Category: Trending

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.

“There is not even the most basic level of trust,” says South Korean President Lee Jae Myung of relations with North Korea.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned Monday (Nov 24) of the risk of accidental clashes with North Korea, which has cut off all channels of communication with Seoul.

Lee, who has taken several steps to ease tensions since taking office in June, has offered discussions with the North without preconditions, in contrast to his hawkish conservative predecessor.

Pyongyang has yet to respond to Lee’s overtures.

“Inter-Korean relations have, regrettably, turned very hostile and confrontational,” Lee told reporters on a flight from South Africa, where he attended the G20 summit, to Türkiye.

“There is not even the most basic level of trust, and North Korea is making extremely extreme statements and taking extremely extreme actions,” he said, giving examples of recent cases of North Korea installing triple layers of barbed-wire fences on the border.

“We have now reached a situation where we do not know when an accidental clash may occur,” said Lee.

“All lines of connection have been cut. They are refusing all dialogue and contact. It is a very dangerous state,” he added.

Lee, however, said Seoul would continue to pursue communications with the North, saying the South was “always open”.

“Why do we exchange and talk with every other country but not with North Korea? Now let us exchange. And we support the normalisation of relations.”

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/lee-jae-myung-south-north-korea-relations-risk-accidental-clashes-5487416

A Christian group has announced that at least 50 of the more than 300 children snatched by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria have fled from their captors.

Fifty of the 303 students kidnapped from a Catholic school in north-central Nigeria last week have escaped and have been reunited with their parents, the Catholic Church and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Sunday.

What happened in the kidnapping?
Armed men raided the Catholic boarding school in the village of Papiri in Niger State on Friday morning, abducting 303 children and 12 teachers.

Some 253 pupils remain in captivity, according to the Catholic bishop who heads the school.

Among them are 6-year-old children, local media has reported, citing parents.

In a statement, CAN chairman Bulus Yohanna, a Catholic Bishop who is also the proprietor of the school, said the pupils fled from their captors on Friday and Saturday.

Africa’s most populous country is currently under increasing scrutiny from US President Donald Trump, whose administration designated Nigeria as particular concern due to the killing of Christians by radical Islamists.

Pope calls for ‘immediate release’ of hostages
Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV on Sunday made “a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages.”

The pope spoke of his “deep sorrow, especially for the many young boys and girls kidnapped and for their anguished families,” at the end of the Angelus prayer.

School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Nigeria, and armed gangs often see schools as “strategic” targets to attract more attention.

At least 1,500 students have been seized in Nigeria since the infamous kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls more than a decade ago. Many of the children were released only after ransoms were met.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-50-children-escape-after-catholic-school-kidnapping/a-74855166

President Donald Trump has said a US plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war is not his “final offer” for Kyiv, after Ukrainian allies voiced concerns over proposals.

Earlier on Saturday, leaders from Europe, Canada and Japan said the plan had elements “essential for a just and lasting peace”, but would “require additional work”, citing concerns over border changes and caps on Ukraine’s army.

On Sunday, security officials from Britain, France, Germany, the US and Ukraine will meet in Geneva, Switzerland.

President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier warned Ukraine faced “one of the most difficult moments in our history” over US pressure to accept the plan seen as favourable to Moscow.

Trump has given Ukraine until 27 November to accept the 28-point plan, while Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said it could be the “basis” for a settlement.

When asked on Saturday whether the current draft plan was his final offer for Ukraine, Trump told reporters at the White House: “No, not my final offer.”

“One way or another we have to get it [the war] ended, so we’re working on it,” he added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will be among those taking part in talks in Geneva on Sunday. National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell will attend on the UK’s behalf.

Saturday’s joint statement at the G20 summit in South Africa was signed by the leaders of Canada, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Germany and Norway. Two top EU officials were also among the signatories.

The statement said: “We believe therefore that the draft is a basis which will require additional work. We are ready to engage in order to ensure that a future peace is sustainable. We are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force.

“We are also concerned by the proposed limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces, which would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.”

It added: “The implementation of elements relating to the European Union and relating to Nato would need the consent of EU and Nato members respectively”.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who is at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, spoke to Zelensky on the phone on Saturday, followed by a call with Trump.

On the Trump call, a Downing Street spokesman said Sir Keir “relayed the discussions that have been taking place between Coalition of the Willing partners [Ukraine’s allies] in attendance at the G20 summit today”.

They added: “The leaders agreed their teams would work together on the 28-point US peace proposal in Geneva tomorrow. They agreed to speak again tomorrow.”

Sir Keir earlier said he was concerned about proposed caps on Ukraine’s military in the US plan, saying “it’s fundamental that Ukraine has to be able to defend itself if there’s a ceasefire”.

The widely leaked US peace plan proposes Ukrainian troops withdraw from the part of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, and de facto Russian control of Donetsk, as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region and the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

The plan also includes freezing the borders of Ukraine’s southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along the current battle lines. Both regions are partially occupied by Russia.

The US draft would also limit Ukraine’s military to 600,000 personnel, with European fighter jets stationed in neighbouring Poland.

