.

Mr Shirsat said the agreement had been signed for five years, but expressed confidence that it would be extended further.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxppe4q84do

More visitors to the US will be forced to reveal their social media handles under new plans from Donald Trump’s administration. It’s the latest in a number of measures aimed at tourists and residents born outside the US.

Citizens of nations conventionally considered low-risk US allies will soon have to provide their social media handles upon arrival to the country. Under plans announced this week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), travelers from 42 countries including Germany, Israel, Australia and Japan will be subject to the same tight scrutiny as the rest of the world has been since 2019.

Up until now, travelers from the 42 countries have enjoyed a visa waiver, meaning they can travel to the US for up to 90 days without applying for a visa, as long as they get authorization through the lighter-touch Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). The new proposals mean travelers will likely soon be obliged to share their social media history, phone numbers and email addresses as part of the travel authorization process.

The DHS said the proposal, which will reportedly come into effect on February 8, 2026, unless challenged in court beforehand, originated from US President Donald Trump’s January order for arrivals to be “vetted and screened to the maximum degree.” It comes on the heels of an announcement by the State Department in August that all US visa holders would be under “continuous vetting,” including on social media.

How would a social media check for travelers work?

While travelers will be required to provide social media handles and phone numbers used in the last five years and email addresses in the last 10 years, on their entry forms, there will be no requirement to hand over log in details.

Therefore, in theory, the US government can only see publicly available information, unless it gathers further details directly from social media companies — something that has not been stated as a possibility in the documentation. It does however say that biometric data and a host of personal details on applicants’ family members will be added to the entry requirements when “feasible.”

The proposal is thin on details of how it will monitor social media accounts provided or how it already does. But the logistics of actively monitoring such a huge number of accounts poses a number of questions as David Ellis, an expert on digital behavior from the University of Bath, England, explained to DW.

“How are they going to manage all that data? Are they just interested in what you’re saying or is it what you consume too?” Ellis, part of the university’s Institute for Digital Security and Behavior, said.

“Most people don’t say much online but there is obviously content that we all see online that we don’t agree with, that we didn’t want to see. So how do they [the US government] draw a distinction between that being a red flag, and just something that was served up and you watched for three seconds?”

What would the US government look for in tourist social media posts?

The executive order that sparked the proposal cites concerns about terrorism as a reason for increasing the spotlight on those from overseas. “The United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security,” it reads.

For Ellis, phrases like “hostile attitudes” are dangerously open to interpretation and perhaps could be used against people who have liked, viewed or shared something that they may not even agree with.

“You could look at someone’s TikTok history and see they saw a video that was promoting extreme views, but they only watched it for a second. Is that better than if it were 30 seconds?” he asked. “Ethically, they should give justification, but they could just say ‘we don’t like your social media use’ to make things difficult for people who want to come to the country with perfectly good intentions.”

There is no specific reference to what would disallow a person from entering the US. A clue may come in the US government’s catch-and-revoke policy, described by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a “one-strike policy” which aims to identify and expel foreign nationals in violation of US legislation — independent of that infraction’s severity.

The program uses AI-powered surveillance tools to monitor foreign nationals in the US by monitoring their presence on social media and at protests. Law experts and rights groups have warned that the program particularly targets individuals appearing to express support for US-designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas or Hezbollah when speaking out for Palestinian rights.

Ellis suspects similar, if not the same, technology, will be used for tourists under the new proposal.

“It’ll almost have to be AI.” he said. “The resource required to manually go through it is just never going to happen. They are going to have to use specific queries and things to look for. There will be a huge financial and environmental cost there, whatever is decided. I do wonder how much it’s been thought through and how many ‘bad people’ it’ll actually catch,” he added.

Are there privacy concerns?

Most obviously, those who post anonymously online would forfeit their privacy on entry to the US. There are also concerns about the use of data. In the EU, users can find out what data is held on them by social media companies, but no such mechanism is available to the individual in the US.

There are also concerns that the changes will mean every visitor to the US can be tracked for as long as the government wants to. “Nearly every non-US citizen who seeks to enter or remain in the United States would be subject to indefinite social media surveillance by the US government,” Caroline DeCell, a legislative advisor at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, told Al Jazeera.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-social-media-travel-checks-add-to-continuous-vetting/a-75134195

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his long-promised “ gold card ” was officially going on sale, offering legal status and an eventual pathway to U.S. citizenship for individuals paying $1 million and corporations ponying up twice that per foreign-born employee.

A website accepting applications went live as Trump revealed the start of the program while surrounded by business leaders in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. It is meant to replace EB-5 visas, which Congress created in 1990 to generate foreign investment and had been available to people who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.

Trump sees the new version as a way for the U.S. to attract and retain top talent, all while generating revenue for federal coffers. He’s been promoting the gold card program for months, and once suggested that each card would cost $5 million, though he more recently revised that to the $1 million and $2 million pricing scheme.

The president said all funds taken in as part of the program will “go to the U.S. government” and predicted that billions would flow into an account run by the Treasury Department “where we can do things positive for the country.”

The new program is actually a green card, effectively offering permanent legal residency with the chance for citizenship.

“Basically, it’s a green card but much better,” Trump said. “Much more powerful, a much stronger path.”

The president made no mention of requirements for job creation for applying corporations or on overall caps on the program, which exist under the current EB-5 program. Instead, he said he’d heard complaints from business leaders who had been unable to recruit outstanding graduates from U.S. universities because they were from other countries and lacked permission to stay.

“You can’t hire people from the best colleges because you don’t know whether or not you can keep the person,” Trump said.

Trump has built his political career around clamping down on the U.S.-Mexico border and championing hard-line immigration policies. His second administration spent its first 10-plus months launching mass deportation pushes and sweeping immigration crackdowns that have targeted cities including Los Angeles and Charlotte.

But he’s also drawn criticism from leading voices of his “Make America Great Again” movement for repeatedly suggesting that skilled immigrants should be allowed into the U.S. — something the gold card program could facilitate.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the program will include $15,000 for applicant vetting and that the thorough process used to scrutinize backgrounds would ”make sure these people absolutely qualify to be in America.” Companies will be able to receive multiple cards, but will be limited to one individual per card, he said.

Lutnick also said the current green card holders earn less money than the average American, and that Trump wanted to change that.

“So, same visas, but now just full of the best people,” Lutnick said.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/trump-gold-card-website-live-us-visa-22edbd7e65d188bbf6c8ec1d5f78d11a

Message board website Reddit on Friday (Dec 12) filed a lawsuit in Australia’s higher court seeking to overturn the country’s social media ban for children, calling it an intrusion on free political discourse and setting the stage for a protracted legal battle.

The San Francisco-based firm, which ranks Australia among its biggest markets, said in a High Court filing that the ban should be declared invalid because it interfered with free political communication implied by the country’s constitution.

Even if the court upheld the ban, Reddit should be exempt since it did not meet the definition of social media, added the filing, which named the Commonwealth of Australia and Communications Minister Anika Wells as defendants.

The lawsuit, two days into the rollout of the world-first nationwide ban on people under 16 accessing social media, is the second such challenge after two teenagers representing an Australian libertarian group filed suit last month.

But the action from a Silicon Valley major with a US$44 billion market capitalisation dramatically increases the resources available to continue a drawn-out court battle. Success for Reddit could open the door for other platforms to mount similar challenges.

A spokesperson for Wells said the Australian government was “on the side of Australian parents and kids, not platforms” and would “stand firm to protect young Australians from experiencing harm on social media”.

Health Minister Mark Butler said Reddit filed the lawsuit to protect profits, not young people’s right to political expression, and “we will fight this action every step of the way”.

“It is action we saw time and time again by Big Tobacco against tobacco control, and we are seeing it now by some social media or big tech giants,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

“PRIVACY AND POLITICAL EXPRESSION”

Australia went live with the world’s first legally enforced age minimum to access social media on Dec 10. Reddit and nine other platforms, including Meta’s Instagram, Alphabet’s YouTube and TikTok campaigned against the measure for more than a year before ultimately saying they would comply.

The platforms are required to bar underage users or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million (US$32.98 million), while underage users and their caregivers do not face punishment. Platforms say they are using measures like age inference, based on a person’s online activity, and age estimation, based on a selfie, to follow the rule.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/australia-social-media-ban-reddit-lawsuit-5577531

President Donald Trump has launched a scheme offering fast-tracked US visas to wealthy foreigners who can pay at least $1m (£750,000).

The card will give buyers a “direct path to Citizenship for all qualified and vetted people. SO EXCITING! Our Great American Companies can finally keep their invaluable Talent,” Trump said on social media on Wednesday.

The Trump Gold Card, which was first announced earlier this year, is a US visa awarded to those who can demonstrate they will provide a “substantial benefit” to the country, according to the scheme’s official website.

It comes as Washington intensifies its immigration crackdown, including raising work visa fees and deporting undocumented migrants.

The Gold Card scheme promises US residency in “record time” and will require a $1m fee which is “evidence that the individual will substantially benefit the United States”, the programme’s website said.

Businesses sponsoring employees are required to pay $2m, along with additional fees. A “platinum” version of the card that offers special tax breaks will also be available soon for $5m, the website said.

Extra fees to the government may be charged depending on each applicant’s circumstances, the site said. Individuals are also required to pay a non-refundable $15,000 processing fee before their application is reviewed.

The gold card scheme has faced criticism since it was first announced in February, with some Democrats saying that it would unfairly favour wealthy individuals.

