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.
Ludwig A. Minelli founded the association in 1998Image: Stefan Boness/IPON/picture alliance
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.
Police in California have said four people were killed in a possible targeted shooting Saturday evening. The incident took place during a children’s birthday party.
Police say the shooting was likely targetedImage: Ethan Swope/AP Photo/picture alliance
Police in the California city of Stockton have said that four people were killed Saturday evening and another 10 injured during a shooting at a family gathering.
What do we know so far?
The shooting occurred at a children’s birthday party according to Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee, who said that he was in contact with authorities and would be “pushing for answers.”
Police say dispatchers received reports of a shooting in Stockton, which is located about an hour and a half east of San Francisco, around 6:00 p.m. local time (0200 GMT).
Authorities say they have little information at the moment and have released no details about the shooter.
***INFORMATIONAL UPDATE***
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Shortly before 6:00 p.m., our dispatch center received reports of a shooting that occurred near the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in Stockton. We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck… pic.twitter.com/aqMWRWnsRa
— San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office (@SJSheriff) November 30, 2025
On Saturday, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office posted to X: “We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck by gunfire, and four victims have been confirmed deceased.”
President Petr Pavel has rejected a controversial candidate for the post of environment minister. Filip Turek of the Motorists party faces numerous allegations over racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook posts.
Filip Turek has faced media scrutiny over allegedly racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook postsImage: Deml Ondrej/CTK/dpa/picture alliance
Election-winner Andrej Babis went to Prague Castle on Wednesday to present President Petr Pavel with his list of cabinet nominees.
They included Filip Turek, the candidate for the post of Czech environment minister put forward by the conservative, euroskeptic Motorists for Themselves party, one of Babis’ two coalition allies.
Turek, an ex-racing driver, has faced intense media scrutiny over allegedly racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook posts, several Hitler salutes, and an incident involving a Saudi diplomat and a spent ammunition cartridge.
The Motorists originally put him forward for the post of foreign minister, and party leader Petr Macinka as environment minister. However, a last-minute change on Wednesday morning saw the names reversed.
Pavel rejects Turek for cabinet post
But even this was not enough to satisfy the president. “The president’s position is that he doesn’t think Mr. Turek should be in the cabinet,” Andrej Babis told reporters after his latest meeting with Pavel.
“I’ll now go back to speak to the Motorists party and we’ll decide how to proceed,” said Babis, adding that President Pavel would speak to all ministerial candidates over the next two weeks.
A flurry of snowflakes fell on the bank of microphones in the courtyard of Prague Castle as Babis explained what would happen in the month leading up to Christmas — by which time he hopes to be named prime minister — but festive cheer is in short supply.
Allegations of racism, sexism and homophobia
Turek’s difficulties began when the Czech daily newspaper Denik N published a series of screenshots it said were deleted posts and comments harvested from his Facebook account.
In 2010, when a group of neo-Nazi sympathizers were given long prison sentences for an arson attack on a house inhabited by a Roma family — that resulted in a two-year-old girl being seriously burned — Turek allegedly wrote there should have been “extenuating circumstances” for the sentence, as the family was Roma.
In 2015, claimed Denik N, Turek appears to have used a racist slur when referring to US President Barack Obama and later allegedly referred to a majority-African American area of Los Angeles as “Planet of the Apes.”
A few years later, when the Munich City Council requested permission to illuminate the Allianz Arena football stadium in rainbow colors during the Euro 2020 championship in show of LGBTQ+ support, Turek allegedly shared a post on the story with the comment “it seems the last proud German died in 1945.”
The list went on.
Turek denies he is Nazi sympathizer
Denik N claimed there were numerous posts by Turek in which he referred to himself as “Vudce” (Czech for “Führer”) as well as “Duce,” and his Prague apartment as the “Eagle’s Nest” — a reference to Hitler’s mountain retreat in Bavaria.
Turek categorically denies accusations he is a racist or a Nazi sympathizer.
Originally describing the Denik N story as a hit job by hostile media, he later denied writing some of the deleted comments outright and demanded proof. Other posts he described as simply his brand of “black humor.” Some, he said, were the result of lending someone his phone in a bar.
Turek similarly dismissed several photos of him performing the Nazi salute as a joke, and not meant seriously.
Will Turek reconsider his nomination?
Most, however, agree that Turek, who boasts a collection of luxury cars and has a seemingly visceral aversion to the European Green Deal, is hardly a good fit for environment minister.
“Above all, Filip Turek himself would not enjoy being at the environment ministry,” said Jindrich Sidlo, a Czech journalist and political commentator.
“It’s not what he dreamed of — travelling the world, feeling that he belongs to high society and taking part in shaping history,” Sidlo told DW. “I wouldn’t be surprised if ultimately he reconsiders his nomination.”
Turek’s links to scandals mount up
President Pavel has previously made it known that Filip Turek’s comments were the main stumbling block to his appointment.
However, Turek has also admitted placing a spent rifle cartridge and a drawing of a gallows on the roof of a car belonging to an employee of the Saudi embassy following an altercation. He claimed the man had been harassing his girlfriend.
Some journalists, meanwhile, spotted that the notes Babis was carrying on Wednesday suggested the president also had problems with Turek admitting to speeding on a Czech motorway at 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour), allegedly failing to declare €3 million ($3.47 million) in property, and claims he had built a garage without the proper planning permission.
President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One en-route to Washington, DC on Nov 30, 2025. (Photo: Getty Images via AFP/Pete Marovich)
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday (Nov 30) his administration intends to maintain a pause on asylum decisions for “a long time” after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members near the White House, killing one of them.
When asked to specify how long it would last, Trump said he had “no time limit” in mind for the measure, which the Department of Homeland Security says is linked to a list of 19 countries already facing US travel restrictions.
“We don’t want those people,” Trump continued. “You know why we don’t want them? Because many have been no good, and they shouldn’t be in our country.”
The Trump administration issued the pause in the aftermath of the shooting in Washington on Nov 26, which left 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom dead and another guardsman critically wounded.
A 29-year-old Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the incident.
Lakanwal had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Lakanwal had been granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, but officials have blamed what they called lax vetting by the government of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden for his admission to US soil during the Afghan airlift.
Trump wrote after the shooting he planned to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover”.
FILE PHOTO: A drone view of a pump jack and drilling rig south of Midland, Texas, U.S. June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Eli Hartman/File Photo
Oil prices rose as much as 1.5 per cent on Monday after OPEC+ members reaffirmed a plan to pause production increases in the first quarter of next year and the prospect of U.S. action against oil producer Venezuela unsettled the market.
Brent crude futures later pared gains to sit up 0.98 per cent, or $62.99, a barrel by 0052 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $59.12, up 57 cents, or 0.99 per cent.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies initially agreed on the pause in early November, slowing a push to regain market share amid fear of a supply glut.
After a meeting on Sunday, OPEC+ said it “reaffirmed the importance of adopting a cautious approach and retaining full flexibility to continue pausing or reverse the additional voluntary production adjustments”.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Vivek Dhar said the Sunday outcome widely expected considering the earlier decision.
“Market worries of a growing glut in global oil markets has likely played a role in the OPEC+ decision,” Dhar wrote in client note.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to close Venezuelan airspace created fresh uncertainty in the oil market given the South American nation is a major oil producer.
In a client note, ING analysts wrote that “adding support to the market is increasing supply risks for Venezuelan crude oil after President Trump said he’s considering closing the airspace over the nation”.
Trump on Sunday said he had spoken with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro but did not give details, nor did he expand on his airspace comments or whether they signalled military strikes against the nation.
“Don’t read anything into it,” Trump said.
In Europe, increasing uncertainty around a Russia-Ukraine peace deal reversed bearish sentiment of the past two weeks, when a peace deal looked closer and raised the prospect of large volumes of currently sanctioned Russian oil flooding the market.
Ukraine’s military via social media on Saturday said it had hit a Russian oil refinery, as well as the Beriev military aviation plant in Rostov region.
Japanese real estate developers are wading further into a tricky Indian market and more of their peers are expected to get their feet wet, drawn by rising rents in a rapidly growing economy as well as low construction costs.
First case in point is Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s biggest property developer, which forayed into India in 2020, partnering with local developer RMZ Real Estate to build an office complex in Bengaluru.
Mitsui Fudosan could embark on fresh investment of 30-35 billion yen ($190-$225 million) or more in projects with either RMZ or other developers, said two sources with knowledge of the plans.
Last month, members of Mitsui Fudosan’s management team were in Mumbai and the region around the capital New Delhi looking at opportunities, they added, declining to be identified as the information was private.
Mitsui Fudosan declined to comment. RMZ declined to comment on the potential new investment.
RMZ Real Estate CEO Avnish Singh did say, however, that Japanese developers are kicking into higher gear now that trust with local partners has been established.
“The floodgates can open and have opened,” he said.
Sumitomo Realty and Development, Japan’s No.3 developer which describes Mumbai as its second engine of growth after Tokyo, has committed $6.5 billion across five projects in the city, including two sites added this year.
It is also scouting for land around a soon-to-be operational Navi Mumbai city airport for new investment, said a senior industry source familiar with its strategy. The source declined to be named because the information was confidential.
Sumitomo Realty did not respond to a request for comment.
SLEEVES ROLLED UP
Japanese companies are far from the only overseas investors keen on Indian property. U.S. investment firm Blackstone, for example, is India’s biggest commercial landlord, and roughly half of its $50 billion in Indian assets are in real estate.
Like Blackstone, most foreign players purchase existing assets given India’s notorious reputation for construction delays that can leave prospective tenants and buyers high and dry. Although reforms in recent years have improved construction timelines and created a new framework to resolve disputes, acquiring land can be very slow, involving much red tape.
“Japanese investors are one of the few willing to take development risk. They like to roll up their sleeves,” said Singh.
Despite red-tape headaches, the returns can be worthwhile.
“Expected returns in the Japanese market are maybe around 2-4 per cent. In India, you can easily expect 6-7 per cent,” said Seiji Ota, a partner at Deloitte India who focuses on Japanese investments in the country.
Ota and Singh said a number of other Japanese developers want to make their first foray into India and are assessing opportunities to develop office, retail and hotel projects.
Japanese companies and funds have boosted investment in overseas real estate by a fifth this year, according to a survey by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Research Institute conducted in September.
While the U.S. and Australia remain long-favoured markets, interest in India notably spiked, with 41 per cent of those surveyed intending to invest, up 6 per centage points from a year earlier.
LOW COSTS AND CLIMBING RENTS
One key draw for Japanese developers is India’s low labour costs. Hiring an electrician or a plumber, for example, costs just $2 an hour.
Constructing premium office buildings of up to 20 floors costs more than $8,000 per square metre in New York, around $5,300 in London and $4,000 in Tokyo, but is just $656 in Mumbai, data from real estate consultancy Turner & Townsend shows.
Just as importantly, rents for premium office space have surged in India on the back of economic growth that has averaged 8 per cent over the past three fiscal years.
Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex – its central business district – led growth in commercial rents for the Asia Pacific region in the third quarter with a jump of 14.2 per cent, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm.
That was followed by Tokyo’s central five wards which rose 10.2 per cent, while India’s national capital region and Seoul’s central business district both climbed over 9 per cent.
Japanese firms’ preference for designing a building from scratch allows them to bring in technology not used in India.
Sumitomo Realty’s first project in Bandra Kurla Complex is using a steel structure that enables very wide floor plates and thus pillar-less offices – something that Indian developers cannot do yet, said the source familiar with its strategy.
In a village outside Botswana ’s capital, Keorapetse Koko sat on an aging couch in her sparsely furnished home, stunned that a career — and an entire nation’s economy — built on diamonds had fallen so far, so fast.
For 17 years, she had earned a living cutting and polishing the gems that helped transform Botswana from one of the world’s poorest nations into one of Africa’s success stories. Diamonds were discovered in 1967, a year after independence, an abrupt change of fortune for the landlocked country.
Botswana became the world’s top diamond producer by value, and second-largest by volume after Russia. Diamonds are woven into the national identity, with local Olympic champion runner Letsile Tebogo heading a De Beers campaign celebrating how the industry funds schools and stadiums.
The stones that Koko and thousands of others dug and polished over the decades have funded Botswana’s health, education, infrastructure and more. The country risked the “resource curse” of building its economy on a single natural asset — and unlike many African nations, it was a success.
But Koko lost her job a year ago, joining many others left adrift as Africa’s trade in natural diamonds buckles under growing pressure from cheaper lab-grown diamonds mass-produced mainly in China and India.
“I have debts and I don’t know how I am going to pay them,” said the mother of two, who had survived on about $300 a month and relied on her employer for medical insurance. It had been a decent situation for a semi-skilled worker in a country where the average monthly salary is about $500. “Every month they call me asking for money. But where do I get it?”
‘Diamonds built our country’
Botswana, which has unearthed some of the world’s biggest stones, has prided itself on prudently managing its natural wealth, avoiding the corruption and fighting that have plagued many African peers. Its marketing message has been simple: Its stones are conflict-free and help fund development.
“Diamonds built our country,” said Joseph Tsimako, president of the Botswana Mine Workers Union, which represents about 10,000 workers in the nation of 2.5 million people. “Now, as the world changes, we must find a way to make sure they don’t destroy the lives of the people who helped build it.”
He warned that new U.S. tariffs under the Trump administration could worsen Botswana’s downturn, triggering staffing freezes, unpaid leave and more layoffs. The U.S. has imposed a 15% tariff on diamonds that are mined, cut and polished there.
Diamond exports, roughly 80% of Botswana’s foreign earnings and a third of government revenue, have tumbled.
Debswana, the largest local diamond producer and a joint venture between the government and mining giant De Beers, saw revenues halve last year. It has paused operations at some mines as Botswana and Angola enter talks to take over controlling stakes in De Beers’ diamond mining unit.
In September, Botswana’s national statistics agency reported a 43% drop in diamond output in the second quarter, the steepest fall in the country’s modern mining history. The World Bank expects the economy to shrink 3% this year, the second consecutive contraction.
Hong Kong on Saturday mourned the 128 people known to have died in a huge fire at a high-rise apartment complex, a toll that is likely to rise with 150 still missing days after the disaster.
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site in the district of Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.
Police revised down the number of people unaccounted for to 150 from 200, after some relatives managed to reconnect with loved ones they initially reported as missing.
Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Mainland China on Saturday ordered a nationwide investigation of fire risks at high-rise buildings, especially residential blocks undergoing renovation.
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body, the ICAC, said it had arrested three more people. Aged between 52 and 68, they were in charge of the contractor of the renovation project at the complex.
SEARCH FOR BODIES CONTINUES
Authorities have said the fire alarms at the Wang Fuk Court estate, home to over 4,600 people, had not been working properly.
Hong Kong leader John Lee, other officials and civil servants, all dressed in black, stood in silence for three minutes early on Saturday outside the central government offices, where flags were lowered to half-staff.
Condolence books have been set up at 18 points around the former British colony for the public to pay their respects.
“Our most heartfelt thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones and with those that are now living with shock and uncertainty,” Britain’s King Charles said in a statement about the “appalling tragedy”.
At Wang Fuk Court, police officers wearing white overalls, helmets and oxygen masks clambered into the buildings over mounds of fallen bamboo scaffolding and around large puddles created after firefighters doused the buildings for days to try to reduce the temperatures inside.
Search operations could take three to four weeks to complete, said Hong Kong’s Home Secretary, Alice Mak. The two blocks searched on Saturday were the least damaged, police said.
Families and mourners gathered nearby and left hundreds of bouquets of flowers. Some faced the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.
Christy Tang, 67, was searching for her friend, a retiree who enjoyed singing and sports. “We checked the photos of dead bodies trying to identify her but to no avail,” she said.
Domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines were also caught up in the tragedy. Hong Kong has around 368,000 such workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers, often in cramped spaces.
[1/12]A girl places flowers at a makeshift memorial near Wang Fuk Court housing estate to pay tribute to victims of the deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, China November 29, 2025. REUTERS/Lam Yik Purchase Licensing RightsIndonesia said seven of its citizens died in the incident. The Philippines said one of its nationals was critically injured, another confirmed missing, while 28 were thought to be residents of the area but their whereabouts were unknown.
An injured worker from the Philippines, Rhodora Alcaraz, 28, cradled her employers’ three-month-old baby in a wet blanket while trapped in a smoke-filled room for several hours before being rescued by firefighters, her sister Raychelle Loreto said.
“I’m feeling very weak. I can’t breathe,” she mumbled through sobs in a panicked audio message sent to her sister via Facebook as the situation escalated.
DEADLIEST BLAZE SINCE 1948
The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze. It has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.
Residents of Wang Fuk Court were told by authorities last year they faced “relatively low fire risks” after complaining about fire hazards posed by the renovation, the city’s Labour Department said.
The residents raised concerns in September 2024, including about the potential flammability of the protective green mesh contractors used to cover the bamboo scaffolding, a department spokesperson said.
Hong Kong’s anti-graft body said it had arrested 11 people in connection with the investigation, including three previously questioned by police.
The trio were two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for over a year. They were suspected of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows, police said previously.
Prestige did not answer calls for comment.
Hong Kong’s Buildings Department suspended all work on 28 projects managed by Prestige in the city on Saturday because of safety concerns, and ordered contractors to halt work at two other sites.
Russia’s Ambassador to Moldova Oleg Ozerov walks by a drone after Chisinau’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Ozerov to show him a Russian drone that fell in Moldova, in Chisinau, Moldova, November 26, 2025, in this screengrab from video. Moldovan Ministry Of Foreign Affairs/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
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.
The sun sets over Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from the border with Gaza in southern Israel, April 1, 2024. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Purchase Licensing Rights
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.
The measures, approved at a wildlife trade conference in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.
A whale shark off the coast of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, Feb 8, 2025. Governments agreed to ban the international commercial trade in whale sharks, among other species. (AP Photo/Flora Tomlinson-Pilley)
Governments at a wildlife trade conference have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays amid concerns that overfishing is driving some to the brink of extinction.
The measures, approved Friday (Nov 28) at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.
It would strengthen regulations for gulper sharks, smoothhound sharks and the tope shark, which means they can be traded, but there must be proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.
Governments also agreed to enact zero-annual export quotas for several species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, meaning the legal international trade will mostly be halted.
“This is a landmark victory, and it belongs to the Parties who championed these protections,” Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement.
“Countries across Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia came together in a powerful show of leadership and solidarity, passing every shark and ray proposal.”
Conservationists argued the measures were necessary to address overfishing of many species for fins and meat as well as oil and gills. They argue the billion dollar trade is unsustainable, noting that more than 37 per cent of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.
“For too long, sharks that have roamed our oceans for millions of years have been slaughtered for their fins and meat,” Barbara Slee, senior programme manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement.
“People may fear sharks, but the truth is we pose a far greater threat to them—with more than 100 million killed every year. These new protections will help shift that balance and recognise and honour these sharks as more than just fishery commodities.”
Some of the treaty’s greatest successes of late have been around sharks.
At the last conference in Panama in 2022, governments increased protections more than 90 shark species, including 54 species of requiem sharks, the bonnethead shark, three species of hammerhead shark and 37 species of guitarfish. Many had never before had trade protection.
The international wildlife trade treaty, which was adopted in 1975 in Washington, D.C., has been praised for helping stem the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horns as well as in whales and sea turtles.
But it has come under fire for its limitations, including its reliance on cash-strapped developing countries to combat illegal trade that’s become a lucrative US$10 billion-a-year business.
This year, conservationists said that governments had rejected efforts to weaken trade regulations for elephants and rhinos, though they did agree to relax regulations in the trade of saiga horn from Kazakhstan.
Palestinians walk next to damaged buildings in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip on Nov 29, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Abd Elhkeem Khaled)
Gaza: Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.
A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
“I’m very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we’re eager to serve our country and fellow citizens,” said a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer.
He told AFP he hoped the security force would be “independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives”.
“We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance,” said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP.
The lieutenant, who left Gaza with his family last year, said the training focused on the fallout of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war and the damage done to the Palestinian cause.
Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
“PROTECTING THE DREAM”
The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of “protecting the dream of creating” a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state.
A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training.
During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, the Palestinian movements – including the two main ones, Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah – agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers.
Egypt would train half of them, while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since the militant group seized power there in 2007.
Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian movements.
Firefighters walk through charred bamboo scaffolding as they exit a fire-damaged residential block at Wang Fuk Court housing complex, following a deadly fire on Wednesday, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, Nov 29, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu)
HONG KONG: Anger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday (Nov 30) as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.
Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said.
University student Miles Kwan, 24, was arrested on suspicion of trying to incite sedition in relation to the blaze in the Wang Fuk Court complex in the northern Tai Po district, the South China Morning Post reported. Hong Kong police did not respond on Sunday to a request for comment.
The online petition promoted by the group reached over 10,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon before it was closed.
A second petition with the same demands has been launched by a Tai Po resident who is now living overseas.
“Hongkongers demand the truth and justice,” wrote KY in the comment section of the new online petition.
The blaze that ripped through seven high-rise residential blocks near the border with mainland China has stunned Hong Kong and authorities have launched criminal and corruption investigations as anger and dismay grow.
The cause of the blaze, which killed 128 people and left 150 still missing, is still to be determined.
Authorities are on tenterhooks to avoid any broader public backlash after pro-democracy protests roiled the city in 2019, leading to a Beijing-imposed national security law.
China’s national security authorities on Saturday warned individuals against using the disaster to disrupt the city.
“We sternly warn the anti-China disruptors who attempt to ‘disrupt Hong Kong through disaster’. No matter what methods you use, you will certainly be held accountable and strictly punished under the Hong Kong national security law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.”
FIRE ALARMS NOT WORKING PROPERLY
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.
Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Donations have poured in from large and small companies as well as other groups to assist the victims.
Authorities have said the fire alarms at the Wang Fuk Court estate, home to over 4,600 people, had not been working properly.
Photo of gold bars and cash recovered by police from the 73-year-old Malaysian suspect. (Image: Singapore Police Force)
SINGAPORE: A Malaysian woman has been arrested for allegedly being involved in at least three scam cases involving the impersonation of government officials, police said on Sunday (Nov 30).
An employee at BullionStar alerted police to a woman loitering suspiciously outside its retail outlet at New Bridge Road on Nov 24 and the 73-year-old was arrested over suspected money mule activities.
Gold bars worth about S$200,000 (US$154,213) was seized from the suspect, along with S$200 in cash.
Police said that they had received reports of scammers purportedly posing as officials from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) between Oct 8 and Nov 24.
The victims were told that their bank accounts were linked to money laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised.
“They were instructed to surrender their money and valuables for the purpose of investigations. The victims complied and met unknown individuals at various locations across Singapore to hand over cash and gold bars,” police added.
“The victims later realised they had been scammed when they failed to receive the promised refunds, or when the purported officials became uncontactable.”
Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman had allegedly been facilitating the operations of a scam syndicate by collecting cash and gold bars from victims of government official impersonation scams across Singapore.
The valuables were then handed over to unknown individuals believed to be members of the syndicate.
Investigations against the woman are ongoing
Police said earlier this month that there has been an increasing trend of Malaysians travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting cash, gold and valuables from scam victims.
They urged members of the public not to transfer or hand over money and valuables to unknown people whose identities have not been verified or leave them somewhere for collection.
Despite Russia’s war of aggression and ongoing Ukrainization, Russian is still often spoken in school playgrounds. Why? DW spoke with students, parents, teachers and experts.
Some students speak Ukrainian in class and Russian in the breaksImage: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo/picture alliance
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians deliberately decided to refrain from using Russian in daily life and to speak only Ukrainian.
Over time, this initial emotional impulse seems to have subsided, and some Russian-speaking Ukrainians have reverted to their old ways. A significant proportion of young people in schools, and sometimes even teachers, continue to speak Russian to each other.
Nevertheless, the use of Ukrainian in schools continues to increase, according to a study conducted by the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine (SSEQU) and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Ukrainian Language in April and May 2025. About 48% of the students surveyed in Ukraine, a bilingual country, said that they communicated exclusively in Ukrainian with each other, an increase of 7 percentage points over the previous school year.
But the finding does not apply equally to all regions. In Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, there is a negative trend: The proportion of students who use only Ukrainian has fallen by 10 points to 17%.
Oksana, who did not want to give her real name, is a teacher at a school in Kyiv. “The children speak Ukrainian in class, but when the bell rings, they start speaking Russian among themselves,” she told DW.
“We even have a boy who wants to speak Russian in class. His family is Russian-speaking, and he has difficulty understanding Ukrainian.”
Iryna, a student at another school in Kyiv, had a similar story to tell. “Most of the girls in our class speak Ukrainian, but almost all of the boys speak Russian,” she reported.
She herself spoke Ukrainian both at home and at school. She said that occasionally, however, she spoke Surzhyk, a language that combines Russian and Ukrainian and is widespread in certain regions.
Many internally displaced people speak Russian
Ukraine’s State Language Protection Commissioner Olena Ivanovska attributed the decline in the use of Ukrainian among Kyiv’s students to the fact that there is a high number of internally displaced people from Ukraine’s eastern regions, which traditionally had the highest number of Russian speakers.
Oksana agreed with this assumption, citing one student from such a family, whom she said spoke “Ukrainian with me, and when her father picks her up, she immediately switches to Russian.”
Oleksiy Antypovych, a sociologist and the head of the Rating Group, a Ukrainian research institution, was not surprised by the fact that so many people appear to speak Russian in the Ukrainian capital.
“In Kyiv, about 50% speak Ukrainian, just under 20% speak Russian, and 30% speak both languages. In fact, twice as many people in Kyiv say they speak Russian than the Ukrainian average,” he told DW, citing a study his institution had conducted.
“At the start of the full-scale invasion, there was a massive mobilization of internal forces regarding our national symbols,” he explained. Since 2024, “Russian is present again on the streets, particularly in Kyiv, and it is no longer frowned upon to speak it.”
He pointed out, however, that the proportion of people speaking Ukrainian in daily life remained stable.
‘Patriotism alone is not enough’
Ivanovska believes that a great deal of work is still needed to create a Ukrainian-speaking environment outside the classroom.
“Patriotism alone is not enough. The will of the state and a consistent policy regarding the language that teachers and school administrators speak is required.”
This is why she thinks it is essential that “parliament passes the bill to ensure a Ukrainian-language environment in educational institutions.”
Registered in October 2024, the bill defines the term “Ukrainian-language learning environment.” It stipulates that the educational process includes not only lessons but also breaks, communication on the school grounds, and other educational activities. If it passes, the authorities will be obliged to develop a system for assessing children’s language skills. However, it does not foresee measures that would punish students or parents who communicate in Russian.
They were abducted in Nigeria’s Borno state, which is at the heart of the jihadist unrest that started 16 years ago.
The Nigerian Army said it “has successfully rescued 12 teenage girls abducted by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists”Image: Sunday Alamba/AP Photo/picture alliance
A group of of young women and girls abducted in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state on November 22 were freed late Saturday.
Their release comes amid a surge in abductions of young people across the country over the past two weeks.
“All 12 were released,” Abubakar Mazhinyi, president of the local Askira-Uba council, told the AFP news agency.
The Nigeria Army said “the rescued girls have been evacuated to a secure military facility where they are receiving comprehensive medical care, psychological support and debriefing. Upon completion of these processes, they will be formally reunited with their families.”
Last Saturday, 13 women and girls aged 16 to 23 were abducted near farms close to an area that has become a jihadist hideout.
The Army said Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province ISWAP was behind the abduction.
The gang freed one of them after she told them she was nursing a baby.
Tinubu declares security emergency
Borno state is at the center of Nigeria’s conflict with the jihadists, which started 16 years ago with Boko Haram.
Although the jihadist movement has lost momentum, Boko Haram and its rival, the breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue to pose a threat in the region.
The recent kidnapping is a harsh reminder of the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 girls in Chibok.
Elsewhere in the country, armed gangs seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in the central-western Niger delta state last week.