Kyiv would receive “reliable security guarantees”, the plan says, although no details have been given. The document says “it is expected” that Russia will not invade its neighbours and Nato will not expand further.

The plan also suggests Russia will be “reintegrated into the global economy”, through the lifting of sanctions and by inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 group of the world’s most powerful countries – making it the G8 again.

On Friday, Trump said Zelensky would “have to like” the US proposals, adding otherwise Ukraine and Russia would continue fighting.

Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian leader addressed the nation with a stark warning that the country “might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner”.

“Today is one of the most difficult moments in our history,” Zelensky added, pledging to work “constructively” with the Americans on the plan.

On Saturday, Zelensky announced that his head of office Andriy Yermak would lead Ukraine’s negotiating team for future talks on a peace deal, including any that may involve Russia.

“Our representatives know how to defend Ukraine’s national interests and exactly what must be done to prevent Russia from launching a third invasion, another strike against Ukraine,” the president said in a video statement posted on social media.

Kyiv is critically dependent on deliveries of US-made advanced weaponry, including air defence systems to repel deadly Russian air assaults, as well as intelligence provided by Washington.

Putin on Friday confirmed Moscow had received the US plan – but said it had not been discussed with the Kremlin in detail.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clydg8w7kxvo

It is unusual for world leaders to adopt a declaration at the start of the G20. Officials from G20 summit host South Africa said Washington had pressured them not to adopt a declaration in its absence.

World leaders attending a Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit in South Africa on Saturday adopted a declaration addressing global challenges despite opposition from the United States.

The move broke with protocol as declarations are typically adopted at the end of G20 summits.

In his opening remarks, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “We should not allow anything to diminish the value, the stature and the impact of the first African G20 presidency.”

This year’s summit has been overshadowed by President Donald Trump’s decision not to send a US delegation.

South African officials said Washington had put pressure on South Africa not to adopt a declaration in its absence.

While the world’s largest economy boycotted the summit, Ramaphosa argued that the G20 still played a key role in international cooperation.

“The G20 underscores the value of the relevance of multilateralism. It recognizes that the challenges that we face can only be resolved through cooperation, collaboration and partnership,” the summit’s host said.

G20 amid geopolitical crisis

Despite Ramaphosa’s optimism, French President Emmanuel Macron noted that “the G20 may be coming to the end of a cycle.”

“We are living in a moment of geopolitics in which we are struggling to resolve major crises together around this table, including with members who are not present today,” said Macron.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed with Macron’s warning.

“There’s no doubt, the road ahead is tough,” he said. “We need to find ways to play a constructive role again today in the face of the world challenges.”

Meanwhile, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who was attending the summit instead of President Xi Jinping, said “unilateralism and protectionism are rampant” and “many people are pondering what exactly is happening to global solidarity.”

What did G20 leaders agree on in the declaration?

The 122-point declaration demanded more global action to cope with climate change.

Endorsed on the same day that the COP30 talks ended in Brazil, leaders acknowledged that “investment and climate finance” need to be scaled up “from billions to trillions globally from all sources.”

The declaration also addressed the need to reform international financial systems to help low-income countries deal with their debt.

Its language on taxing the super-rich was weaker than in the previous G20 declaration in Rio de Janeiro, where leaders agreed for the first time “to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed.”

Leaders also urged for a “just, comprehensive, and lasting peace” in Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” based on the UN Charter.

Although Ukraine appeared only once in the 30-page text, Western leaders at the summit scrambled on the sidelines to address a peace plan proposed by the US that would end the war in Ukraine on terms considered favorable to Russia.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/g20-adopts-declaration-despite-us-absence/a-74850499

The UK government is expected to approve China’s plans for a new mega embassy in central London.

A final decision has not yet been formally taken, but the advice ministers are understood to have received from the intelligence agencies clears the path for the controversial project to be given the go ahead.

The expected green light – first reported by the Times newspaper – will become the latest case study in the growing public argument about how wise a close relationship with Beijing is.

The approval or rejection of the planning application lies with the Housing Secretary Steve Reed – in what is known as a quasi-judicial decision.

But given the sensitivities of this judgement call, many others have been consulted – including MI5 and MI6.

The decision has repeatedly been delayed and last month the government pushed back a deadline to rule on the application to 10 December.

The site at Royal Mint Court is close to the City of London, and fibre optic cables that carry vast quantities of highly sensitive data, sparking concerns it could pose an espionage risk.

The embassy, at 20,000 square metres, would be the biggest of its kind anywhere in Europe.

Some have argued that a single site, rather than multiple sites across London, may be easier to manage and there is an awareness in government that rejecting China’s long-standing desire for its new embassy could set back diplomatic relations.

However, Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel warned that approving the embassy would put Britain at risk, accusing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being “desperate and unprincipled”.

The Chinese Embassy in the UK has previously said the new complex would enhance “mutually beneficial cooperation” between China and Britain, with officials arguing objections to the site are unjustified.

Since winning the general election last year, Labour has sought to thaw the UK’s relationship with Beijing.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Business Secretary Peter Kyle and the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins, have all been on visits to China.