When Trump first unveiled the plan he described the visas as similar to green cards, which allow immigrants of various income levels to live and work permanently in the US. Green card holders typically become eligible for citizenship after five years.

But the Gold Card is aimed specifically at “high-level” professionals, Trump said, emphasising, “we want people that are productive”.

“The people that can pay $5m, they’re going to create jobs,” Trump said. “It’s going to sell like crazy. It’s a bargain.”

The scheme comes as the Trump administration has devoted significant resources to deporting immigrants.

The US has also paused immigration applications by individuals from the 19 countries, mostly in Africa and in the Middle East, which are subject to the president’s travel ban.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4q1lddj8go

Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday hinted at a possible SpaceX initial public offering in a social media exchange with Ars Technica space journalist Eric Berger, following reports of a possible listing of the rocket maker in 2026.

“As usual, Eric is accurate,” Musk said, in reply to Berger’s post saying “Here’s why I think SpaceX is going public soon,” that linked his Ars Technica article on SpaceX’s plans to go public.

Reuters and others reported on Tuesday that SpaceX was looking to raise more than $25 billion through an IPO in 2026, a move that could boost the rocket-maker’s valuation to more than $1 trillion.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The California-based company ranks as the world’s second most-valuable private startup after ChatGPT maker OpenAI, according to data from Crunchbase.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/musk-hints-possible-spacex-ipo-in-x-post-after-media-reports-5575236

The US Embassy in India warned that any visa applicant arriving at the consulate on a previously scheduled interview date after being notified of a reschedule will be refused entry.

The US State Department’s new social media vetting policy has triggered massive disruptions for H-1B visa applicants in India as many appointments have been postponed to next year. The US Embassy in India issued an advisory to the visa applicants on Tuesday night.

“If you have received an email advising that your visa appointment has been rescheduled, Mission India looks forward to assisting you on your new appointment date,” it said.

The Embassy also warned that any visa applicant arriving at the consulate on a previously scheduled interview date after being notified of a reschedule will be refused entry. “Arriving on your previously scheduled appointment date will result in your being denied admittance to the Embassy or Consulate,” the Embassy said.

Interviews scheduled for mid to late December are being pushed to March next year, Bloomberg reported. However, the exact number of reschedules is not known.

An attorney from a leading business immigration law firm, Steven Brown, said, “Mission India confirms what we have been hearing. They have cancelled a number of appointments in the coming weeks and rescheduled them for March to allow for the social media vetting.”

The US government expanded screening and vetting measures for H-1B visa applicants and their H-4 dependents, directing them to keep the privacy settings on all their social media profiles set to “public”. Officials will review their online presence starting December 15 to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible or pose a threat to America’s national security or public safety. Students and exchange visitors were already subject to such scrutiny.

“Every visa adjudication is a national security decision,” the State Department said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/h-1b-visa-appointments-postponed-for-many-indians-amid-us-social-media-rules-us-visas-h-1b-h-4-visas-visa-interviews-donald-trump-9782365?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Trump also criticized European nations over Ukraine, amid growing differences over a US plan to end the war that many in Europe fear will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

President Donald Trump blasted Europe as “decaying” and “weak” on immigration and Ukraine in an interview published Tuesday, deepening a rift between the United States and some of its oldest allies.

Speaking to Politico, Trump also called on war-battered Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold elections despite Russia’s invasion and said that Moscow had the “upper hand.”

Trump’s comments doubled down on extraordinary criticism of top US partners in his administration’s new national security strategy last week, which recycled far-right tropes about civilizational “erasure” in Europe.

“Most European nations, they’re decaying,” Trump told Politico in the interview, conducted Monday.

The 79-year-old billionaire, whose political rise to power was built on inflammatory language about migrants, said that Europe’s policies on migrants were a “disaster.”

“They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak. That’s what makes them weak,” Trump said, adding that there were “some real stupid ones” among Europe’s leaders.

Trump also criticised European nations over Ukraine, amid growing differences over a US plan to end the war that many in Europe fear will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

“NATO calls me daddy,” Trump said, referring to comments by the military alliance’s leader Mark Rutte at a summit in June when leaders backed Trump’s call to raise defense spending.

But he added: “They talk but they don’t produce. And the war just keeps going on and on.”

European leaders have been trying to woo Trump since his return to office in January, especially on maintaining US support for Ukraine against Russia.

Trump’s interview will intensify the alarm in European capitals sparked by the US security strategy last week, with its calls for “cultivating resistance” in Europe on migration and warnings of so-called “civilizational erasure.”

Experts have said parts of it echo elements of the “great replacement theory” promoted by the far-right — and Trump’s former ally Elon Musk — which alleges a conspiracy to replace white populations.

‘Not a democracy anymore’

In contrast to the savaging of close US allies, Russia and China got off relatively lightly in the US strategy. The Kremlin said the US document aligned with its own worldview.

A French minister, Alice Rufo, said Tuesday that the US security strategy was an “extremely brutal clarification of the ideological stance of the United States.”

In his Politico interview, Trump said countries including Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden were being “destroyed” by migration.

He also launched a new attack on “horrible, vicious, disgusting” Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor. Khan told Politico that Trump was “obsessed” with him and said US citizens were “flocking” to live in London.

Trump also had sharp words for Ukraine and for Zelensky, in his latest seesaw in relations with the leader whom he called a “dictator without elections” in January and then berated in the Oval Office in February.

“I think it’s an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election.” Trump said. “It gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”

Elections in Ukraine were due in March 2024 but have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. About 20 percent of the country is under occupation.

Fresh elections were included in the draft US plan to end the war.

He also reiterated claims about Zelensky having not read the US plan. “It would be nice if he would read it. You know, a lot of people are dying,” Trump said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/europe-is-decaying-nato-calls-me-daddy-donald-trump-blasts-allies-9781967

Google’s new Gemini 3 model challenges OpenAI’s dominance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race. As rivals invest billions and competition grows, OpenAI faces pressure to innovate — and finally turn a profit.

According to media reports, OpenAI plans to unveil a new artificial-intelligence reasoning model this week that is reportedly surpassing Google’s latest, most advanced family of AI models, Gemini 3.

Online tech magazine The Decoder cites industry insiders who claim the launch is intended to counter Google’s recent advances in state-of-the-art reasoning, deep multimodal understanding of text, images and video, as well as Gemini 3’s powerful coding capabilities.

Google’s parent company Alphabet introduced Gemini 3 in November, boasting benchmark results that surpassed OpenAI’s flagship model ChatGPT in key categories.

The outcome rattled OpenAI, which has been viewed as the industry front-runner since ChatGPT’s debut in 2022 transformed public awareness of generative AI and briefly left competitors scrambling.

Now, OpenAI’s lead is no longer assured.

A ‘code red’ moment for OpenAI

The reaction inside OpenAI has been urgent, with CEO Sam Altman reportedly declaring a “code red” in an internal message, instructing teams to focus on improving the quality of ChatGPT and delaying other products as a result, according to the memo cited by the US business newspaper The Wall Street Journal.

“We’ve reached a point where it’s not only about having the best model, but also about access to computing power and the ability to turn that technology into revenue,” Adrian Cox, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Research, told DW.

OpenAI gained an early edge thanks to a period in which its models outperformed any alternatives, he added, but competitors are quickly closing the gap — and many are backed by companies with enormous distribution networks and cloud infrastructure.

“Models like Gemini benefit from being tightly integrated into products that already reach huge online audiences, along with access to vast data-center capacity,” said Cox.

According to Altman, ChatGPT attracts more than 800 million weekly users. But Alphabet can deploy Gemini directly within Google Search, its most profitable product.

The Gemini app already reaches more than 650 million monthly users, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai wrote on Google’s blog, adding that more than 70% of its cloud customers are using AI tools.

“[Thirteen] million developers have built with our generative models, and that is just a snippet of the impact we’re seeing,” he wrote on November 18.

OpenAI still not carving a profit

While Google generates revenue across a wide portfolio of operations, OpenAI must monetize its AI models directly. It currently relies on premium ChatGPT subscriptions and enterprise licensing. Microsoft, a major shareholder, also pays to embed OpenAI technology into its products.

Even so, Altman has acknowledged the company is not yet profitable.

OpenAI does not disclose financials. But according to Cox, investors were told over the summer that 2030 could be the first profitable year for OpenAI.

HSBC analysts take a dimmer view, as the British financial newspaper, Financial Times, reported recently. The bank projects revenue could reach $213 billion (€182 biilion) by 2030 — but still this would likely result in a loss of more than $70 billion due to soaring infrastructure costs.

Massive AI investment needs

Training and running cutting-edge AI systems demand huge outlays for data-center capacity.

Google plans to invest up to $93 billion in AI this year alone, with “significant increases” earmarked for the years to come. The fourth-quarter revenue of its parent Alphabet exceeded $100 billion, fueled largely by advertising and growing cloud demand.

Google also has a hardware advantage, as its proprietary AI chips support model training inside company-owned data centers, thus avoiding purchases of more expensive semiconductors from AI-chip market leader Nvidia.

Facebook’s parent company Meta has reportedly expressed interest in using Google’s processors for its own AI infrastructure.

Given those strengths, Adrian Cox sees “a very high probability” Google will have the leading model at least into next year — not OpenAI. OpenAI’s priority, he said, is identifying a business model capable of funding a user base that could soon approach a billion people per week.

“It’s uncertain how that will work in practice. Subscription revenues alone may not be enough to cover costs,” he said, noting the company is exploring other revenue streams.

