Category: World

A U.S. judge found on Monday there is evidence of misconduct in how a federal prosecutor closely aligned with President Donald Trump secured criminal charges against James Comey, and ordered that grand jury materials be turned over to the former FBI chief’s defense lawyers.
U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick, in Alexandria, Virginia, found that Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney leading the case, may have made significant legal errors in presenting evidence and instructing grand jurors who were weighing whether to charge Comey – mistakes that could have tainted the case.

“The record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding,” Fitzpatrick wrote in his ruling.
Fitzpatrick said his order to turn over the grand jury material was an “extraordinary remedy,” but said it was necessary under what he called “unique circumstances.”
Comey is among three prominent critics of the Republican president who have been hit with criminal charges by Trump’s Justice Department in recent months. Trump critics have described the charges as a part of a campaign by the president to chill opposition. Comey pleaded not guilty after being charged in September with making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation.

A different judge previously expressed skepticism about the legality of Halligan’s appointment. Other courts have raised alarm about political motivations in Justice Department investigations, and grand juries have rejected cases tied to Trump’s police surge in Washington.
Halligan had not worked as a prosecutor before Trump appointed her in September. She had primarily practiced real estate law and represented Trump in civil litigation.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the judge’s decision. Prosecutors quickly sought to pause the order to turn over grand jury material and claimed in a court filing that Fitzpatrick “may have misinterpreted some facts.”
Later on Monday, the trial judge in the Comey case, Michael Nachmanoff, of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, agreed to review the magistrate judge’s order and temporarily halted it from taking effect.

WAVE OF TARGETS

Comey has sought to get the charges against him dismissed, saying the prosecution resulted from Trump’s “personal spite” against him over his criticism of the president and his leadership of an investigation into contacts between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russians.
Trump has threatened to imprison rivals since he first ran for president in 2015. Comey’s indictment was followed by indictments of two other prominent Trump critics – his former national security adviser John Bolton and New York state Attorney General Letitia James. The charges in the three cases breached a long-standing Justice Department practice of political independence in criminal investigations.
Prosecutors allege that Comey lied to a Senate committee in 2020 when he said he stood behind prior testimony that he had not authorized anyone at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about investigations into Trump and his 2016 rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Fitzpatrick said he would order prosecutors to turn over grand jury materials to Comey’s defense for use in a potential future legal motion to have the charges dismissed.
Grand jury materials are typically protected by strict secrecy rules. Fitzpatrick acknowledged that disclosure to the defense was an “extraordinary remedy,” but found that Comey had shown a specific need for the records.
“The Court finds the record in this case requires the full disclosure of grand jury materials,” he wrote.
“In so finding, the Court recognizes this is an extraordinary remedy, but given the factually based challenges the defense has raised to the government’s conduct and the prospect that government misconduct may have tainted the grand jury proceedings, disclosure of grand jury materials under these unique circumstances is necessary to fully protect the rights of the accused.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-judge-orders-doj-turn-over-comey-grand-jury-materials-citing-misconduct-2025-11-17/

President Trump pledged that prices will come down in a speech to owners, operators and suppliers of his beloved McDonald’s Monday.

Trump’s address at the fast-food giant’s Impact Summit in Washington, DC, comes as concerns over his handling of the economy and the cost of living have mounted.

“Prices are coming down,” the president claimed.

“I will tell you that nobody has done what we’ve done in terms of pricing,” Trump argued. “We took over a mess. We had the highest inflation in the history of our country … and now we have normal inflation.”

Inflation ticked up to 3% in September over the past 12 months – the highest rate since the start of this year.

The Economist’s famed “Big Mac” index, which tracks the average price of the Golden Arches’ iconic burger, shows the sandwich cost $6.01 in July, up from $5.69 a year ago.

The surge in price comes as the cost of ground beef went up to an average of $6.32 in September — up from $5.67 a year before, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Last week, the Trump administration eased tariffs on imports of beef, coffee, tropical fruits and other food products to help ease affordability concerns.