The prime minister is expected to make his own trip to the country, perhaps as soon as early next year.

Asked about the prospect of heading there, he told reporters en route to the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, that no visit was confirmed yet.

He said the government’s approach to China “is the same approach as we’ve always taken, which is cooperate where we can and challenge where we must, particularly on national security”.

Critics say the government is insufficiently hard-headed about what they see as the threat posed by Beijing, and argue for a much greater caution in the UK’s relationship.

Dame Priti said: “It beggars belief that Starmer is jetting off to Beijing just months after the case against the alleged Chinese spies collapsed on his watch.”

She added: “Keir Starmer is so weak, and our economy so precarious, that Labour feels it must kowtow to China at every opportunity, regardless of the cost to our country.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said approving the embassy would be the “wrong decision”.

“If you think of all the Hong Kongers who came to our country to escape the oppression from China, now the government is allowing it in.”

In September a case involving two men – including a former parliamentary researcher – who were accused of spying for China collapsed in controversial circumstances. Both men denied wrongdoing.

Prosecutors said the case was dropped because they could not get evidence from the government referring to China as a national security threat.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgexdjp0qj8o

Gunshots were fired during an annual Christmas event in United States’ North Carolina. At the time of the firing, over 200 people were attending the downtown Concord Christmas tree lighting.

Several people were injured in a shooting incident in the United States’ North Carolina on Friday evening (local time). The incident took place during the downtown Concord Christmas tree lighting.

At the time of the firing, over 200 people were attending the event. According to reports, gunshots were heard at around 7:30 pm (local time).

After receiving the information, the police reached the spot. The entire area was cordoned off. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital.

There are no details about the person who opened fire. Brett Ford, a balloon artist, told WCNC Charlotte that at the time of the incident around 250–300 people were present at the spot. “All of a sudden, you heard what you thought was fireworks, but it’s about 40 minutes early for the fireworks,” he added.

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/us-shooting-several-injured-in-firing-at-concord-christmas-tree-lighting-in-north-carolina-video

Passed under the Biden administration in 2022, the CHIPS Act was designed to boost the US chip manufacturing industry and allocated US$39 billion to spur the construction of new factories and expand existing facilities.

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a Bill on Thursday (Nov 20) in the House that would block the purchase of Chinese chipmaking equipment by CHIPS Act grant recipients for 10 years.

The Bill targets a range of chipmaking tools from complex lithography equipment, like that produced by Dutch manufacturer ASML, to machines that slice and dice the silicon wafers on which chips are printed.

The Bill was introduced in the House by Republican Jay Obernolte and Democratic member Zoe Lofgren. In the Senate, Democrat Mark Kelly and Republican Marsha Blackburn plan to introduce the Bill in December.

Passed under the Biden administration in 2022, the CHIPS Act was designed to boost the US chip manufacturing industry and allocated US$39 billion to spur the construction of new factories and expand existing facilities.

Chip manufacturers such as Intel, Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics have received grants under the law, though the US later converted Intel’s grant money into an equity stake.

China has invested more than US$40 billion in the chip industry with a focus on manufacturing equipment, and the market share of such equipment has grown substantially, according to background material provided by the lawmakers.

US chip equipment makers have grown concerned that export restrictions on their tool shipments to China will lower sales and hurt their ability to invest in research and development. The use of CHIPS Act grant money to buy Chinese equipment has compounded the issue.

The largest American chipmaking tool companies include Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-lawmakers-target-chinese-chipmaking-equipment-imports-chips-act-grant-recipients-5481106

Ukraine plans to seek nearly $44 billion from Russia for the damage linked to an increase in climate-warming emissions from the ongoing war, a government minister told Reuters.
The move marks the first time a country is claiming damages for such an increase in emissions, including from the fossil fuels, cement and steel used in fighting the war, and from the destruction of trees through resultant fires.

“A lot of damage was caused to water, to land, to forests,” said Pavlo Kartashov, the country’s deputy minister for economy, environment, and agriculture.
“We have huge amounts of additional CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases,” Kartashov told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil.
A member of the Russian delegation at COP30 declined to comment.
Dutch carbon accounting expert Lennard de Klerk estimated the war had generated about 237 million tons of additional CO2-equivalent emissions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, nearly equal to the annual emissions for Ireland, Belgium and Austria combined.

De Klerk told Reuters he had helped Ukraine to calculate the damage figure based on a 2022 study in Nature estimating the so-called social cost of carbon, an estimate of damages to society from CO2, at about $185 a ton.
He said Ukraine was preparing to submit a claim through a new compensation process being set up by the Council of Europe that has already received some 70,000 claims by Ukrainian individuals for wartime damages.
All the claims, including any filed by other legal entities such as companies, will then be decided by a claims commission.
It remains unclear where the compensation will come from. De Klerk suggested that the billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets could be used in covering the claims.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/ukraine-plans-44-billion-claim-against-russia-wartime-emissions-2025-11-18/

As Johannesburg prepares to host Africa’s first ever G20 summit, South Africa aims to showcase its diplomatic and economic potential despite the US boycott.