Competition widens beyond Big Tech

Meanwhile, the race for AI leadership is no longer limited to the two Silicon Valley contenders. “Competition has intensified significantly since 2022. We now see strong challengers for the best model like Anthropic alongside established companies like Google,” Cox said.

Open-source models from the US, China, and Europe — including from European startup Mistral — are also gaining traction. These systems are smaller and cheaper than OpenAI’s offerings, designed for targeted applications rather than broad capability.

“Customers today have a very wide range of options — from highly advanced models to lightweight, fast, cost-efficient open-source systems,” said Cox, and added that forthcoming ChatGPT-5 may be the most versatile model currently in development, but its complexity makes it “expensive to operate and less tailored to specific user groups.”

Additionally, China’s AI companies are also pushing forward. In September, search-engine provider Baidu unveiled its DeepSeek model, claiming performance on par with ChatGPT-5 and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/google-raises-ai-stakes-as-openai-struggles-to-stay-on-top/a-75035755

The announcement marks a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Joe Biden’s administration had heavily restricted over national security concerns about Chinese military applications.

President Donald Trump said on Monday (Dec 8) he had reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to allow US chip giant Nvidia to export advanced artificial intelligence chips to China.

The announcement marks a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Joe Biden’s administration had heavily restricted over national security concerns about Chinese military applications.

Democrats in Congress quickly dismissed the shift as a huge mistake that will help the Chinese military and economy.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he had informed Xi that Washington would permit Nvidia to ship its H200 products to “approved customers in China, and other countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security”.

“President Xi responded positively! US$25 per cent will be paid to the United States of America,” Trump wrote, without providing further details on how the payment mechanism would work.

Trump criticised his predecessor’s approach, saying it “forced our Great Companies to spend BILLIONS OF DOLLARS building ‘degraded’ products that nobody wanted, a terrible idea that slowed Innovation, and hurt the American Worker”.

This referred to the previous administration’s requirement for chip companies to create modified, less powerful versions specifically for the Chinese market.

These chips had reduced capabilities – lower processing speeds, for example – to comply with export control regulations.

Under Biden-era restrictions, the H200 and similar advanced chips were blocked from export to China.

“We applaud President Trump’s decision to allow America’s chip industry to compete to support high-paying jobs and manufacturing in America,” an Nvidia spokesperson told AFP.

“Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America.”

NOT BLACKWELL

The president said his decision aims to “support American Jobs, strengthen US Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers”.

Trump emphasised that Nvidia’s most advanced chips – the Blackwell series and forthcoming Rubin processors – are not included in the agreement and remain available only to US customers.

The H200s are roughly 18 months behind the company’s state-of-the-art offerings.

The chips – graphic processing units or GPUs – are used to train the AI models that are the bedrock of the generative AI revolution launched with the release of ChatGPT in 2022.

The Commerce Department is finalising implementation details, with Trump saying “the same approach will apply to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies”.

The announcement comes amid trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, as the two compete for dominance in artificial intelligence technology.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lobbied the White House intensely to reverse the Biden-era policy despite considerable opposition in Washington to giving Chinese companies access to powerful chips.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, attributed the deal to a “backroom meeting” with Trump and Huang’s company’s donation to build the East Wing ballroom at the White House.

She said this would “turbocharge China’s military and undercut American technological leadership”.

She and other senior Democrats in the Senate issued a separate statement calling Trump’s decision “a colossal economic and national security failure”.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-trump-nvidia-h200-ai-chips-china-sale-5568951

The US president has said “there could be a problem” with the proposed $72 billion deal that would see the streaming giant acquire the Hollywood studio. Donald Trump noted that Netflix already has a “big market share.”

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would be involved in the review by federal regulators of a proposed consolidation deal between streaming platform Netflix and Hollywood studio Warner Bros.

The companies announced the agreement on Friday. Netflix would acquire parts of Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion (€84 billion) if the sale is completed.

If regulators approve, the deal would unite two of the biggest names in entertainment, Netflix and Warner Bros., the studio behind “Harry Potter,” “Game of Thrones,” and the DC films.

What did Trump say about the deal between Netflix and Warner Bros.?

“I’ll be involved in that decision,” Trump told reporters as he arrived at the Kennedy Center for its annual awards show.

The US president was referring to federal regulators reviewing the deal, which has raised antitrust concerns in Hollywood.

If the agreement is greenlit, Netflix — already the world’s largest streaming platform — would control one of Hollywood’s most recognizable film and TV houses.

While Trump did not comment on whether he supported the deal, the US president did suggest that Netflix’s concentration of market power could be an issue.

“That’s going to be for some economists to tell… But it is a big market share. There’s no question it could be a problem,” Trump said.

How has Hollywood reacted to the deal?

Cinema United, a trade organization that represents movie theaters across the US, said Friday that the deal risks eliminating 25% of the annual box office in the US and poses an “unprecedented threat” to cinemas around the world.

The Writers Guild trade union has called for the merger to be blocked.

“The world’s largest streaming company swallowing one of its biggest competitors is what antitrust laws were designed to prevent,” the group said in a statement.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-trump-casts-doubt-on-netflix-warner-bros-deal/a-75053800

Russia continued its air strikes on Ukraine overnight, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a “very constructive” phone call with Donald Trump’s negotiating team following three days of talks in Florida.

Early on Sunday the mayor of Kremenchuk, a major industrial hub in central Ukraine, said the city had been repeatedly struck in a “massive” attack. No deaths have been confirmed so far.

Meanwhile, Russia said it had shot down 77 Ukrainian drones in several locations.

Aerial assaults have continued even as efforts to negotiate an end to the war have intensified, including detailed Ukraine-US talks in Miami aimed at drafting a peace settlement acceptable to both sides.

On Saturday, Zelensky said he was “determined” to continue working with the US after speaking to Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at the conclusion of those negotiations.

Zelensky said they had discussed how to ensure that Russia stuck to any potential deal to end the war.

Hours later, Kremenchuk Mayor Vitaliy Maletsk said his city had sustained a “massive combined strike” on its infrastructure. The extent of the damage was unclear as of Sunday morning but the mayor said water, electricity and heat had been cut off for some.

The city, which is roughly halfway between Kyiv and the frontline in the east, has been repeatedly targeted since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The White House has pushed Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a multi-point plan to end the war but there has been little sign of a breakthrough, despite both sides engaging with the US-led process.

“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelensky said on X.

“We covered many aspects and went through key points that could ensure an end to the bloodshed and eliminate the threat of a new Russian full scale invasion.”

The Russian strikes in the early hours of Sunday followed a wider attack 24 hours earlier, which drew condemnation from Kyiv’s European allies.

In a social media post, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken to Zelensky and offered his “full solidarity”.

“France is determined to work with all partners to secure de-escalation measures and to impose a ceasefire,” Macron added.

Macron, Zelensky, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are due to hold in-person talks in London on Monday.

Europe has pushed back against early versions of the US-led peace plan and has sought to win support from the White House for its own proposals, including comprehensive security guarantees for a post-war Ukraine, including the possibility of a peacekeeping force.

Sir Keir has led the push for a so-called coalition of the willing, a loose collection of Ukrainian allies who are committed to continuing to underwrite Kyiv’s defence in the event of a ceasefire to deter a second invasion. He has called that proposal “vital” for Ukraine’s long-term security.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz680jx511no

A drone attack on the town of Kalogi, in Sudan’s South Kordofan region, is said to have hit a kindergarten and killed at least 50 people, including 33 children.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group battling the army in Sudan’s civil war, was accused of Thursday’s attack by a medical organisation, the Sudan Doctors’ Network, and the army.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF.

The RSF in turn accused the army of hitting a market on Friday in a drone attack in the Darfur region, on a fuel depot at the Adre border crossing with Chad.

Sudan has been ravaged by war since April 2023 when a power struggle broke out between the RSF and the army, who were formerly allies .

The reports could not be verified independently.

According to the army-aligned foreign ministry, the kindergarten was struck twice with missiles from drones.

Civilians and medics who rushed to the school were also attacked, it added.

Responding to reports of the attack in Kalogi, a spokesman for the UN children’s agency Unicef said: “Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights.”

“Children should never pay the price of conflict,” Sheldon Yett added.

The agency, he said, urged “all parties to stop these attacks immediately and allow safe, unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to reach those in desperate need”.

The RSF accused the army of attacking the Adre crossing because it was used for the “delivery of aid and commercial supplies”.

According to the Sudan War Monitor, a group of researchers tracking the conflict, the attack caused civilian casualties and significant damage to a market.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd61d0jl6no

The EU fined X 120 million euros for violating transparency rules under the Digital Services Act, marking its first major non-compliance ruling and triggering sharp criticism from US officials who call the move anti-speech.

European Union regulators on Friday fined X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, 120 million euros for violating the bloc’s digital transparency rules — a landmark penalty that could inflame tensions with Washington and prompt fresh political backlash over free speech, according to the Associated Press.

The European Commission issued the non-compliance decision after a two-year probe under the Digital Services Act, the EU’s sweeping rulebook that requires major online platforms to protect users, curb harmful content and operate with far greater transparency. It is the first time the bloc has used the toughest enforcement tool available under the DSA.

EU CITES THREE TRANSPARENCY BREACHES

The Commission said X broke transparency rules in three areas: itsblue checkmark system, which regulators say misleads users; an ad database that lacks required information; and barriers that limit researchers’ access to public data.

Officials said these failures undermine user trust and weaken the EU’s ability to identify scams, manipulation and systemic risks.