Although some managed to escape, more than 265 children and teachers are still in captivity. These abductions were claimed by local gangs rather than jihadists.
On Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu declared a security emergency, ordering mass recruitment of police and army personnel.
He gave the Department of State Services approval to deploy trained forest guards and recruit more staff to flush out armed groups hiding in forests.
The US president’s warning is the latest in a string of escalatory measures against Venezuela, whose leftist President Maduro accuses the Trump administration of trying to depose him.
The Trump administration has launched a major military deployment in the Caribbean [FILE: November 13, 2025]Image: Mc2 Daniel Ruiz/U.S. Navy/Planet Pix/ZUMA/picture allianceUS President Donald Trump on Saturday warned against flying over Venezuela, in a brief social media message that signaled the latest escalation against the Latin American country.
What did Trump say?
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The US president did not elaborate.
But his message follows a warning by the US aviation regulator to major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela due to a “worsened security situation and heightened military activity in or around” the country.
How has Venezuela reacted to Trump’s warning?
Venezuela condemned Trump’s warning, calling it a “colonialist threat.”
“Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Trump administration escalates against Maduro’s Venezuela
Trump’s warning comes as his administration ups its pressure on Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, launching a major military deployment in the Caribbean using the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
Washington says the military activities are geared toward curbing drug trafficking. But Maduro insists the Trump administration is seeking regime change.
Since early September, US forces have struck over 20 Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean which Washington alleges were used for drug smuggling, without providing proof. Over 80 people were killed in the strikes.
On Thursday, Trump warned that operations to curb Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon.”
Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal
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.
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze after a Russian strike hit the central market in Kramatorsk, Donetsk regionCredit: Getty
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.
He also said the western part of Kyiv had lost power.
Photo of gold bars and cash recovered by police from the 73-year-old Malaysian suspect. (Image: Singapore Police Force)
A Malaysian woman has been arrested for allegedly being involved in at least three scam cases involving the impersonation of government officials, police said on Sunday (Nov 30).
An employee at BullionStar alerted police to a woman loitering suspiciously outside its retail outlet at New Bridge Road on Nov 24 and the 73-year-old was arrested over suspected money mule activities.
Gold bars worth about S$200,000 (US$154,213) was seized from the suspect, along with S$200 in cash.
Police said that they had received reports of scammers purportedly posing as officials from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) between Oct 8 and Nov 24.
The victims were told that their bank accounts were linked to money laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised.
“They were instructed to surrender their money and valuables for the purpose of investigations. The victims complied and met unknown individuals at various locations across Singapore to hand over cash and gold bars,” police added.
“The victims later realised they had been scammed when they failed to receive the promised refunds, or when the purported officials became uncontactable.”
Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman had allegedly been facilitating the operations of a scam syndicate by collecting cash and gold bars from victims of government official impersonation scams across Singapore.
The valuables were then handed over to unknown individuals believed to be members of the syndicate.
Investigations against the woman are ongoing
Police said earlier this month that there has been an increasing trend of Malaysians travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting cash, gold and valuables from scam victims.
Firefighters walk through charred bamboo scaffolding as they exit a fire-damaged residential block at Wang Fuk Court housing complex, following a deadly fire on Wednesday, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, Nov 29, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu)
Anger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday (Nov 30) as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.
Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said.
University student Miles Kwan, 24, was arrested on suspicion of trying to incite sedition in relation to the blaze in the Wang Fuk Court complex in the northern Tai Po district, the South China Morning Post reported. Hong Kong police did not respond on Sunday to a request for comment.
The online petition promoted by the group reached over 10,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon before it was closed.
A second petition with the same demands has been launched by a Tai Po resident who is now living overseas.
“Hongkongers demand the truth and justice,” wrote KY in the comment section of the new online petition.
The blaze that ripped through seven high-rise residential blocks near the border with mainland China has stunned Hong Kong and authorities have launched criminal and corruption investigations as anger and dismay grow.
The cause of the blaze, which killed 128 people and left 150 still missing, is still to be determined.
Authorities are on tenterhooks to avoid any broader public backlash after pro-democracy protests roiled the city in 2019, leading to a Beijing-imposed national security law.
China’s national security authorities on Saturday warned individuals against using the disaster to disrupt the city.
“We sternly warn the anti-China disruptors who attempt to ‘disrupt Hong Kong through disaster’. No matter what methods you use, you will certainly be held accountable and strictly punished under the Hong Kong national security law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.”
FIRE ALARMS NOT WORKING PROPERLY
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.
Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Donations have poured in from large and small companies as well as other groups to assist the victims.
Palestinians walk next to damaged buildings in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip on Nov 29, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Abd Elhkeem Khaled)
Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.
A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
“I’m very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we’re eager to serve our country and fellow citizens,” said a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer.
He told AFP he hoped the security force would be “independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives”.
“We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance,” said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP.
The lieutenant, who left Gaza with his family last year, said the training focused on the fallout of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war and the damage done to the Palestinian cause.
Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
“PROTECTING THE DREAM”
The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of “protecting the dream of creating” a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state.
A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training.
During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, the Palestinian movements – including the two main ones, Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah – agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers.
Egypt would train half of them, while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since the militant group seized power there in 2007.
Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian movements.
A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that the movement supported “the details regarding security and management of the Gaza Strip” agreed during the talks.
The subject was also addressed in US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which led to last month’s fragile Gaza ceasefire, and was later endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution.
EUROPE TOO
The plan notably authorises the creation of an international force that would be responsible for securing border areas and demilitarising Gaza.
The European Union (EU) also wants to train up to 3,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip under a scheme similar to one it already runs in the West Bank, an EU official told AFP.
The EU has financed a police training mission in the West Bank since 2006, with a budget of around €13 million (US$15 million).
But many details remain up in the air.
A Hamas official questioned to AFP the possibility of an agreement with Israel on the precise details of a police force in Gaza.
The measures, approved at a wildlife trade conference in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.
A whale shark off the coast of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, Feb 8, 2025. Governments agreed to ban the international commercial trade in whale sharks, among other species. (AP Photo/Flora Tomlinson-Pilley)
Governments at a wildlife trade conference have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays amid concerns that overfishing is driving some to the brink of extinction.
The measures, approved Friday (Nov 28) at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.
It would strengthen regulations for gulper sharks, smoothhound sharks and the tope shark, which means they can be traded, but there must be proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.
Governments also agreed to enact zero-annual export quotas for several species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, meaning the legal international trade will mostly be halted.
“This is a landmark victory, and it belongs to the Parties who championed these protections,” Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement.
“Countries across Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia came together in a powerful show of leadership and solidarity, passing every shark and ray proposal.”
Conservationists argued the measures were necessary to address overfishing of many species for fins and meat as well as oil and gills. They argue the billion dollar trade is unsustainable, noting that more than 37 per cent of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.
“For too long, sharks that have roamed our oceans for millions of years have been slaughtered for their fins and meat,” Barbara Slee, senior programme manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement.
“People may fear sharks, but the truth is we pose a far greater threat to them—with more than 100 million killed every year. These new protections will help shift that balance and recognise and honour these sharks as more than just fishery commodities.”
Some of the treaty’s greatest successes of late have been around sharks.
At the last conference in Panama in 2022, governments increased protections more than 90 shark species, including 54 species of requiem sharks, the bonnethead shark, three species of hammerhead shark and 37 species of guitarfish. Many had never before had trade protection.
The international wildlife trade treaty, which was adopted in 1975 in Washington, D.C., has been praised for helping stem the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horns as well as in whales and sea turtles.
But it has come under fire for its limitations, including its reliance on cash-strapped developing countries to combat illegal trade that’s become a lucrative US$10 billion-a-year business.
This year, conservationists said that governments had rejected efforts to weaken trade regulations for elephants and rhinos, though they did agree to relax regulations in the trade of saiga horn from Kazakhstan.
Elizabeth Olsen is recounting a topsy-turvy upbringing in which twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were expected to champion her acting career.
The “WandaVision” star described her childhood as “pretty chaotic” in an interview with the Times published on Friday.
“I was the youngest of four and we were all born within five years,” Elizabeth, 36, told the outlet, recounting her upbringing in Los Angeles, during which she passed time on the sets of movies while Mary-Kate and Ashley, now 39, worked.
Elizabeth Olsen said her upbringing with Mary-Kate and Ashley was “pretty chaotic” in a new interview. Getty Images for InStyle
Elizabeth said she sometimes missed out on typical rituals of childhood.
“So now I think the idea of a calm bath and bedtime story routine is so tender and sweet because we didn’t have anything like that,” she explained.
“I love being the friend or aunt who gets to come round and help with bedtime.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the “Avengers” actress said the “Full House” alums were “forced to watch all my plays my whole life and go to my dance performances.”
When asked if her older sisters imparted any advice, Olsen replied, “No. We’re just a supportive family.”
She added, “It feels irrelevant to talk about it after 15 years of working.”
The actress was born to Jarnette and David Olsen, along with Mary-Kate and Ashley and their brother, James Trent.
Jarnett and Davis have since divorced, and David has welcomed two additional children with wife McKenzie Olsen.
Ed Sheeran had an hours-long conversation with pal Taylor Swift after her engagement to Travis Kelce — despite rumors that he and the “Blank Space” songstress are at odds.
“I’m not self-conscious about my relationship with her,” Sheeran told Access Hollywood during a new interview.
“We’ve been friends for very, very many years,” he added. “We’re super close and we see each other when we see each other, and when we see each other, we lock back into where we left off.”
Sheeran — who seemingly found out about Swift’s engagement along with the public, due to the fact that he limits cell phone and social media use — also addressed speculation that their friendship became “strained” after she dropped “The Life of a Showgirl” just weeks after he dropped his “Play” album.
Ed Sheeran said he had a four-hour conversation with Taylor Swift following her engagement to Travis Kelce. Getty Images for The Recording Academy
“My way of viewing it is like, me and Taylor are mates and I will see her,” he told the outlet.
“And I saw her a week after that happened, so I did that interview and then I saw her and you talk in person,” he said.
He added that when he saw the “Cruel Summer” singer they “had like a four-hour catch-up and it’s life stuff rather than, like, I don’t know, you know what I mean?”
Acknowledging his lack of cell phone accessibility, Sheeran lamented how social media can affect human relationships.
“I kind of feel like being in touch with everyone, sort of you lose actual human connection,” he said.
Page Six has reached out to a rep for Swift.
News of Swift’s engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce broke in August, with the pair taking to Instagram to share the big news.
Before Sheeran performed at the SiriuxSM Small Stage Series concert in New York City days later, Andy Cohen asked how he found out about his longtime friend’s engagement.
“Instagram,” the “Shape of You” hitmaker replied.
“Instagram? Like everyone else? You didn’t even get a DM in advance?” a disbelieving Cohen asked, to which Sheeran simply said, “No.”
Sheeran, 34, subsequently released his eighth album on Sept. 12, with Swift on his heels with the massive rollout of “The Life of a Showgirl” on Oct. 3.
A music industry insider told the Daily Mail in October that the singer was “peeved” by Swift’s timing.
“Ed takes these things really seriously, and carefully plans his album releases,” the source told the outlet last month.
“He announced his album with four months’ notice, but then Taylor announced hers for just two weeks after.”
The insider claimed “it left his team scrabbling to get as much attention before hers dropped.”
“He was very much put out and understandably peeved,” they alleged. “It is not the first time that Taylor has done something like this. She’s got form.”
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.
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze after a Russian strike hit the central market in Kramatorsk, Donetsk regionCredit: Getty
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.
The US president’s warning is the latest in a string of escalatory measures against Venezuela, whose leftist President Maduro accuses the Trump administration of trying to depose him.
The Trump administration has launched a major military deployment in the Caribbean [FILE: November 13, 2025]Image: Mc2 Daniel Ruiz/U.S. Navy/Planet Pix/ZUMA/picture allianceUS President Donald Trump on Saturday warned against flying over Venezuela, in a brief social media message that signaled the latest escalation against the Latin American country.
What did Trump say?
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The US president did not elaborate.
But his message follows a warning by the US aviation regulator to major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela due to a “worsened security situation and heightened military activity in or around” the country.
How has Venezuela reacted to Trump’s warning?
Venezuela condemned Trump’s warning, calling it a “colonialist threat.”
“Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Trump administration escalates against Maduro’s Venezuela
Trump’s warning comes as his administration ups its pressure on Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, launching a major military deployment in the Caribbean using the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
Washington says the military activities are geared toward curbing drug trafficking. But Maduro insists the Trump administration is seeking regime change.
They were abducted in Nigeria’s Borno state, which is at the heart of the jihadist unrest that started 16 years ago.
The Nigerian Army said it “has successfully rescued 12 teenage girls abducted by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists”Image: Sunday Alamba/AP Photo/picture alliance
A group of of young women and girls abducted in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state on November 22 were freed late Saturday.
Their release comes amid a surge in abductions of young people across the country over the past two weeks.
“All 12 were released,” Abubakar Mazhinyi, president of the local Askira-Uba council, told the AFP news agency.
The Nigeria Army said “the rescued girls have been evacuated to a secure military facility where they are receiving comprehensive medical care, psychological support and debriefing. Upon completion of these processes, they will be formally reunited with their families.”
Last Saturday, 13 women and girls aged 16 to 23 were abducted near farms close to an area that has become a jihadist hideout.
The Army said Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province ISWAP was behind the abduction.
The gang freed one of them after she told them she was nursing a baby.
Tinubu declares security emergency
Borno state is at the center of Nigeria’s conflict with the jihadists, which started 16 years ago with Boko Haram.
Although the jihadist movement has lost momentum, Boko Haram and its rival, the breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue to pose a threat in the region.
The recent kidnapping is a harsh reminder of the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 girls in Chibok.
Elsewhere in the country, armed gangs seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in the central-western Niger delta state last week.
Despite Russia’s war of aggression and ongoing Ukrainization, Russian is still often spoken in school playgrounds. Why? DW spoke with students, parents, teachers and experts.
Some students speak Ukrainian in class and Russian in the breaksImage: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo/picture alliance
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians deliberately decided to refrain from using Russian in daily life and to speak only Ukrainian.
Over time, this initial emotional impulse seems to have subsided, and some Russian-speaking Ukrainians have reverted to their old ways. A significant proportion of young people in schools, and sometimes even teachers, continue to speak Russian to each other.
Nevertheless, the use of Ukrainian in schools continues to increase, according to a study conducted by the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine (SSEQU) and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Ukrainian Language in April and May 2025. About 48% of the students surveyed in Ukraine, a bilingual country, said that they communicated exclusively in Ukrainian with each other, an increase of 7 percentage points over the previous school year.
But the finding does not apply equally to all regions. In Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, there is a negative trend: The proportion of students who use only Ukrainian has fallen by 10 points to 17%.
Oksana, who did not want to give her real name, is a teacher at a school in Kyiv. “The children speak Ukrainian in class, but when the bell rings, they start speaking Russian among themselves,” she told DW.
“We even have a boy who wants to speak Russian in class. His family is Russian-speaking, and he has difficulty understanding Ukrainian.”
Iryna, a student at another school in Kyiv, had a similar story to tell. “Most of the girls in our class speak Ukrainian, but almost all of the boys speak Russian,” she reported.
She herself spoke Ukrainian both at home and at school. She said that occasionally, however, she spoke Surzhyk, a language that combines Russian and Ukrainian and is widespread in certain regions.
Many internally displaced people speak Russian
Ukraine’s State Language Protection Commissioner Olena Ivanovska attributed the decline in the use of Ukrainian among Kyiv’s students to the fact that there is a high number of internally displaced people from Ukraine’s eastern regions, which traditionally had the highest number of Russian speakers.
Oksana agreed with this assumption, citing one student from such a family, whom she said spoke “Ukrainian with me, and when her father picks her up, she immediately switches to Russian.”
Oleksiy Antypovych, a sociologist and the head of the Rating Group, a Ukrainian research institution, was not surprised by the fact that so many people appear to speak Russian in the Ukrainian capital.
“In Kyiv, about 50% speak Ukrainian, just under 20% speak Russian, and 30% speak both languages. In fact, twice as many people in Kyiv say they speak Russian than the Ukrainian average,” he told DW, citing a study his institution had conducted.
“At the start of the full-scale invasion, there was a massive mobilization of internal forces regarding our national symbols,” he explained. Since 2024, “Russian is present again on the streets, particularly in Kyiv, and it is no longer frowned upon to speak it.”
He pointed out, however, that the proportion of people speaking Ukrainian in daily life remained stable.
‘Patriotism alone is not enough’
Ivanovska believes that a great deal of work is still needed to create a Ukrainian-speaking environment outside the classroom.
“Patriotism alone is not enough. The will of the state and a consistent policy regarding the language that teachers and school administrators speak is required.”
This is why she thinks it is essential that “parliament passes the bill to ensure a Ukrainian-language environment in educational institutions.”
Registered in October 2024, the bill defines the term “Ukrainian-language learning environment.” It stipulates that the educational process includes not only lessons but also breaks, communication on the school grounds, and other educational activities. If it passes, the authorities will be obliged to develop a system for assessing children’s language skills. However, it does not foresee measures that would punish students or parents who communicate in Russian.
“We also need to make it clear to parents who speak Russian with their children at home that these will be at a significant disadvantage when they start school compared to others whose mother tongue is Ukrainian,” said Ivanovska.
Ivanovska said that laws alone were not enough and that high-quality Ukrainian-language content was also necessary.
Venezuelan migrants seeking to leave Chile amid anti-immigrant rhetoric from far-right Chilean presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast return to Arica from the Chacalluta Border Complex after failing to cross into Peru, where President Jose Jeri plans to declare a state of emergency and deploy troops at border crossings, in Arica, Chile, November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Alexander Infante Purchase Licensing Rights
Peru will declare a state of emergency along its border with Chile, President José Jerí said on Friday, as migrants seek to cross into the country following a Chilean presidential frontrunner’s vow to expel undocumented migrants.
The state of emergency “will generate tranquility before the risk of migrants entering without authorization,” said Jerí on X.
At least 100 foreigners, mostly Venezuelans, are at the border seeking to cross into Peru, Peruvian police General Arturo Valverde told local television station Canal N on Friday. He said surveillance at the border has increased in anticipation of the declaration.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, a close ally who has headed Ukraine’s negotiation team at fraught U.S.-backed peace talks, quit on Friday, hours after anti-corruption agents searched his home.
A major probe into high-level graft, at a time when Ukraine is fighting against Russia for its very survival, has sparked public outrage and thrust its leadership into crisis as Washington steps up pressure on Kyiv to reach a settlement.
Yermak was leading Ukraine’s effort to push back against terms proposed by the U.S. that would satisfy many of Moscow’s territorial and security demands. Zelenskiy said he would consider a replacement on Saturday.
“Russia is eager for Ukraine to make mistakes. We won’t make any,” Zelenskiy said on Friday in a video address, calling for greater unity.
“Our work goes on. Our struggle goes on.”
KYIV’S MAIN POWER BROKER
Yermak has been a close friend of Zelenskiy’s since the president’s days as a TV comedian, and helped guide his successful outsider’s campaign for election in 2019.
Since then, the 54-year-old has positioned himself as a chief decision maker, attracting criticism both at home and abroad as an unelected adviser with outsized power.
Yermak had confirmed his apartment was being searched and said he was cooperating. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did not specify which investigation the searches were linked to.
The two agencies this month unveiled a sweeping probe into an alleged $100 million kickback scheme at the state atomic energy company allegedly involving former senior officials and an ex-business partner of Zelenskiy’s.
Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak looks on, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 22, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Yermak was not named as a suspect, but activists, opposition lawmakers and even some in Zelenskiy’s own Servant of the People party had called for his dismissal, saying his presence compromised Ukraine’s bargaining power.
Mykyta Poturayev, a lawmaker for the party who had called for an overhaul of both the presidential office and the government, said Yermak’s resignation came at a perilous moment but had been necessary.
“The potential dangers of Andriy Yermak remaining in his position outweighed these risks,” he said.
TOUGH PEACE TALKS AHEAD WITH U.S.
The U.S. push for a settlement comes as Russia grinds forward on several parts of the sprawling front line, where it has mostly advanced painfully slowly and at great cost in lives since sending its troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Moscow says its troops are close to capturing the eastern city of Pokrovsk, which would be their biggest prize in nearly two years.
A general view of Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 17, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Brenner Purchase Licensing Rights
Flights to the Philadelphia International Airport were briefly grounded on Friday due to a bomb threat that was resolved without incident, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and police.
The FAA issued a ground stop advisory for the airport shortly after 7 p.m. local time (0000 GMT), saying there was a bomb threat. About 30 minutes later, the FAA said the security incident was resolved, and normal operations had resumed.
The ground stoppage was due to a “situation requiring the assistance of the Philadelphia Police aboard a plane,” a police spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The plane has been cleared for takeoff, and the ground stoppage has been lifted, the spokesperson added.
There were reports of bomb threats at other U.S. airports earlier this month that were also cleared without incident.
Pieces of porks are seen at a market stall in Madrid, Spain, June 17, 2024. REUTERS/Juan Medina Purchase Licensing Rights
Britain said on Friday it would temporarily stop imports of pork meat from parts of Spain after the country confirmed its first cases of African swine fever in just over three decades.
Britain is one of Spain’s main customers for pork, and the move comes as authorities in Madrid activated emergency measures in Catalonia, a region central to pig farming.
“Following an outbreak of African Swine Fever in Spain, all fresh pork and other affected products from Spain will be held at Border Control Posts until further notice,” Britain’s environment department (DEFRA) said in a statement.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and keep all measures under review,” it added.
Spain exported 37,600 metric tons of fresh and frozen pork to Britain so far in 2025, worth over 112 million euros ($129.93 million), up 17% in volume and 9.5% in value compared with all of 2024, according to data from the government-backed body the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.
The virus is a highly contagious disease that affects pigs and wild boar but poses no risk to humans. It has no vaccine or cure and often leads to mass culling when detected in farmed herds.
The disease has spread westwards in Europe in recent years, disrupting pork markets and prompting trade bans. Germany’s outbreak in 2020 led to sweeping restrictions from major buyers such as China, while Croatia has battled infections in recent months.
The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, killing one, will face first-degree murder charges for an attack that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to declare he would stop migrants from “Third World Countries.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News on Friday that other charges would be filed against 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who she said ambushed the soldiers from the West Virginia National Guard near the White House on Wednesday.
Formal charges were not immediately filed against Lakanwal, who had been in the U.S. since 2021 under a program of then-President Joe Biden’s administration to resettle Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war in their homeland. He was granted asylum under Trump.
In a call on Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday with U.S. military service members, Trump said the shootings were a “terrorist attack.”
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds on Thursday. Her National Guard colleague, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was in critical condition, Pirro said on Friday. The two were in Washington as part of Trump’s deployment of the military in recent months to help the police fight crime in the city.
On Friday morning, following the national holiday, notably fewer National Guard members were seen patrolling the capital.
TRUMP RATCHETS UP RHETORIC ON IMMIGRATION
Trump, whose dispatch of troops to Washington faces fierce legal challenges, took to social media late on Thursday to escalate his rhetoric on immigration. Since taking office this year, he has stepped up arrests of immigrants, including some in the U.S. legally, and cracked down on unlawful border crossings while stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of people.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” Trump said in his social media posts, referring to his predecessor in the White House.
Trump did not say which countries he considers “Third World,” nor what he meant by a permanent pause. It echoed the sweeping “Muslim ban” Trump tried to enact in his first term before it was diluted by successful legal challenges.
On Friday, Trump posted again on social media to say he was rescinding any document that Biden signed using an autopen, a tool that U.S. presidents, including Trump, have used for decades, often to answer mail or sign checks, or sometimes to meet authorization deadlines while traveling outside the capital.
After taking office in 2021, Biden reversed many of the restrictive immigration policies of Trump’s first term, saying they blocked people in need of humanitarian protection and were discriminatory.
Asked about Trump’s comment on “Third World” countries, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred Reuters to 19 countries listed in a June travel ban.
Members of the National Guard walk near a makeshift memorial set up after two National Guard members were shot in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard Purchase Licensing Rights
On Thursday, Homeland Security officials said Trump had ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under the Biden administration and permanent-residency green cards issued to citizens of the 19 countries, which include Afghanistan.
Jorge Loweree, the managing director of programs and strategy at the American Immigration Council, said the president does not have authority through executive action to make permanent changes to the immigration system, which is codified by Congress. He warned of chaos and disarray in the U.S. immigration system even if Trump is ultimately blocked by federal courts.
SHOOTING PROMPTS SWEEPING IMMIGRATION REVIEWS
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome. More than 70,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. under the program for those fearing reprisal by the Taliban forces, who seized control of Afghanistan after the U.S. military’s withdrawal. Officials said Lakanwal was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before coming to the U.S.
He was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a U.S. government file on him seen by Reuters.
Investigators said Lakanwal drove across the country from his home in the state of Washington and shot the two Guardsmen with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, before being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other troops.
Less than 24 hours after the shooting, Trump officials began ordering widespread reviews of immigration policies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday he would be proposing regulations to ensure that people he referred to as “illegal aliens” do not receive certain credits on income tax they have paid. The tax code is set by Congress, which already limits what kind of benefits, if any, non-citizens are eligible to seek.
Lakanwal lives in Washington state with his wife and five children, according to investigators. Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect’s family, Trump said: “We’re looking at the whole situation with family.”
The Trump administration is working toward cutting illegal migrants off from federal tax benefits and money transfer services, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday.
“At [President Trump’s] direction, we are working to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens and preserve them for U.S. citizens,” Bessent wrote on X.
As part of the effort, the Treasury Department will propose new regulations “clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal and other non-qualified aliens, covering the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the Saver’s Match Credit,” according to the the Trump administration official.
Bessent fired off a pair of social media posts Friday aimed at demonstrating the Treasury Department’s efforts to promote Trump’s immigration agenda. AP
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) ostensibly prohibits illegal immigrants from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits.
However, in a February executive order barring illegal immigrants from access to federally funded benefits, Trump argued that in the decades since PRWORA’s passage, “numerous administrations have acted to undermine the principles and limitations directed by the Congress.”
Treasury aims to classify federal tax benefits as “federal public benefits” within the meaning of PRWORA in its proposed rule.
The department noted last week that the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel “recently issued an opinion adopting this interpretation.”
Treasury’s final regulations are expected to apply beginning in tax year 2026.
In a separate social media post, Bessent warned that illegal migrants “use our financial institutions to move their illicitly obtained funds.”
Describing that practice as “exploitation,” the Treasury secretary vowed: “It will end.”
“[President Trump] is right — if you’re here illegally, there’s no place for you in our financial system,” Bessent wrote.
The post came on the same day the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Bureau issued an alert to money services businesses — such as check cashers, remittance processors and digital payment processors — asking them to be “vigilant in identifying suspicious financial activity involving illegal aliens who present significant threats to national security and public safety.”
A Marine Force Reconnaissance soldier who served eight tours in Afghanistan told The Post Friday that some locals who fought the Taliban were “disloyal” to the US forces they partnered with — and that it “happens a lot more than people suspect.”
Chad Robichaux, 50, in an exclusive interview noted that said he’s been sounding the alarm about the risk of Afghan evacuees ever since the Biden administration’s botched bugout from the Middle East nation in 2021 — and how the US faces an elevated threat of terrorism as a result of poor refugee vetting.
Issues related to the August 2021 withdrawal of US forces and refugees have resurfaced this week as an Afghan national is facing charges for shooting two National Guard members — and killing one of them — in Washington, DC, on Thanksgiving eve as part of a suspected terror attack.
The alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, served for at least a decade alongside US forces fighting the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS as part of an elite, CIA-backed paramilitary group known as the Kandahar Strike Force, according to US officials.
“When you talk about someone that’s, like, worked with the CIA or worked with special operations, just works through our troops,” Robichaux said, “you have to understand, like, when you go work in another country with local nationals, there’s an inherent risk to that. You have to depend on these people.”