In South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg, preparations for hosting the world’s biggest economic players at the annual G20 (Group of 20) summit have been underway for weeks.

“The preparations were actually perfect. Anything else will be overkill,” Siphamandla Zondi, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Johannesburg, told DW following a workshop on the G20 summit, which takes place on November 22–23.

Lindelani Mkhaliphi, a young South African who also took part in the workshop, said: “It does make me feel proud. We’re also representing the entirety of Africa.”

The first G20 summit to be held on African soil is a big moment for South Africa, which is trying to straddle its role as a BRICS member, while remaining a valued trade partner for Western democracies.

But for Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, president and CEO of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), South Africa’s focus on solidarity, equality, and sustainability has been refreshing.

“It comes at a time when the world is starting to recognize that Africa is central to solving a lot of the global challenges,” Owusu-Gyamfi told DW, adding that “global growth and stability depend on whether the African continent’s trajectory is good or bad.”

She points to Africa’s fast growing, young population, its increasing share of the global workforce, and sovereignty over a “significant percentage of the critical minerals that we need for green growth.”

Why is the US boycotting the G20 in South Africa?

The United States will assume the G20 rotating presidency on December 1, but is boycotting the G20 summit in Johannesburg.

Washington’s relationship with South Africa has soured: First came crippling aid cuts through USAID in February, which affected thousands of vulnerable South Africans. Then Pretoria was singled out for high tariffs.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has asserted, without tangible evidence, that a genocide targeting white people is occurring in South Africa.

The South African government has denied that Afrikaners and other white South Africans are being persecuted.

Washington has also castigated Pretoria for its ongoing case at the International Court of Justice against Israel over its actions in the Gaza Strip.

But according to Menzi Ndhlovu, a political risk analyst at Signal Risk, skipping the G20 serves another function.

“This is about the delegitimization of South Africa, its leadership status, and its belonging in the upper echelons of the global power structures,” he said.

“The US, or Republicans rather, see South Africa as a country case of DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion],” Ndhlovu told DW. “And the Republicans are opposed to DEI in America. So to make an example in the international arena, they have flagged South Africa.”

In February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused South Africa of “using the G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words: DEI and climate change,” which he said were “anti-Americanisms.”

Many other G20 attendees still expected

But snubbing an organization representing around 85% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP),60% of the world’s population, and over 75% of global trade is still an issue. The G20 consists of the world’s 19 biggest economies plus the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU), and senior officials are expected to attend despite the US absence.

Referring to Trump’s claims of genocide in South Africa, analyst Ndhlovu said: “A lot of major powers are looking past some of the theatrics, and they don’t want any part of it because they see the value in partnering with what still is Africa’s largest and most influential economy.”

Ndhlovu acknowledges the US boycott is a major obstacle because of its economic clout and influence on global institutions, but suggests there are ways around this for South Africa.

“The response from South Africa to Trump’s non-attendance was very stately,” Ndhlovu told DW. “The next step is actually more important, and that is finding resolutions that can work in the absence of the US and where there is consensus.”

“Global cooperation does not revolve around a single country,” noted economist Owusu-Gyamfi.

“South Africa has used this G20 presidency to highlight the fact that solving current global challenges, be it debt reform, climate financing, trade, is a collective action by the G20 and beyond.”

What can South Africa gain from the G20?

The problems for South Africa, and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government, are considerable: Corruption scandals, high crime rates, and a stagnating economy battling staggering unemployment. Still, Ndhlovu and others see the G20 as a chance for South Africa to “put on a good show.”

“As Africans, there is a tendency to feel like all of this does not affect us, that we perceive this as European,” Nghede Adams, a Nigerian scholar at the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told DW.

“But, here in South Africa, it is home, an opportunity for us to connect.”

Ugandan Martha Tukahirwa of the Fight Inequality Alliance, who will be on the sidelines of the G20, told DW: “The global economy is not only in a state of just mere faltering, but we’re in a moment where there is a lot of extractivism. It’s exclusionary, and highly unstable.”

She believes the summit is a “political moment” because previously, important multilateral spaces were led by representatives from other continents.

“We need to use the space to really amplify our demands,” she said.

Big, bold challenges

Aside from the apparent US snub, the boldest aims of South Africa’s leadership may also be its biggest challenges.

“In sub-Saharan Africa, our elders hold dearly to the principles of equity, of unity in a crisis,” Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi said.

“So I’m really proud Soupluth Africa held strong onto those. They’ve put debt sustainability for low-income countries at the heart of the agenda, with countries spending an average of 17% of their revenues on debt repayment right now.”

She describes this as a first, and believes the G20’s legacy must translate into real benefits for Africa’s economic growth.

“Africa has to transform its economies from a dependence on exporting raw materials to value addition that can create jobs for its people,” political economist Owusu-Gyamfi told DW.

“It must have access to the right types of finance when it is needed. South Africa’s focus on the cost of capital is an excellent example of why the G20 happening on African soil is good for Africa.”