Regulators pointed to the evolution of X’s blue badge system, noting that after Musk bought the platform in 2022, verification became a paid feature rather than a tool confirming identity. That shift, they said, left users more vulnerable to impersonation.

US OFFICIALS CALL FINE AN ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH

The penalty drew swift condemnation from senior US officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted that Brussels’ decision amounted to an attack on “all American tech platforms.”

Vice President JD Vance, posting on X ahead of the decision, accused the Commission of seeking to fine X “for not engaging in censorship.”

“The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,” he wrote.

The Trump administration has repeatedly argued that the EU’s digital rules unfairly target US tech giants and hinted at retaliatory measures.

European officials pushed back at accusations of bias, saying enforcement is driven solely by democratic processes and legal obligations. “We are not targeting anyone based on their country of origin,” Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said. “Absolutely not.”

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/eu-hits-elon-musks-x-with-eu120-million-fine-for-violating-digital-rules-glbs-2831654-2025-12-06

THIS is the terrifying moment a Romanian motorist catapulted his Mercedes over several cars – and unbelievably walked away with his life.

Shocking CCTV footage shows the car speeding straight at a roundabout, clipping the kerb and being launched sky-high at lightning speed.

The vehicle is airborne for several seconds before slamming into a metal pole just yards from a petrol station.

Residents in a nearby apartment block heard a deafening roar from the car’s crushing impact, according to a local report.

Officials say the 49-year-old driver suffered a diabetic episode, which caused him to faint behind the wheel.

The man was trapped in the wreckage before being rescued by emergency services and whisked away to hospital.

He suffered multiple fractures but miraculously escaped any life-threatening injuries.

Cops say he entered the roundabout the wrong way, hit the central island at speed and was sent flying.

A render by Stirile ProTV shows the Mercedes’ wheels sparking as it collides with the kerb before dramatically soaring into the sky for several seconds.

The car then vaults over a hedge before narrowly avoiding what would have been a massive explosion involving a large petrol pump.

Police have since slapped him with a 1,600 lei (£270) fine and a 90-day license suspension as the investigation continues.

It follows another jaw-dropping moment a Brazilian motorist flew off the road and plunged down a steep flight of steps after suffering from a headache.

Footage of the horror accident showed Railson Souza, 48, hurtling through the air and smashing through metal railings, before ending up trapped in the mangled wreck.

Firefighters had to free the security worker from his upturned vehicle, before an ambulance promptly rushed him to hospital.

Amazingly, scans and X-rays showed not a single broken bone.

Railson walked away unscathed only hours later.

Fighting back tears as he relived the drama, the emotional driver said: “God is marvellous. I’m sore, but I didn’t break anything.

“I’ve got a little scratch on one hand only, and nothing else.”

The crash, which occurred in the Jardim Apura area of São Paulo, Brazil, happened around 5.30am on Saturday.

Railson said he’d felt unwell after forgetting to take his high blood pressure medication on his way home from work.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15599597/terrifying-mercedes-catapulted-air-jumps-two-cars-hitting-roundabout/

Japan’s Nikkei skidded on Friday, wiping out this week’s gains amid an otherwise upbeat Asian performance as investors wait for a U.S. inflation reading that could sway a deeply divided Federal Reserve.
European stock markets were headed for a flat open, with both EURO STOXX 50 futures and FTSE futures little changed. Nasdaq futures gained 0.4% and S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 (.N225), fell 1.3% after weaker-than-expected household spending data underscored the scourge of inflation as bets of a rate hike later in the month grew. It was on track to end the week mostly flat.

The yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds hit 1.94% early in the day, its highest since mid-2007, before pulling back to settle at 1.93%.
The benchmark yield was on track for a 12.5 basis point rise this week, marking the steepest five-day climb since March, but recent strong auction results suggested the cheap bond prices are drawing buyers into the market.
“In previous cycles, moves of that size would have rattled markets. Instead, demand strengthened,” said Nigel Green, chief executive at deVere Group.
“Capital flows are shifting, long-standing expectations are being tested, and portfolios built around permanently cheap yen now face a very different world.”

A quarter-point rate hike from the Bank of Japan later this month is now being priced at 75%, after Governor Kazuo Ueda told investors on Monday the central bank would weigh the “pros and cons” of raising interest rates.
Sources have told Reuters that the Japanese government is prepared to tolerate a hike in December.
The dollar lost 0.3% to 154.61 yen, and remained well off its 10-month high of 157.9.
The broader MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), was up 0.4% and was set for a gain of 1% for the week. Most regions were up a little but South Korea (.KS11), managed a decent rise of 1.4%.

US INFLATION TEST

In foreign exchange markets, the dollar was under pressure again, having steadied overnight after falling for nine straight sessions. The dollar index was off 0.1% on Friday to 99 against its major peers, and down 0.5% for the week.

The broad weakness in the U.S. currency has been driven by wagers that the Federal Reserve is almost certain to cut interest rates by a quarter point next Wednesday.
While markets are 90% priced for a Fed rate cut, it could be the most contentious decision in years for the central bank as many as five of the 12 voting members have publicly said they oppose reducing rates further.
Next up, the U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index – the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation – is due later in the day, although the data is for September. Forecasts are centred on a 0.2% rise in the core measure, leaving the annual rate unchanged at 2.9%.
The U.S. non-farm payrolls report will not be released on Friday. Data on Thursday showed jobless claims dived last week, assuaging concerns of a sharp deterioration in the labour market, but that might be due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-global-markets-2025-12-05/

As Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was finalising her $137 billion spending plan last month, which in recent weeks has put Japan into a standoff with investors over the outlook for government finances, a bond chart was brought to her attention.
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama pulled up the chart on her tablet at a November 17 meeting in Takaichi’s official residence. It showed selling, which drives up long-term borrowing rates.

The prime minister’s expression turned serious, according to a person familiar with the encounter.
“The finance minister was becoming more vigilant,” the person said. “The prime minister also seemed quite concerned about the weak yen and bond-price declines.”
The person asked not to be identified because they were not authorised to speak with the media. But the concern they described was well-placed, because Takaichi is facing a challenge from the markets that she needs to fund her agenda.
At stake was not only her massive stimulus package, which will be paid for largely through borrowing, but the direction of the ailing yen – in real terms near record lows – and longer-term investor faith in Japanese assets.

Takaichi’s meeting with Katayama and other top officials marked the beginning of a shift in rhetoric aimed at soothing investor concerns, though it is too early to say whether it can steady the market in a durable way and keep bond vigilantes out of Japan.
Japan’s benchmark 10-year yield rose to its highest point since 2007 on Friday and has climbed 25.5 basis points in four weeks, the sharpest rise in nearly three years and one that has begun to send ripples through global markets.
The situation is all the more delicate because of Japan’s heavy debt – its debt-to-GDP ratio is by far the highest of any developed country – and how its bond market is in transition as buying from both the central bank and insurers dries up.
Addressing the risks, Takaichi told Parliament last week that there was no possibility of a “Truss shock,” downplaying parallels with the 2022 selloff in gilts and the pound that sank British Prime Minister Liz Truss’ plan for unfunded tax cuts.

She has also softened her previous resistance to monetary policy tightening and promised to limit extra borrowing. In addition, she has unveiled other initiatives including what some analysts have called the Japanese version of DOGE to cut wasteful government spending.
On Friday, Katayama said the government was monitoring markets and would ensure the sustainability of Japan’s public finances and maintain investor confidence.
Takaichi’s office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on her November 17 meeting.
“Takaichi’s plan is to expand the growth potential of Japan … but if that growth doesn’t materialise, then the only thing remaining is the huge amount of government debt,” said Toshinobu Chiba, a Tokyo-based fund manager at Simplex Asset Management.
“And that’s the problem.”

WHO’S GOING TO BUY THESE BONDS?

Takaichi, who came to power after her predecessor quit, has a reputation as a disciple of Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics,” the massive monetary and fiscal stimulus programme aimed at rescuing Japan from stagflation that kicked off more than a decade ago.

What surprised investors was how little of that was jettisoned when she took office, despite inflation running at 3% and the national debt exceeding 1.3 quadrillion yen ($8.5 trillion).
Takaichi appointed a dovish coterie of economic advisors and told Parliament last month she would water down Japan’s fiscal target to allow for multi-year spending on key growth areas.
And when an early draft of the stimulus plan was crafted by the finance ministry, she quickly turned it down because it was too modest in size, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
“What you have is, I would say, a very loose policy mix overall and basically a monetary boom,” said Ian Samson, a multi-asset portfolio manager at Fidelity International.
“I’m personally short yen because I think that’s the path of least resistance.”
Extra bond sales will also test an already fragile market, where demand – especially for long-dated paper – has traditionally been uneven from foreign investors and has been drying up for years from domestic banks and insurers.
After accounting for redemptions and decreased purchases by the Bank of Japan, net supply in the market will jump by nearly 11 trillion yen in 2026 from 58 trillion in 2025, according to Bank of America estimates.
“The problem is … who’s going to buy these bonds?” said Sally Greig, head of global bonds at Scottish long-only manager Baillie Gifford. “We’ve still got more supply to absorb and Japan’s not the only one spending money.”