Chad Robichaux, who served eight tours as a Marine Force Reconnaissance soldier in Afghanistan, told The Post Friday that some locals who fought the Taliban were “disloyal” to the US forces they partnered with. Marine Corps Installations West
“The vetting’s fast. You have to utilize local nationals. So there’s always gonna be a segment of the population that’s gonna be disloyal and … turn on you,” he added. “And it happens a lot more than people suspect.”
As a Marine in Afghanistan and later the leader of a “coalition effort” that evacuated locals from the nation amid the US pullout, Robichaux saw firsthand how quickly some of the US-backed Afghans were willing to sell them out — or “turn on” them and “shoot everybody in their team.”
“In my program, we had CIA-trained guys,” he recalled. “I slept on the side of mountains with this guy … and one other Afghan numerous times. I trusted him with my life. He turns on us, has a vehicle bomb driven into my house, has 12 of our teammates rolled up, captured and killed, and I got abducted by a foreign intelligence agency because of this guy.”
“Just because someone worked with the CIA or special operations unit doesn’t automatically mean they should be allowed to come to the United States,” he added. “The State Department still has to have their immigration process for that and do due diligence to vet them out.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Thursday that “the Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation.”
National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent posted on X Friday that Lakanwal “was only vetted to serve as a soldier to fight against the Taliban, AQ, & ISIS IN Afghanistan.”
“[H]e was NOT vetted for his suitability to come to America and live among us as a neighbor, integrate into our communities, or eventually become an American citizen,” Kent added.
A senior US official also said that while Lakanwal had been “vetted to fight” for the US from 2011 to 2021, the Biden administration solely used that vetting to allow the Afghan entry to the US — a “low standard [that] has never been used before.”
The only other intelligence-related checks on the shooter were done to screen for ties to terror groups before letting Lakanwal emigrate to Washington State, where he settled with his wife and five children in September 2021.
As many as 85,000 Afghans came into the country that year as part of “Operation Allies Welcome,” and of those, 10,000 who were part of the same CIA-backed “death squads” that Lakanwal fought with settled near Seattle.
Lakanwal applied for a special immigration visa but was never granted lawful permanent residence. He also applied for asylum in December 2024 and was granted it the following April by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is part of Department of Homeland Security.
The department’s Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has blamed the Biden administration’s “humanitarian parole” program for letting the Afghan evacuee remain in the US.
“Biden signed into law that parole program, and then entered into the 2023 Ahmed Court Settlement, which bound USCIS to adjudicate his asylum claim on an expedited basis,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
The Trump administration has since “stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols” any immigration requests “relating to Afghan nationals,” she added.
“The Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration, which failed to vet these applicants on a massive scale.”
At the time of the evacuation, US officials “did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees” from Afghanistan, according to a 2022 DHS Office of Inspector General’s report.
USCIS would have reviewed Lakanwal’s background, done biometric vetting and an in-person interview to assess potential risks and determine whether he was eligible for asylum, according to #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit group by American veterans helping resettle Afghan allies in the US.
The senior US official disputed this, saying that “none of the checks done on the shooter from 2011 to now checked his suitability to live here.”
“Prior to Biden it took 18 months or longer for someone to be granted a Special Immigrant Visa, including the applicant needing to flee to a third country so the US government could interview and vet them,” the official noted. “Biden threw all of this out and applied tactical war time vetting to people seeking entry into the homeland.”
Robichaux, who served as part of a Joint Special Operations Command task force in Afghanistan, claimed that the number of nationals “flown straight from Kabul to the United States” may have been as high as 100,000 — and that “they were let go into the American population” with “zero vetting.”
Tollywood, the Telugu-language film industry, is rapidly gaining global attention, challenging Bollywood’s dominance. Based in the Indian city of Hyderabad, Tollywood is known for its high-energy storytelling, epic visuals, and star-driven spectacles. (Nov. 28)
A fast-rising parallel film industry in India is competing with Bollywood’s musicals and action-packed films and has taken the world by storm: It’s called Tollywood.
As Mumbai is to Hindi films — or Bollywood — the southern Indian city of Hyderabad is to movies made in Telugu, one of the country’s most widely spoken languages. Tollywood films like “RRR” and “Baahubali” have achieved international acclaim at the box office and on the awards stage.
What is Tollywood?
The Telugu-language film industry, widely known as Tollywood, is one of India’s many regional movie-producing centers. But it’s drawn national and global audiences with its high-adrenaline action movies, mythic storylines and grand visual style. It has carved out its own identity separate from Hindi-language Bollywood by leaning toward star-driven spectacle and large-scale epics.
Tollywood primarily operates out of Hyderabad, which is home to Ramoji Film City. The 1,666-acre (674-hectare) facility, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest film studio complex, houses massive film studio complexes, dozens of production houses, warehouses, movie sets and post-production facilities. The industry churns out around 300 films every year — fewer than Bollywood but still enough to make it one of India’s largest regional industries.
Tollywood’s growing exposure was in large part sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, as the rapid expansion of streaming services in India allowed regional films to find wider audiences. That expansion also coincided with Bollywood’s struggle to lure audiences back to theaters amid repetitive storylines and rehashes of hits from other languages.
What has also worked in favor of Tollywood is that it offers a rare balance of high-octane action films and nuanced movies charged with real human drama.
“Telugu people have a lot of interest in movies. The Telugu audience watch and accept all kind of movies. They are cinema lovers,” says filmmaker T.V. Ravi Narayan, who is working on a biopic based on an 18th-century social activist. “Because they are cinema lovers, be it ‘Baahubali,’ ‘Pushpa’ or ‘RRR,’ be it big budget or small budget, be it realistic or biopics or fantasy movies, the audiences accept it.”
What kind of films are made in Tollywood?
Tollywood is known for its high-energy storytelling, big action set pieces and grand spectacle that are heavy on visual effects. It often blends family drama, action and mythology into movies, increasingly marketed as “pan-India” releases and dubbed in multiple regional languages.
The films, like other big Indian productions, have crowd-pleasing visuals and feature viral songs and dances central to the narrative and usually presented as grand performance set pieces.
Many Tollywood films are also remade in Bollywood, which has become a proven formula to expand Telugu cinema across India. Dubbing — where actors record voice-overs in Hindi or a professional voice artist replaces the track — is also a standard and tested practice that has made Tollywood more accessible.
The industry does also produce smaller, low-budget films that tend to focus on stories rooted in Telugu culture. Most of them are set in rural landscapes and explore themes such as social issues, regional cultures and class inequality. Some of those films are sent straight to streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, where they enjoy a wide reach across India.
What is Tollywood fandom like?
Many Tollywood movie stars like Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, Prabhas, Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. command a near-godlike following, with devoted fan bases that cut across generations. Their movie releases are often tied to regional religious festivals and are preceded by carefully marketed music launch events and dance performances that are a spectacle in itself. Tens of thousands of fans attend such events, as they did recently with the first look of S.S. Rajamouli’s “Varanasi.”
The industry has also led to a massive fan club culture, predominantly centered around male film stars. Some fans are so invested in their favorite stars that they often organize charitable drives and blood donation camps in their names. It is not unusual for fans to perform acts of literal worship, washing male stars’ cardboard cutouts or statues with milk — a ritual usually reserved for Hindu gods.
In theaters across Hyderabad, viewers will commonly dance, whistle and throw confetti in the air during releases of films. Outside, billboards of major stars are a frequent sight in the city.
Telugu cinema has also influenced regional politics as many actors have turned popular politicians. In 1983, superstar N.T. Rama Rao successfully defeated the Congress Party, led by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, within nine months of founding the regional Telugu Desam Party. After sweeping state elections, he became the chief minister.
What’s driving Tollywood’s recent success?
Tollywood’s rapid commercial success and audience acceptance over the past decade has reshaped the country’s entertainment landscape and pushed regional cinema further onto the world stage.
Much of its recent success has been credited to filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, who favors larger-than-life heroes and imaginative filmmaking. Rajamouli became an international name after “RRR,” or “Rise, Roar, Revolt,” his 2022 three-hour epic set in British India. The sprawling anti-colonial tale became one of India’s biggest hits, a global streaming phenomenon that won an Oscar for best original song. His two-part “Baahubali” series, released in 2015 and 2017, broke box-office records in India and a reedited version combining the two parts, “Baahubali: The Epic,” released in cinemas worldwide just last month.
“Varanasi,” his upcoming adventure film that blends time-travel and Hindu mythology, is expected to release in 2027.
“We set out to do something very big that we all are excited about, and we just hope and pray that audiences across the world you know, embrace it as well,” says S.S. Karthikeya, one of the producers of “Varanasi,” who is also Rajamouli’s son.
Chinese companies are rushing to deploy low-flying vehicles and drones for various uses as the country finds innovative ways to drive its economy. Flying taxis, once a sci-fi dream, are being tested in southern China, where pilotless, oval-shaped crafts hover like mini helicopters. In Shenzhen, which neighbors Hong Kong, food-delivery drones already are part of daily life. (AP video shot by: Olivia Zhang and Alice Fung)
An unmanned, oval-shaped craft from flying taxi maker EHang hovers, whirring noisily like a mini-helicopter over a riverside innovation zone on the outskirts of the southern Chinese business hub of Guangzhou, part of a trial of a mini-flying taxi that once might have been found only in sci-fi films.
In nearby Shenzhen, food-delivery drones already are part of daily life and a novelty attraction for tourists, even if such services cost more. In the waterfront park surrounded by high-rises, Polish tourist Karolina Trzciańska and her friends ordered bubble tea and lemon tea by phone, just to give it a try. Their drinks arrived via a drone buzzing through the drizzle about 30 minutes later.
“This is the first time I’m seeing something like this, so it was super fun to see the food being delivered by the drone,” she said.
Such businesses are growing quickly with support from the government, though the take off of the so-called “low-altitude economy” faces obstacles such as strict airspace controls and battery limitations.
Activities in airspace below 1,000 meters (about 3,280 feet) accounted for business turnover worth 506 billion yuan ($70 billion) in 2023, about 0.4% of China’s economy. By 2035, it’s expected to hit 3.5 trillion yuan (about $490 billion), said Zhang Xiaolan, a researcher at the State Information Center, a think tank affiliated with China’s main planning agency.
Flying cars are in the making
Guangdong province, home to drone giant DJI with an estimated 70% of the global commercial drone market, leads in development of the low-altitude economy, followed by wealthy eastern coastal provinces Jiangsu and Zhejiang, near Shanghai, according to a report by a research unit of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, and other institutions.
Other big players in Guangdong include EHang, logistics company SF Express’s drone arm Phoenix Wings, and automaker XPENG’s flying car unit ARIDGE.
In October, Guangdong announced it plans to speed up construction of flight service stations and platforms to facilitate airspace operations and will support locally issued discount vouchers for low-altitude tourism.
Its technology and financial hub Shenzhen has launched a 15-million-yuan ($2.1 million) award for companies that earn certifications required for passenger eVTOLs, short for “electric vertical take-off and landing” vehicles that lift off the ground like helicopters, among other incentives.
China’s Civil Aviation Administration has granted certificates allowing EHang to offer commercial passenger services with its pilotless eVTOL, a low-altitude aircraft that can reach speeds of 130 kph (81 mph) with a maximum range of 30 kilometers (19 miles).
EHang hasn’t launched commercial routes, but its vice president, He Tianxing, says it aims to start with aerial sightseeing services. The company has been building takeoff and landing sites in 20 Chinese cities over the past two years. He expects aircraft of various companies will be flying multiple routes, possibly after five years.
He envisions eventual citywide networks using the rooftops of malls, schools and parks as terminals.
“It can’t just be a research product, nor an engineer’s toy,” he said.
Accidents, battery limitations and airspace controls
The biggest challenge for developing eVTOL aircraft is maintaining longer flights and overcoming battery capacity limitations, said Guo Liming, co-founder of Shenzhen-based Skyevtol, whose single-seat manned eVTOL aircraft, priced at around $100,000, can only fly 20 to 30 minutes before it must be charged.
It also has not all been smooth skies.
In September, two XPENG’s eVTOL aircraft collided after a rehearsal for an exhibition and one of them caught fire while landing. The company said no one was hurt, but another expo canceled flying demonstrations a week later.
Undeterred, XPENG has continued to showcase its flying cars, including a six-wheeled ground vehicle with a detachable eVTOL aircraft. Having invested over $600 million, the company said it has more than 7,000 global orders for its “Land Aircraft Carrier” and has begun preparing for mass production.
A trial run of sightseeing flights in Dunhuang, a key ancient Silk Road destination famous for its Buddhist caves and dunes, is planned for next July.
It’s unclear how quickly such aircraft might begin carrying paid passengers regularly. Some companies elsewhere have burned through their funding before reaching the commercial launch stage. In Germany, air taxi makers Lilium and Volocopter filed for bankruptcy, though the latter was later bought by Diamond Aircraft Group, a subsidiary of a Chinese firm.
After years of commercialization, drone applications are not that widespread in China.
Even though the country leads in drone technology and manufacturing, policy constraints including limited airspace access, may mean overseas markets are more promising, said Frank Zhou, managing director at GBA Low Altitude Technology Co., which provides technological software to clients.
“Perhaps for some Southeast Asian countries, if I introduce these applications to them, their demand could explode,” he said.
Less than one-third of China’s low-altitude airspace was accessible for general aviation use in 2023 and there were problems with uneven distribution and a lack of internet connectivity, Zhang, the State Information Center researcher, said in a report. The number of registered general aviation aerodromes in China, excluding private airports, was just about a tenth of those in the U.S., she said.
Officials are easing their grip, but there’s turbulence ahead
Chinese policymakers are gradually working to close the gap. The military generally commands use of most Chinese airspace but has pledged to simplify approval procedures and shorten review times in Shenzhen and five other provinces.
Proposed revisions of the civil aviation law include a chapter on development and promotion of civilian activities, addressing low-altitude airspace allocation and supervision.
It’s still early days, said Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking.
The US State Department has ordered an immediate halt to visa issuance for travellers using Afghan passports, citing urgent national security concerns. The directive, issued late Friday, came alongside a separate internal order instructing USCIS officers to pause all asylum decisions nationwide.
Representative Image
The Biden-era visa and asylum framework underwent a sudden and sweeping shift on Friday after the State Department announced an immediate halt to visa issuance for individuals travelling on Afghan passports. The terse statement, released late in the evening, said the move was necessary to “protect US national security and public safety” and would remain in force pending further review. Officials did not specify what intelligence triggered the order but confirmed it applied across all overseas posts.
The directive came just hours after CBS News reported that US Citizenship and Immigration Services had been instructed internally to pause all asylum decisions. According to the network, officers were told the freeze was effective immediately and would continue “until further guidance is issued”. Three senior officials familiar with the matter told CBS the instruction followed high-level discussions within the Trump administration after two National Guard soldiers were critically wounded in a shooting near the White House earlier this week.
The Department of State has IMMEDIATELY paused visa issuance for individuals traveling on Afghan passports.
The Department is taking all necessary steps to protect U.S. national security and public safety.
While the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment directly on any link, two officials said the incident had “shifted the urgency” around security reviews already under way. Federal investigators are still hunting the suspect involved in the attack, which left the capital under heightened alert and prompted temporary lockdowns at multiple government buildings. The White House, Treasury and nearby facilities went into shelter-in-place mode after gunfire erupted only blocks from the executive mansion.
Internally, officials say the administration has been reassessing vulnerabilities in both the refugee pipeline and the adjudication of asylum claims. The pause ordered by USCIS affects every asylum office nationwide, though credible-fear interviews for migrants already in detention are expected to continue for now. Officers were told to complete interviews already scheduled but not to issue final decisions.
Political and Diplomatic Repercussions Expected
The State Department’s Afghan-visa suspension is expected to have immediate consequences for students, family-reunification applicants and special-case travellers who had already secured appointments. Diplomatic officials abroad were told to inform applicants that their cases could not proceed “under present authorities”. Afghanistan’s embassy in Washington did not respond to queries overnight.
Deepak’s detailed account on X directly contradicted the statement released by the Pakistan High Commission in London, which claimed the Indian side had withdrawn
The final collapse occurred mere hours before the debate was scheduled for November 27. Image/Oxford Union
The highly anticipated debate at the Oxford Union on the motion, “The House Believes That India’s Response to Pakistan is a Populist Strategy Sold as Security Policy”, ended in public recrimination, with Indian speaker J Sai Deepak strongly alleging an organisational failure and a deliberate Pakistani gambit to avoid confrontation. His detailed account on X directly contradicted the statement released by the Pakistan High Commission in London, which claimed the Indian side had withdrawn.
Deepak revealed that the entire event was fraught with instability, beginning with the involvement of Pakistani nationals in key positions, specifically naming Moosa Harraj as the Oxford Union President (allegedly the son of Pakistan’s Minister of Defence Production) and Raza Nazar as the Treasurer. He noted that the original high-profile Indian speakers—”former COAS Shri Naravane and Dr Swamy”—pulled out due to unavoidable commitments just two days before the debate, forcing a scramble for replacements.
Despite the short notice, Deepak, who was prepared to argue the case for India, managed to secure the participation of Manu Khajuria and Pt Satish K Sharma from within the UK. The final collapse occurred mere hours before the debate was scheduled for November 27. Deepak states he received a call at 3:13 PM informing him that the Pakistani delegation, which included Hina Rabbani Khar and Khawaja Muhammad Asif, had not yet landed in London, prompting the Indian team to abandon the journey to Oxford.
The situation turned farcical when Deepak claimed to have received confirmation that the Pakistani delegation had, in fact, landed and was staying at a hotel in Oxford. This led him to issue a blistering attack on the Pakistani side for “deserting the battlefield even before the battle begins”, suggesting they lacked the courage to face a live debate. He further criticised the Oxford Union leadership for allowing the institution to be “dragged in muck” and become a mouthpiece for the Pakistan High Commission.
Shiv Sena (UBT) lawmaker Priyanka Chaturvedi also took a dig at the Pakistani side.
Pakistan is crying again over an Oxford Union debate. This is for the record. Once again they have proved to be liars. Expecting any better from them was not even on my list 😂 https://t.co/cOkaOylaWS
Dr Salman Ahmed specifically labelled Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former President Asif Ali Zardari as nothing more than ‘puppets of Asim Munir’
The focus of Dr Salman Ahmed’s attack was the prolonged detention and treatment of Imran Khan in Adiala Jail. File pic
The deepening political crisis in Pakistan was starkly articulated by Dr Salman Ahmed, a close confidante and key associate of incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an exclusive interview with CNN-News18. Dr Ahmed launched a blistering attack on the country’s military establishment, particularly Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, the Army Chief and newly appointed Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), accusing him of orchestrating a total systemic takeover and deliberately subjecting Khan to torture.
Dr Ahmed asserted that Pakistan is currently operating under “Asim Law”, where the Army Chief’s authority overrides constitutional and judicial frameworks. “Parliament, judiciary, police, and government, all are controlled by Asim Munir,” Dr Ahmed claimed, arguing that the country’s core democratic institutions have been thoroughly compromised. He specifically labelled Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former President Asif Ali Zardari as nothing more than “puppets of Asim Munir”, holding nominal power while the military exercises ultimate command.
The focus of Dr Ahmed’s attack was the prolonged detention and treatment of Imran Khan in Adiala Jail. He alleged that “Asim Munir is testing the waters by torturing Imran Khan” and has been doing so “from day one in jail”. He maintained that Khan’s continued incarceration is solely a reflection of the Army Chief’s deep-seated fear of Imran Khan’s “unmatched popularity”, despite the severe state crackdown on his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Highlighting the inhumane conditions of the imprisonment, Dr Ahmed stressed that while Khan is a “political detainee”, he is “not given the rights of a prisoner, forget about a former Prime Minister’s right”. This aligns with repeated allegations from PTI leaders that Khan is being kept in solitary confinement and denied access to family, lawyers, and doctors, in violation of prison manuals and court orders—a persistent issue that fuels nationwide rumours about his health and safety.
THE moment a brave soldier took down a suspected shooter who killed a National Guardsman and hurt another has been captured on pulse-pounding video.
Afghanistan native native Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is accused of attacking newly sworn-in guardsmen Andrew Wolfe, 24, and Sarah Backstrom, 20, on Wednesday.
One National Guardsman ran for cover before firing shotsCredit: Wall Street Journal
In a video obtained by the Wall Street Journal, the suspect, who has been charged with first-degree murder, can be seen darting around a street corner in Washington DC as he allegedly carries out the shooting.
A National Guardsman could be seen running for cover and yelling moments before firing shots.
The clip captures fallen Guard members lying on the ground after they were struck with bullets.
Prosecutors say Lakanwal fired shots at point-blank range at 2:30 pm and hit the two guardsmen before he was taken down by gunfire.
The attack has been described as “targeted” and an “ambush,” and officials say that Lakanwal could be hit with terrorism charges.
Backstrom succumbed to her wounds on Friday, and Wolfe is still in the hospital fighting for his life.
Lakanwal was also shot, but he’s expected to recover from his injuries.
The incident has sparked a fiery immigration debate, as officials say Lakanwal came to the US through Operation Allies Welcome in 2021.
The initiative, which was started under President Joe Biden’s administration, was meant to harbor Afghans who worked with US forces after America’s messy exit from the country.
Lakanwal is one of approximately 76,000 people who have come to the US through the program.
SUSPECT’S HISTORY
Lakanwal was living in Washington state, about an hour and a half north of Seattle, with his wife and five children when he allegedly carried out the attack, his former landlord told the Associated Press.
He had briefly worked as an independent contractor with Amazon Flex, which allows people to deliver packages using their own car, the outlet reported.
However, the immigrant had been struggling to find work in recent months, Mohammad Sherzad, a neighbor of Lakanwal, said.
Sherzad described his neighbor as polite and quiet, and said that he spoke very little English.
They attended the same mosque, and some of his children attended the same church as some of Lakanwal’s children.
About two weeks before the attack, Sherzad said the suspect “disappeared.”
“He was so quiet and the kids were so polite, they were so playful. But we didn’t see anything bad about him. He was looking OK,” Sherzad said.
President Donald Trump has called for a thorough investigation of every Afghan who has come to America, as he feared they weren’t properly vetted.
In a searing statement, Trump called the attacker an “animal” and described the shooting as a “monstrous, ambush-style attack.”
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that Lakanwal had a “relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces” but said they are still investigating the details.
“We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well, to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America,” he said in a press conference on Thursday.
Biden’s presidency has been rocked by claims that his autopen signature was mechanically stamped on nearly every official document he signed in office
DONALD Trump has said he is overturning all the documents and executive orders signed by Joe Biden with an autopen.
Trump also threatened to charge the former president with perjury after alleging his staffers were using the tool to sign decisions on his behalf.
Trump has terminated all the files and cancelled all the executive decisions signed by the Biden administrationCredit: Reuters
It comes just weeks after Republican lawmakers cast doubt on all of Biden’s actions in office, saying all the executive orders signed via Biden’s autopen are “void”.
Trump today wrote on Truth Social: “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect.
“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States.”
The president also said that he has now overturned all the executive orders under the Biden administration and “anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden.”
“Because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally. Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury,” Trump added.
Biden’s presidency has been rocked by claims that his autopen signature was mechanically stamped on nearly every official document he signed in office.
Questions swirl over whether Biden’s use of the device was mere convenience — or a sign that he was a figurehead president whose staffers wielded real power.
Last month, the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee unveiled their long-promised report on Biden’s use of the autopen during his presidency.
The report – based on more than a dozen interviews with Biden aides – shows that – delivered a blistering critique of his time in office and made sweeping accusations about the workings of his White House.
It claimed that Biden may not have known what was being signed in his name as president amid his alleged cognitive decline.
It also claimed that the former president’s mental state declined to a degree that allowed his aides to enact policies without his knowledge.
The investigation alleged the committee had found “a cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline” and “no record demonstrating President Biden himself made all of the executive decisions that were attributed to him”.
Biden has publicly disputed that, saying he made all decisions as president and calling Republicans who have suggested otherwise “liars”.
He has strenuously denied that he was unaware of his administration’s actions, calling such claims ridiculous and false.
“The inner-most circle, or cocoon, of the White House senior staff organised one of the largest scandals in American history, hiding a cognitively failing president and refusing any means of confirmation of such demise,” the Republican report said.
While the report claims that record-keeping policies in the Biden White House were so lax that the chain of custody for a given decision is difficult or impossible to establish, Republicans did not offer any concrete instances of the chain of command being violated or a policy being enacted without Biden’s knowledge.
Previously, another report claimed that Biden’s name was signed using an autopen on nearly every executive order and official document during his four-year tenure.
The findings prompted Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey to demand a Justice Department investigation, warning that Biden’s cognitive decline may have allowed unelected staff to push through radical policies without his knowledge.
“If true, these executive orders, pardons, and all other actions are unconstitutional and legally void,” Bailey declared.
One of the autopen-signed orders included Biden’s August 2022 directive safeguarding abortion access in emergencies, while another was a December 2024 order closing federal offices to honour late ex-US President Jimmy Carter.
The Oversight Project said it gathered “every document we could find with Biden’s signature over the course of his presidency” and found that all but one — his July 2024 letter dropping out of the presidential race — used the identical autopen signature.
DONALD Trump is set to hand occupied Ukrainian territories over to Vladimir Putin to secure a deal to end the war, it is reported.
The US is expected to recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories.
Trump and Putin during talks in AlaskaCredit: AFP
It is understood that the US President sent Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the offer to the Russian tyrant in Moscow.
Reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory 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.
It comes as one of Putin’s closest allies – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – travelled to Russia for talks on energy and the war in Ukraine.
Putin greeted Orban in Moscow on Friday on a rare visit by an EU and Nato leader.
Orban said he would still be happy for Budapest to host a Russia-US summit with President Donald Trump.
During the meeting, Russia confirmed it would deliver the agreed crude and gas supplies to Hungary according to the existing contract, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
His trip to Moscow is the second since last year.
The meeting comes as Ukraine’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak announced his resignation following an anti-corruption raid on his home.
It threatens to destabilise Zelensky’s leadership just as peace talks approach a crucial stage.
Zelensky appointed Yermak to lead peace deal discussions in the coming days, however, it is unclear who will replace him at the negotiating table.
The latest version was drawn up after emergency talks between Ukrainian and American officials in Geneva, Switzerland, last weekend.
An initial 28-point peace plan included America’s “de facto” recognition of Crimea and the two eastern Donbas regions.
It also contained “de facto” recognition of Russian-held land in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
However, Ukrainian and US officials have now negotiated a new 19-point-plan.
It is said to be less favourable to Moscow‘s demands.
Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s chief of staff, previously said: “Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory.
“As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory.
“The constitution prohibits this. Nobody can do that unless they want to go against the Ukrainian constitution and the Ukrainian people.”
It is unclear how the latest proposal will deal with the most contentious issues, such as any territorial concessions.
The Ukrainian president has not indicated when he will travel to either Washington or Florida to meet the US leader.
However, Washington’s offer to recognise Russian territory has caused consternation amongst its European allies.
After a meeting of the coalition of the willing on Wednesday, its leaders said: “They are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force.
“This remains one of the fundamental principles for preserving stability and peace in Europe and beyond.”
A European counter-proposal to the original 28-point plan made no recommendation to recognise Russian control over Ukrainian territory.
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.
Trump engaged in a spiky encounter with a journalistCredit: AFP
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.
Siemens, BASF and VW have poured billions into AI to expand virtual factories, robot fleets and smart data centers. Catching up with the US and China will be a brutal feat, with thousands of jobs on the line.
German automakers are rolling out AI across production lines and vehicle softwareImage: JENS SCHLUETER/AFP/Getty Images
Germany has been warned for years that it risks becoming an “industrial museum” unless it embraces radical modernization — and that includes artificial intelligence (AI).
Productivity in Europe’s biggest economy has barely grown for 15 years, export share in automobiles and machinery is shrinking and Germany’s energy costs are among the highest in the G7 group of wealthy nations. Together, this has created a toxic mix that is steadily eroding the country’s global competitiveness.