Analyst Ndhlovu added that picking the right themes, like debt restructuring, can make the G20 a success for South Africa.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/south-africa-rises-above-us-snub-as-g20-nears/a-74781094

Donald Trump ripped into a reporter from the US network ABC News on Tuesday (Nov 18), just days after calling another woman journalist “piggy” after she asked a question related to the convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump threatened ABC’s broadcast licence after reporter Mary Bruce posed questions during a White House visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The earlier incident involving Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey happened a few days ago on Air Force One, but only came to light on social media on Tuesday.

“Quiet. Quiet, piggy,” Trump said to Lucey on Friday, pointing his finger at her, after she asked him why he would not release material on disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, if there’s nothing incriminating in the files”.

CNN journalist Jake Tapper called Trump’s “piggy” comment “disgusting and completely unacceptable”.

On Tuesday, Trump singled out ABC News’s Bruce after she asked a series of questions in the Oval Office as the US president hosted the de facto Saudi ruler in a high-profile event.

Bruce first asked questions about whether dealings by Trump’s family business with the Saudis were a conflict of interest.

She then quizzed Prince Mohammed over the 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying “US intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist, 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you?”

Trump cut in angrily, saying: “ABC fake news. One of the worst in the business.”

“NO MORE QUESTIONS”

The president then said he has “nothing to do” with the Trump Organization, which is currently run by his two eldest sons and which announced a deal with a Saudi developer for a resort in the Maldives on Monday.

Trump also backed Prince Mohammed’s denial of involvement in the Khashoggi murder, despite US intelligence suggesting he approved the operation.

“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Trump snapped.

Trump boiled over again when Bruce later asked about the flashpoint issue of Epstein. Congress voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to order the release of files about the financier, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-president-donald-trump-lashes-out-female-reporters-abc-news-bloomberg-5476051

Two were killed as massive clashes broke out in several parts of Bangladesh, including capital Dhaka, after the ICT’s death penalty ruling for for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for crimes against humanity during the students’ uprising in 2024.

Bangladesh was on the boil yet again as Awami League supporters clashed with their rivals and police following the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)’s death sentence verdict for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for crimes against humanity during the students’ uprising last year that toppled her government.

Demonstrators blocked several highways in Dhaka as they led marches and clashed with police, who were deployed on the streets of Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh in anticipation of violence following the ICT verdict. Police had to use batons, sound grenades and tear gas in a bid to disperse the protesters, according to Bangladeshi media.

Videos surfaced on social media showing demonstrators being chased by police with batons and explosions being heard as Dhaka remained tense throughout the day.

Dhanmondi 32 area, where the house of Bangladesh’s founding father and Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is located, remained tense as protesters attempted to march there and destroy the property, local media reported.

Supporters of the Awami League, which has been banned by the Muhammad Yunus-led interim regime for its role in the 2024 anti-government protests, clashed with their counterparts from Jatiya Chhatra Shakti, an organisation formed with the coordinators of the students’ uprising.

Ahead of the ICT verdict on Monday, the Awami League had called a two-day nationwide bandh to protest against the ruling, which has been described by Hasina as “politically motivated”.

ICT RULING AGAINST SHEIKH HASINA

The ICT found Hasina, the 78-year-old Awami League chief, currently living in exile in Delhi since her ouster on August 5 last year following massive anti-government protests, guilty on three charges: incitement to violence, issuing orders to kill protesters and failing to prevent atrocities during the student-led uprising.

Former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan was also sentenced to death, while former IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun received five years in prison after becoming a state witness and pleading guilty.

The landmark ruling, arriving months ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for early February, is expected to reshape Bangladesh’s political landscape.

A defiant Hasina called the ruling “biased, politically motivated” and issued by a “rigged tribunal with no democratic mandate”. On the other hand, Yunus praised the verdict, saying that no one, regardless of power, was above the law.

Following the verdict, Bangladesh has written to India to immediately return Hasina and Kamal for their alleged role in the deadly July crackdown on students’ protests.

In response, New Delhi said it formally took note of the ICT ruling against Hasina, adding that it “remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh.”

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/bangladesh-massive-clashes-sheikh-hasina-ict-death-sentence-killed-cops-on-charge-2821568-2025-11-18

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has sparked renewed health concerns after he addressed reporters with a raspy voice from the White House.

But when he was quizzed about how he was feeling, the 79-year-old insisted he strained his voice during a dispute over his tariffs.

A reporter asked, “Your voice sounds a little rough. Are you feeling alright?” before the president shut him down with a swift response.

“I feel great. I was shouting at people because they were stupid about something having to do with trade and a country,” Trump said.

“I blew my stack at these people.”

The reporter continued saying, “Well it sounds like there’s a follow up there” before the president abruptly said, “What?”

“I thought you said there was a polyp,” said Trump, appearing to reference an abnormal growth of tissue that can develop in the vocal cords.

“I don’t want to hear that!” he said, sparking a roar of laughter in the room.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has appeared to have a weakened voice since taking back the White House in January.

In September, he sounded a bit worn out during a phone interview with conservative commentator Scott Jennings, the Daily Beast reported at the time.

The president has also sparked concern after sporting a bruised hand that was smudged with concealer on several occasions.

But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed this was merely due to a harmless vein condition that exacerbates bruising.