SHORT YEN

Some dealers said there had even been a small increase in short interest in bonds, particularly over the past week, though positions were small.
“The dynamics in the JGB market are more indicative of a lack of buying interest, rather than outright selling,” said Daiki Hayashi, head of Japan market sales and marketing at J.P. Morgan in Tokyo.
Bets against the yen, however, may start to pick up, despite Takaichi’s preference for a stronger currency and a recent escalation of intervention warnings, traders say.
“There would definitely be interest to look at shorting the yen if we can move to between 153 and 154 (per dollar),” said Patrick Law, head of APAC fixed-income, currencies and commodities trading at Bank of America in Hong Kong.
The yen traded at 155 per dollar on Friday and has slid some 5% versus the dollar since Takaichi was appointed as leader of Japan’s ruling party in early October.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-prime-minister-takaichi-tries-avoid-truss-shock-2025-12-05/

Wikipedia is working with Big Tech on deals similar to its arrangement with Google, the online encyclopedia’s co-founder, Jimmy Wales, said on Wednesday, in a bid to help the firm monetize AI companies’ heavy reliance on its content.

Speaking in an interview at the Reuters NEXT summit in New York, Wales said that tech companies’ usage of freely available Wikipedia knowledge to train their large language models results in cost surges that Wikipedia’s nonprofit operator must bear.

“The AI bots that are crawling Wikipedia are going across the entirety of the site … So we have to have more servers, we have to have more RAM and memory for caching that, and that costs us a disproportionate amount,” Wales said.

While the content of Wikipedia remains free for individuals under its license, the high-volume, automated access by for-profit entities is a different matter, Wales said. He noted that a deal has already been signed with Alphabet’s Google and that discussions with other firms are ongoing.

The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, struck a deal with Google in 2022 to have the tech giant pay for training access to Wikipedia content, which is a crucial part of data that companies like OpenAI and Meta Platforms use to train their AI models.

The foundation’s primary source of income is small donations from the public, which Wales said are not intended to underwrite the development of multibillion-dollar commercial AI products.

“Wikipedia is supported by volunteers. Those people are donating money to support Wikipedia, and not to subsidize OpenAI costing us a ton of money. That doesn’t feel fair,” said Wales.

The push for more licensing places the world’s largest repository of free knowledge in a potential standoff with the burgeoning AI industry. It raises fundamental questions about who should bear the cost for the vast datasets that fuel the AI revolution and whether for-profit companies have an obligation to compensate the public and nonprofit sources that help build their technology.

Asked if Wikipedia would take legal action against AI companies using its content without paying for training access, Wales said: “I don’t know. I feel like our ability of soft power to just shame them is probably pretty powerful.”

Wales said Wikipedia might also consider using technical measures such as Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control that let clients limit when and how AI bots scraping the internet can access their content. He acknowledged this could create a dilemma, given Wikipedia’s ideological commitment to open access to knowledge, but stressed that the financial burden must be addressed.

The Wikimedia Foundation has operated Wikipedia for over two decades as a nonprofit entity, relying on a global community of volunteer editors and public donations to provide free information.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/wikipedia-seeks-more-ai-licensing-deals-similar-google-tie-up-co-founder-wales-says-5538086

Foreign nationals from more than two dozen countries could be barred from entering the United States under an expanded travel ban being considered by President Trump.

The Trump administration is targeting at least 30 countries to include on an updated travel ban list – but could add more in the future, a source confirmed to The Post.

“We will be announcing the list soon,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem teased the “full travel ban” on Monday night, indicating on X that she proposed expanding the number of countries on the restricted list during a meeting with Trump.

Noem recommended including “every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies” on the list.

“Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom — not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS,” the DHS chief continued. “WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.”

The recommendation is part of the Trump administration’s massive crackdown on immigration following last week’s Thanksgiving eve attack on two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, DC.

The administration had previously announced that it would halt all asylum decisions and re-examine more than 720,000 green card holders from 19 “countries of concern” after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, allegedly killed Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically injured Andrew Wolfe, 24, near the White House.

The State Department has also paused visa issuance for individuals traveling on Afghan passports in response to the horrific attack.

Lakanwal, a former member of a CIA-backed Afghan military unit that fought the Taliban, entered the US legally in 2021 under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome program, which evacuated and resettled refugees after the botched US withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country.

The alleged gunman was granted asylum in April, which made him eligible for a green card after 12 months.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services has reportedly halted naturalization ceremonies for individuals from some of the 19 countries on the current travel ban list, which was unveiled by Trump over the summer.

At least some foreign nationals from Venezuela, Iran and Afghanistan had their US citizenship swearing-in ceremonies, initially scheduled to take place later this week, canceled in the wake of the National Guard shooting, according to ABC News.

“The Trump Administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right,” a DHS spokesperson told The Post. “We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake.

“The Trump Administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from Countries of Concern.”

In June, Trump signed the proclamation to “fully restrict and limit the entry of nationals” from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

The proclamation partially restricted foreign nationals from seven additional countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – from entering the US.

Trump issued the 19-nation travel ban order shortly after an antisemitic firebombing attack in Colorado, which was allegedly carried out by an Egyptian national in the US on an expired tourist visa.

At a White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday, the president took particular issue with immigrants from a nation already on the travel ban list: Somalia.

“Somalians ripped off [Minnesota] for billions of dollars,” Trump said, referring to the fraud scandals that have plagued the North Star State in recent years.

“They contribute nothing,” he said of Somali immigrants, adding, “I don’t want them in our country.”

Noem revealed during the meeting that at the president’s direction she looked into visa fraud in Minnesota and discovered, “50% of them are fraudulent.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/12/02/us-news/trump-travel-ban-could-expand-to-30-countries-list-coming-soon/

Concerns over Khan’s health intensified last month after his three sisters Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan said they were assaulted for asking to meet with him.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is alive but is being “mentally tortured”, his sister, Dr Uzma Khanum, said Tuesday evening after a 20-minute meeting with her brother in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Dr Khanum said, “Alhamdulillah, he is all right… but he was angry about being mentally tortured. He is locked in his cell all day… can only step out for short periods. And he can’t communicate with anyone.”

She also said her brother had blamed General Asim Munir – now the most powerful figure in Pakistan, after seizing control of the entire military and rewriting the Constitution to guarantee lifetime immunity for himself, the other service chiefs, and President Asif Ali Zardari – for his incarceration and condition.

The meeting followed rumours about the ex-Prime Minister’s health, particularly after his family were barred from meeting him for several weeks. It also followed protests by Imran Khan’s supporters – in Islamabad and Rawalpindi – that prompted officials to prohibit large gatherings.

That, though, did not prevent protests outside the Islamabad High Court.

Concerns over Khan’s condition intensified last month after his three sisters – Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan – said they were assaulted for asking to meet with him.

Those concerns were amplified by his sons’ comments – that jail authorities were concealing “something irreversible” about their father’s condition. One of his sons, Kasim Khan, told Reuters there had been no direct or verifiable contact despite a court order for weekly meetings.

The family also flagged prison authorities refusing visits by Imran Khan’s personal doctor.

In fact, prior to today’s meeting, neither family nor members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had met Khan for over 25 days, leading to rumours he may have died and the authorities, aware his death will lead to protests by millions who see him as national hero, were trying to cover it up.

And pressure on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his government – who have so far demurred from showing proof of life – was ramped up Sunday by Senator Khurram Zeeshan from the PTI.

Zeeshan claimed Khan was being kept in isolation as a tactic to pressure him into leaving Pakistan. Speaking to ANI from Pakistan, Zeeshan, claimed the Shehbaz Sharif government felt threatened by Imran Khan’s popularity, and that is why they do not show photos or videos.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/imran-khans-sister-to-meet-him-in-jail-after-weeks-of-speculation-over-his-health-9737192?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The residents came in camouflage hats and red shirts signaling unity, more than 300 of them packing into a rural Pennsylvania planning commission meeting to protest a proposed data center they feared would carve up their farmland and upend the quiet rhythms of their valley.
Most were loyal supporters of President Donald Trump, who carried their home of Montour County by 20 percentage points in the 2024 election. But they bristled at Washington’s push to fast-track artificial intelligence infrastructure, which has driven data-center growth in rural areas around the U.S. where land is cheap.

On a recent November evening, residents in this county of 18,000 people stepped to the microphone, questioning Talen Energy (TLN.O), officials about how their planned data center might raise residents’ utility bills, reduce working farmland, and strain local water and natural resources.
“Say no to rezoning, so water keeps flowing and crops keep growing,” two women sang in a riff on Woody Guthrie’s folk song “This Land Is Your Land.”
Political leaders across the U.S. are urging a rapid expansion of data-center capacity and new power production to keep the country competitive in AI. Trump, a Republican, is promoting the build-out as an economic and national security priority and has directed his administration to bypass environmental rules and permitting that give local communities a voice. In Pennsylvania, Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and Republican Senator Dave McCormick are courting developers with incentives and infrastructure upgrades to attract investment in the fast-growing industry.

Some communities welcome the economic boost. But the backlash in Montour County, nestled in central Pennsylvania, reflects a growing coalition of farmers, environmentalists and homeowners who have united across partisan lines to resist data-center expansion.
A report by Data Center Watch earlier this year found that about $64 billion worth of data center projects have been blocked or delayed amid local pushback in states including Texas, Oregon and Tennessee. Critics in Pennsylvania worry that their region could turn into northern Virginia’s “data center alley,” with its vast, sprawling complexes.
If successful, the pushback threatens to slow efforts by the administration and the tech industry to build AI infrastructure fast enough to keep pace with global rivals.
Political strategists say anger over the projects also could add to the problems Republicans face as they grapple with affordability worries going into the 2026 midterm elections.

“It’s an issue that can be exploited by whoever’s out of power,” said Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The politics of AI infrastructure, he added, remain unsettled: “The industry’s still evolving, and politicians are figuring out where to stand. It’s like social media — everyone rushed in before understanding the consequences.”