Policymakers and business leaders believe a narrow window exists to reverse the slide by fully embracing AI in factories and supply chains, helping the country to play catch-up with the world’s two biggest players, the United States and China.
Speaking at the inauguration of Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, Jupiter, in September, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz noted that the two global powers are in a “neck‑and‑neck race to compete for future market share in an AI‑supported global economy.”
“We in Germany and we in Europe have every opportunity to catch up and then keep pace,” he told attendees of the launch ceremony in the town of Juelich in western Germany.
The US and China have pushed ahead with AI models such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, advanced chips and industrial-scale stress tests of data centers. Their early tests prove their systems can handle AI workloads at business-critical scale without downtime.
Never-ending AI pilot projects
Germany’s industrial giants, meanwhile, have been accused of being trapped in so-called pilot purgatory, experimenting with AI but hesitant to fully roll out ambitious projects.
Bosch, for instance, launched generative AI pilots in its factories in late 2023 to optimize production scheduling and monitoring. Volkswagen, in collaboration with Siemens, has tested AI‑driven digital-twin factories — virtual replicas of production lines that allow engineers to simulate, predict and improve performance.
While these projects have been praised as innovative, until recently, they were still confined to limited trials rather than full or partial rollout, often due to legal and safety concerns.
“Many [German] firms still lack clear AI strategies and change-management capacity,” AI expert and author Thomas Ramge told DW. “So pilots don’t scale into core operations.”
Once the Germany’s industrial leaders can prove AI’s economic benefits, Ramge added, the country’s deep manufacturing know‑how and network of small and medium‑sized suppliers that feed into major supply chains will help German firms to play catch‑up.
Germany’s Economy Ministry forecasts that AI could deliver at least one extra percentage point of annual real GDP growth from 2026 onward.
Germany hampered by talent, chip shortages
As well as competing globally for the best tech talent and the high-end chips needed to power AI, German firms remain risk-averse amid high up-front costs and a corporate culture that still prizes caution over disruption.
They must also grapple with regulatory uncertainty, especially with regard to the European Union’s AI Act, which critics say is overly complex, vague in its definitions and has strict compliance rules on applications deemed high-risk. The European Commission has proposed delaying the act’s full rollout until August 2027.
Despite the many hurdles, Germany’s AI adoption is accelerating rapidly. According to a survey published in May by the ifo Institute in Munich, 41% of companies now use AI in their business processes — a 27% jump from the previous year. Nearly one in five firms plan to adopt it soon.
Germany’s industrial leaders are clearly setting the pace, with more than half already deploying AI. Yet the survey also highlights lingering concerns. Many smaller firms and sectors — including retail, hospitality and construction — remain hesitant, with some saying AI is not even on their agenda.
Beyond uneven adoption, the survey reveals a looming labor market challenge. More than a quarter of German firms expect AI to result in cut jobs over the next five years, while only a small minority foresee new positions opening up.
Alexandre Mendonca, an affiliate fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, thinks this is ironic due to labor shortages sparked by the global AI boom.
“German firms are having a hard time finding specialists to work with this type of technology — it’s actually one of the highest rates in the EU,” Mendonca told DW. “Adoption is not enough — capacity to use AI is crucial.”
Germany’s growing AI successes
Germany may be cautious in fully rolling out industrial-grade AI, but one of its business giants is already shaping the global infrastructure behind the current AI boom.
Siemens is a key part of Europe’s “Data Center Four” — also made up of France’s Legrand, Schneider Electric and ABB from Switzerland — which provide the automation systems, power grids, and cooling technologies that keep hyperscale AI facilities running reliably. These are the only four European firms that can match Silicon Valley for size.
Germany’s automotive sector is also rolling out AI at scale, with more than 70% of carmakers and parts suppliers already using it in production, according to the ifo survey.
Yet, as Ramge cautions, these deployments are critical but may not be enough to tackle the many headwinds facing the auto industry, including volatile electric-vehicle (EV) demand, soaring energy costs and fierce competition from China.
“AI will be a necessary condition for [auto industry] survival — through software-defined vehicles, smarter production and better supply-chain management — but it won’t be sufficient on its own,” Ramge told DW. “Strategy, cost structures and industrial policy all have to move in parallel with AI deployment.”
Germany has also chalked up AI successes beyond industry. SAP has embedded generative AI into its enterprise software, which is used worldwide, via a co-pilot named Joule, while insurance company Allianz is deploying AI for risk modeling and fraud detection globally.
The faster German companies adopt AI, the bigger the gains are expected to be, helping to fix some of the country’s biggest issues.
A 2023 report by business consultancy McKinsey predicted that annual productivity growth could be lifted by up to 1.5% over the next decade, while annual GDP could rise by up to €450 billion ($520 billion) and German factories could use up a quarter less electricity.
Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the duration and intensity of the season, leading to heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.
Tennis courts covered in mud and debris in a flooded area in Hat Yai district, Songkhla province, Thailand, on Nov 28, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha)
Days of devastating flooding across Southeast Asia have killed more than 300 people in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, authorities said on Friday (Nov 28).
Heavy monsoon season rains paired with a tropical storm system inundated areas across the three countries, stranding residents on rooftops and cutting off entire communities.
Authorities in Indonesia were struggling to reach the worst-affected areas on Sumatra island, while authorities at a southern Thailand hospital brought in refrigerated trucks to store bodies after the morgue exceeded capacity.
In Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, 53-year-old Misniati described a terrifying battle against rising floodwaters to reach her husband at home.
She said that, returning from early morning prayers at a mosque, “I noticed the street was flooded.”
“I tried to run back to my house to tell my husband, and the water was already reaching my waist,” she told AFP, adding that it was up to her chest by the time she reached home.
“We didn’t sleep at all last night, we just monitored the water,” said Misniati, who only uses one name.
Officials on Sumatra said flooding and landslides this week had killed at least 174 people, with nearly 80 more missing.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto said the toll could grow as rescuers reach isolated areas.
“There are locations that still cannot be reached … where it is indicated that there may be human victims in those areas that are unreachable,” Suharyanto said.
North Sumatra police spokesman Ferry Walintukan said authorities were focused on “evacuation and providing assistance”, although access to some areas and communication was still cut.
“Hopefully, the weather will clear up so we can move the helicopter to the (worst-hit) locations,” he said.
In Aceh province in Sumatra’s north, receding water left behind cars buried in mud almost up to their windows. An AFP journalist saw a truck carrying timber abandoned in the mud, with no sign of the driver.
More rain is forecast for much of Sumatra island, although the intensity was expected to ease, officials said.
“NOTHING I CAN DO”
Among the hardest-hit areas in the region is southern Thailand, where residents of Hat Yai were left clinging to rooftops awaiting rescue by boat.
At least 145 people have been killed across Thailand’s south, government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat said on Friday, as receding floodwaters allowed a clearer picture of the disaster.
Most occurred in Songkhla province, where authorities at the Songklanagarind Hospital said they had no more room for bodies and were relying on refrigerated trucks.
“The morgue has exceeded its capacity, so we need more,” Charn, a morgue official who only gave his first name, told AFP.
There has been growing public criticism of the flooding response and two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures.
Hat Yai residents described floodwaters rising rapidly.
“The water rose to the ceiling of the second floor,” said Kamban Wongpanya, 67, who had to be rescued by boat.
Shop owner Rachane Remsringam said his general goods store Madam Yong was looted and vandalised by flood victims.
“Many kitchen products and food items were stolen, including sugar and milk,” he told AFP, saying that the damage amounted to several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
AFP footage showed the shop littered with rubbish and empty shelves.
Two people were killed in Malaysia by flooding caused by heavy rain that left stretches of northern Perlis state under water.
“EXTREME WEATHER”
The annual monsoon season, typically between June and September, often brings heavy rains, triggering landslides and flash floods.
A tropical storm has exacerbated conditions, and the tolls in Indonesia and Thailand rank among the highest in flooding events in those countries in recent years.
Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the duration and intensity of the season, leading to heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.
The simulation was part of the five-day Exercise Highcrest, which concluded on Friday (Nov 28).
Personnel from the Special Operations Task Force roping down from a helicopter to carry out ship-storming ops on a highjacked merchant vessel as part of a simulation on Nov 28, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Marcus Mark Ramos)
More than 240 personnel from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Home Team and other agencies took part in an interagency exercise at sea to take down a “hijacked vessel” planning to conduct a terrorist attack on Singapore.
The simulation was part of the five-day Exercise Highcrest, which concluded on Friday (Nov 28), and also included scenarios such as fighting a fire at sea and evacuating casualties.
The annual maritime security exercise aims to strengthen inter-agency coordination, involving personnel from the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Police Coast Guard, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Singapore Customs and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
TAKING DOWN A TERROR THREAT
In the simulation on Friday off the coast of Changi Naval base, a merchant vessel called Constancy was detected after deviating from normal commercial shipping routes and was assessed to pose a potential threat.
A warning shot was fired from the nearby RSN vessel RSS Justice, where media were present to observe the exercise. The shot served to deter the potentially “hijacked vessel” from advancing.
Following that, two Police Coast Guard craft encircled the rogue vessel, blocking its path toward mainland Singapore.
Special Operations Task Force (SOTF) personnel then arrived – by sea aboard two combatant craft medium motor vessels, and by air on two H225M helicopters operated by the Republic of Singapore Air Force.
The operators on motor vessels mounted a ladder on the side of the ship to climb on board.
The other SOTF personnel roped down from one of the helicopters, which hovered above the hijacked ship.
Together, they began to neutralise the threat and take down the “terrorists”. An MPA patrol craft circled the area to secure the perimeter and prevent commercial vessels from approaching.
Then, red smoke began to emanate from the vessel, simulating a fire on the ship.
Two SCDF vessels approached the ship, and one doused the “fire” with a water cannon.
The other vessel evacuated a casualty using the height rescue method, the first time it has been featured at Exercise Highcrest.
The casualty is evacuated from the bridge of the hijacked ship and onto the deck of the SCDF rescue vessel, shared Senior Lieutenant Colonel (SLTC) Jackson Pang, the director of the National Maritime Ops Group at the Singapore Maritime Crisis Centre.
“This is in itself very challenging, given the differences in height between the two vessels,” he said.
“Exercising this component gives us confidence that our maritime security agencies are able to conduct the entire range of operations, from interception of the vessel to evacuation of casualties.”
SEA LINES CRUCIAL TO PROSPERITY: SHANMUGAM
Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam and Minister for Defence Chan Chun Sing were also on board the RSS Justice to observe the conduct of Exercise Highcrest.
Speaking to the media after the live demonstration, Mr Shanmugam said that the waterways and sea lines around Singapore are critical to its prosperity, with maritime trade making up about 7 per cent of the nation’s GDP.
“One of the ways in which we can be attacked is through attack on ships in our waterways, or an attack from the sea on to Singapore itself,” he said.
Kim Kardashian revealed her latest brain scan show she has “low activity.”
In her visit to Dr. Daniel Amen — who previously scanned Khloé Kardashian and Kendall Jenner’s brains in 2022 — the doctor brought some “holes” in her brain scan to her attention, which indicated “low activity.”
“The front part of your brain is less active than it should be,” the doctor explained on Thursday’s episode of “The Kardashians.”
“The front part of your brain is less active than it should be,” Dr. Daniel Amen told Kardashian in Thursday’s episode.
“With your frontal lobes, as they work now, it would be harder to manage stress and that’s not good for you, especially as you’re studying and you’re getting ready to take the boards,” Amen continued.
“That just can’t be,” Kim, 45, replied. “It just can’t — not accepting.”
He later informed the “All’s Fair” star that the “chronic stress” could be tied to her studying for the California Bar exam.
“I got to get on a plan to really figure this out because I have some s–t to do this summer,” she said in the episode.
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Kim ultimately did not pass the test this year despite her strenuous cramming.
Reality fans may recall that Kim tearfully told her sister Kourtney Kardashian that doctors found a “little” brain aneurysm during her MRI scan in the Season 7 premiere, which aired in October.
At the time, the SKIMS founder cried, wondering “why the f–k” it was happening. Her doctors eventually informed her that aneurysms can be caused by “stress.”
The business mogul speculated that the stress was likely brought on by her contentious divorce from Kanye West, with whom she shares kids North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6,
It was one of the big set-pieces in Washington in 2019.
All eyes were on Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was testifying to a House committee about his former boss.
A Democratic member of the committee, Stacey Plaskett, was preparing to question Cohen and was seen on camera texting someone on her phone.
This week, the public found out the identity of the other person in that exchange – convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
According to emails made public by his estate under a subpoena, he was encouraging her to ask about a Trump Organization employee. After Ms Plaskett did so, Epstein texted her back: “Good Work”.
The extent of his influence
In hindsight, this incident has struck a chord with many, who say it highlights the extent of his influence on America’s elite.
Plaskett has denied she was seeking Epstein’s advice, saying she was texting with many people that day, including Epstein, who was one of her constituents. She says as a former lawyer, she had learned to seek information from all sources – even people she didn’t like.
“I am disgusted by Epstein’s deviant behavior. I strongly support his victims and admire their courage. I have long believed and supported that the entire Epstein files be released,” she said in a statement, sent to the BBC.
She says their exchange occurred before his arrest for sexual trafficking. But it was well after his conviction for soliciting prostitution in 2008.
His private island in the US territory had also been mentioned in a damning investigation by the Miami Herald just a year before as being one of the places he sexually abused several underage girls.
Just six months after her exchange with Epstein, the disgraced financier would be dead in his prison cell – a result of suicide, according to a medical examiner. His death, and the conspiracies that swirled around it, would trigger a reckoning that has caused ripple effects in Washington and Wall Street, and has taken down some of his former friends.
House Delegate Stacey Plaskett was one of many high-profile figures who kept in touch with Epstein despite the conviction
Their exchange was just one of many in the latest trove of over 20,000 pages of personal documents, which revealed Epstein’s ability to maintain elite social circles even after his criminal conviction and the Herald expose.
How and why these relationships survived while other friends cut him off tells us as much about the dynamics of social circles at the very top of US society as they do about Epstein’s influence.
“He was a diabolical monster, but at the same time he was brilliant in a sense that he was able to maintain this incredible network of some of the world’s most powerful individuals,” said Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
“He had a certain charisma attached to himself that put him in a position where people turned to him.”
‘He would use information that he gained’
Epstein considered himself a “people collector” who made connections for transactional purposes, Mr Levine said.
“He would use information that he gained… with the intention at the end of the day that he was going to bank either favours from them, finances from them, or in a darker sense, I think, blackmail from some of these individuals.”
The relationship between Epstein and Labour’s Lord Peter Mandelson has come under particular scrutiny in the UK, with Lord Mandelson ultimately being sacked in September from his role as the UK’s ambassador to the US.
Documents released by Congress show he maintained contact with the paedophile until late 2016, which was before the Herald expose but after his conviction.
In one email from November 2015, Epstein tells him after his birthday: “63 years old. You made it.”
Lord Mandelson replies less than 90 minutes later, saying: “Just. I have decided to extend my life by spending more of it in the US.”
He has strenuously denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, any wrongdoing, and has expressed regret over their continued communications with him.
Epstein’s eclectic circle of scholars, entrepreneurs and politicians
The documents released by Epstein’s estate reveal his eclectic social circle of distinguished scholars, business titans and politicians.
Mr Levine said it’s not a stretch that some more casual acquaintances of Epstein may not have known about his abuse, or were impressed enough by his influential connections to look past it.
“People forget things,” he said. “His credentials among power brokers were extremely high, and I think a lot of individuals probably just dismissed the conviction against him.”
Others may have been simply dazzled by his wealth, journalists and those who knew him have suggested.
“A jail sentence doesn’t matter anymore,” David Patrick Columbia, the founder of New York Social Diary, told The Daily Beast in 2011, after Epstein’s first conviction. “The only thing that gets you shunned in New York society is poverty.”
A former US treasury secretary turned Harvard University president, Larry Summers asked Epstein for romantic advice, including an exchange in November 2018 – the same month the Herald investigation was published – where he seemed to forward an email from a woman to Epstein to ask about how he should respond.
Epstein replied: “She’s already beginning to sound needy 🙂 nice.”
Summers’ interactions with his former confidant came back to haunt him last week, leading him to announce he was stepping back from public commitments and stopping teaching at Harvard.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognise the pain they have caused,” Summers said.
Epstein also reportedly used his money skills to help famed linguist Noam Chomsky, with whom he exchanged several messages over the years and invited to stay at his homes.
The flattery went both ways. In an undated letter of support included in the trove of emails, Chomsky raved about Epstein, saying the two had held “many long and often in-depth discussions”.
The 96-year-old previously told the Wall Street Journal that Epstein had helped him move money between his accounts without “one penny from Epstein”.
“I knew him and we met occasionally,” he said.
In the same article, he said: “What was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to US laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.”
He did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
Chomsky was one of Epstein’s famous financial clients, many of whom Epstein helped to save billions of dollars, Mr Levine said.
He was able to do so because he “understood tax code and finances to some degree better than maybe the most highly paid people on Wall Street”, Mr Levine said.
The ones who cut ties
Throughout the 23,000 pages of Epstein’s documents, one man’s name appears more than perhaps any other.
Trump did not send or receive any of the messages included in the thousands of documents, having cut off ties with Epstein.
In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy”. Epstein would later remark: “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.”
But the relationship would eventually sour. According to Trump, they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. By 2008, Trump was saying that he had not been “a fan of his”.
Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking. The White House has also said Trump kicked Epstein out of his club “decades ago for being a creep to his female employees”.
Mr Levine said there were many people whose messages with Epstein after his convictions will leave them embarrassed, though that does not suggest they participated in any of his crimes.
“Each and every one of course regrets the day they communicated with Jeffrey Epstein or spent time with him,” he said. “It is one of the most unbelievable stories of our time – power, privilege, predation.”
But there was at least one person who said he understood immediately that Epstein was “gross”.
Howard Lutnick, the president’s commerce secretary, was a next-door neighbour of Epstein’s for 10 years. He told the New York Post’s podcast that his first encounter with Epstein was his last.
The hare was auctioned by Sotheby’s after being searched for by global treasure hunters in the 1980s
A golden hare that sparked a treasure hunt has sold at auction for a hammer price of £82,550.
In 1979, artist Kit Williams buried the handcrafted 18-carat gold jewel, then worth about £5,000, in Ampthill Park, Bedfordshire, with TV presenter Bamber Gascoigne as the sole witness.
Mr Williams created Masquerade, a book filled with cryptic riddles pointing to the hare’s location, which attracted treasure hunters from around the globe before it was finally unearthed in 1982.
The hare was auctioned by Sotheby’s, having previously been sold by the same auction house in 1988.
It had been buried in Ampthill Park inside a terracotta casket and sealed with wax to evade metal detectors.
Members of the public would call and write letters to Mr Williams for advice on finding the treasure.
The artist toured America and appeared on talk shows after the art book containing clues had sold out within two days.
One transatlantic airline sold tickets for ’10-day Masquerade Treasure Tours’ where travellers were given shovels and maps of Britain.
It was uncovered by a man named Dugald Thompson under the fake name Ken Thomas.
The elusive treasure hunter insisted on covering his face with a scarf and would only be interviewed from behind a screen.
It later sparked controversy when a newspaper uncovered a link between Mr Thomas and Mr Williams’ ex-girlfriend, who had remembered visiting Ampthill years before.
The golden hare, given the name Jack, is set with a ruby eye and a body design that includes flowhead motifs, each set with turquoise.
It previously sold for £31,900 in an 1988 auction and has remained with the same family ever since.
Mr Williams said: “The current owners have been good and generous guardians of the Masquerade Jewel, agreeing to put it on public exhibition at the V&A Museum and at the Sydney Opera House.
Ducks are seen inside a poultry farm in Castelnau-Tursan, France, January 24, 2023. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The bird flu virus that has been spreading among wild birds, poultry and mammals could lead to a pandemic worse than COVID-19 if it mutates to transmit between humans, the head of France’s Institut Pasteur respiratory infections centre said.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has led to the culling of hundreds of millions of birds in the past few years, disrupting food supplies and driving up prices, though human infections remain rare.
“What we fear is the virus adapting to mammals, and particularly to humans, becoming capable of human-to-human transmission, and that virus would be a pandemic virus,” Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti, medical director at the Institut Pasteur’s respiratory infections centre, told Reuters.
The Institut Pasteur was among the first European labs to develop and share COVID-19 detection tests, making protocols available to the World Health Organization and labs worldwide.
NO ANTIBODIES AGAINST H5 BIRD FLU
People have antibodies against common H1 and H3 seasonal flu, but none against the H5 bird flu affecting birds and mammals, like they had none against COVID-19, she said.
And unlike COVID-19, which mainly affects vulnerable people, flu viruses can also kill healthy individuals, including children, Rameix-Welti said.
“A bird flu pandemic would probably be quite severe, potentially even more severe than the pandemic we experienced,” she said in her Paris laboratory.
There have been many cases of people infected by H5 bird flu viruses in the past, including the H5N1 currently circulating among poultry and dairy cows in the U.S., but these were often in close contact with infected animals. A first ever human case of H5N5 appeared in the U.S. state of Washington this month. The man, who had underlying conditions, died last week.
In its latest report on bird flu, the WHO said there had been nearly 1,000 outbreaks in humans between 2003 and 2025 – mainly in Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam, of which 48% had died.
HUMAN PANDEMIC RISK STILL LOW
However, the risk of a human pandemic developing remains low, Gregorio Torres, head of the Science Department at the World Organisation for Animal Health, told Reuters.
“We need to be prepared to respond early enough. But for the time being, you can happily walk in the forest, eat chicken and eggs and enjoy your life. The pandemic risk is a possibility. But in terms of probability, it’s still very low,” he said.
Imran Khan, who is the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has been in jail since August 2023 in multiple cases.
Former Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan during a joint news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan November 19, 2020.(Reuters)
Noreen Niazi, one of the three sisters of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, has expressed anguish over the uncertainty looming about her brother’s condition in prison.
Imran Khan, who is the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has been in jail since August 2023 in multiple cases.
Speaking to ANI, Noreen Niazi alleged that authorities in Pakistan are not allowing her and others to meet him for over four weeks. She also claimed that they have been deliberately holding up information about his brother’s condition in jail.
“We don’t know anything. They are not telling us anything, nor are they letting anybody meet him. His party’s people went there because they had a meeting scheduled, but they were not allowed inside. We have not been allowed to meet him for the last four weeks…” she said.
#WATCH | Lahore, Pakistan | On rumours about PTI Founder and former Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s health, his sister, Noreen Niazi, says, “We don’t know anything. They are not telling us anything, nor are they letting anybody meet him. His party’s people went there as they had a… pic.twitter.com/bXbnhCTbBl
On a question about her last meeting with her brother, Niazi recalled the time when Imran Khan was kept in isolation for nearly three weeks last year, with no electricity and was not allowed to read books.
She claimed that authorities violated the prison manual, which states that isolation should not last more than four days.
“He is going through a tough time alone. He is in isolation. As per the jail manual, one can’t be placed in isolation for more than four days. But he was put in isolation for three weeks last year as well, during which electricity was switched off during summer, and he wasn’t even allowed to read books. The same has been done now. No one knows what’s happening inside the jail. This is the pinnacle of oppression,” Niazi told ANI.
She also criticised the Pakistan government, claiming police in the country have been given a free hand to deal with those supporting Imran Khan. Niazi alleged that police have been allowed to “beat up” people, including children, women, and the elderly, without the fear of facing any consequences.
“The police have been ordered to stop us and, I believe, also permitted to do to us whatever they want. This has never happened in Pakistan before. No one has ever disrespected women like this, nor has anyone been oppressed this way. This is the first time in Pakistan that these people have been allowed to beat up people like there won’t be any consequences, without considering if it’s a child, an elderly person, or a woman in front of them. The world is aware of what’s happening in Pakistan,” she was quoted as saying by ANI.
Imran Khan’s son Kasim Khan accuses Pakistan’s government of holding the former prime minister in secretive solitary confinement, denying family access and proof of life, and urges global pressure to end what he calls inhumane, politically-driven isolation.
Imran Khan’s son Kasim says his father is being kept in total isolation with no family access. (Photo: Reuters)
Kasim Khan, the younger son of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, has issued a stark public appeal accusing the government of keeping his father in complete isolation and blocking all family access. In a strongly worded post on X, he said the family had no proof of life and warned that authorities would be held responsible for the former leader’s safety.
Kasim, who has largely lived outside Pakistan and stays away from front-line politics, said Imran Khan has spent 845 days under arrest and has now been confined to a death-row cell for six weeks. “My father has been under arrest for 845 days,” he wrote. “For the past six weeks, he has been kept in solitary confinement in a death cell with zero transparency.”
Imran Khan, the former cricket star turned politician, has been jailed on multiple convictions that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party calls politically motivated. His sons, Kasim and Sulaiman, were raised in the UK with their mother, Jemima Goldsmith, and rarely comment publicly on Pakistani politics. The Pakistan government has imposed an undeclared ban on family meetings for over a month.
Kasim said even basic rights had been denied despite court orders. “His sisters have been denied every visit There have been no phone calls, no meetings and no proof of life,” he posted. “Me and my brother have had no contact with our father.”
Calling the information blackout deliberate, Kasim accused the Pakistani state of hiding his father’s condition. “This absolute blackout is not a security protocol. It is a deliberate attempt to hide his condition and prevent our family from knowing whether he is safe.”
He warned that the “Pakistani government and its handlers will be held fully accountable — legally, morally and internationally — for my father’s safety and for every consequence of this inhumane isolation.”
In his appeal, Kasim urged global institutions to intervene. “I call on the international community, global human rights organisations and every democratic voice to intervene urgently. Demand proof of life, enforce court ordered access, end this inhumane isolation and call for the release of Pakistan’s most popular political leader who is being held solely for political reasons.”
PTI DEMANDS PROOF OF LIFE
Despite the government’s reassurances, PTI has demanded an official response and immediate family access. The party says the uncertainty has fuelled wild rumours online, including claims that Imran Khan has been killed inside the prison — rumours the administration says are entirely false.
Tension escalated outside Adiala Jail on Wednesday after Imran’s three sisters and PTI workers staged a sit-in demanding to see him. Thousands of supporters later joined the protest amid accusations that police had assaulted the sisters and party members during a previous demonstration.
The protest ended only after jail officials assured Aleema Khan that a meeting would be arranged. The sisters are expected to be allowed access later today and again on Tuesday, according to ARY News.
Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, known for holding death-row inmates and dangerous criminals, has long carried a fearsome reputation. Imran’s supporters say that only fuels concerns over his safety.
US federal agencies, including the ICE, are detaining individuals during Green Card interviews at USCIS offices in San Diego. Attorneys said individuals, including spouses of US citizens, with visa overstays but no criminal history, are being taken into custody.
A San Diego-based attorney suggested that, so far, the detentions appear to be limited to the city’s USCIS office. (Image: File)
US federal agencies are detaining people, including spouses of American citizens, during routine Green Card interviews at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices in San Diego, according to media reports in the US. An attorney claimed that his client was detained and handcuffed when he appeared for the Green Card interview.
Immigration attorney Saman Nasseri said the federal agencies have begun arresting visa overstays during their interviews. Some couples and their lawyers told The New York Times they had followed the required steps to secure permanent residency.
“ICE and USCIS have started implementing a policy where ICE is now making arrests at USCIS offices during the green card interviews on anyone who is a visa overstay, so if they’re out of status, ICE is making that arrest at the interviews,” Saman Nasseri was quoted as saying by CBS8.
Nasseri stated that five of his clients were taken into custody during Green Card interviews just last week. He said that his clients have no criminal history or arrests.
“None of my clients have any arrests or criminal history that are in this situation. These are just cases where they entered legally, they overstayed their visa. All of my cases right now are people that have been married to US citizens, so these are spouses of US citizens that are going through the normal process, the normal channels, and they’re being taken into custody,” Nasseri added.