Last week, Trump got his latest physical check-up, and his doctor said he was in “excellent overall health.”

Navy Captain Sean Barbabella wrote in a letter, “His cardiac age – a validated measure of cardiovascular vitality via ECG -was found to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age.

“He continues to maintain a demanding daily schedule without restriction.”

LATEST PHYSICAL

Despite raising eyebrows, Trump has continually pointed to his annual physical completed in April which showed he was in fighting shape.

According to the publicly released exam, Trump has dropped 20 pounds since his last physical in 2020, and his cholesterol is sitting at 140.

Though the president is known to enjoy indulgent meals like McDonald’s, he’s also an avid golfer who gets his steps in on the course.

And according to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the president has found a way to enjoy his favorite offerings while maintaining his weight.

“If [Trump] has a burger now, he usually doesn’t have it with a bun,” the host previously said.

In September, death rumors circulated online after the president had a quiet weekend.

When he was asked by reporters about the viral claims, Trump insisted that he’s always busy behind the scenes.

TRUMP ON WORLD CUP

Before Trump was quizzed on his voice, he revealed that international soccer lovers who purchase a World Cup ticket will get a “FIFA pass” that seamlessly allows them into the US.

The next FIFA World Cup will be held in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and Trump predicted it will generate $30 billion for America and 200,000 jobs.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the FIFA pass does not give visitors free rein on their time in America, and urged travelers to apply for the pass now.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15506386/president-trump-voice-raspy-truth-video/

Bangladeshi judges have found former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina guilty of crimes against humanity for the violent repression of anti-government protests in 2024.

Indigenous peoples around the world are vital to protecting forests yet are often shut out of climate policy decisions. At COP30, they hope world leaders will finally respond to their concerns.

When organizers of this year’s international climate conference adopted ‘mutirao’ — a Portuguese word of Indigenous origin meaning ‘collective effort’ — as the event’s official slogan, they were reinforcing a message first conveyed by the choice of location for COP30.

The Amazonian city of Belem was selected for the talks to showcase the role of the region’s 1.7 million Indigenous peoples as skilled stewards of the world’s largest rainforest.

These gestures are a departure for talks in which Indigenous communities — who safeguard much of the world’s biodiversity — have long felt unheard. But whether they will translate into meaningful action remains to be seen.

What are Indigenous communities asking for?

The more than 5,000 distinct groups of Indigenous peoples living across 90 countries represent just 6% of the global population but are vital to protecting nature and climate.

As guardians of their lands, one of their main demands is a greater say in how that land is managed. Many of their territories face encroachment from oil and gas drilling, mining, and logging.

“We want to reach a consensus where Indigenous territories are no longer sacrificed,” said Lucia Ixchiu, an Indigenous K’iche from Guatemala, who sailed through the Amazon for weeks to bring that message to world leaders.

For many communities, land rights are an ongoing issue. Though legal recognition of an estimated 100 million hectares (247 million acres) was granted to Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other local communities between 2015 and 2020 worldwide, claims to a further 1.4 billion hectares are yet to be resolved.

“We hope that COP30 will strengthen the international commitment to the demarcation and protection of Indigenous territories, recognizing them as fundamental areas for conservation and climate balance,” said Alcebias Sapara, a leading member of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations in the Brazilian Amazon.

Sapara said they would also push for direct funding mechanisms for Indigenous-led initiatives — so they could manage their territories autonomously and sustainably — and for traditional knowledge to be integrated into climate policies.

Christine Halvorson, program director at the Rainforest Foundation US, said they also want to make sure that any green energy projects that could impact Indigenous lands and livelihoods happen only after those communities are consulted and give their consent.

Halvorson added Indigenous peoples are also requesting greater protection, as many face threats and violence for defending their land. In 2024, around a third of the environmental defenders disappeared or killed internationally were Indigenous.

Can they help protect the climate?

“Without Indigenous peoples… there is no future for humanity,” Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Peoples, told AFP. She highlighted how they ensure clean water, and protect biodiversity where they live.

Indigenous communities are widely seen as the world’s best forest guardians. They manage around a quarter of the world’s land and up to half of the remaining intact forests.

Besides being rich in biodiversity, the world’s forests are vital carbon sinks, storing an estimated 861 gigatons of carbon — roughly equal to 100 years of fossil fuel emissions.

Intact forests have in the past absorbed around a fifth of emissions, but they are increasingly under threat from human activity and climate change. Last year wildfires led to an 80% increase in tropical forest deforestation.

There is growing body of credible research supporting the argument that granting land rights to Indigenous peoples has a key role in tackling climate change.

“The evidence is clear: Where Indigenous territorial rights are respected, deforestation declines; where they are denied, destruction advances,” said Guajajara, in a written statement ahead of COP.

Granting communities the power to prevent development projects like oil drilling and mining on their land has also been found to be a cost-effective way to protect nature.

Ensuring land rights for Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon could decrease deforestation by 66%, according to one 2023 study. Another estimated emissions would be 45% higher in the Amazon without Indigenous protected land.

What might Indigenous communities achieve at COP30?

There were some wins already ahead of COP30’s official opening.