RUSSIA has accused Europe of gearing up for “major war” after a top Nato chief claimed the defence pact could launch “pre-emptive strikes” on Vladimir Putin.

Moscow hit back at the suggestion, blaming the West for “moving towards escalation” – despite mad Vlad’s growing shadow war currently tearing through the continent.

It comes after Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of Nato‘s Military Committee, said the alliance could be forced to strike pre-emptively – a toughening of its current policy of waiting to react.

Putin has been terrorising Europe with a campaign of sabotage and airspace violations for years, and his shadow operation is only ramping up.

Various fires and explosions – including a blaze at an east London Ukrainian-owned warehouse – have been pinned on the tyrant.

Recent cases also include the severing of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea and a string of cyber-hack attacks across the continent.

The surge in these interferences is forcing Nato to reassess its traditional position of reactive military action, Dragone told the Financial Times.

In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the claims were seen by Moscow as “an extremely irresponsible step”.

The top Putin mouthpiece said the remarks indicated “the alliance’s readiness to continue moving towards escalation”.

She said: “We see in it a deliberate attempt to undermine efforts to overcome the Ukrainian crisis.

“The people making such statements should be aware of the risks and possible consequences, including for the alliance members themselves.”

Fellow Putin pawn Denis Gonchar, who serves as Russian ambassador to Belgium, said Nato was “intimidating its population with the Kremlin’s non-existent plans to attack the alliance countries”.

He accused the alliance of “preparing for a major war with Russia”.

The latest Russian threats come as peace talks to end the bloodshed in Ukraine continue between European and US officials.

On Monday Donald Trump said the negotiations were “going along well”.

Both sides on Sunday said the negotiations had been productive, and Marco Rubio said he was hopeful of further progress.

The Kremlin confirmed that the US president’s top envoy Steve Witkoff would be jetting to Moscow to meet mad Vlad on Tuesday in Washington‘s latest bid to end the war.

Speculating on Nato’s ability to hit Russia first, Dragone said: “We are studying everything […] On cyber, we are kind of reactive.

“Being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about.”

Dragone added that revenge cyber attacks would be the simplest option, because many Nato member nations hold the capabilities to launch them.

Retaliation for physical sabotage or drone incursions would be more complex – but not out of the question.

The admiral said that a “pre-emptive strike” could, under certain circumstances, be classified as a defensive action – though it is “further away from our normal way of thinking and behaviour”.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15575035/russia-warns-nato-war-putin/

Pakistan’s decision to halt trade with Afghanistan, which defence minister Khwaja Asif said was “a blessing in disguise”, is backfiring. This is why the ban is hitting Pakistan’s own economy hard while the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is finding alternative routes and partners like India.

Pakistan’s DG ISPR, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry’s statement warning Afghanistan—”blood and business cannot go together”—now seems to have backfired and is hurting Islamabad itself. With bilateral relations between the two neighbours sinking to their lowest point, following the brief border clash and the mass expulsion of Afghan nationals during harsh winter months, the trade war between Pakistan and Afghanistan has erupted, and its effects are falling disproportionately on Pakistan.

Since the closure of border trade points on October 11, Afghanistan has quickly adapted by redirecting commerce through Iran, India, and the Central Asian republics. Pakistan, however, has taken a severe hit. The halt in cross-border trade is dealing a heavy blow to Pakistan’s already fragile economy. It is undermining its trade, manufacturing, and export sectors, according to several reports, including one in Dawn, the Karachi-based English daily.

Pakistan’s Pathan-dominated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa erupted in outrage over the trade closure, with manufacturers and traders demanding the immediate lifting of the ban.

Just last week, a group of Pakistani businessmen rushed to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, pleading with him to intervene and help restore trade with Afghanistan. They said they had already lost trillions of rupees because of the 45-day closure of the Durand Line crossings, reported the Kabul-based Ariana News Network.

A Pakistan-based journalist, writing for Japan’s Nikkei Asia, reported that Pakistan’s trade war with Afghanistan has now “boomeranged” back onto its own economy.

The standoff hasn’t just frozen two-way trade. It has triggered shortages, price spikes, and production disruptions for Pakistani industries across major ones that depend on Afghanistan for both imports and exports. Not just on the ground, even online, social media is flooded with debates and verbal spats among citizens, civil society members, and other stakeholders. Some Afghans are sharing videos of Pakistani mandis, showing piles of produce lying unsold with no buyers in sight.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said that the United Nations has urged Islamabad to reconsider its decision to close trade routes with Afghanistan, reported Tolo News. Dar added that he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir.

Notably, Afghanistan ranks among the world’s poorest countries, with a projected GDP per capita of just $434, which is lower than many African nations such as Burundi and Somalia. According to the United Nations Development Programme’s 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, more than 64% of Afghanistan’s population lives in poverty.

Afghanistan’s economy is in shambles, but the Taliban regime is attempting to rebuild it by diversifying trade. This effort was evident in two back-to-back Afghan delegations that visited India recently, including Afghanistan’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi. The Taliban regime is also working to open trade channels with Turkey.

Pakistan’s economy has also been affected by the suspension of cross-border trade with Afghanistan, enough to send shockwaves across sectors.

PAK CEMENT MANUFACTURING WORST HIT; FOLLOWED BY MEDICINES: REPORT

Following the prolonged border shutdown, the cement industry in Pakistan is among the worst hit. With Afghan coal imports and cement exports coming to a complete halt, Pakistani manufacturers are forced to switch to far costlier coal from South Africa, Indonesia, and Mozambique, Dawn reported.

The price of local coal has shot up from PKR 30,000–32,000 to PKR 42,000–45,000 per tonne, while Afghan coal, which was once available at PKR 30,000–38,00, has disappeared from the market altogether.

The fallout hasn’t stopped at coal or cement. The ripple effects of the trade war are now being faced across multiple sectors across Pakistan.

With the shutdown in place for 48 days now, exports of medicines and agricultural goods have virtually collapsed too. Industries that once depended on Afghan trade now face a bleak future, reported Profit by Pakistan Today.

Take pharmaceuticals. Pakistani firms used to export roughly US$187 million worth of medicines annually to Afghanistan. Now, with border routes blocked, many consignments are stuck in factories. Some drugs can’t even be rerouted to local markets because they aren’t registered for sale domestically. The producers are now left with unsold stock and growing losses.

FRUITS, VEGGIES DESTROYED IN PAK; TRADERS, WORKERS STARE AT BLEAK FUTURE

Perishable fruits and vegetables, which were once among Pakistan’s most vital exports to Afghanistan, have also been hit hard. The trade freeze has brought most export flows to a halt. Shipments are stuck or even destroyed. As a result, prices of imported fruits have doubled in Pakistan, forcing consumers to pay much more while many exporters have written off entire consignments.

On the revenue side, the impact is no less grim. With export volumes plummeting, tax-collection from transit duties and customs has dropped sharply, depriving Pakistan of valuable foreign reserves when the economy can least afford it.

For many small-time traders and transport workers, this is more than numbers on a page. Entire chains of businesses, once humming with cross-border trade, are now paralysed. Small traders who used to make ends meet are staring at bankruptcy; transporters face mounting debt, and labourers fear widespread joblessness, reported Dawn.

AFGHAN-PAK RELATIONS NOSEDIVED; TALIBAN WANS TRADERS TO SKIP PAK

Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have nosedived since the high after the Taliban’s 2021 takeover. Pakistani airstrikes against “TTP hideouts inside Afghan territory”, and both sides accusing the other of sheltering terrorists, have made relations hostile with minimal trust between both parties. Peace talks collapsed, mistrust deepened, and the relationship steadily slid into open hostility.

The fallout has been severe. Violence has escalated with casualties on both sides, repeated border closures have choked off billions in cross-border trade, “terrorist attacks inside Pakistan” have surged, according to New Delhi-based think tank, ORF.

Squeezed by Pakistani restrictions and wary of depending on a single neighbour, the Taliban have begun pivoting away from Islamabad. Kabul is actively courting India for investments and market access, opening up alternative trade corridors through Iran and Central Asia, and even exporting goods to Russia.

Earlier in November, Afghanistan’s Deputy PM for Economic Affairs, Mullah Ghani Baradar, told the traders to “Immediately seek alternative routes to Pakistan”. He warned that “after this announcement, if any trader exports or imports via Pakistan, the Islamic Emirate will not cooperate when problems arise”.

PATHANS TURN UP HEAT ON PAK GOVT OVER AFGHAN TRADE CLOSURE

Manufacturers and traders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), who share an ethnic affinity with most of the Afghans, are among the worst affected. They have demanded the government to reopen the Pakistan-Afghanistan trade routes without delay.

At a jirga (tribal council) at Bacha Khan Markaz in KP, businessmen, transporters, and chamber representatives demanded that the federal government of Shehbaz Sharif reopen the crossings immediately, citing massive losses to local businesses. Leaders of the Pashtun party, the ANP, slammed the government for double standards that it once “allowed trade with India” despite strained relations. But in the case of Afghanistan, it has blocked them. They called for dialogue, protection of Pakhtun economic rights, and restoration of cross-border commerce, reported Dawn on November 27.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/pakistan-afghanistan-trade-war-economy-losses-cement-coal-medicines-fruits-vegetables-khyber-pakhtunkhwa-pathans-impact-2828500-2025-12-01

TOP diplomats from Kyiv are heading to the US to continue talks on a peace deal that could end Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine.

The delegation, which is being led by the country’s Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, hopes to hammer out the details of Donald Trump’s proposed peace draft.