Another attorney, Habib Hasbini, also confirmed similar experiences with his clients.
“The first one was November 12, the eve of the memo that came down from ICE. After that, I had four to follow through, but I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls from people who were arrested from the same facility,” Hasbini told CBS8.
Attorney Habib Hasbini observed that, so far, these detentions seem to be confined to the USCIS office in San Diego.
Hasbini recommended that those with scheduled GreenCard interviews should still attend, while remaining cautious and prepared for potential detentions.
He suggests making family and work arrangements in case of detention, noting that not attending an interview can result in case denial for abandonment. Additionally, because individuals are out of status, they may still face arrest by ICE regardless, CBS8 reported.
MEXICAN NATIONAL DETAINED, HANDCUFFED DURING GREEN CARD INTERVIEW: US ATTORNEY
Immigration attorney Tessa Cabrera told ABC 10 that her client, a Mexican national residing in the US since 2002, was handcuffed and taken into custody during his GreenCard interview.
The man’s US citizen daughter had applied for him to get permanent residency, according to the ABC10 report.
“The officer said, I’ll be right back and stepped out. And then, two ICE officers walked in. They asked him what his name was and then put him in handcuffs,” Cabrera said.
The client was taken to the basement of the federal building and was detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, according to Cabrera.
She said that ICE officers gave her a “Warrant for Arrest” issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
The warrant states they have probable cause based on statements made to the immigration officer or evidence that the person lacks immigration status or is removable under immigration law, according to the report.
Taylor Swift and Hugh Jackman allegedly witnessed Ryan Reynolds berate Justin Baldoni for “fat shaming” Blake Lively, according to newly unsealed court docs in Lively and Baldoni’s ongoing court battle.
Baldoni went to Lively and Reynolds’ New York City apartment on April 25, 2023, per the docs obtained by People. Once there, the Canadian actor allegedly “unloaded” on Baldoni, telling him that it was “horrible” to ask about a woman’s weight.
Reynolds, 49, and Lively, 38, allegedly accused the “Jane the Virgin” alum of “fat shaming” Lively, and Baldoni, 41, was “completely embarrassed” and apologized while shedding tears.
Swift, 35, and Jackman, 57, were in the apartment during the incident, according to the docs.
Hugh Jackman and Taylor Swift allegedly witnessed Ryan Reynolds berate Justin Baldoni for “fat shaming” Blake Lively, according to newly unsealed court docs. Hugh Jackman/Instagram
The allegation comes from a timeline of events sent from Wayfarer Studios co-founder Jamey Heath’s team to Baldoni’s publicist over email in July 2024, People reports.
Reps for Swift and Jackman did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
TMZ previously reported that Swift went to Lively’s apartment at the time the actress told her to, allegedly not knowing that anyone — including Baldoni — would be there.
An insider told the outlet that Swift believed Lively manipulated the timing of the meeting with Baldoni so that Swift would arrive before he left, and that the singer didn’t say anything to Baldoni except that she was excited to see “It Ends With Us.”
Baldoni claimed in his now-dismissed $400 million countersuit against his co-star and Reynolds that Lively weaponized her friendship with Swift. He also alleged that text messages were released with Lively referring to Reynolds and Swift as her “dragons.”
“The message could not have been clearer,” the lawsuit read. “Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively’s ‘dragons,’ two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”
Baldoni also claimed in his complaint that when he was invited to Lively and Reynolds’ New York penthouse, a “famously close” friend was also present.
Celebrities gathered together with their loved ones for Thanksgiving 2025.
Whether volunteering with their community, cooking delicious dishes at home or hosting a fun Friendsgiving dinner, stars like Jennifer Garner, Hailey Bieber, Sydney Sweeney and more appeared to be in the best of spirits on Thursday.
See how more famous faces celebrated the holiday below.
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner was all smiles while serving food to the homeless community in Los Angeles on Thursday. BACKGRID
The actress spent part of her holiday volunteering in downtown Los Angeles. She was photographed serving hot meals to the homeless community, smiling big as she handled the food with black gloves.
Garner, who was dressed casually in jeans and a striped T-shirt, shared that she was thankful for everyone in her presence, according to an eyewitness.
The actress is, of course, no stranger to helping out her community. Last year, she was also spotted volunteering in LA with ex-husband Ben Affleck by her side.
Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner
Hailey Bieber gave fans a glimpse at her Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday, revealing that “Mommy is on cinnamon roll duty.”
Taking to her Instagram Stories, the Rhode Skin founder shared a photo of her freshly baked cinnamon rolls cooling off in a baking tin — and looking mighty delicious.
The sweet treats appeared to be a hit as her pal Kylie Jenner gushed over the dessert on her own Instagram Stories.
“Oh… my… God,” wrote the makeup mogul, tagging Bieber in the post.
Brittany and Patrick Mahomes
Brittany Mahomes marked the Thanksgiving holiday with a sweet family photo shared hours before her husband, Patrick Mahomes, took the field for the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Dallas Cowboys game.
The Sports Illustrated model matched her youngest child, daughter Golden Raye, in a sweater dress while their oldest daughter, Sterling Skye, 4, rocked a red dress with white leggings and matching shoes.
The couple’s son, Patrick “Bronze” Lavon Mahomes III, who turns 3 on Friday, wore a plaid shirt and sported a big grin in the adorable snap.
Meanwhile, the NFL quarterback wore a maroon polo and navy pants as he proudly stood next to his family.
Barack and Michelle Obama
Barack and Michelle Obama celebrated the holiday by sharing a family photo featuring their daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama.
“During this season of giving, let’s do what we can to give back to the communities that have given us so much,” the former first family captioned the post.
“From our family to yours, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!”
Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney wished her followers a “Happy Thanksgiving” via her Instagram Stories as she shared a glimpse of her holiday on the water.
The “Euphoria” star recirculated her Wednesday video of herself jet skiing on the water.
“42 degrees out and still my happy place, last run of the season before it ices over,” she captioned it.
It appears Sweeney spent the holiday with her new love interest, Scooter Braun, as the two were photographed together on multiple occasions leading up to Thanksgiving.
Kendall Jenner
Earlier Thursday, Kylie Jenner also shared a video of sister Kylie chopping vegetables for the holiday, poking fun at the model’s infamous moment when she awkwardly sliced cucumbers during an episode of “The Kardashians.”
“The confidence!” Kylie joked alongside the video posted to her Instagram Story.
She later posted another photo of Kendall sleeping, writing. “She worked so hard on her cooking.”
We simply can’t wait to see more from the sure-to-be epic Kardashian-Jenners (and Biebers) feast!
Ciara
Ciara looked pretty in pink on Thanksgiving Day.
The “Goodies” singer was up bright and early Thursday to perform during the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in New York City, marking her third time at the parade.
“It’s still the same magical feeling,” she gushed on the “Today” show, revealing that “all four” of her babies came to support her, along with husband Russell Wilson.
Pope Leo (C) was welcomed to Ankara by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Pope Leo XIV has warned that the world should not give into “a heightened level of conflict on the global level”, at the start of his foreign trip in Turkey.
“The future of humanity is at stake, said the Pope, urging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to act as a source of stability because of the need to promote dialogue and stability.
The Pope will mark a historic Christian anniversary during his visit to Turkey, before heading to Lebanon days after Israeli airstrikes on its capital, Beirut.
The visits had been planned by late Pope Francis, but their main theme of building bridges was embraced by Pope Leo from the moment he stepped on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica after his election in May.
Leo warned that today’s wars were like a “third world war fought piecemeal”, repeating a phrase that his predecessor had himself used several times, referring to conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Myanmar and elsewhere.
Since he became pontiff six months ago, he has conveyed a sense of being extremely measured, even cautious. But on this trip, his powers of diplomacy will be closely scrutinised.
A key moment of the trip will take place in the Turkish town of Iznik, the site of the ancient city of Nicaea. Pope Leo and leaders of other Christian traditions will gather to mark the anniversary of an ancient council that took place there 1,700 years ago. In 325 AD, among other key decisions, more than 200 bishops at the council affirmed the belief that Jesus was the son of God, eventually leading to what is known as the Nicene Creed.
Eastern and Western branches of Christianity later dramatically split, but during this trip there will be messages of togetherness and healing divisions.
In Turkey the Pope will also visit the Blue Mosque, as both his immediate predecessors Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI had done. He will have meetings with other religious leaders in a gesture of inter-religious dialogue before flying on to the second leg of the trip.
The Vatican says plans for the Pope’s visit to Lebanon have not changed following the Israeli airstrikes on Beirut earlier in the week.
He will meet more faith leaders and hear from young people in Lebanon, his visit giving a boost in particular to the estimated third of the country that is Christian.
On the final day of the trip, Pope Leo will celebrate Mass at the Beirut waterfront at the site of the 2020 port explosion, praying for the more than 200 people who were killed and 7,000 others injured.
Over recent months, though he has spoken out on some issues dear to him such as the dignity of migrants, he has certainly not been as overtly political as his predecessor could be.
He has walked such a fine line that in some cases both progressives and traditionalists within the Catholic Church have made the case that he supports their school of thought.
It was for similar reasons that cardinals of different persuasions were thought to have coalesced around him at conclave.
Pope Francis was seen as a visionary but one who was not overly worried about creating consensus, leaving behind a somewhat divided Church. Pope Leo has so far operated very differently, gently holding on to some of the progressive ideals of his predecessor while paying heed to the views of traditionalists.
He has repeatedly called for an end to war, but in a different way to Pope Francis, who memorably made daily calls to the Holy Family Church in Gaza to offer his support.
In meetings on this trip – with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Lebanese civic leaders – Pope Leo may be drawn to comment on his views on conflict in the region.
The Ness of Brodgar lies on a narrow strip of land between two Orkney lochs
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.
Videos uploaded to social media show houses being washed away
At least 56 people have been killed and 21 are missing in Sri Lanka after floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains wreaked havoc this week, in one of its worst weather related disasters the country has seen in recent years.
Twenty-one people were killed in the central tea-growing district of Badulla when a landslide crashed onto their homes overnight, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said in a statement.
Videos uploaded to social media show houses being washed away as flood waters cascade through towns, while most train services have been cancelled across the country.
Sri Lanka is now bracing itself for more severe weather on Friday as Cyclone Ditwah moves along its eastern coast.
Ditwah began as a deep depression off its eastern coast but later intensified into a cyclone. It is expected to make landfall in India.
In Sri Lanka, river levels are continuing to rise and the DMC has warned residents in low-lying areas to move to higher ground. A red level flood warning has been issued for the low-lying areas of the Kelani River valley within the next 48 hours, the Irrigation Department said. Areas at risk include the capital, Colombo.
More than 200 mm of rain is expected in some central and northern parts of the island on Friday, Sri Lanka’s met office said.
Key roads connecting provinces have been closed and the Railway Department has announced that all trains, except for a few essential services, have been cancelled from 06:00 on Friday.
The DMC said that almost 44,000 people have been affected by the extreme weather. Around 20,500 army troops have been deployed to provide relief and rescue operations across the country.
VENEZUELAN troops are firing outdated RPGs and Soviet-era rifles in a desperate attempt to prepare for Donald Trump’s looming assault.
Dictator Nicolas Maduro has issued a rallying war cry in the face of the impending invasion – while War Secretary Pete Hegseth has visited America’s biggest aircraft carrier in the Caribbean.
Venezuelan troops are firing guns in a pathetic attempt to deter TrumpCredit: X/@visegrad24/status
Embarrassing footage showed small factions of Venezuelan soldiers firing ancient anti-aircraft cannons and antiquated guns.
Maduro’s regime is set to crumble under the sheer force of Trump’s modern and fully stocked army – should he choose to invade the South American nation, experts say.
The Venezuelan despot has also claimed there is “no threat” that could catch his country off-guard.
He said: “There is no threat or aggression that will take us by surprise or frighten our people, who have prepared themselves to defend their land, their sea, and their air.”
Amid spiralling relations with the US and Trump’s huge military build-up, Maduro said: “Foreign imperialist forces have been continuously threatening to disrupt the peace of the Caribbean Sea and Venezuela, under false pretenses that no one believes.”
He added: “It has been 17 weeks of psychological warfare.”
Pulling statistics out of thin air, the pariah said: “82 per cent of Venezuelans say they are prepared to defend their homeland with weapons.”
The deluded despot also hailed his regime’s economy before praising Venezuela’s “palpable democracy”.
It comes after Hegseth visited sailors on the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier – the biggest in the world.
He told those on board: “The United States will be forever grateful to the warriors who keep her safe.”
Currently deployed to the Latin American region, the vessel is part of a ballooning US military presence on Maduro’s doorstep under Operation Southern Spear.
The US have carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coast of Latin America since September, killing at least 83 people.
Maduro has repeatedly alleged that the Trump’s build-up is designed to drive him out of power.
On Wednesday, bizarre footage showed Nicolas Maduro swinging a large sword in the air whilst vowing to defy the US in his latest desperate stunt.
The 63-year-old tyrant was seen in camouflage fatigues and whipping out the blade before crowds in Caracas.
The mind-boggling parade came after Trump formally branded Maduro’s inner circle “narco-terrorists”.
The US last week designated Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organisation, accusing Maduro of heading a state-embedded criminal empire that has corrupted the military, intelligence agencies, the courts and parliament.
Experts say the Cartel de los Soles is not a traditional cartel but a vast patronage web inside the Venezuelan state.
The designation took effect Monday, marking the first time Washington has treated Maduro’s regime not merely as authoritarian – but as a hemispheric security threat.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the cartel had fuelled “terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere” and trafficked cocaine into the US and Europe.
He added: “Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government.”
Maduro is clinging to a disputed third term after being declared winner of last year’s election despite evidence the opposition defeated him by a two-to-one margin.
Hegseth and Trump have previously warned that nothing, including strikes inside Venezuela, is off the table.
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.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, was identified as the gunman who allegedly opened fire on two National Guard members in Washington DCCredit: Reuters
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.
ONE of the National Guard members who was shot by a crazed gunman near the White House has died from her injuries, President Donald Trump has announced.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, passed away after she was shot twice while out on patrol near the Farragut West Metro Station in Northwest Washington DC on the eve of Thanksgiving.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died after she was critically wounded in a shooting near the White House on the eve of ThanksgivingCredit: Reuters
Trump sadly announced that she had passed away at the beginning of an event on Thursday speaking to troops to celebrate Thanksgiving.
He said, “I must unfortunately tell you… that Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia… she’s just passed away.”
Trump called her a “magnificent person” who was “highly respected” and “outstanding in every way.”
“It’s horrible,” he said, adding that the other National Guardsman who was shot Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life.”
Beckstrom sustained a “mortal wound” after suffering two gunshot wounds, one in the chest and another to the head.
Gary Beckstrom, the father of the heroic National Guard member, told The New York Times it was unlikely his daughter was going to pull through.
“I’m holding her hand right now,” Gary told the outlet.
“She has a mortal wound. It’s not going to be a recovery.”
US Attorney for DC Judge Jeanine Pirro said: “Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom of the National Guard – a hero who volunteered to serve DC on Thanksgiving for people she never met and gave the ultimate sacrifice.
“May she rest in peace. It is now time to avenge her death and secure justice.”
The deranged suspect has since been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghanistan native, who drove across the country from Washington state to the nation’s capital to conduct the targeted attack, federal investigators said.
Lakanwal’s reign of terror ended minutes after he critically wounded Beckstrom and Wolfe.
Federal investigators have since executed two search warrants at Lakanwal’s home in Washington state and another in San Diego.
FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters on Thursday that officials seized several electronic devices from Lakanwal’s property in Washington state, including laptops and computers.
Patel also said the residents who were in the Washington state home at the time were interviewed by the FBI.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said that Lakanwal, 29, 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.
“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,” Ratcliffe added.
“The individual – and so many others – should have never been allowed to come here.”
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington DC, said Lakanwal targeted the National Guard soldiers.
The Israeli army and police were reviewing an incident in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Authority calls a “war crime.”
The killings came as Israel pressed ahead with its latest offensive in the occupied West BankImage: Mohamad Torokman/REUTERS
Israeli security forces killed two Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, reportedly after they had surrendered.
The Palestinian Authority said the two men aged 26 and 37 were killed in “the brutal field execution carried out by the Israeli occupation army” and condemned the incident as a “war crime.”
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said he “fully supports” the Israeli troops who shot two “wanted terrorists.”
Video apparently shows Palestinian men being shot
Footage on social media and broadcast by television channels, including Israeli ones, purportedly shows the unarmed men exiting a building in Jenin, lifting their shirts and lying down in apparent surrender, before Israeli forces reportedly directed them back inside and opened fire at close range.
The Israeli military and police said the incident is under investigation, but gave no reason for the shooting.
The Labour government celebrated a second consecutive year of declining long-term migration to the UK, as it faces mounting pressure on the issue from the populist, right-wing Reform UK party.
Shabana Mahmood continued her efforts to strike a tough tone on both legal and unauthorized migration since taking up the role in a Cabinet reshuffle in SeptemberImage: Thomas Krych/ZUMA/picture alliance
Long-term net migration into the United Kingdom for the 12 months up to June 2025 stood at 204,000, figures released on Thursday by the national statistics agency showed, the lowest level for the period in four years.
That equates to a 69% reduction compared to the same 12-month period a year ago, 649,000. However, that figure includes the second half of 2023 — an all-time record calendar year for net migration into the UK — when roughly 860,000 more people immigrated to the UK on a long-term basis than emigrated from it.
Labour seeks to cut numbers amid pressure from Reform
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data comes as Labour struggles to contain the rising poll numbers of right-wing populist party Reform UK, led by longstanding migration critic Nigel Farage.
With Labour’s approval ratings tanking after its first year in power, and the former ruling Conservative party still in the doldrums of the latter days of their rein, Reform has been leading most polls in recent weeks.
The new appointee as Home Secretary, or interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, continued her efforts to strike a tough tone on both legal and unauthorized migration since taking up the role in a Cabinet reshuffle in September.
“We are going further because the pace and scale of migration has placed immense pressure on local communities,” Mahmood said following the release of the ONS data.
Thursday’s ONS numbers pointed to 898,000 people entering the UK on a long-term basis to work or study, and 693,000 leaving up to June 2025.
Several changes to migration requirements and standards, stemming both from Labour and from the previous Conservative government, coming into effect have contributed to the decline.
Reform UK focused more on irregular migration
Immigration has been a major issue in British politics for more than a decade, at least since the campaign for the referendum on leaving the European Union in 2016.
The issue came into sharp relief in September when tens of thousands of people marched in London at an event organized by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Robinson and Reform UK focus on both legal and unauthorized migration, but pay particular attention to the far smaller but rising numbers of people crossing the English Channel in small boats without permission to enter the country.
The numbers make up a tiny fraction of new arrivals, in the region of 5%. But their uncontrolled entry and the government’s obligation to house them as they are processed — often in hotels because the UK has a strained housing market and has not built reception centers for the purpose — makes the issue an evocative one.
Almost 40,000 people arrived on small boats between January 1 and November 25, 2025, a 17% increase on the same period in 2024, according to Home Office data. But at the same time, more than 36,000 were returned and deported between October and September 2025, an 11% year-on-year increase.
Earlier this year, a deal was struck with neighboring France that was hailed by Labour as a breakthrough in Prime Minister Starmer’s election promise to “smash the gangs” enabling illegal migration.
How non-EU migration spiked in post-Brexit, post-COVID era
In the years after Brexit, several factors came together to cause a rapid increase in migration to the UK, despite the fact that proponents of leaving the European Union had argued that doing so would reduce the numbers.
The previous Conservative government said it wanted to use the opportunity of leaving the EU to make it easier for skilled workers from non-EU countries to migrate. These countries often have historical and colonial-era ties to Britain.
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 attends the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) at the Administrative complex Yntymak-Manas Ordo, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Nov 27, 2025. (Kremlin Pool Photo via AP/Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik)
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.
How lethal autonomous weapon systems are defined could determine whether existing weapons will be regulated or prohibited, says Liu Mei Ching from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
A mock “killer robot” is pictured as part of the Campaign to Stop “Killer Robots,” which calls for the ban of lethal robot weapons that would be able to select and attack targets without any human intervention. (Photo: AFP Photo/Carl Court)
Think super-intelligent killer robots and our minds flash to popular films and television series like The Terminator and Black Mirror.
While the idea of these sci-fi versions running rampant remains far-fetched, lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) have nonetheless raised concerns – from the risk of losing human control during conflict to the challenges in ensuring accountability and compliance with international law.
Due to myriad humanitarian, security and legal concerns, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the international community to adopt a legally binding instrument for these weapon systems by 2026. This discussion started in 2013 and is currently led by a UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) that recently convened in September.
Existing weapon systems may already fit the working definition of LAWS. As of May, the GGE defines them as “an integrated combination of one or more weapons and technological components, that can select and engage a target, without intervention by a human user in the execution of these tasks”.
Air defence systems at military bases that are designed to autonomously strike incoming missiles, rockets or mortars could qualify. The most prominent example is the Iron Dome in Israel. Other planned systems that might mirror its technology include the United States’ Golden Dome, or Taiwan’s T-Dome which was announced in October.
While there are no such air defence systems in Southeast Asia, how LAWS are defined could determine whether weapons already in Southeast Asian states’ arsenals will be included.
SOUTHEAST ASIA’S VOICE IN WEAPONS DISCUSSION
The potential regulation or prohibition of existing weapon systems underscores the importance of Southeast Asian states joining and shaping the LAWS debate.
Close-in weapon systems (CIWS) used on ships, such as the Palma CIWS on Vietnamese frigates, could also qualify. LAWS’ definition could also include active protection systems designed to protect military tanks against incoming missiles.
Loitering munitions (also commonly called kamikaze drones), which Indonesia and Malaysia have taken an interest in, could also be included.
Sitting out of the conversation means letting others define the rules, including countries that are major weapons manufacturers.
UNCLEAR POSITIONS AND CONCERNS
But the positions and specific concerns across Southeast Asian countries are still unclear.
Four – Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore – have ratified or acceded to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), making them a High Contracting Party. This grants them the full right to participation, including the right to vote in the GGE’s decision-making, as compared to observers who do not have. Vietnam is a signatory but has not yet ratified the convention.
Among them, the Philippines and Singapore are the most active participants.
The Philippines has been engaged in the LAWS debate since the GGE’s inception. Its commitment is highlighted by its nomination as a Friend of the Chair, a role that involves facilitating consultations and helping the GGE chairperson build consensus.
The Philippines supports a legally binding instrument on LAWS. However, it did not support a joint statement delivered by Brazil in September which called for the negotiation of such an instrument. This could be due to a number of reasons, such as the language of the statement or process constraints, as representatives might have insufficient time to consult their capitals.
Singapore acceded to the CCW in 2023, and its interventions during the GGE meetings have received praise from other states, such as Austria, for being pragmatic, bringing real-life examples, and setting an example for others to follow.
Singapore supported, not the joint statement delivered by Brazil, but another statement with Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and others, on considering the next steps but which stopped short of calling for negotiations.
Without delving into the technical details, if states ultimately decide to pursue a legally binding instrument, it could be established as a new protocol under the CCW. If states decide against a legally binding instrument, non-legally binding measures, such as a political declaration, may help to shape norms of behaviour and lay the foundation for a future legally binding instrument.
HOW TO ENGAGE IN THE LAWS DEBATE
It is essential that more Southeast Asian states engage in the LAWS debate.
Southeast Asian states could ratify or accede to the CCW to become a High Contracting Party, though the process is lengthy and typically requires a state to enact legislation. Alternatively, they could consider joining as observer states.
Observer Thailand did not actively intervene during the September meeting, but it joined other states in calling for the negotiation of an instrument for LAWS. This support came amid its recent border conflict with Cambodia – a conflict in which armed drones were used to inflict damage.
Five native Thai cat breeds have been crowned national pet symbols, a move celebrated by breeders but met with both optimism and caution by rescuers confronting a growing stray-cat problem.
Preecha Vadhana, a cat breeder, inspects a Siamese feline at his facility in Bangkok. The breed is one of five recognised by the government as a national symbol. (Photo: CNA/Jack Board)
In centuries-old Thai manuscripts, the cat appears as a revered species, a bearer of prosperity, protection and royal favour.
In books made from samut khoi – traditional Thai paper folding books made from the bark of a mulberry tree – scribes depicted silver-coated and white, jewel-eyed felines as guardians of temples and described their unique traits in verse.
These animals have deep roots and national heritage, dating back beyond these 14th-century scripts called the Tamra Maew.
From ancient symbols to modern-day icons, the kingdom’s iconic species are being elevated once again: Officially recognised alongside some other historic heavyweights.
Five cat breeds native to Thailand were approved as national pet symbols by the government on Nov 18, joining the Thai elephant, fighting fish and Naga among other nationally recognised emblems.
The pure Thai breeds – Suphalak, Korat, Siamese, Konja and Khao Manee – possess distinctive physical and behavioral traits that clearly differentiate them from other breeds, according to Thailand’s National Identity Committee, which had proposed their designations as national pets.
“Their uniqueness has gained international recognition, with some foreign breeders attempting to register purebred Thai cat lines and establish global breed standards,” the Thai government’s public relations department said in a report on Nov 20.
Preecha Vadhana, a cat breeder who operates Bangrak Cat Farm in Bangkok, said that each of the five breeds has very distinct features, making them easily distinguishable from one another.
“But they also share similarities, particularly their structure and short coat.”
The Suphalak has a distinct copper coat and is considered a symbol of prestige and fortune. The Korat is a bluish-grey cat with large, vivid green eyes, while the Khao Manee – a rare, white species – often has eyes with two strikingly different colours such as gold and blue.
The Konja is known as a lucky black cat, unlike its foreign counterparts which are often infamous for the opposite.
Finally, the “king of cats”, the Siamese or Wichienmas, is marked by its distinct dark spots and treasured for its intelligence. It is typically the most expensive of the breeds and can cost 15,000-20,000 baht (US$465-US$620) from a local breeder, while others cost 7,000-15,000 baht.
“I think it’s a great step, and it will encourage more interest in Thai breeds,” said Titipat Laohaprasertsiri, the president of the International Maew Boran Association (TIMBA), an organisation that seeks to promote Thai iconic species. Maew Boran means ancient cats in Thai.
“Thai cats are energetic, fun, curious and incredibly affectionate. Thai cats seem to love humans more than they love other cats. They’re very people-oriented. They really add warmth and joy to your daily life,” he said.
There are no publicly available figures on how many such cats there are in Thailand.
The decision to elevate these species is not just symbolic: It is meant to help conserve rare native breeds, standardise them and protect Thailand’s ownership of them. The species will also be used more in creative-economy and tourism branding, according to the government.
“I see it as a huge potential positive. Unfortunately, ‘breeds’ tend to hold more value and receive better welfare than animals without that status,” said Henna Pekko, the managing director of Rescue P.A.W.S. Thailand, a not-for-profit animal welfare organisation in Thailand.
“If cats are considered national treasures, it’s a good day for cat lovers,” added Karan Bhatia, the owner of Catsanova Cat Shelter & Playroom in Bangkok, a business that focuses on ethical cat adoption.
But like many involved in the wider cat industry, both have some caveats, noting that the longtime prestige of certain species contrasts with the reality faced by many cats in Thailand today.
LIFE ON THE STREET
Stray cats and dogs number in the hundreds of thousands nationwide, possibly more. There were an estimated 820,00 animals on the street, based on past estimates by the Department of Livestock Development in 2018.
Big cities like Bangkok carry a heavy burden but it is a major, country-wide problem.
State-supported sterilisation, rehoming or vaccination programmes are rare. But from Jan 10 next year, cat owners in the Bangkok metropolitan area will be required to register and microchip their animal.
There will also be limits imposed on the number of cats one can own based on the size of their home.