This included dozens of countries pledging to formally recognize land rights by 2030 across 80 million hectares where Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other communities live. The move has been cautiously welcomed by Indigenous leaders, who warned implementing land rights in practice can be challenging.

The launch of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a proposed $125-billion (€108 billion) global conservation fund that would pay countries based on how well they protect their forests, also pledged to give 20% of funds to Indigenous peoples.

While this is a significant step forward, to be truly effective Halvorson says the TFFF must guarantee Indigenous peoples have direct and equitable access to the resources they need.

She said if commitments in Belem on land demarcation, direct funding and global recognition of territorial rights are fulfilled, “COP30 could become a landmark for climate justice.”

Is COP30 really paying attention to Indigenous communities?

Minister Guajajara told DW that this year marks the highest Indigenous participation in COP history and their most significant presence in decision-making spaces. Still, only have fraction have access to the restricted negotiation areas.

“Having credentials to enter the venue does not guarantee that the voices and views of Indigenous delegates from Brazil will be heard,” said the Indigenous Climate Action organization.

While COP30 has shown progress in the visibility of Indigenous peoples’ concerns, so far “it is still not enough compared to what we expect,” said Alcebias Sapara.

Indigenous protestors twice interrupted the Belem climate talks this week, trying to have their voices heard. Leaders of the Munduruku Indigenous group, who led a demonstration on Friday, presented a series of demands to Brazil, including a rejection of deforestation carbon credits. Carbon credits have come under scrutiny for failing to deliver promised emissions cuts.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/mutirao-the-brazilian-indigenous-concept-that-could-change-climate-talks/a-74734652

No damage has been reported but ashfall is expected in parts of Kagoshima and the neighbouring Miyazaki prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

A volcano in southern Japan erupted early on Sunday (Nov 16), sending a plume of ash and smoke into the sky and prompting a warning over ashfall.

Sakurajima, one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, erupted before dawn, sending ash and smoke up to 4,400m into the sky, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

No damage has been reported, an official in Kagoshima prefecture, where the volcano is located, told AFP.

But the weather agency forecast ashfall in part of Kagoshima and neighbouring Miyazaki prefecture, as the eruption continued several times.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/japan-volcano-sakurajima-eruption-5470336

United States House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday (Nov 16) he believed the approaching vote on releasing Justice Department files related to Jeffrey Epstein should help put to rest allegations that President Donald Trump had any connection to the late sex offender’s abuse and trafficking of underage girls.

“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” Johnson, the Republican leader in the House, said on Fox News Sunday.

“Epstein is their entire game plan, so we’re going to take that weapon out of their hands,” Johnson said of Democrats. “Let’s just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide.”

Although Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the president has said the two men fell out prior to Epstein’s convictions.

Emails released last week by a House committee showed Epstein believed Trump “knew about the girls”, though it was not clear what that phrase meant. Trump has since instructed the Department of Justice to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein.

Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and an original sponsor of the petition calling for a vote on the files’ release, said on Sunday that he expected more than 40 Republicans to vote in favour.

Republicans hold the majority in the House, with 219 seats, versus 214 for Democrats.

Khanna, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, said the measure is not about Trump but about accountability for all the powerful individuals who allegedly participated in abusing thousands of victims.

“This is not partisan. They all need to be held accountable. The Epstein class needs to go,” Khanna said.

The battle over disclosure of more Epstein-related documents, a subject Trump himself campaigned on, has opened a rift with some of his allies in Congress.

Trump late on Friday withdrew his support for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, long one of his staunchest supporters in Congress, following her criticism of Republicans on certain issues, including the handling of the Epstein files.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-us-vote-releasing-epstein-files-mike-johnson-5471016

Activists held the first mass protest at the UN’s COP conference since 2021, demanding greater environmental protection and more action against climate change.

Thousands marched in the Brazilian city of Belem on Saturday, as the UN’s COP30 climate conference marks its halfway point.

Organizers dubbed the event the “Great People’s March.”

The mass mobilization comes after two Indigenous-led protests that disrupted the climate conference earlier in the week.

On Saturday, demonstrators marched 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) through the city.

Environmental activists were joined by Indigenous people holding banners, flags, chanting slogans, and blasting music from speakers.

The last such protest at the UN’s annual climate summit took place four years ago at COP26 in Glasgow.

The last three annual gatherings were held in Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan, whose governments were not friendly to protests during the conference.

COP30 in Belem will run through Friday and environmental activists are hoping some progress can be made on the issue of climate change and its adverse effects, particularly io vulnerable communities.

Parallel to the UN meeting, the “People’s Summit” is also being held at the university in Belem, with hundreds of NGOs, environmentalist movements and networks from Brazil and abroad gathering there. The activist roundtable has met during the UN summit since 2023.

Activists demand reparations
At the rally, demonstrators renewed demands for reparations paid for damage caused by corporations and governments seen as responsible for the earth’s warming, to poor and marginalized communities, which have a much smaller effect on the climate.

Some marchers dressed in black, to signify a funeral for fossil fuels, a main contributor to climate change.