Diplomats from Kyiv will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday.

They will hope to negotiate for a fair peace deal that does not lean heavily towards Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out”.

Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal – all while Zelensky finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation.

Sunday’s meeting will also notably be the first without Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday following a corruption row.

Yermak had been the leading negotiator – and enforcer – for Kyiv since the start of the war in 2022.

A political blowback from a $100 million energy sector corruption scandal has seen two ministers and, now, the president’s right-hand man, ousted.

The Geneva meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counteroffer to proposals laid out in Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan.

It heavily favoured Russia, prompting Zelensky to quickly engage with American negotiators.

Kyiv said it was seeking changes to the draft that was criticised for being in Moscow‘s favour for accepting a range of Russia‘s hardline demands.

European leaders, fearing for their own future amid Russian aggression, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.

Early this week, Umerov said the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva”.

It indicated that Ukraine was on common ground with the US about the revised, now 19-point peace plan with the US negotiators.

But it left the toughest issues for Trump and Zelensky to decide later.

The original Kremlin-backed plan ceded Crimea and the Donbas region to Moscow, as well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – with the US officially recognising them as part of the Russian territory.

While the 19-point plan scraps any limits on the size of Ukraine’s army, it does not address control of territory or whether Ukraine can join Nato – two of the biggest red lines for both sides.

Zelensky has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in a dramatic address last week that he would not betray the country.

But reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory taken by Moscow through force is likely to go ahead despite concern from Ukraine‘s allies in Europe.

A source told The Telegraph: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position.

“They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”

The Kremlin said it had received an updated strategy for ending the war. They gave no more details.

Meanwhile, thr Russian forces are making incremental gains on the front line as Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.

A Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15568257/ukraine-officials-us-peace-talks-russia-drones/

Dignitas founder chose to end his life shortly before his 93rd birthday, the association said. Ludwig A. Minelli’s effort was crucial to the decriminalization of assisted suicide services in Germany in 2020.

The founder of Swiss right-to-die group Dignitas has died through assisted death, the association said Saturday.

Ludwig A. Minelli was a pioneer in the field of assisted death, having led efforts to decriminalize it in Germany in 2020.

Minelli died November 29, 2025, shortly before his 93rd birthday.

He founded the association “Dignitas – To live with dignity – To die with dignity” in 1998 and faced numerous legal challenges. He made several successful appeals to the Swiss Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Minelli began his career as a journalist with a Swiss newspaper in 1956 and was the first correspondent for the German news magazine Der Spiegel in Switzerland between 1964 and 1974.

He later studied law and went on to make a lasting impact on Swiss legislation. Dignitas noted a 2011 ECHR ruling that recognized the right of a person capable of judgment to decide the manner and timing of their own end of life.

The organization described Minelli as a “tenacious and unflinching warrior” when it came to defending people’s autonomy to make fundamental decisions about their lives.

What to know about assisted death in Germany

Dignitas said Minelli’s work was crucial to the decriminalization of assisted suicide services in Germany.

In 2020, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled that individuals have a constitutional right to a self-determined death.

In a recent interview with German outlet FOCUS Online, Dr. Martin Goßmann, head of the medical team at the German Assisted Dying Association, said third parties can offer assistance such as medical or legal advice, but the patient must carry out the act of ingesting the life-ending drug.

Euthanasia, where another person actively helps someone die at their request, remains punishable by law in Germany.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/swiss-founder-of-right-to-die-organization-ends-life-at-92/a-74960885

Moldovan authorities said on Saturday that Russian drones had entered the country’s airspace, posing a threat to aviation, in the third such incident in nine days.

President Maia Sandu, who wants to bring Moldova into the European Union by 2030, has denounced Russia’s war in Ukraine and accused Moscow of attempting to destabilise the ex-Soviet state, which lies between Ukraine and EU member Romania.

The latest incident coincided with a large Russian attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian targets, killing three people and wounding nearly 30. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched around 36 missiles and nearly 600 drones.

Moldova’s interior ministry said it had identified two drones as Russian and that they had flown over Moldovan territory, prompting the closure of its airspace.

They later flew into Ukrainian territory, it added.

“In the course of this incident, which posed a serious threat to flight safety, Moldova’s airspace was closed for an hour and 10 minutes from 22.43 to 23.53 (2043 to 2153 GMT) on the orders of the civil aviation authority,” it said.

Sandu, writing on the X media platform, said: “On their way to kill civilians, Russian drones again violated Moldovan airspace, forcing its temporary closure. We condemn these attacks and stand with Ukraine.”

Moldova, which complained of a similar intrusion on November 20 and again earlier this week, described the latest incident as intimidation in the context of the conflict in Ukraine and denounced “illegal and dangerous actions posing a threat to civil flights and peoples’ lives”.

Russia’s Ambassador to Moldova, Oleg Ozerov, has been repeatedly summoned to its foreign ministry over the incidents.

Ozerov suggested the incidents were aimed at worsening already poor relations between Moscow and Chisinau.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/moldova-says-russian-drones-entered-its-airspace-again-posing-aviation-threat-2025-11-29

The number of people confirmed killed in Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip has passed the 70,000 mark, the enclave’s health ministry said on Saturday.

A total of 301 people have been added to the toll since Thursday, taking it to 70,100, the ministry added. Two died in recent Israeli strikes, the rest were identified from remains buried for some time in the rubble, according to the statement.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has questioned the accuracy of the figures from Gaza, though it has not published its own estimate.

BODIES IDENTIFIED IN RUBBLE

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – triggered by the deadly October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel – has left much of the strip in ruins, making it difficult to gather accurate information on casualties.

In the first months of the war, officials counted bodies that arrived in hospitals and registered names and identity numbers.

In the later stages, Gaza health authorities said they held off including thousands of reported deaths in the official tally until forensic, medical and legal checks could be made.

Since a fragile ceasefire took hold on October 10, the reported death toll has kept climbing steadily as authorities there take advantage of the relative calm to search for bodies in the wreckage.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seized 251 hostages in their attack on southern Israel.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has shattered whole families.

Moaz Mghari said he had lost 62 relatives, including his parents and four siblings, in a series of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed two residential buildings near the entrance to Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip.

He told Reuters he had been at a nearby clothing shop when he heard the sound of explosions and the sky turned dark with dust. He rushed home to find his family’s building turned to rubble.

“Then I began to realize what happened, I lost everything, I lost everyone,” Mghari, said.

Israel’s military has denied targeting civilians since the conflict started more than two years ago.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-death-toll-tops-70000-health-ministry-says-2025-11-29

THIS is the moment a furious Donald Trump blasts a “stupid” reporter for her bizarre question in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of two National Guard troops by an Afghan migrant in DC.

The tense exchange unfolded at the start of Thursday’s press conference, when reporters asked whether the federal screening of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, had failed.

In an impassioned Thanksgiving address, Trump spoke about a wide range of contentious issues from immigration to the shooting in Washington on Wednesday.

However, it was during this speech that the President lost his temper after being goaded by a member of the press.

Nancy Cordes, 51, noted that federal officials had previously said the suspect “worked closely with the CIA in Afghanistan for years, that he was vetted and the vetting came up clean.”

Trump then provided an emphatic response to the reporter’s suggestion of some sort of state failing.

“He went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts,” he said.

“It happens too often with these people. You see them.

“But look, this is how they come in, they’re standing on top of each other.

“That’s an airplane. There was no vetting or anything.

“They came in unvetted and we have a lot of others in this country and we’re going to get them out.”

Cordes pressed again, citing the Justice Department inspector general.

“Actually, your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the US, so why do you blame the Biden administration for what this man did?”

This time, Trump erupted.

“Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” he snapped.

“Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”

He then tore into the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghan withdrawal and the laws governing migrant removal.

“And there’s a law passed that it’s almost impossible to get them out.

“You can’t get them out once they come in, and they came in and they were unvetted, they were unchecked, there were many of them, and they came in on big planes and it was disgraceful,” Trump said.

“The whole Afghanistan situation was a mess. It should’ve never taken place.

“We would’ve left from Bagram, and we would’ve kept Bagram by the way.”

Despite the barrage of insults, Cordes remained unfazed – a familiar scene given Trump’s recent confrontations with reporters.

Earlier this month, he told Bloomberg journalist Catherine Lucey to be “quiet, piggy” after she questioned him about the release of the Epstein files.

Days later, during another tense interaction near Air Force One, he snapped again when she interjected: “Will you let me finish my statement? You are the worst!

“You’re with Bloomberg, right? You are the worst! I don’t know why they even have you.”

The escalating press tensions came hours after Trump announced that National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, had died from injuries sustained in Wednesday’s shooting.

He described her as an “incredible person” and “outstanding in every way”.

Her colleague, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.

The suspected gunman, Lakanwal, allegedly drove across the country to the nation’s capital before opening fire with a .357 revolver.

The shooting happened in the northwest quadrant of the city, roughly two blocks northwest of the White House.

The two guardsmen were part of the contingent of troops deployed to Washington over the summer.

They were performing “high visibility patrols” when the suspected shooter opened fire.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15563005/trump-blasts-reporter-afghan-migrant-guardswoman/

Archaeologists are to resume digging at the Ness of Brodgar on Orkney after 3D radar technology led to an “extraordinary discovery”.

The dig team at the Ness, one of the most important Neolithic sites in the British Isles, are not revealing what they believe the find to be until more work is done.

But they say it is like nothing else ever found at the site – and may not even be Neolithic.

The Ness of Brodgar – a strip of land between two lochs – was the scene of 20 years of excavations until work officially ended in 2024.