Pet abandonment remains a major issue, a situation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID was an extreme situation, but nonetheless, it contributed to a huge influx of new animals out on the street,” said Sam McElroy, the operations director at Soi Dog Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to improving the welfare of stray dogs and cats across Asia.
“A lot of those lived in someone’s house for however-many years, and then they found themselves out on the street. And they kind of melt into the background in a country like Thailand, because there are so many strays,” he added.
There is a huge number of stray and free-roaming cats, many with no access to veterinary care, Pekko said. As a result, these cats often have multiple litters and suffer from parasites, injuries and illness.
“Access to affordable or subsidised sterilisation is limited, which makes the problem worse over time,” she said.
The new government recognition of Thai heritage cats does not indicate any measures to address the stray cat problem in the country, beyond “public awareness” of the five pure breeds and their importance. But animal advocates hope there will be flow-on effects.
“I think it will help if the government or the people behind it can use this as a platform to start educating people on how to treat community cats and stray cats,” Bhatia said.
Others are more direct in saying the government needs to take more concrete actions, instead of symbolic gestures directed at uncommon species of Thai cats.
Mavin Russameethongthakul is a Bangkok resident who shelters 25 rescued cats in his home.
He said that instead of campaigning specifically for pure Thai breeds, it would be better to encourage people to help stray cats instead.
“These specific Thai breeds are actually quite rare, and I don’t really see the benefit,” he said.
Pekko said the government’s move could help raise awareness and encourage more compassion for cats among the general public.
“Hopefully this recognition will have a positive effect for Thai cats in general – not just the specific breeds,” she said.
But she expressed fears that increased attention on these breeds may ignite more targeted breeding, that if not regulated properly, could lead to further welfare issues. Thailand has minimal regulation of commercial cat breeding.
“So while the decision is promising, the real impact remains to be seen,” Pekko added.
INSIDE THE WORLD OF BREEDING
In a small alleyway in the Bangk Rak district of Bangkok – wedged between the city’s riverside and the hustle of Silom – behind a set of metal gates, dozens of cages rise in narrow rows.
Close to a hundred cats fill the space with constant meowing.
Bangrak Cat Farm is a breeding ground for all of Thailand’s five sought-after native species, a rare type of operation in the country.
Preecha, the 76-year-old breeder, walks and inspects the cats with a sharp eye, stopping occasionally to brush some of his favourites or check the conditions of others.
He has pride in his cats and about the new government recognition, something he said he has pushed for many years, through many different governments.
“Thai cats have always been part of our national identity; the government just hadn’t paid attention. But now, they’ve embraced Thai cats as part of the country’s soft power and that’s something to be proud of,” he said.
The recognition will help build trust within the industry, ensure quality, species longevity and extend a sense of pride to cat owners, he said.
It may also encourage others to join the Thai cat breeding industry, if business is healthy and the breeds become more popular, he added.
Most cats here are bound for Thai homes rather than being exported overseas, although there is demand from the United States and Europe. Overall, there is a growing interest domestically in owning one of the ancient Thai breeds, said Titipat of TIMBA.
TAIWAN has fired a stark warning to Beijing, vowing to ready itself for all-out war within two years as China ramps up threats to seize the island.
President Lai Ching-te announced today that he will be accelerating defence spending by £30.6billion to have a “high level” of joint combat readiness against China by 2027.
A Taiwanese US-made M60A3 tank firing during military exercises on Taiwan’s Penghu IslandsCredit: AFP
Lai accused Xi Jinping of “speeding up military preparations to take Taiwan by force” as tensions reach boiling point in a war of words that could spiral into WW3.
Taiwan has escalated its military spending over the past decade, but US President Donald Trump‘s administration have urged the island to do more to protect itself.
At the press conference announcing the bombshell spend increase, Lai said: “The ultimate goal is to establish defence capabilities that can permanently safeguard democratic Taiwan,
“Beijing authorities have recently intensified efforts aimed at turning democratic Taiwan into China’s Taiwan, posing a serious threat to our national security and to Taiwan’s freedom and democracy.”
Communist China has never ruled Taiwan, but Beijing has threated to annex it by force, carrying out terrifying dress rehearsal invasions in the South China Sea.
Xi even told Trump in a phone call that Taiwan’s return to China “an integral part of the post-war international order.”
China has offered Taiwan a “one country, two systems” solution, but this model has been rejected by any mainstream political party in the country.
Lai’s announcement comes amidst a vicious back-and-forth between Beijing and Tokyo, with conservative Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting Japan could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
The United States’ top envoy in Taiwan has backed the island’s huge defence splurge and urged the island’s rival political parties to “find common ground” to beef up its defences.
Lai said the extra cash will go on fresh US arms deals and boosting the island’s ability to fight a more flexible, asymmetrical war.
He insisted the military push has nothing to do with ongoing tariff talks with Washington and said the real aim is to “demonstrate Taiwan’s determination to defend” itself.
In an article in the Washington Post, Lai said: “We aim to bolster deterrence by inserting greater costs and uncertainties into Beijing’s decision-making on the use of force.”
The comments come after the US signed off on 330 million dollars worth of parts and components in the first Taiwan arms sale since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Lai, who heads the Democratic Progressive Party, has already set out plans to lift defence spending above three percent of GDP next year and five percent by 2030.
The government has put forward a £22.7billion budget for next year, equal to 3.32 percent of GDP.
The extra eight year package unveiled on Wednesday goes beyond the 32 billion dollars previously revealed to AFP.
Lai said the money will help develop the so called “T-Dome”, an air defence shield, while boosting Taiwan’s own defence industry.
Long range precision missiles, counter-drone systems and anti ballistic weapons are all on the shopping list, according to the defence ministry.
Su Tzu-yun, a military analyst in Taipei, told AFP that Lai’s plan is what Taiwan needs, saying: “Freedom is not a free lunch.”
The government faces an uphill battle in parliament, where the China friendly Kuomintang holds the purse strings with help from the Taiwan People’s Party.
New Kuomintang boss Cheng Li-wun has attacked Lai’s plans before and claims Taiwan “doesn’t have that much money.”
Kuomintang lawmaker Ma Wen chun added that “strengthening national defence is not about simply buying more weapons” and that recruiting and retaining troops is “far more urgent and important issue.
“In the future we may face a situation where there are no personnel left to operate these weapons.”
But those personnel issues may be solved after Taiwan began distributing millions of civil defence handbooks to households last week.
One month after Sanae Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister, young women share mixed views: from hope and empowerment to skepticism about real change.
Sanae Takaichi’s historic rise to Japan’s first female PM divides opinion among young womenImage: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Getty Images
Some young women feel pleased, empowered, and hopeful that Sanae Takaichi was elected Japan’s first female prime minister.
But others remain skeptical about whether Takaichi’s inauguration truly marks a milestone for women’s advancement in Japanese politics — and about her policy ambitions to support future generations of women.
Ren Ichihara, a 24-year-old sales worker in Tokyo and a member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), says she feels inspired by Takaichi.
“I believe she was elected as prime minister for her ability, having paved her path through relentless effort from the time when women’s advancement in society was still far from established,” she said.
“While I see the growing presence of women as decision-makers in Japanese politics, Takaichi has become an encouraging role model for me as someone aspiring to be a politician,” she told DW.
Many other young women without political ambitions also view Japan’s first female PM in a positive way.
“First of all, I’m pleased that Japan finally has a female prime minister,” said Ayano Suzuki, a 27-year-old working in Shizuoka prefecture.
She added that Takaichi’s election has captured the attention of people who are not usually interested in politics, which “has a positive impact.”
Fumi Nakamura, a 27-year-old woman who works for a Japanese English-language publisher, said, “I already have a potentially favorable impression of Takaichi. I think the younger generation feels close to her psychologically.”
Gender narrative overshadows policy
Meanwhile, a 26-year-old Japanese female graduate student in China, who wishes to stay anonymous, said she was disappointed when Takaichi was elected Japan’s first female PM.
“Feminists, including myself, do not support a politician simply because she is a woman,” she told DW. “She may be a product of decades of Japan’s male-dominated political world.”
Suzuki also finds it problematic that most of the discussion about Japan’s new administration centers on gender aspects, with little attention paid to the substance of its policies.
For example, Takaichi admitted to sleeping “about two hours now, four hours at the longest,” noting that “I feel it’s bad for my skin.” Suzuki said that such narratives “feel detached from the essence of politics and overly tied to her being a woman.”
Protege of Shinzo Abe
Takaichi’s first policy speech signaled an intention to carry on with the strategies of Japan’s assassinated ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who won six consecutive elections thanks to his nationalist agenda and growth-oriented economic policies.
Takaichi used phrases that Abe used, such as “a strong economy” and “Japanese diplomacy blooming at the center of the world.”
Sawako Shirahase, research professor at the University of Tokyo, points out that Takaichi “has used to the maximum or copied all the infrastructure of the former administration of Shinzo Abe to get where she is today.”
On November 7, Takaichi said that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its legal right to collective self-defense. Her comments provoked a strong backlash and countermeasures from China.
Young voters strongly back Takaichi
Despite this, her approval ratings are among the highest in Japanese history.
According to a poll by The Mainichi newspaper conducted on November 22 and 23, the approval rate for the Takaichi administration was 65% — while the disapproval rate was 23%.
The poll shows support rates of 74% among those aged 18–29 and 76% among those in their 30s, indicating the Takaichi administration’s exceptionally high popularity among younger generations.
In contrast, the previous administration of Shigeru Ishiba held an 11% support rate among those aged 18–29 and 15% among those in their 30s.
Shirahase, the research professor, argues that women in politics need to move strategically.
“In Japanese politics, where the traditional conservative base is very strong, women as minorities in politics must work hard without upsetting the men above them in order to be promoted,” Shirahase said. “Takaichi is someone who has internalized conservatism.”
Keiko Kaizuma, vice president for diversity at Iwate University in Morioka, describes Takaichi as “a hybrid of conservatism and feminism.”
“The conservative side has been bringing women into politics to update itself, which has produced the female prime minister ahead,” she said.
Women in politics: how far has Japan come?
Women accounted for 29.1% of the 522 candidates who ran in July’s election for the upper house, the smaller and less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. This represents the second-highest rate ever, albeit lower than the target of 35% set by the Japanese government in 2020.
“This is significant in the sense that the liberal side was not able to embody women’s passion in the form of a female prime minister,” said Kaizuma, who noted that “feminism and liberalism have not been successful in mobilizing young women.”
She also points out that compared to Europe and America, Japan lacks an atmosphere that encourages young women to engage in politics or community work.
The symbol of breaking through the glass ceiling is powerful because it gives young women the courage to believe they can overcome such barriers too, Kaizuma added.
Members of the European Parliament demand that the EU end talks with the UAE over a trade deal. The UAE is suspected of sending arms to a Sudanese paramilitary accused of war crimes, which the Emirati government denies.
Weapons in the RSF stockpile, as seen here, may also have been manufactured in the EU [FILE: May 3, 2025]Image: AP Photo/picture allianceMembers of the European Parliament (MEPs) meeting in Strasbourg, France, this week are considering whether to demand a complete halt to discussions on an EU free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), following allegations the country is sending European-made weapons to militia forces in Sudan.
This follows a UN expert panel investigating the discovery of European-manufactured weapons in a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) supply convoy, as well as a report by the human rights watchdog Amnesty International that the RSF paramilitary is receiving European arms through resales via the UAE.
“We will call on the European Commission to stop the trade negotiations with the UAE for as long as we see that weapons are going through the UAE to the RSF,” Marit Maij, a Dutch MEP from the socialist group, told DW.
The RSF is accused of perpetrating extensive atrocities in Sudan, like using rape and starvation as a weapon of war, especially during the recent siege on the western city of el-Fasher. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently taken up investigations to determine whether these acts constitute war crimes.
The Emirati government has repeatedly denied claims it is forwarding European weapons to Sudan — which would amount to a serious breach of the UN arms embargo on Sudan — but did not respond to DW’s request for comment for this article.
EU scramling to expand free trade agreements
As trade with the US becomes increasingly complicated in the wake of Trump’s tariff agenda, the EU has been scrambling to expand its bilateral trade network with Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with third countries around the world.
EU officials had initially hoped that trade negotiations with the UAE could be wrapped up by the end of 2025. The agreement would increase market access and reduce tariffs between the EU and the UAE.
MEPs from pro-trade parties warn against halting the talks altogether, but say the negotiations should be used as a lever to stop the UAE from re-exporting weapons.
“The leverage that we do have is in the relationship that we have with the UAE,” Barry Andrews, an Irish MEP in the economically liberal Renew Europe group, told DW. “We use trade to supply goods and services across borders, but also we use it as leverage for particular European priorities,” he added.
Voices from the other end of the aisle disagree.
“Cut off the external enablers of this conflict through targeted sanctions, arms embargos and sustained diplomatic pressure,” said Merja Kyllönen, a Finnish MEP from the Left Group in the European Parliament. “If we fail to confront those who are financing and arming this war, we are only treating the symptoms and not the causes.”
Sudanese government confirms finding weapons ‘linked to EU members’
Previously, in April, the UN had launched an investigation into the origins of weapons in the Sudan conflict, after sources reported serial numbers of arms and ammunitions, seen in RSF photos and videos published online, being traceable to European weapons manufacturers.
The Sudanese government, itself accused of atrocities against civilians, says it can confirm the reports of foreign weapons being used by the RSF. “What we have actually confiscated on the battlegrounds, the assault rifles or the ammunitions, some of them are linked to some EU member countries, ” Abdelbagi Kabeir, Sudan’s ambassador to Brussels and permanent representative to the EU, told press in late October.
The civil war in Sudan has been ongoing since 2023, waged predominantly between two rival factions — on one side, the internationally recognized, government-controlled Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and on the other, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Their struggle for the upper hand has left an estimated 13 million displaced, according to the UN. In May, the US special envoy for Sudan suggested the death toll since 2023 could be as high as 150,000.
The investigation by Amnesty International also documented weapons and ammunition from China, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Yemen being imported into Sudan.
EU lawmakers concerned about potential increase in Sudanese migration
European lawmakers are also worried the Sudanese civil war will prompt refugees to make their way to Europe seeking safety, with reports that some are already heading towards Libya, where many human traffickers await.
“They are in neighboring countries, in Uganda, South Sudan, and Chad,” said MEP Barry Andrews. “If they feel that there’s no possibility of a reconciliation or resolution of the conflict in Sudan, then they will move, and they will take all the risks that are involved in crossing the Mediterranean and getting involved with traffickers.”
“When we fail to invest in stability in fragile contexts like Sudan,” people there will want to escape and try to come to Europe, Andrews added.
Amnesty, however, warns against creating a renewed “migration crisis” rhetoric in Europe.
“Instead of stoking fears about migration, EU leaders should be using all their diplomatic powers to press all the warring parties to end the devastating violations against civilians in Sudan,” said Eve Geddie, the advocacy director for Amnesty’s EU office.
After meeting Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, the US secretary of the Army is now negotiating with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi. Daniel Driscoll is fast becoming a key figure in US foreign policy.
Driscoll made an unexpected visit to Kyiv last week, meeting Ukrainian President Zelenskyy (left)Image: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP
Looking through the gallery of US secretaries of the Army from past decades, there are few names that would be familiar to a non-American audience. This is not surprising: the job description primarily involves equipment acquisition and financial issues relating to the United States Army. This could change with the current incumbent, Dan Driscoll. He was 38 years old when he took office, making him the youngest person to hold the position. But there’s more: As of a few days ago, he seems to be the one to have been tasked with the most delicate mission.
Although the lawyer and former military officer, who served as a soldier in Iraq in 2009, has no diplomatic experience, Driscoll has been given a central role as a key negotiator in US President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
From Kellogg to Witkoff to Driscoll
Conducting ceasefire talks with Russia and Ukraine should technically have been the job of retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, whom Trump appointed as US special envoy for Ukraine after being elected for a second term. But despite being considered an important advocate for Kyiv in Washington, the experienced ex-military man has been gradually stripped of his powers and has failed to play a decisive role. He is due to leave his position in early 2026.
It was Trump’s special envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff who initially took over the talks with Russia. The former real estate manager and Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East had already played a key role in negotiations to bring an end to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and is considered one of the US president’s closest confidants. Now, however, Driscoll is coming to the fore.
Driscoll delivers ‘peace plan’ to Zelenskyy
Driscoll first gained international attention on November 20 when he made an unannounced trip to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Initially, it was supposed to be a routine visit to discuss defense issues such as drones. But then the minister received orders to deliver a 28-point White House “peace plan” to end the conflict to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
From Ukraine, he traveled on to Switzerland, where he held confidential negotiations with representatives of Ukraine and European NATO allies in Geneva, alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Witkoff. Since Monday, Driscoll has been in the capital of the United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi where he reportedly held secret talks with a Russian delegation. According to media reports, he also met the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov.
Close friendship with JD Vance
Much like Witkoff, Driscoll has little diplomatic experience. But the father of two, who has previously worked as a lawyer and an investment banker, was born into a military family in North Carolina. His grandfather fought in World War II, while his father fought in Vietnam, and he himself served as a platoon leader in a mountain division in Iraq.
Since he had no high-level experience in the military or in politics before 2025, his meteoric rise is attributed to his longstanding friendship with US Vice President JD Vance, with whom he attended Yale Law School.
In late February, it was not US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth but Vance who swore Driscoll in as secretary of the Army, an appointment that also met with broad approval from Democrats in the US Senate. In his short speech, Driscoll particularly emphasized his close friendship with the vice president and his wife.
Not much trust in Hegseth
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, Driscoll “is said to have impressed White House insiders as one of the administration’s most skillful performers.” This is in contrast to Hegseth, who has been embroiled in various controversies and considered unsuitable for sensitive missions.
A report in the media outlet Politico said that “a person familiar with administration dynamics” had told them that there was not “a lot of trust in Hegseth to deliver these messages to key leaders.”
By contrast, there was more trust in Driscoll, who has established close working relationships with top government officials, including with regard to the controversial National Guard deployments across the US.
Driscoll was assigned additional responsibilities within weeks of taking office. Since April 2025, he has been the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), on whose expertise he can rely for his negotiations on the war in Ukraine. He has publicly praised Ukraine’s innovative spirit in developing improvised drones and autonomous weapon systems that he said the US emulates. He said that the US Army planned to buy at least one million drones within two or three years.
Since it is questionable whether the US itself could provide such supplies so fast, Ukraine has signaled that it could help. Driscoll appears to be a suitable negotiator for an exchange of technology that could benefit both nations.
A local businessman has claimed that he provided the funds to PM Anwar Ibrahim’s political aide Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin – who resigned on Tuesday – and the money was spent on home furniture, premium cigars and tailored suits, among other things.
Malaysia prime minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) and his then-aide Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin during an event in Melaka on Sep 29, 2025. (Photo: Facebook/Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin)
Malaysia’s anti-graft agency will investigate a businessman’s allegations that he had given bribes to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s senior political secretary – who resigned on Tuesday (Nov 25) – with the premier also pledging that there would be “no interference” in such a probe.
Local media reported on Tuesday that Albert Tei, the businessman at the centre of a corruption scandal on mining projects in Sabah, had alleged that he had channelled funds totaling RM629,000 (US$152,215) to Anwar’s aide Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin.
The money was said to have been spent on home renovations, cigars and tailored suits.
Tai’s allegations surfaced on Tuesday evening, hours after Shamsul announced his resignation.
Tei had alleged that he spent the RM629,000 after being purportedly assured that he could recoup the money “channelled to politicians in Sabah”, news outlet Malaysiakini reported.
The report did not elaborate how the money would allegedly be channelled to politicians in Sabah nor what Tei was seeking exactly.
On Wednesday evening, Shamsul said in a statement posted on social media that he has made a police report against Tei at 5.05pm while on the election campaign trail in Sabah.
He said that Tei has made “baseless accusations and defamatory allegations” claiming that there were instructions from Anwar to record videos involving several Sabah politicians.
He described the claims as a “malicious conspiracy” to tarnish Anwar’s image.
“They also represent a deliberate attempt to undermine the government in an undemocratic manner, particularly during the Sabah election campaign period,” said Shamsul, whose statement did not address the allegations surrounding the RM629,000.
He added that he would fully cooperate with any enforcement agency, including the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, MACC’s chief commissioner Azam Baki said the agency will summon both Tei and Shamsul for questioning.
“In addition, MACC will call all other relevant parties for the purpose of gathering the necessary evidence,” he said, adding that the public should not speculate while the probe is ongoing.
Hours earlier, Anwar had pledged that MACC is free to probe allegations of wrongdoing faced by Shamsul, a former member of parliament for Hang Tuah Jaya.
“I have received the resignation of the senior political secretary, Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, and I thank him for his service,” Anwar said in a statement.
“Regarding the allegations that have arisen, I emphasise that MACC is free to conduct an immediate investigation without any external interference.”
The premier added that the Malaysian government maintains “its principles of transparency and integrity” and will facilitate the investigations “in accordance with the rule of law”.
Prior to Tei’s allegations, Shamsul had been caught up in a controversy for penning a letter of support for six contractors bidding for a hospital project tender — reportedly a hospital renovation at Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital in Muar.
He had reportedly used an official letterhead and addressed the letter to an aide to the health minister.
Critics argued that the letter crossed a red line as it was seen as politically influencing public procurement for a hospital — a sensitive public service — and many demanded he be immediately dismissed rather than merely reprimanded.
The opposition Perikatan Nasional coalition had called for Shamsul to be investigated by the MACC over the letter as well as allegations made by Tei.
Anwar had previously said that he had reprimanded Shamsul as government regulations did not permit the issuance of such a letter, but added that there was no need to sack him.
Shamsul resigned from his post as senior political secretary on Tuesday amid intensifying calls for him – who is also the Melaka chapter chief in Anwar’s ruling Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) – to step down.
In a statement posted on X, Shamsul categorised allegations against him as “attempts to attack” him with “matters that could tarnish the image of the Madani government”.
“Therefore I have decided to defend myself against these attacks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini’s report on Tuesday evening cited Tei as claiming that he had paid for Shamsul’s renovation and furniture for two of his properties – including a home theatre system, a washing machine and a massage chair.
Tei reportedly added that he had spent thousands on premium cigars and tailored suits for Shamsul.
The report also contained screenshots of WhatsApp messages purportedly between Tei and Shamsul as well as receipts.
Malaysiakini added that Tei “has an axe to grind” against Sabah’s incumbent ruling coalition Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) – which is part of Anwar’s unity government – over the cancellation of his mineral exploration licences.
Joe and Hunter Biden were spotted strolling through downtown Nantucket with the former president’s gaggle of grandchildren in tow during a ritzy shopping trip ahead of their family’s Thanksgiving celebrations.
Joe, Hunter, and former first daughter Ashley Biden were photographed browsing the storefronts of the tony Massachusetts island alongside Hunter’s four children on Wednesday afternoon.
Joe and Hunter Biden were spotted shopping in Nantucket’s downtown shopping center on Wednesday. Matthew Symons for NY Post
The pics were the first time Joe and Hunter had been photographed together since the former left the White House last January.
The Biden family paused near a fiddler who was playing a tune on the side of the street, and Joe dropped a $20 bill in their open gig bag.
The family’s patriarch, wearing a baseball cap, flashed a thumbs-up to nearby photographers.
Hunter, too, smirked at shutterbugs while flanking his ailing father, who just completed radiation for his aggressive prostate cancer in late October.
From there, the family dined for lunch at Lemon Press, a quaint cafe boasting pricey mid-day snacks, before going their separate ways in the motorcade.
As Joe left the historic downtown, Hunter slung an arm around his wife Melissa Biden’s shoulders and led her down Main Street, all while flanked by their stiff security team.
Earlier Wednesday morning, Melissa joined Ashley and matriarch Jill Biden for yet another Forme Barre class at Studio Nantucket. The Biden women also swung by Lemon Press afterwards for refreshments.
When Melissa split from the mother-daughter duo to track down her husband, Jill and Ashley dropped by a nearby flower shop and left with a bouquet of blue hydrangeas.
The ladies also swung by Studio Nantucket for a 60-minute barre class early Tuesday morning with the former First Lady’s step-granddaughter Finnegan Biden.
The Biden family have been making frequent visits into the island’s bustling downtown while they’re crashing at billionaire David Rubenstein’s sprawling $34 million Nantucket compound, where they’ve spent the last four Thanksgivings.
The accused gunman, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is a 29-year-old Afghan national who, according to preliminary federal records, entered the United States in September 2021. Lakanwal allegedly rounded a street corner, raised a handgun and opened fire at close range without warning. The attack has been widely described by officials as ambush-style.
Shooting Near White House: Who Is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, Afghan National Accused Of Firing That Injured 2 National Guard In DC |
Two National Guard members were critically injured after a targeted shooting near the White House in Washington DC on Wednesday. Authorities have identified the accused gunman as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who, according to preliminary federal records, entered the United States in September 2021.
Details On The Shooting
The shooting took place around 17th Street and I Street NW, just two blocks from the White House, while the Guardsmen were carrying out what officials described as a routine high-visibility patrol. According to reports quoting law-enforcement sources, Lakanwal allegedly rounded a street corner, raised a handgun and opened fire at close range without warning. The attack has been widely described by officials as ambush-style.
🚨🇺🇸 SUSPECT IN DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING IDENTIFIED: RAHMANULLAH LAKANWAL, AFGHAN IMMIGRANT WHO ARRIVED AUGUST 2021
The 29-year-old suspect in today’s targeted attack on two National Guardsmen has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, four senior law enforcement sources… https://t.co/Ae7otypRmspic.twitter.com/cs7Qg7AZDE
Both Guardsmen suffered critical injuries and were rushed to nearby hospitals, where they continue to receive intensive care. Their identities have not yet been released publicly. Authorities said that at least one of the soldiers managed to return fire, striking the suspect before collapsing. This allowed responding officers to swiftly arrest Lakanwal, who was taken into custody and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators say he has so far refused to cooperate.
The FBI, Metropolitan Police Department, US Secret Service and several federal agencies are jointly investigating the shooting. FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the bureau is examining whether the attack constitutes an act of terrorism in addition to assault on federal officers. “FBI is engaged and assisting with the investigation in Washington, D.C. after National Guard members were shot this afternoon. Please pray for them and we will update with more information as we are able,” he said, describing the shooting as a grave attack on security personnel operating in the nation’s capital.
FBI is engaged and assisting with the investigation in Washington, D.C. after National Guard members were shot this afternoon. Please pray for them and we will update with more information as we are able.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser also called it a “targeted shooting”, condemning the assault and urging residents to remain vigilant as investigators continue piecing together the motive and timeline. The proximity to the White House prompted an immediate temporary lockdown of the building and multiple surrounding federal offices as officers secured the scene and swept the area for additional threats.
Today’s attack on two members of the West Virginia National Guard was horrific and unconscionable.
We can confirm that a suspect is in custody for this targeted shooting and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Our prayers are with the victims and their loved ones.
President Donald Trump, who was in Florida at the time, was briefed shortly after the incident and ordered the deployment of 500 additional National Guard troops to bolster security across Washington DC. The city already has nearly 2,200 Guard members stationed under an emergency declaration issued in August to combat rising crime.
Two West Virginia National Guard members who were deployed to the nation’s capital were shot on Wednesday afternoon just blocks from the White House.
Trump (L) blamed Biden admin’s ‘infamous flights’ for the shooting near White House on Wednesday (AP and Reuters)
US President Donald Trump blamed the previous Joe Biden administration for the shooting attack on two West Virginia National Guard members deployed in Washington by a suspect identified to be a man from Afghanistan, which the Republican leader described as a “hellhole on Earth”.
Two West Virginia National Guard members who were deployed to the nation’s capital were shot Wednesday afternoon just blocks from the White House, an act that the Washington mayor described as a targeted attack and US President termed as an “act of terror”. Track latest updates on Washington shooting here
FBI director Kash Patel and Washington mayor Muriel Bowser said they were hospitalised in critical condition.
Speaking at a White House presser over the incident, Donald Trump said based on available information, the suspect is likely a foreigner who entered the country from Afghanistan, “hellhole on Earth”.