Demonstrators paraded three coffins marked with the words “coal,” “oil” and “gas.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/cop30-environmental-activists-stage-mass-protest-in-belem/a-74760961

Disagreements between Donald Trump and Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene have ballooned into a public feud, signalling a breakdown in relations between the US president and one of his fiercest defenders.

On Friday, Trump called Greene “wacky” in social media posts and said she should be unseated in next year’s elections. On Saturday, he called her a “traitor”.

Greene has in recent days questioned whether Trump was still putting “America First” and criticised his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The feud comes as the House is set to consider whether to release the files to the public.

“All I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” Trump posted on Friday night, claiming that she turned on him after he suggested that she shouldn’t run for governor or senator in her home state of Georgia.

“She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore,” Trump said, adding: “I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.”

He pledged to back any Republican opponent that takes her on in next year’s midterm elections, when she is up for reelection, before intensifying his attacks in social media posts on Saturday from his home in Florida.

“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Green [sic] is a disgrace to our GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY!” he wrote.

The comments follow days of criticism from Greene, who has said that Trump is not doing enough to bring down costs for voters. She also denounced his recent decisions in foreign conflicts and on tariff policies.

But she has been most critical of his approach to handling the Epstein files.

The turnaround is remarkable for a lawmaker who stood by Trump during multiple scandals, most notably the Capitol riot in 2021 when Trump supporters stormed the US legislature in an attempt to block Trump’s election defeat.

The US president also vigorously defended Greene when she was accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Greene is one of only four House Republicans who joined Democrats in signing a discharge petition calling for the release of the Epstein files last week.

On Friday, Greene posted on X that Trump was trying to stop other Republicans from voting in favour of the Epstein petition.

“He’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files,” she posted, adding: “It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”

She returned to X on Saturday to say Trump had made her a target for threats “fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”.

“As a Republican, who overwhelmingly votes for President Trump’s bills and agenda, his aggression against me… is completely shocking to everyone,” she wrote.

“I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump,” she wrote in one post. “I worship God, Jesus is my savior, and I serve my district GA14 and the American people.”

Former Republican pollster and strategist Robert Moran said it was clear the US president did not want the Epstein files to be released and “is trying to pressure” Greene.

Mr Moran doubted the row would affect Trump’s popularity as the electorate was so divided, but said it was inevitable the files would eventually come out.

“Many of his voters are sceptical of power and so they want power to be held to account, and they support the release of these files,” he added.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wv4dx05q5o

The US December 2025 Visa Bulletin brought encouraging progress for Indian employment-based green card applicants, while family-based categories remain largely unchanged. This update offered renewed hope for skilled Indian workers awaiting their green cards.

The US State Department’s December 2025 Visa Bulletin delivers a rare month of forward movement for Indian employment-based green card applicants, even as family-based categories remain locked in place.

The bulletin’s cutoff dates determine which applications the US government will now process. Anyone whose priority date, the day their petition was first filed, is earlier than the published cutoff moves ahead. Anyone with a later date remains stuck in the queue.

For India, every major employment line sees an advance:

• EB-1 moves to 15 March 2022
• EB-2 shifts to 15 May 2013
• EB-3 progresses to 22 September 2013
• EB-4 jumps to 1 September 2020, and the Religious Workers category returns after being unavailable in November
• EB-5 cutoff date leaps five months to 1 July 2021, offering the strongest relief of the month

The forward movement means a larger set of Indian professionals and investors now fall before the updated cutoff dates and can inch closer to a final green card.

The story is different on the family side. Final Action Dates for F1, F2A, F2B, F3 and F4 show no change. The only minor shift: F2A applicants are allowed to file one month earlier. For most family-based categories, the backlog remains unchanged.

USCIS will continue using Dates for Filing for both family and employment streams, allowing eligible applicants to submit adjustment-of-status paperwork earlier, lock in priority dates, and obtain work and travel documents even when a green card number is not yet available.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/green-card-boost-for-indians-as-eb-1-eb-2-dates-advance-in-december-visa-bulletin-2820493-2025-11-15

US President Donald Trump said that he will file a lawsuit against the BBC, seeking damages ranging from $1 billion to $5 billion, “probably” sometime next week. This comes despite an apology from the BBC.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would sue the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for up to $5 billion (€ 4.3 billion), after the broadcaster apologized for a misleading edit of one of his speeches but refused to pay compensation.

“We’ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and five billion dollars, probably some time next week. I think I have to do it. They’ve even admitted that they cheated,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Trump said he would raise the BBC issue with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “I’m going to call him over the weekend. He actually put a call into me. He’s very embarrassed,” he said.

What is the BBC controversy?

The BBC is under fire from Trump over a misleading edit of a “Panorama” documentary which was broadcasted days before the 2024 US Presidential elections.

The program spliced together two excerpts from one of Trump’s speeches that were more than 50 minutes apart, creating the impression that he was inciting the Capitol riot.

The documentary had also removed a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

The controversy has already led to the resignations of BBC Director General Tim Davie and Chief Executive of News Deborah Turness.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/trump-threatens-up-to-5-billion-lawsuit-against-bbc-over-edited-video/a-74756026