The digs uncovered 40 structures making up a cluster of buildings which showed it was a significant settlement in prehistoric Orkney.

However, a further phase of work using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) was carried out this summer – producing three-dimensional images of the whole site for the first time.

The scientific study produced an unexpected discovery which the team describe as “totally dissimilar to anything else we’ve uncovered”.

The only clue from the excavation team is that Ness is “a site that can be seen to be defined by straight lines and rectangular forms, from the architecture down to the art”.

Archaeologist Nick Card – who worked on the digs from 2004 and will return for the latest work – told the BBC’s Radio Scotland Breakfast programme: “We think this is so unusual that it could add a new chapter to the history of the Ness.

“It’s at a bit of the site where there doesn’t seem to be any deep archaeology, so it’s not like we’re getting into another 20 years of excavations.

“The archaeology that will be uncovered will be quite different. Don’t expect three-dimensional Neolithic buildings. Possibly it is not Neolithic, I think probably later, but it could be contemporary.”

The Ness lies just south-east of the Ring of Brodgar, the neolithic stone circle which can be seen as Orkney’s version of Stonehenge.

The website of the Ness of Brodgar Trust, says it is “without parallel in Atlantic Europe”.

The structures already uncovered at the three hectare site were built in waves between roughly 3,500BC and 2,400BC.

The latest work has again been made possible by funding from Time Team, for a new programme they will be making next year.

It will, according to Nick Card, involve “keyhole surgery” to open a small trench to investigate “this anomaly”.

He added: “We always said that when we put the trenches to bed, that was the end of the fieldwork.

“But last summer we conducted several types of geophysics and what that has showed up is something quite extraordinary.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7836wvx4q4o

THE gunman who opened fire on two National Guardsmen in an “act of terror” near the White House on the eve of Thanksgiving is a CIA-trained Afghan refugee who worked with the US military.

Suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, was identified as the shooter who critically injured two soldiers after the attack in downtown Washington DC on Wednesday afternoon.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said that Lakanwal had come to the United States in September 2021 – after the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan – through a Biden-era immigration program for Afghans who had worked with the US government.

Ratcliffe said that his involvement was “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation.”

The CIA director slammed the former administration’s “disastrous” actions during the withdrawal, which allowed unvetted foreigners to enter the US on temporary visas.

He added, “The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including the CIA.

“The individual – and so many others – should have never been allowed to come here.”

President Donald Trump had earlier framed the shooting as an “act of terror” and said the attack “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation.”

He vowed to redouble his mass deportation efforts.

Former President Joe Biden’s operation sought to resettle vulnerable Afghans, including those who assisted the US during the war.

It’s believed Lakanwal was settled in the Washington state town of Bellingham.

A close relative said Lakanwal worked alongside US Special Forces while serving in the Afghan Army for ten years.

The relative said Lakanwal has a wife and five sons, and that he was even injured while supporting US soldiers.

Lakanwal was allegedly lying in wait before he rounded the corner near the Farragut West Metro Station in Northwest DC around 2:15 pm.

He then opened fire, striking a female guard, identified as Sarah Beckstrom, in the chest before shooting her in the head, according to investigators.

The Afghan allegedly fired at and struck the second guard, Andrew Wolfe, until a third guard stationed nearby rushed to the area and took him down.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency overseeing immigration in the United States, said that it had stopped processing immigration applications from Afghanistan.

The pause will affect Afghans seeking to remain in the US through immigration avenues like asylum and permanent residency, or those trying to enter the country.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15559626/rahmanullah-lakanwal-dc-shooting-suspect-cia-afghanistan/

Putin said that he considered the Ukrainian leadership to be illegitimate and so it was legally impossible to sign a deal with Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (Nov 27) that outline draft peace proposals discussed by the United States and Ukraine could become the basis of future agreements to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that if not Russia would fight on.

US President Donald Trump has long said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two, but his efforts so far, including a summit with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, have not brought peace.

A leaked 28-point US peace plan emerged last week, spooking Ukrainian and European officials who felt it bowed to Moscow’s key demands on NATO, Moscow’s control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraine’s army.

European powers then gave their counter-proposal for peace and at talks in Geneva, the US and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.

Putin, speaking in Bishkek after a summit with the leaders of a grouping of former Soviet republics, told reporters that the discussions so far were not about a draft agreement of any kind but about sets of issues.

He said that in Geneva, the US and Ukraine had decided to divide up the 28 points into four separate components, and that a copy had been transmitted to Moscow.

“In general, we agree that this could be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said. “We see that the American side takes into account our position.”

Putin said that some things still needed to be discussed. If Europe wanted a pledge not to attack it, then Russia was willing to give such a formal pledge, he said, though he added that it was “complete nonsense” to suggest Russia would attack Europe.

THE CHOICE IS WAR OR PEACE, PUTIN SAYS

Putin mixed a clear public expression of readiness to engage with the Trump administration over a possible peace plan for Ukraine with several warnings that Russia was prepared to fight on if necessary and take more of Ukraine.

Russian forces control more than 19 percent of Ukraine, or 115,600 square km, up one percentage point from two years ago, and have advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.

Russia, Putin noted, was being told that it should cease the fighting but needed Kyiv’s forces to pull back before it could do so.

“Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the territories they hold, and then the fighting will cease. If they don’t leave, then we shall achieve this by armed means. That’s it,” Putin said.

Putin said that he considered the Ukrainian leadership to be illegitimate and so it was legally impossible to sign a deal with Kyiv.

It was therefore important, he said, to ensure that any agreement was recognised by the international community, and that the international community recognised Russian gains in Ukraine.

“Therefore, broadly speaking, of course, we ultimately want to reach an agreement with Ukraine. But right now, this is practically impossible. Impossible legally,” Putin said.

He said that the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and the eastern Donbas region should be a topic for discussions with the US.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/putin-says-us-ukraine-text-could-form-basis-future-peace-agreement-5494336

Thailand is battling severe monsoon flooding as rescue teams move people to safety across multiple provinces. Over a dozen people are dead and the major response has included the deployment of an aircraft carrier.

Severe rainfall caused destructive flooding in southern Thailand, leaving the tourist city of Hat Yai waist-deep underwater and prompting the government to declare a state of emergency in Songkhla province on Tuesday.

Officials said at least 13 people have been killed across four flood-hit provinces.

How is Thailand responding to the floods?

Also on Tuesday, Thailand prepared to deploy a naval flotilla of 14 boats and the aircraft carrier Chakri Naruebet, which will carry helicopters, medical teams, supplies and field kitchens capable of producing 3,000 meals a day.

“The fleet is ready to deliver forces and carry out actions as the Royal Navy orders,” the navy said in a statement, adding that the carrier could serve as a floating hospital.

The national meteorological agency has warned of continued heavy rain and possible flash floods, advising small boats to remain ashore due to expected wave heights above three meters.

Television footage showed rescue teams in Hat Yai evacuating people using boats, jetskis and military trucks amid high water levels. Some families used inflatable children’s pools to move their children to safety. The provincial administration said more than 1,200 people had been rescued from flooded homes, and Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced additional boats and trucks to assist evacuation efforts.

Thailand regularly experiences heavy monsoon rains between June and September, but experts say human-induced climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather. Days of torrential rain since late last week have left parts of Hat Yai and surrounding areas submerged, with evacuations still under way.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/deadly-floods-hit-southern-thailand-after-heavy-rains/a-74897131

Patel has faced criticism over his girlfriend’s security detail, his reported access to a government jet, and ongoing disagreements with people inside Trump’s circle

US President Donald Trump is weighing whether to remove FBI Director Kash Patel in the coming months, according to a report by MS NOW quoting three people familiar with internal discussions.

The sources said Trump and senior aides have grown frustrated by recent negative headlines involving Patel, including questions over his use of government resources and reported disputes with other Trump allies.

Patel has faced criticism over his girlfriend’s security detail, his reported access to a government jet, and ongoing disagreements with people inside Trump’s circle. Two of the sources said that Patel is “on thin ice” and that his removal appears closer than ever, with Andrew Bailey — a senior official at the FBI — seen as the likely replacement. They added that Trump could still change course.

The White House has, however, denied the reports. “This story is completely made up,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded on X.

She added: “In fact, when this Fake News published, I was in the Oval Office, where President Trump was meeting with his law enforcement team, including FBI Director Kash Patel. I read the headline to the President and he laughed. He said: “What? That’s totally false. Come on Kash, let’s take a picture to show them you’re doing a great job!”

Earlier, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson had said: “President Trump has assembled the most talented and impressive Administration in history and they are doing an excellent job carrying out the President’s agenda. FBI Director Patel is a critical member of the President’s team and he is working tirelessly to restore integrity to the FBI.”

Trump also praised Patel during the annual Turkey Pardoning ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, describing him as “very busy doing a great job.” As the audience applauded, the president added: “See, you’ve got a following, Kash.” Last week, in an interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, Trump said: “I do have confidence in Kash, a lot of confidence, and the DOJ.”

MS NOW previously reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi has been frustrated with Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, criticising what were described as premature social media posts about investigative breakthroughs. According to multiple sources cited by the outlet, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche have expressed concern over media scrutiny of Patel’s use of taxpayer-funded resources.

Reports have included a whistleblower’s allegation that Patel took a government plane to watch his girlfriend perform in State College, Pennsylvania — a trip critics characterised as a “date night.” MS NOW also reported that an elite FBI SWAT team had been used as a security detail for Patel’s partner.