BREAKING: President Trump says the animal who shot our National Guard was flown in from Hellhole Afghanistan by Biden. “Nobody knew who was coming in, knew anything about it! And his status was extended by legislation signed by Biden” pic.twitter.com/weCjP026F9
“I can report tonight that based on the best available information, the DHS is confident that the suspect in custody is a foreigner, who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth. He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021, one of those infamous flights that everybody was talking about,” Trump said.
Nobody knew who was coming in, he said, adding his status was extended under legislation signed by Biden.
The 29-year-old suspect, an Afghan national, entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the US troops pulled out from the country, officials cited in an Associated Press (AP) report said.
Trump decried Wednesday’s shooting as an “act of terror”.
“This heinous assault was an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror,” Trump said, as he vowed to have his administration “reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan” during his predecessor Joe Biden’s presidency.
The Israeli military has been carrying out near-daily airstrikes in southern Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of trying to rearm and rebuild their capabilities in violation of the agreement.
Israeli military vehicles manoeuvre along the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, Nov 24, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Shir Torem)
When Aviva Weitzman walks through her home in Israel’s northernmost city, she still pauses at the scars on the walls – reminders of the missiles that forced her family to flee last year.
They returned to Kiryat Shmona earlier this year, hoping the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that was struck a year ago on Nov 27, 2024 would hold.
The truce was meant to end more than 13 months of cross-border violence and an Israeli ground invasion that killed more than 4,000 Lebanese and 127 Israelis.
But with Israeli airstrikes continuing and both sides accusing each other of violating the agreement, fears are building of a return to full-scale war.
“Now, the feeling is that there is no security, that there could be another round of war, that Hezbollah is indeed trying to get closer to the fence, trying … maybe to do something,” Weitzman said.
“It’s part of why the area hasn’t fully recovered.”
About 70,000 people were evacuated from communities across northern Israel when Hezbollah began firing missiles, rockets and drones in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, a day after the Oct 7, 2023 attacks.
More than three-quarters of the population of Kiryat Shmona – which was home to about 24,000 Israelis in 2023 – fled the city. Many have since returned.
NEAR-DAILY AIRSTRIKES IN SOUTHERN LEBANON
The ceasefire has made things safer on the Israeli side of the border, and Hezbollah has not fired into Israel since the truce began.
However, things are different on the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military has been carrying out near-daily airstrikes in southern Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of trying to rearm and rebuild their capabilities in violation of the agreement.
Some of those airstrikes have reached Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
On Sunday (Nov 23), a rare strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed a top Hezbollah leader and several other members.
It came just four days before the one-year anniversary of the ceasefire agreement, and a week before Pope Leo XIV arrives in Lebanon on his first overseas trip.
The Israeli military says it has killed over 300 Hezbollah members since the ceasefire came into effect, while the United Nations said more than 100 Lebanese civilians have also been killed.
The intensifying attacks are raising fears that the situation could deteriorate further.
“Sometimes, they are targeted strikes aimed at Hezbollah leaders or operatives. But we have also had a series of incidents in which Lebanese civilians were targeted by the Israelis, and this is creating a climate of panic in Lebanon,” said Karim Emile Bitar, a Middle East Studies lecturer at Sciences Po Paris university.
“Many Lebanese are worried that we could soon witness a new full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah,” he added.
ACCUSATIONS OF DRAGGING FEET
According to the ceasefire agreement, which was brokered by the United States and France, the Lebanese military is meant to disarm Hezbollah.
The government has called for patience, saying it is working to confiscate Hezbollah’s weapons in southern Lebanon by the end of the year.
But last month, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun of “dragging his feet” on the matter.
Sarit Zehavi, a retired lieutenant-colonel in the Israeli military, said she believes the Lebanese military is not doing everything it can to disarm Hezbollah.
“It is clear that it’s far from enough, that there are a lot of violations – of warehouses, of weapons, storage of weapons that are inside civilian infrastructure in South Lebanon,” added Zehavi, who founded think tank Alma Research and Education Center, which focuses on security on Israel’s northern border.
“To truly disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese army (must really) want that. (It) really needs the capabilities (and) the willingness to clash with Hezbollah, because Hezbollah will not do that in a non-violent way.”
This year’s UN climate conference in Brazil has been among the most contentious and highlights the fragility of international climate diplomacy, say observers.
Activists participate in a demonstration outside where negotiations are taking place at the COP30 UN Climate Summit, Nov 21, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (Photo: AP/Joshua A. Bickel)
Despite heightened calls for climate urgency, the COP30 climate summit concluded in Brazil last weekend without addressing the one issue many experts have called non-negotiable: A pathway to phase out fossil fuels.
The omission sparked disappointment across many countries and environmental groups, who warned that the world is not winning the fight against climate change.
A DECADE ON – LITTLE PROGRESS
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, parties were cautiously hopeful this edition of the United Nations’ climate conference would usher in renewed commitment. The 2015 Paris Agreement sought to limit future global temperature increases at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Instead, COP30 was among the most divisive summits so far and highlighted the fragility of international climate diplomacy, said observers.
More than 80 countries pleaded for a fossil fuel phase-out roadmap – but were drowned out by opposition from powerful petrostates and several major economies.
The failure disappointed many, including Injy Johnstone, a research fellow in net zero aligned offsetting at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
“Any delay to the transition away from fossil fuels not only adds fuel to the fire. (It also shows the) limitations of the consensus process,” she told CNA’s Asia First programme.
A transition roadmap, she added, could have turned political rhetoric into “something tangible that countries can work with and actually implement”.
JUST A ON-PAPER DEAL?
On a more positive note, Brazil’s COP30 presidency managed to push through a compromise deal that urged rich nations to triple climate finance for developing countries by 2035 to help them adapt to rising seas, stronger storms and extreme heat.
But analysts remain sceptical over whether it will work out.
Chin dismissed the pledge as a “public relations exercise” aimed at justifying the cost of hosting COP30.
“Nobody actually believes that it will come to fruition. Just like all the previous COP, most of the climate change key agreements have not been met,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the rich countries have now come to the conclusion that there is very little middle ground. It is the poor countries that will ultimately pay the price.”
THE USA EFFECT, EVEN IN ABSENCE
Another disappointment at this year’s conference was the absence of the United States, which did not send an official delegation.
US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly questioned climate science, has rolled back renewable energy support and pushed for expanded domestic fossil fuel production since returning to the White House in January.
Analysts say Washington’s stance carries implications far beyond American borders, influencing COP30’s dynamics despite its absence.
“It’s not about America’s emissions itself. It’s the message it sends to other countries,” said Aaron Choo, a senior assistant director of sustainability and special projects at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
“Without a pro-environment US in the room, suddenly Russia (and) other fossil fuel producing countries are more bold in blocking certain language, declarations and frameworks.”
Still, Johnstone noted it was encouraging that dozens of US state and local leaders – including the governors of California, New Mexico and Wisconsin – attended the talks, signalling that subnational climate action in America remains alive.
CHINA’S QUIET RISE
In contrast, China has been quietly advancing its climate agenda, said observers.
In September, Beijing made a landmark climate pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10 per cent below peak levels by 2035. China is also the world’s biggest supplier of clean energy technology.
Choo said global audiences tend to – but should not – underestimate Beijing’s climate ambitions.
“China’s been quiet, but it’s getting deal-making done. China is concerned about (climate) partially because of their own domestic environment – they want to clean up industries, decarbonise and electrify for their own sake,” he added.
“And what China is doing then has knock-on effects for other countries.”
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO PHASE OUT FOSSIL FUELS?
Analysts say the structural challenges behind fossil fuel dependence remain immense.
“Things aren’t black and white in the journey to green,” said Johnstone.
“Right now, a lot of states are bankrolled on fossil fuels, so it’s unsurprising that any roadmap to their cessation can be seen as a challenge.”
Chin agreed, noting that countries are reluctant to commit to expedited fossil fuel phase-outs as clean energy transitions remain costly, and especially as the world’s biggest emitters like the US and China have resisted doing so themselves.
United States President Donald Trump advised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to provoke China over Taiwan’s sovereignty, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday (Nov 27), after a diplomatic spat between Tokyo and Beijing.
The row between Asia’s two biggest economies was triggered by a suggestion from new premier Takaichi that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on the island, which China claims as part of its territory.
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a bilateral meeting at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, on Oct 28, 2025. (File photo: Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
In a phone call with Trump on Monday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pressed the ever-sensitive issue, saying its return was an “integral part of the post-war international order”, according to China’s foreign ministry.
Shortly after, “Trump set up a call with Takaichi and advised her not to provoke Beijing on the question of the island’s sovereignty”, the WSJ said, citing Japanese officials and an American briefed on the call.
“The advice from Trump was subtle, and he didn’t pressure Takaichi to walk back her comments,” the WSJ reported.
A spokeswoman for Takaichi’s office declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
In her reporting of the call, the Japanese premier said she and Trump discussed his conversation with Xi, as well as relations between the two allies.
“President Trump said we are very close friends, and he offered that I should feel free to call him anytime,” she said.
Bangkok court issues an arrest warrant for Thai co-owner of Miss Universe pageant
A court in Thailand said Wednesday that it has issued an arrest warrant for a co-owner of the Miss Universe Organization in connection with a fraud case.
Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip was charged with fraud then released on bail in 2023. She failed to appear as required in a Bangkok court on Tuesday. Since she did not notify the court about her absence, she was deemed to be a flight risk, according to a statement from the Bangkok South District Court.
The court rescheduled the hearing for Dec. 26.
According to the court’s statement, Jakkaphong and her company, JKN Global Group Public Co. Ltd., were sued for allegedly defrauding Raweewat Maschamadol in selling him the company’s corporate bonds in 2023. Raweewat says the investment caused him to lose 30 million baht ($930,362).
Financially troubled JKN defaulted on payments to investors beginning in 2023 and began debt rehabilitation procedures with the Central Bankruptcy Court in 2024. The company says it has debts totaling about 3 billion baht ($93 million).
JKN acquired the rights to the Miss Universe pageant from IMG Worldwide LLC in 2022. In 2023, it sold 50% of its Miss Universe shares to Legacy Holding Group USA, which is owned by a Mexican businessman, Raúl Rocha Cantú.
In an unrelated case in Mexico, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that Rocha Cantú has been under investigation since November 2024 for alleged organized crime activity, including drug and arms trafficking, as well as fuel theft.
The Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that Raúl “R” was the target of the investigation. A federal agent who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation confirmed that was Rocha Cantú.
The Miss Universe Organization did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Mexico approved 13 arrest orders against targets in the case. The federal agent would not confirm or deny whether an order was issued for Rocha Cantú.
President Donald Trump says his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned.” He said Tuesday that he is sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with the Russian president and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials. (AP Production: Marissa Duhaney)
President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned” and he’s sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials.
Trump suggested he could eventually meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but not until further progress has been made in negotiations. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening aboard Air Force One, Trump said resolving the war was difficult, and described what had been a 28-point plan as a work in progress. “That was not a plan — it was a concept,” Trump said.
Trump’s plan for ending the nearly four-year war emerged last week. It heavily favored Russia, prompting Zelenskyy to quickly engage with American negotiators. European leaders, fearing for their own future facing Russian aggression but apparently sidelined by Trump in drawing up the proposal, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.
Trump said he believed Witkoff would be meeting with Putin next week in Moscow, with his son-in-law Jared Kushner potentially joining the meeting. “People are starting to realize it’s a good deal for both parties,” Trump said.
The president played down the element of his plan that would require Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, suggesting that Russian forces were already likely to seize the land they’re seeking.
“The way it’s going, if you look, it’s just moving in one direction,” Trump said. “So eventually that’s land that over the next couple of months might be gotten by Russia anyway.”
At the center of Trump’s plan is the call on Ukraine to concede the entirety of its eastern Donbas region, even though a vast swath of that land remains in Ukrainian control. Analysts at the independent Institute for the Study of War have estimated it would take several years for the Russian military to completely seize the territory, based on its current rate of advances.
Trump downplays transcript of Witkoff talks with Russian counterpart
Trump made his comments after Driscoll held talks late Monday and throughout Tuesday with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to discuss the emerging proposal.
“The talks are going well and we remain optimistic,” Lt. Col. Jeff Tolbert, spokesman for the Army secretary, said in a statement. Witkoff, a real estate developer turned diplomat, has been Trump’s chief interlocutor with Putin, while Driscoll, who is close to Vance, has stepped up his involvement in the administration’s peace push in recent days.
As the talks were taking place, Russia launched a wave of overnight attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, with at least seven people killed in strikes that hit city buildings and energy infrastructure. A Ukrainian attack on southern Russia killed three people and damaged homes, authorities said.
Trump spoke to reporters after Bloomberg News published a transcript of an Oct. 14 call between Witkoff and Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov where Witkoff coached his counterpart on how Putin should handle a call with Trump.
Trump downplayed Witkoff’s reported approach as “a very standard form of negotiation.”
But U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who has been critical of Trump’s approach to Ukraine, said the transcript showed Witkoff favors the Russians. “He cannot be trusted to lead these negotiations. Would a Russian paid agent do less than he? He should be fired,” Bacon said on social media.
Bloomberg said it reviewed a recording of the call, but did not say how it obtained access to the recording. The Associated Press has not independently verified the transcript.
Latest phase of the talks
French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that peace efforts are gathering momentum and “are clearly at a crucial juncture.”
He spoke after senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials met in Geneva on Sunday and a virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting of Ukraine’s European allies took place on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took part in both gatherings.
“Negotiations are getting a new impetus. And we should seize this momentum,” he said during the video conference meeting of countries, led by France and the U.K., that could help police any ceasefire with Russia.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said of the talks: “I do think we are moving in a positive direction and indications today that in large part the majority of the text, (Zelenskyy) is indicating, can be accepted.”
Oleksandr Bevz, one of the Ukrainian delegates at the Geneva talks, however, cautioned that it was “very premature to say that something is agreed upon.”
In an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv late Tuesday, he declined to discuss the specifics of any amendments to Trump’s plan, but said the U.S. was aware that the strength of security guarantees for Ukraine would “define the sustainability of the deal” and was “the part making this deal real and enforceable.”
Bevz earlier told the AP that the number of points in the proposed settlement was reduced, but he denied reports that the 28-point U.S. peace plan now consisted of 19 points.
”(The document) is going to continue to change. We can confirm that it was reduced to take out points not relating to Ukraine, to exclude duplicates and for editing purposes,” Bevz said, adding that some points relating solely to relations between Russia and the U.S. were excluded.
Long road to peace
Zelenskyy said late Monday that “the list of necessary steps to end the war can become workable.” He said he planned to discuss “sensitive” outstanding issues with Trump.
Rustem Umerov, a senior adviser to Zelenskyy, posted on X on Tuesday that Zelenskyy hoped to finalize a deal with Trump “at the earliest suitable date in November.”
Russian officials have been reserved in their comments on the peace plan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow is in touch with U.S. officials about peace efforts.
“We expect them to provide us with a version they consider an interim one in terms of completing the phase of coordinating this text with the Europeans and the Ukrainians,” Lavrov said.
European leaders have cautioned that the road to peace will be long.
‘Glass rained down’
Russia fired 22 missiles of various types and more than 460 drones at Ukraine overnight, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. The strikes knocked out water, electricity and heat in parts of Kyiv. Images showed a large fire spreading in a nine-story residential building in Kyiv’s eastern Dniprovskyi district.
Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said 20 people were wounded in Kyiv. The Russian Defense Ministry said it targeted military-industrial facilities and energy assets. The strikes were a response to Ukrainian attacks on civilian objects in Russia, the ministry said.
Liubov Petrivna, a 90-year-old resident of a damaged building in the Dniprovskyi district, told the AP that “absolutely everything” in her apartment was shattered by the strike and “glass rained down” on her.
Petrivna said that she didn’t believe in the peace plan now under discussion.
“No one will ever do anything about it,” she said. Russian President Vladimir Putin “won’t stop until he finishes us off.”
Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Tuesday accused Pakistan of launching deadly overnight strikes in three eastern provinces, but Pakistan’s military dismissed the claim and said no such strikes were carried out.
The Pakistani denial came hours after Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson for the Afghan government, said on X that Pakistan “bombed” the home of a civilian in Khost province, killing nine children and a woman. He also claimed additional strikes were carried out in the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktika, injuring four people.
Mujahid described the attacks as “atrocities” and said the strikes were “a violation of Afghan territory.” Afghanistan “considers the use of its airspace and territory and defense of its people to be its legitimate right, and at the appropriate time, it will give the necessary response,” he said.
Tensions escalate
Afghanistan’s report of new strikes came more than a month after cross-border clashes erupted when the Afghan government claimed Pakistani drone strikes hit Kabul.
Pakistan military spokesperson Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry denied the Afghan government’s claim Tuesday, saying Pakistan does not target and kill civilians. He added that strikes carried out in October targeted the hideouts of Pakistani Taliban who were behind the surge of violence in the country.
“We announce and acknowledge whenever we carry out such strikes,” he said during a news briefing in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
The ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey between the two sides in October still held Tuesday despite the reported strikes. There was no immediate comment from Qatar and Turkey.
Iran has recently offered to play a role in defusing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tuesday on X that he met with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, a day after arriving on a previously scheduled visit. Dar’s office was also expected to release a statement about the meeting.
In Khost, residents combed through the rubble of the destroyed home, retrieving belongings.
“You see the cruelty with your own eyes, that young children, a woman and nine children, were martyred,” said Muhammad Iqbal, who said the dead were his cousin’s family.
Local tribal leader Mer Adam Khan said the attack was carried out by a drone that was flying over the area at around midnight. “It is not known where it came from and by whom,” he said, adding that the home that was destroyed was that of a local man, whom he identified as Shariat Khan.
“He has not interfered with any government. He lives a poor life here,” the tribal leader said.
Recent attacks target Pakistan
The latest escalation follows a deadly attack a day earlier in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, where two suicide bombers and a gunman stormed the headquarters of the Federal Constabulary. Three officers were killed and 11 others were wounded in the Monday morning attack.
No group claimed responsibility for the Peshawar attack, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The army spokesperson, Chaudhry, said the three militants who carried out the attack were Afghan nationals who sneaked into the country from the Tirah border region in the northwest.
TTP is a separate group but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban and many of its leaders are believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. Kabul in 2022 brokered a brief ceasefire between the TTP and Pakistan. The militant group then ended the truce after accusing Pakistan of violating it.
Pakistan has intensified intelligence-based operations against militants in recent weeks. Since January, Pakistan has killed 1,873 militants in thousands of operations, Chaudhry said.
On Tuesday, the military said security forces killed 22 militants during a raid on what it described as a hideout of “Indian-backed” fighters in Bannu, a district in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border.
In a statement, the army referred to the killed insurgents as Khawarij, a term the government and the military use for militants they allege are supported by Afghanistan and India. Kabul and New Delhi deny providing any support to such groups.
The statement said Pakistan “will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”
Pakistan has repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to prevent TTP militants from using Afghan territory to launch attacks. Kabul denies the accusation, but relations further deteriorated after Afghanistan blamed Pakistan for the Oct. 9 drone strikes on its capital and threatened retaliation.
The clashes that followed killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and militants before the sides agreed to the Oct. 19 ceasefire.
Activists perform on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in Rome, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025 (Roberto Monaldo/LaPresse via AP)
Italy’s parliament on Tuesday approved a law that introduces femicide into the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life in prison.
The vote coincided with the international day for the elimination of violence against women, a day designated by the U.N. General Assembly.
The law won bipartisan support from the center-right majority and the center-left opposition in the final vote in the Lower Chamber, passing with 237 votes in favor.
The law, backed by the conservative government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, comes in response to a series of killings and other violence targeting women in Italy. It includes stronger measures against gender-based crimes including stalking and revenge porn.
High-profile cases, such as the 2023 murder of university student Giulia Cecchettin, have been key in widespread public outcry and debate about the causes of violence against women in Italy’s patriarchal culture.
“We have doubled funding for anti-violence centers and shelters, promoted an emergency hotline and implemented innovative education and awareness-raising activities,” Meloni said Tuesday. “These are concrete steps forward, but we won’t stop here. We must continue to do much more, every day.”
While the center-left opposition supported the law in parliament, it stressed that the government approach only tackles the criminal aspect of the problem while leaving economic and cultural divides unaddressed.
Italy’s statistics agency Istat recorded 106 femicides in 2024, 62 of them committed by partners or former partners.
The debate over introducing sexual and emotional education in schools as a way to prevent gender-based violence has become heated in Italy. A law proposed by the government would ban sexual and emotional education for elementary students and require explicit parental consent for any lessons in high school.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ruffled some feathers when he pleaded with US air travelers to smarten up their wardrobes when flying the friendly skies, but he also found some kindred spirits among passengers at New York-area airports.
“I think it’s great advice, because when you feel good about how you look, you’re treated better and you treat people better,” traveler Tamaya Garcia, 48, said, agreeing with Duffy who begged travelers on Monday from Newark Liberty International Airport, “Let’s try not to wear slippers and pajamas as we come here.”
Garcia got the memo — she was decked out in a stylish wool tan coat, white body suit, tan cashmere pants and Nike sneakers while jetting into of JFK Airport in Queens.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked passengers to wear nicer clothes to the airport. Fox News
For many passengers, throwing on the comfiest clothes in their wardrobe is a must for modern-day plane travel. But others still long for the bygone days of jet-setting around dressed to the nines like Don Draper.
“I always have my makeup on, always have a cute outfit on. I always make sure my hair is clean and done,” said Garcia, a San Francisco resident who traveled to New York to spend Thanksgiving with her 20-year-old college student son.
She even said she refused to let her 16-year-old daughter get on a plane back home to California looking sloppy.
“She wanted to go to the airport without her hair washed, no make-up, literal pajama pants, and a hooded pullover. And I said, ‘No, absolutely not!’”
Duffy also found a sartorial ally in Melanie Cox, 21, a senior at the University of Toledo who flew into Newark Liberty International Airport from Michigan to celebrate the holidays with her Big Apple friends.
“People should dress up for the airport, it’s fun. I like waking up early, getting myself ready. It’s a long day and I like to feel put together — and you really never know who you’re going to meet,” she said, sporting a matching set from White Fox.
Kim and Tommy Scarpati from Monmouth County, New Jersey, had their two young daughters, Nia and Evie, in tow for their voyage, mom and kids wearing matching hot-pink attire with their initials ironed onto their sweatshirts.
Kim also agreed with Duffy’s sentiment on slovenly flyers, saying, “You’re not moving into the airport,” and even going so far as to say she would be wearing a dress if not for the “tactical clothing” needed for traveling with youngsters.
“I’m a girly girl,” she told The Post, adding she likes to feel “feminine and pretty” on her flights.
The matching neon clothing has the additional benefit of making her kids easy to spot in a crowd, allowing for “safety and ease” on travel days.
Another traveler, who gave her name only as Elizabeth, had on white pants and a tan sweater as she was about take off to Florida with her family for Thanksgiving.
“I always dress like this. My father used to only fly with a jacket,” she said.
She agreed when asked whether her father’s high-flying fashion choices rubbed off on her, but added, “I like not to leave the house looking like I’m in my pajamas.”
Even during a long and uncomfortable flight, she said, “I still make an effort to look good and be coordinated.”
Jillian Carter, 32, from Brooklyn, was dressed in all black on her way from JFK to Atlanta to see family for Thanksgiving, clad in dress pants, a blouse and leather jacket — and even silver-colored sneakers.
“My mom told me it’s important to look your best when you’re out and about, especially at the airport,” she said.
“You never know who you’re gonna see, who you’re gonna meet — comfy is my go-to, it doesn’t hurt to put a little effort into it.”
Other passengers, however, strongly disagreed with Duffy’s call to make air travel spiffy again.
Mashenka “Dip” Clapp, 28, said the secretary needs to “touch grass” and that he’s “lost the plot” with his suggestion.
“He needs to mind his own business and let people be comfortable and find their own right way to do things that work for them and their lifestyle,” she said, adding that, “If people have long international flights where they’re going to be sleeping the whole time, wouldn’t it be logical to be wearing PJs?”
Clapp was especially grateful for her comfortable choice of wardrobe after missing her Tuesday morning flight on her way back from New York to Savannah, Georgia, saying she’s planning to “bum it out” at Newark Airport for the rest of the day and night.
“Plus, who cares? Who are you trying to impress? The guards? The other travelers? The person who gives your boarding pass? They don’t care.”
Prince Green, on his way to the Dominican Republic where he runs a coffee shop, was wearing a black t-shirt, a maroon-colored hoodie, gray sweatpants and black socks and slippers. He said he had no hang-ups whatsoever about his clothing choices.
Hakyung Lee killed her two kids and hid their bodies in suitcases months after her husband died of cancer
A mother in New Zealand who killed her two children and hid their bodies in suitcases has been sentenced to life in prison.
Hakyung Lee, who was found guilty in September of the shocking murders of eight-year-old Yuna Jo and six-year-old Minu Jo, has to spend at least 17 years behind bars before she is eligible for parole.
Lee, 45, argued she was insane at the time of the killings in 2018, which happened soon after her husband died. High Court judge Geoffrey Venning said Lee’s mental health played a part in the case, but that her actions were calculated.
The children’s remains were discovered only in 2022 by a couple who won an auction for the contents of an abandoned storage unit in Auckland.
During a trial lasting more than two weeks, Hakyung Lee’s defence lawyers told the court that her mental health deteriorated after Jo’s death, and that she came to believe it was best if the rest of the family died together.
Lee tried to kill herself and her children by giving them a dose of the antidepressant nortriptyline mixed in juice, but got the dose wrong and woke up to find her children were dead, her lawyers said.
Prosecutors argued that Lee’s was “a selfish act to free herself from the burden of parenting alone”.
After the killings, Lee changed her name and left New Zealand. She was arrested in South Korea – where she was born – in September 2022, and extradited back to New Zealand later that year.
The court heard on Wednesday how the killings pained Lee’s and her husband Ian Jo’s families.
In an emotional statement read out by prosecutors, Lee’s mother Choon Ja Lee said she regrets not taking her daughter to a counsellor, noting that Lee had “no will to live” after Jo died of cancer in November 2017.
“If she wanted to die, why didn’t she die alone? Why did she take the innocent children with her?” Choon Ja Lee wrote, according to New Zealand media reports.
Jo’s brother Jimmy said he “never imagined such a profound tragedy would ever befall our family”.
His own mother – Yuna’s and Minu’s other grandmother – still does not know they are dead, he said.
“It was my late brother’s will that I protect them,” said Jimmy Jo. “This is an ongoing sentence from which I can never be paroled.”
Lee was likely suffering from an “atypical depression” and prolonged grief reaction at the time of the murders, according to a psychiatric assessment conducted before the sentencing, local broadcaster RNZ reported.
The logo of Lotte Chemical is seen at its office building in Seoul, South Korea, October 11, 2017. Picture taken on October 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
South Korea’s HD Hyundai and Lotte Chemical have submitted a plan to the industry ministry on restructuring their petrochemical businesses, the companies said in separate regulatory filings on Wednesday.
Under the plan, Lotte will spin off its business in Daesan city, South Korea, and merge it with HD Hyundai Chemical, in an effort to ease overcapacity at naphtha-cracking centres in the industry, the companies said.
The plan is part of an industry-wide effort to ease a supply glut in South Korea’s petrochemical sector. In August, President Lee Jae Myung’s administration pushed firms to cut as much as 25 per cent of the country’s annual capacity, saying the sector was in “crisis” and needed to boost efficiency and raise margins.
Ten petrochemical firms agreed on the goal at the time and were asked to come up with their own plans.
The government aims to cut naphtha-cracking capacity by up to 3.7 million metric tons per year to resolve oversupply and improve profit margins by merging production or shutting smaller companies and has required firms to submit plans by year-end.
Lotte said the merger is to increase efficiency and the stability of operations at their naphtha-cracking centres, without elaborating. The companies said they will also adjust business portfolios to focus on core businesses.
The industry ministry said in a separate statement on Wednesday that the companies will “adjust some facilities” at naphtha-cracking centres and those for other products to help ease the supply glut in the industry.
US Senator Mark Kelly, one of six lawmakers who told members of the military that they can legally refuse to carry out unlawful orders, in Sierra Vista, Arizona, US, on May 29, 2025. (File photo: Reuters/Rebecca Noble)
The FBI has requested interviews with six Democratic members of the United States Congress who, in a video message, told members of the military they can legally refuse to carry out unlawful orders, a Justice Department official told Reuters on Tuesday (Nov 25).
The Pentagon on Monday threatened to recall Senator Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran and one of the six lawmakers, to active duty potentially to face military charges over what Secretary of War Pete Hegseth described on social media as “seditious” acts.
President Donald Trump, who critics have said has sought to harness the power of the government to try to stifle dissent, accused the six Democrats of sedition and said in a social media post that the crime is punishable by death.
The Justice Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the FBI interviews with the lawmakers were to determine “if there’s any wrongdoing, and then go from there”.
The FBI is headed by Trump appointee Kash Patel.
In a memo made public on Tuesday, Hegseth referred Kelly to the secretary of the Navy for “potentially unlawful comments” made in the video last week. Hegseth, in the memo, said he wanted a brief on the outcome of the review by Dec 10.
“NOT THE AMERICA I KNOW”
In statements on Tuesday, the Democrats described the FBI move as an effort by the Trump administration to intimidate them into silence.
“The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place,” US Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA officer and one of the six Democrats, said on X.
“This is not the America I know, and I’m not going to let this next step from the FBI stop me from speaking up for my country and our Constitution.”
The lawmakers have said their video statements accurately reflected US law. American troops swear an oath to the US Constitution, not the president, and under military rules must follow “any lawful general order or regulation”.
The other Democrats who appeared in the video released last week include US Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, all military veterans.
The four House Democrats in a joint statement accused Trump of using the FBI as a tool to intimidate members of Congress and vowed that they would not be silenced. Kelly did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
CONCERNS ABOUT VENEZUELA BOAT STRIKES
The video did not refer to any specific illegal order, but many Democrats have expressed concerns – echoed privately by some US military commanders – that the Trump administration is violating the law by ordering strikes on vessels purportedly carrying suspected drug traffickers in Latin American waters. The Pentagon has called the strikes justified because drug smugglers are considered terrorists.
Democrats have also questioned the legality of Trump’s use of military forces in American cities.
The probe was reported earlier by Fox News. Trump’s administration has shattered democratic norms by using law enforcement to pursue his perceived enemies.
The Justice Department in recent months brought criminal charges against three prominent critics of the president, though a judge on Monday dismissed two of those cases.
FILE PHOTO: A Foxconn high energy density solid-state lithium metal battery is displayed at Foxconn?s annual tech day in Taipei, Taiwan October 8, 2024. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo
Taiwan’s Foxconn said on Wednesday that it had secured regulatory approval to invest an additional $569 million in the U.S. state of Wisconsin to meet rising demand for AI servers.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) approved the plan to expand operations at Foxconn’s facility in Racine County, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer said in a statement.
The expansion will focus on the AI server business, which Foxconn said would help strengthen domestic U.S. supply chains.
“As the demand for more data infrastructure continues to rise, Foxconn will keep responding to our customers’ needs with flexibility and at scale in the United States,” said Foxconn’s chief product officer, Jerry Hsiao.
The Optus logo is displayed outside a store in Sydney, Australia, Sep 29, 2025. (Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams)
Australian telco Optus said on Wednesday (Nov 26) morning it had suffered an emergency call outage near Melbourne, impacting around 14,000 users, two months after a broader disruption that probably caused four deaths when customers failed to get timely aid.
The outage is believed to have been caused by vandals trying to steal copper.
Optus, owned by Singtel, said an “aerial fibre break” could be the cause of the outage, which was being investigated.
“Customers will only be able to call emergency services if they are within coverage of another mobile network or are able to call via WiFi,” the company said on its website.
Optus spokesperson Jane McNamara told ABC Radio Melbourne that the telco believes that no calls to emergency services were disrupted.
“We do have photo evidence, very clear, that there has been a cut made,” she said, adding: “We know copper has been removed from the pit and we have contacted Victoria Police.”
EMERGENCY CALLS DISRUPTED
The September incident, which resulted in fatalities, occurred after emergency call services were disrupted due to a technical failure during a network upgrade, Optus’ CEO Stephen Rue had said.
A deviation from standard procedures during a network firewall upgrade triggered the 13-hour outage in Australia, Optus said after the incident. The Australian government said it would investigate the “unacceptable” failure, and the company said it would cooperate with any effort to look into the incident.
This comes less than a year after Optus was fined A$12 million (US$7.7 million) by regulators for failing to provide emergency call services to thousands during a nationwide outage in 2023.
Optus also suffered a cyberattack in 2022 that affected the data of up to 10 million Australians.
Former CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned in the wake of the earlier incidents, and Rue took over in November 2024.
Diplomatic efforts are in full swing to see a peace deal that could bring an end to the conflict, with Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022Image: Danylo Antoniuk/Anadolu/picture alliance
Russian identity must be consolidated in seized Ukrainian territories — Putin
The Russian language and identity must be bolstered in parts of Ukraine seized by Russian forces, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin that was published on Tuesday.
The document, entitled “Strategy of Russia’s national policy in the period to 2036,” calls for measures to ensure that 95% of the population identify as Russian by 2036.
It said it was vital “to adopt additional measures to strengthen overall Russian civic identity,” to ensure the use of Russian and to act against “efforts by unfriendly foreign states to destabilize interethnic and interconfessional relations and create a split in society.”
Although many Ukrainians previously felt a close affiliation with Russia and most speak both Ukrainian and Russian, since Moscow launched its invasion in 2022, such sympathy has largely vanished.
The Russian language is also much less used, surveys show.
When launching the full-scale invasion, Putin said Russia’s aim was to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” Ukraine and free Russian-speakers in the east from what the Kremlin described as blatant discrimination.
Although Ukrainian has been the sole state language since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, authorities in Kyiv deny that Russian-speakers have been subject to any form of discrimination.
European lawmakers, media undermining US peace efforts — Russian Foreign Ministry
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that US efforts to secure a peace deal in Ukraine were being hindered by repeated “information attacks” by European politicians and media.
The latter are trying “to disrupt the possibility of political and diplomatic settlement” of the conflict in Ukraine, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Radio Sputnik.
European officials, along with Kyiv, have voiced vehement criticism of the initial US proposal recently put forward amid Washington’s peace efforts, saying it seemed to concede to many of Moscow’s maximalist demands.
That proposal was reported to have been amended following talks in Geneva on Sunday between US and Ukrainian delegations, but few details have been made public.
More work needed on US peace proposal — NATO chief
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said a US framework for peace in Ukraine contains some promising aspects but still requires further rounds of diplomacy.
Rutte described meetings held between US, Ukrainian and European delegations in Geneva on Sunday to discuss a 28-point plan put forward by the US Trump administration as productive.
But he said they were only an initial step toward structured US-Ukraine talks.
Rutte’s remarks to the German RND media group and Spanish daily EL Pais come as US President Donald Trump said only a few points in it remained disputed.
Officials from Kyiv and other European capitals, however, have said the plan heavily favors Russian demands, foreseeing as it does major territorial concessions they say would amount to a reward for Moscow’s military aggression
Rutte also said Russia has lost 20,000 soldiers each month while gaining little ground, with some 1 million Russian troops killed or severely wounded since Moscow’s full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022.
He said Moscow had captured only about 1% of Ukrainian territory this year while advancing just a few meters a day.
US negotiator Driscoll has ‘very right moral compass,’ Ukraine’s US ambassador tells DW
Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Olga Stefanishyna struck an optimistic tone regarding the ongoing talks on a Ukraine peace plan and the upcoming visit to Kyiv by US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll. Driscoll is a key negotiator on behalf of US President Donald Trump’s administration and is also close to Vice President JD Vance.
Speaking to DW’s Misha Komadovsky on Tuesday, Stefanishyna said Driscoll was “extremely well briefed on the military situation,” expressing hopes that this translates to an understanding of Kyiv’s military needs.
She described Driscoll as having the “very right moral compass” for the task at hand.
The Ukrainian envoy also addressed the ongoing talks on Trump’s 28-point peace plan, saying that ongoing discussions since the plan was unveiled last week are helping reshape the proposal. The plan had been initially criticized for favoring Moscow.
“What I heard from our delegation, from the head of delegation and the team working around the document, that there was a lively interest in going through every element of 28 points and just see how many traps were there put in by Russians in terms of possibility of misinterpretation, you know, or double interpretation,” she said.
Stefanishyna said that following the Geneva talks, Ukraine succeeded in removing the “full amnesty” clause from the agenda — meaning Russia could still be held accountable for war crimes committed against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian ambassador stressed the talks “were not over,” referring to a Ukrainian team that was headed to Moscow as well as Driscoll’s visit to Ukraine.
Trump says US envoy Witkoff to meet Russia’s Putin next week
US special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week, US President Donald Trump said, adding that his son-in-law Jared Kushner was also involved in the negotiations.
“Steve Witkoff is going over maybe with Jared. I’m not sure about Jared going, but he’s involved in the process, smart guy, and they’re going to be meeting with President Putin, I believe next week in Moscow,” Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One.
When asked about security guarantees for Ukraine, Trump said: “We’re working that out with Europe. Europe will be largely involved.”
When asked about criticism of his 28-point peace plan for being too favorable to Russia, Trump described it as a “map, not a plan,” saying that it has been revised down to 22 points.
Trump also stressed that Moscow too was “making concessions,” adding that they come in the form that “they stop fighting, and they don’t take any more land.”
Trump moreover said there was no deadline for the talks.
“You know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over,” he said.
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.
The Hat Yai tourist district was among the worst hit areasImage: Roylee Suriyaworakul/REUTERS
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.
A SHOCKING investigation has led police to a gruesome discovery.
A case that has rocked two states after police found two newborn babies dead, one in Louisiana, the other in Kentucky.
The newborn’s body was found in Denham Springs, LouisianaCredit: Getty
On November 21, police were called to a hospital in Livingston Parish after a 14-year-old girl sought treatment following a secret home birth.
Investigators rushed to her residence in Denham Springs, Louisiana, where they made the shocking find.
The teen’s newborn had been stuffed inside a tote bag, with extensive neck injuries, authorities said, according to local ABC affiliate WAFB.
Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard described the case as “difficult for all first responders involved,” urging the public to keep both the family and officers in their thoughts as the investigation unfolds.
“Please keep them — and, the family — in your thoughts as this very sensitive investigation continues,” Ard said, according to local news outlet WKRC.
“Due to the nature of this case, no further details can be released at this time.”
The teen, whose identity has not been released, was initially charged with failure to seek assistance and obstruction of justice. But after an autopsy confirmed homicide, charges were upgraded to first-degree murder.
She is currently being held at the Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center.
Just months earlier, on August 27, police in Lexington, Kentucky, responded to a similarly disturbing call.
Inside an off-campus apartment, officers discovered the lifeless body of cheerleader Laken Snelling’s newborn baby, wrapped in a trash bag and hidden in a bedroom closet.
Court documents reveal Snelling, 21, gave birth around 4:00 a.m. but told her roommates she was simply feeling sick.
Investigators later uncovered deleted phone searches related to pregnancy and photos taken during labor.
When questioned, Snelling gave conflicting accounts, first claiming the baby wasn’t breathing, then later admitting the infant had shown fetal movement and even made a faint whimper after birth.
FESTIVE market shoppers in a major city have slammed “extortionate” prices for everything from hot chocolate to pork belly.
But stall holders have hit back, saying it’s a knock-on effect from the tens of thousands of dollars they’re charged by “public space real estate vultures.”
One man complained on TikTok after he and a pal were charged more than $20 for two cups of hot chocolate at Union Square Market in New York City (stock image)Credit: Getty
One shopper who criticized both the quality of food and prices after visiting Union Square Holiday Market in New York City said it “did not live up to the hype.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I understand the plight of business owners and the overhead costs that it takes to be able to enter these markets,” he added on TikTok last week.
“But what I will say is if the food is going to be astronomical in price, the food also needs to be astronomically good.”
The unhappy man shared his experience after he and a pal tucked into empanadas and yuca fries – costing a total $16.88.
He slammed the low meat filling-to-pastry ratio, and said the fries were “mushy in the middle.”
At one stall they bought two hot chocolates with marshmallows – one of which was also served with whipped cream – for a total $24.48.
“The hot chocolate was just above room temperature.
“So I had to ask the man to remake it. I would give this hot chocolate a 7.5 out of 10,” the man said in his review.
Others have also shared their thoughts on meal prices at the market, with $13 for a stroopwaffel described as “a crime.”
And $18 for a crêpe was mocked as “crazy.”
“It’s literally cheaper to fly to Europe than to shop a local NYC market,” wrote one person on social media.
HIGH ENTRY COSTS
But stall holders have responded to the complaints, saying it is not their fault that visitors are being charged so much.
“We’ve been hearing you think prices are a little bit steep at Union Square Holiday Market,” said one stall holder at Coco Bred.
“Here’s why: the cost of entry for vendors is $20,000 minimum,” she added.
“For me, it costs about $22,000 just to be in this space for six weeks.
“On top of that cost, the space comes bare bones, we have to hire a contractor, and buy all of the materials to build out our little mini restaurant in two days.
“And then on top of that, most vendors – small businesses – are renting a commissary kitchen where you pay rent there to use the kitchen, pay rent for storage space, dry storage, freezer space, and refrigerator space.”
EXTORTION
The businesswoman said, however, that shoppers would enjoy the variety of delicious meals on offer.
“What makes it worth it is you’ll find unique vendors making one-of-kind delicious handcrafted house-made food that you can’t find anywhere else. Come and see us and try your new favorite dish,” she said.
The restaurateur sparked a mixed response, with one person exclaiming “that’s extortion” in regards to what stall holders are being charged up front.
Others said they appreciated her “transparency” but suggested she and other business folk “band together and refuse to rent a space to force the lowering of prices.”
“So let me get this straight, because you chose to pay $20,000 for that location, now the customers have to cover the difference? That doesn’t really feel fair,” commented one.
TRANSPARENCY
“Omg Union Square is ripping off vendors! Honestly thank you for the transparency, most people don’t know this. This system needs to be more affordable!” said a supporter.
“As a small market vendor, I wish all the vendors all the luck but this is not sustainable for the vendors or the consumer,” wrote another.
She also scoffed at those who “control all these holiday markets, operating as public-space real estate vultures, extracting value from land they don’t own.
“And they squeeze small businesses by charging steep rents and revenue shares for access to public foot traffic that should be open to all.”
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
FBI chief Kash Patel has been under fire recently. (Photo: AP) Photo : AP
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.
Who Might Replace Kash Patel?
Bailey, who previously served as Missouri’s state attorney general, was appointed in September to an unusual position described as co-deputy director, amid concerns within Republican circles over Bongino’s lack of FBI experience. Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and media commentator, joined the bureau’s leadership without a background in FBI investigations.
The Pentagon on Monday threatened to recall U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, to active duty status in order to prosecute him after what it described as seditious behavior by the former astronaut and decorated veteran.
Kelly, who denies any wrongdoing and who said in a statement he would not be intimidated, joined five other Democrats in Congress with backgrounds in the U.S. military and intelligence community to urge U.S. troops to refuse any illegal orders.
Kelly’s November 18 video message came amid heightened concerns among Democrats, echoed privately by some U.S. military officials, that the Trump administration is violating the law by ordering the U.S. military to kill suspected drug traffickers in strikes on their vessels in Latin American waters.
The Pentagon says those strikes are justified because the drug smugglers are considered terrorists.
The Pentagon statement said it was reviewing “serious allegations of misconduct” against Kelly. While it did not say what charges Kelly could face if it took such an extraordinary step, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted remarks on X accusing Kelly and the other lawmakers of sedition.
“The video made by the ‘Seditious Six’ was despicable, reckless, and false,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X.
“Encouraging our warriors to ignore the orders of their Commanders undermines every aspect of ‘good order and discipline.'”
President Donald Trump has also accused Kelly and the other Democrats of sedition, saying in a social media post that the crime was punishable by death.
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, sedition and mutiny are among the most serious offenses and can be punishable by death.
VOWS NOT TO BE SILENCED
Kelly, in a statement, said he learned of the threat from Hegseth’s social media post. He detailed his public service prior to joining the Senate representing Arizona, including 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm and four space shuttle flights at NASA.
“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” Kelly said.
“I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”
The threat to prosecute Kelly follows a purge at the Pentagon of senior members of the U.S. military, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the Navy and the director of the National Security Agency.
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) looks on as U.S. Representative Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) (not pictured) holds a press conference calling for the release of the Epstein files, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 18, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The decision to recall and potentially prosecute Kelly could also be seen as a message to those recently dismissed officials, who have stayed silent following their removals.
DOES KELLY HAVE A STRONG LEGAL CASE?
Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force lawyer now at Southwestern Law School, said she had never seen sitting lawmakers called back to the military involuntarily, and that Kelly would have a strong legal case to get a preliminary injunction since there was no evidence of probable cause.
“He has strong legal standing to say ‘Absolutely not. I’m not going to do this’,” VanLandingham said.
Hegseth’s remarks also could undermine any Pentagon effort to prosecute Kelly since they amounted to a clear case of undue command influence and could be used as evidence that Kelly would not be able to get a fair trial, she said.
The prosecution of Kelly would raise questions about free speech rights and the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution.
But Brenner Fissell, a professor at Villanova University School of Law, said Kelly could be facing some legal risk.
Kelly lacks the protections of Speech and Debate Clause immunity, Fissell said, which protect lawmakers for statements they make on the House or Senate floor.
“If they’re serious and they’re planning on charging him with mutiny, sedition, it seems like they would definitely try to book him in a pre-trial detention if they believe it’s that serious of an offense,” Fissell, a former defense counsel at Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions, added.
It is also the latest example of Trump’s administration seeking punishment of those Trump sees as political opponents.
Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has occasionally called for imprisoning adversaries and his Justice Department has targeted critics such as former federal officials John Bolton and James Comey.
The United States on Monday formally designated Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, layering additional terrorism-related sanctions on the group it has said includes President Nicolas Maduro and other high-ranking officials.
Venezuela’s government rejected what it called a “ridiculous” U.S. plan to designate the “non-existent” group.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this month the U.S. would designate Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) for the network’s alleged role in importing illegal drugs into the U.S.
Maduro faces escalating pressure from President Donald Trump’s U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, raising concerns that the U.S. may seek to use the designation to justify military action. Sanctions experts, however, have said the statute for the designation does not authorize such a move.
The U.S. for months has waged a campaign of deadly strikes against suspected drug trafficking boats off the Venezuelan coast and the Pacific coast of Latin America. Reuters reported on Saturday that the U.S. is poised to launch a new phase of Venezuela-related operations in the coming days.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the designation would bring “a whole bunch of new options to the United States,” in excerpts released on Thursday from an interview with One America News.
U.S. officials have accused Cartel de los Soles of working with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which Washington also ties to Maduro and previously designated an FTO, to send illegal narcotics to the U.S.
MADURO ALLEGES U.S. SEEKING REGIME CHANGE
Maduro and his government have always denied any involvement in crime and have accused the U.S. of seeking regime change out of a desire to control Venezuela’s natural resources, especially its vast oil reserves.
“They want Venezuela’s oil and gas reserves. For nothing, without paying. They want Venezuela’s gold. They want Venezuela’s diamonds, iron, bauxite. They want Venezuela’s natural resources,” Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez said in comments on state television.
Trump has said repeatedly he is not pursuing regime change.
“Venezuela categorically, firmly, and absolutely rejects the new and ridiculous fabrication by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of State, Marco Rubio, which designates the non-existent Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization,” said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil on his Telegram account.
A U.S. Marines UH-1Y Venom helicopter takes off from the U.S. Navy San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Fort Lauderdale while underway in the Caribbean Sea, November 17, 2025. Sgt. Nathan Mitchell/U.S. Marine Corps/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
The measure, Gil added, revives “an infamous and vile lie to justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela, under the classic U.S. regime-change format. This new maneuver will meet the same fate as previous and recurring aggressions against our country: failure.”
On Monday, Venezuela’s defaulted dollar bonds, which are trading around 30 cents on the dollar, rose as much as 1 cent each. The step-up in pressure from Washington has driven investor interest in the bonds, and Venezuela is the top performer among emerging market issuers this year with a 96% return at the index level according to JPMorgan data (.JPMEGDVENR).
The Treasury Department in July designated Cartel de los Soles, a reference to the sun insignia worn by Venezuelan generals, as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” which froze its U.S. assets and generally barred Americans from dealing with it.
InSight Crime, a foundation that analyzes organized crime, said in August that it was an “oversimplification” to say Maduro heads the cartel, saying that it “is more accurately described as a system of corruption wherein military and political officials profit by working with drug traffickers.”
Analysts also raised questions.
“As head of state overseeing the armed forces in a civil-military regime, is he in on it or at least aware of official military complicity with cocaine traffickers? Very likely,” said Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But does that mean he is directing its movements and coordinating the drug flows? We have never had the information publicly to say.”
LEGALITY OF MILITARY ACTION QUESTIONED
Experts have questioned the legality of the U.S. campaign in the southern Caribbean and Pacific, in which the U.S. military has killed dozens of people by blowing boats out of the water, citing suspicion that the vessels were carrying drugs.
A Reuters poll this month said only 29% of Americans support using the military to kill suspected drug traffickers without a judge or court being involved.
A former senior Treasury Department official said while the designation could send a significant message to stay away from the cartel, it has never been suggested that the policy purpose of an FTO designation could be overlaid with the use of military tools.
A worker walks through a hallway at the U.S. Capitol in the hours before a partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 30, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The Trump administration will shed about 317,000 employees this year, its human resources chief said, a higher figure than previously estimated.
Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, also said in a statement that the U.S. government hired 68,000 workers in 2025.
Both figures are larger than the estimates Kupor gave earlier this year in interviews with Reuters, at 300,000 for employees leaving and 50,000 for new hires.
The downsizing is part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to shrink the federal civilian workforce, which he says is bloated and inefficient. 2.4 million employees worked for the U.S. government before Trump took office for the second time.
The ban on under-16s using social media is a world first
From 10 December, social media companies will have to take “reasonable steps” to ensure that under-16s in Australia cannot set up accounts on their platforms and that existing accounts are deactivated or removed.
The government says the ban – a world-first policy popular with many parents – is aimed at reducing the “pressures and risks” children can be exposed to on social media, which come from “design features that encourage them to spend more time on screens, while also serving up content that can harm their health and wellbeing”.
A study commissioned by the government earlier this year said 96% of children aged 10-15 used social media and that seven out of 10 of them had been exposed to harmful content and behaviour. This behaviour ranged from misogynistic material to fight videos and content promoting eating disorders and suicide.
One in seven also reported experiencing grooming-type behaviour from adults or older children, and more than half said they had been the victims of cyberbullying.
What platforms are affected?
The Australian government has so far named ten platforms to be included in the ban: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit and streaming platforms Kick and Twitch.
It is also under pressure to expand the ban to online gaming. Fearing they may be targeted, gaming platforms such as Roblox and Discord have recently introduced age checks on some features in an apparent bid to ward off inclusion in the ban.
The government has said it will continue to review the list of affected platforms, and will consider three main criteria when doing so.
These comprise whether the platform’s sole or “significant purpose” is to enable online social interaction between two or more users; whether it allows users to interact with some or all other users; and whether it allows users to post material.
YouTube Kids, Google Classroom and WhatsApp are not included as they were not deemed to have met those criteria. Children will also still be available to view most content on platforms like YouTube, which do not require an account.
How will the ban be enforced?
Children and parents will not be punished for infringing the ban – it is social media companies who are charged with enforcing it, and they face fines of up to $49.5m (US$32m, £25m) for serious or repeated breaches.
The government says these companies must take “reasonable steps” to keep kids off their platforms, and use age assurance technologies – without specifying which ones.
Several possibilities have been raised, including the use of government IDs, face or voice recognition and age inference. The latter of these uses online information other than a date of birth – such as online behaviour or interactions – to estimate a person’s age.
The government is encouraging platforms to use multiple different methods. It has also said platforms cannot rely on users declaring their own age, or on parents vouching for their children.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, has announced it will begin closing teen accounts from 4 December. Those mistakenly kicked off could use a government ID or provide a video selfie to verify their age, the company said.
Snapchat has said users can use bank accounts or photo IDs to verify their age or take a selfie, which will be used to estimate their age.
The other affected platforms have not yet said how they will comply with the ban.
Will it work?
Without a clear idea of what methods companies will be using, it’s hard to say whether the social media ban will be effective – but concerns have been raised that age assurance technologies may wrongly block some users while failing to spot others who are underage.
The government’s own report found that facial assessment technology, for example, is least reliable for the exact demographic it’s needed to target.
Questions have also been raised as to whether the fines for infringement are big enough. As former Facebook executive Stephen Scheeler told AAP: “It takes Meta about an hour and 52 minutes to make $50 million in revenue”.
Critics argue that the ban, even if properly implemented, will not actually reduce online harm for children. Dating websites and gaming platforms are not included, and nor are AI chatbots, which have recently made headlines for allegedly encouraging children to kill themselves and for having “sensual” conversations with minors.
Others point out that teens who rely on social media for community will be left isolated, and argue that educating children about how to navigate social media would be more effective.
Communications Minister Annika Wells has conceded that the ban may not be “perfect”.
“It’s going to look a bit untidy on the way through,” she said in early November. “Big reforms always do.”
Are there data protection concerns?
Critics have also raised concerns about the large-scale collection and storage of data that will be required, and its potential mishandling, as platforms try to verify users’ ages.
Australia – like much of the world – has in recent years seen a series of high-profile data breaches, including several where sensitive personal information was stolen and sold or published.
But the government says the legislation incorporates “strong protections” for personal information. These protections stipulate that such information may not be used for anything other than age verification and must be destroyed once that has been done, with “serious penalties” for breaches.
It also says platforms must offer an alternative to the use of governments IDs for age assurance.
How have social media companies responded?
Social media companies were aghast at the announcement of the ban in November 2024. They argued it would be difficult to implement, easy to circumvent and time consuming for users, as well as posing risks to their privacy.
They also suggested it would drive children into dark corners of the internet and deprive young people of social contact. Snap – which owns Snapchat – and YouTube also denied being social media companies.
YouTube’s parent company, Google, is reportedly still considering whether to launch a legal challenge to the platform’s inclusion. It did not respond to a BBC request for comment.
Even as it announced that it would implement it early, Meta argued the ban would leave teens with “inconsistent protections across the many apps they use”.
At parliamentary hearings in October, TikTok and Snap said they still opposed the ban but would implement it.
Kick – the only Australian company included in the ban – has said it will introduce a “range of measures” and continue to engage “constructively” with authorities.
Do other countries have similar bans?
The ban on under-16s using social media is a world first, and other countries will be watching closely. Different approaches have been tried elsewhere to limit screen and social media time for children and keep them from accessing harmful material, but nowhere has put a total ban on the platforms involved.
In the UK, new safety rules introduced in July mean online companies face large fines or even the jailing of their executives if they fail to implement measures to protect young people from seeing illegal and harmful content.
Other European countries allow the use of social media under a certain age only with parental consent. In September, a French parliamentary enquiry recommended banning under-15s from social media, as well as a social media “curfew” for 15- to 18-year-olds.
Denmark has announced plans to ban social media for under-15s, while Norway is considering a similar proposal. Spain’s government has sent to parliament a draft law for under-16s to require their legal guardians to authorise access.
Meanwhile, an attempt in the US state of Utah to ban under-18s from social media without parental consent was blocked by a federal judge last year.