“We have it down to a low level,” Trump said of inflation. “But we’re going to get it a little bit lower. We want perfection.”

The president, describing himself to the audience as “one of your all-time, most loyal customers,” said he’d heard from CEO Chris Kempczinski that “prices at McDonald’s are coming down,” as well.

Trump touted his investment and trade deals, arguing that the economy would’ve been a “catastrophe” and the country may have gone “bankrupt” if he’d lost to former Vice President Kamala Harris last November.

“You are so damn lucky that I won that election,” he said.

Trump, who served french fries at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s during the 2024 election campaign, quipped that he’s “the very first former McDonald’s frycook to ever become president of the United States.”

“It was not that easy!” he said of working the drive-thru.

Trump argued that McDonald’s employees “know the people of our country better than anybody.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/us-news/trump-promises-prices-are-coming-down-in-speech-to-mcdonalds-owners/

The U.S. stock market sank Monday as Nvidia and other superstars created by the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology dimmed some more.

The S&P 500 fell 0.9% and pulled further from its all-time high set late last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 557 points, or 1.2%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.8%.

Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the market, as it’s often been in its last couple of tumultuous weeks. The chip company fell 1.8%, while losses for other AI winners included a 6.4% slide for Super Micro Computer.

Other areas of the market that had been high-momentum winners also sank. Bitcoin fell below $92,000, down from nearly $125,000 last month, for example. That helped drag down Coinbase Global by 7.1% and Robinhood Markets by 5.3%.

Critics have been warning that the U.S. stock market could be primed for a drop because of how high prices have shot since April, leaving them looking too expensive. Critics point in particular to stocks swept up in the AI mania, which have been surging at spectacular speeds for years.

Even with Monday’s loss, Nvidia is still up 39% for the year so far after it doubled in price in four of the last five years.

That has Wall Street’s spotlight on Wednesday, when Nvidia will report how much profit it made during the summer. AI stocks have surged as much as they have because of expectations that they’ll produce huge growth in profits. If they fail to top analysts’ expectations, that would undercut one of the big assumptions that’s driven the U.S. stock market to records.

Such high expectations extend beyond tech stocks, even if they are toughest for AI darlings.

Aramark fell 5.2% after the company reported a profit for the latest quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations. The company, which offers food and facilities management for schools, national parks and convention centers, also said it expects an underlying measure of profit to grow between 20% and 25% this upcoming year. While relatively strong, that was less than what analysts had been forecasting.

That helped offset a rise of 3.1% for Alphabet. It jumped after Berkshire Hathaway said it built a $4.34 billion ownership stake in Google’s parent company. Berkshire Hathaway, run by famed investor Warren Buffett, is notorious for trying to buy stocks only when they look like good values while avoiding anything that looks too expensive.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 61.70 points to 6,672.41. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 557.24 to 46,590.24, and the Nasdaq composite sank 192.51 to 22,708.07.

Another source of potential disappointment for Wall Street is what the Federal Reserve does with interest rates. The expectation had been that the Fed would keep cutting interest rates in hopes of shoring up the slowing job market. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments.

But questions are rising about whether a third cut for the year will come out of the Fed’s next meeting in December, something that traders had earlier seen as very likely. The downside of lower interest rates is that they can make inflation worse, and inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.

Fed officials have also pointed to the U.S. government’s shutdown, which delayed the release of updates on the job market and other signals about the economy. With less information and less certainty about how things are going, some Fed officials have suggested it may be better to wait in December to get more clarity.

Now that the shutdown is over, the government is preparing to release September’s delayed jobs report on Thursday. That could create further swings for the market. Data that’s very strong would likely stay the Fed’s hand on rate cuts, while figures that are very weak would raise worries about the economy.

In 2026, the Fed is likely to cut interest rates only in response to a slowing economy instead of trying to cut ahead of it, according to Barry Bannister, chief equity strategist at Stifel. That’s not as good an environment for stock prices, and Bannister said the “Fed’s ‘free lunch’ is over.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-rates-japan-nvidia-ae23a3aa7ef9ddbc69c7f68881576062

Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen has called out the International Crimes Tribunal’s death sentence for ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, questioning why chief advisor Muhammad Yunus and his aides haven’t faced similar scrutiny after last year’s student uprising that toppled Hasina’s regime.

Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen has lashed out at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)’s ruling against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, asking why she was being considered a criminal and not chief advisor Muhammad Yunus and his “jihadist forces”.

In a landmark verdict, the ICT on Monday sentenced Sheikh Hasina to death for crimes against humanity, including the killing of multiple people during last year’s student uprising, which ultimately led to the collapse of her government.

In a post on X late Monday, Nasreen, who has been living in exile in India since 1994, took a dig at Yunus’s regime, questioning why “terrorists” who ordered to shoot at protesters were not being brought to justice.

“The actions for which Hasina has been declared unjust by Yunus and his jihadi forces – when Yunus and those same jihadi forces commit the very same actions, they declare them to be just,” the 63-year-old author said, adding when will “farce in name of justice” end in Bangladesh.

“When someone commits acts of sabotage and the current government orders them to be shot, the government does not call itself a criminal. So why is Hasina being considered a criminal for giving the order last July to shoot those who committed acts of sabotage?” she wrote.

For those unversed, Nasreen was forced to leave Bangladesh in 1994 after getting death threats from Islamist fundamentalists over her book ‘Lajja’, which was banned in the country, but became a bestseller elsewhere. She has been living in India since then.

In recent months, Nasreen has taken a critical stance on Yunus’s regime, accusing it of committing “crimes against humanity” following Hasina’s ouster. She has demanded that the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Yunus in 2006, be withdrawn, and that he should be jailed for life.

Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with the Grameen Bank which he founded, for their efforts to create economic and social development through the pioneering concepts of microcredit and microfinance.

ICT RULING AGAINST SHEIKH HASINA

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

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

The landmark ruling, arriving months ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for early February, is expected to reshape Bangladesh’s political landscape. Hasina’s Awami League has been barred from contesting the polls, and analysts warn the verdict could trigger fresh unrest.

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

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/taslima-nasreen-sheikh-hasina-ict-ruling-bangladesh-muhammad-yunus-dhaka-july-uprising-2821551-2025-11-18

COPS are investigating fresh sexual assault allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Investigators said they received a report on Friday from a police department in Florida, where the alleged victim lives, according to ABC.

The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau is undertaking the investigation into the new accusations.

A spokesperson from the Largo police department in Florida told ABC News that local officers were assisting the East Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office in the investigation, but were not looking into the alleged crimes independently.

The report was taken in September, from a man who says Combs sexually assaulted him in 2020.

The alleged victim identified himself as music producer Jonathan Hay in social media posts that have since been deleted.

He also said he was one of the John Does who filed a civil lawsuit against Combs in July.

According to the police report, Combs pleasured himself in front of Hay, before asking him to “finish him off”.

Hay told police that he did not respond to the disgraced rapper, because he was in a state of shock.

He alleges Combs then tossed a semen-stained shirt at him.

According to ABC News, the police report detailed another alleged incident in March 2021.

Hay said CJ Wallace, the son of late rapper Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G., took him to a location where two other men put an item over his head.

Combs then came into the room and allegedly forced his penis into Hay’s mouth several times.

Hay has provided Largo cops with pictures and videos that show he had been working with Wallace before he was later introduced to Combs.

Wallace has since filed a counterclaim against Hay, denying the allegations.

He called the accusations “wildly false and defamatory”, saying they were part of a “calculated smear campaign”, aiming to damage his personal and professional reputation.

Wallace’s complaint has requested a jury trial, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

Combs was found guilty in July on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, after hosting drug-fuelled parties known as “freak-offs” and committing violent abuse against ex-partner Cassie Ventura.

Details of the vile assaults and parties were revealed in October as Judge Arun Subramanian handed him his sentence.

Prior to this, Combs embarked on a 12-minute speech, where he begged for mercy and apologised directly to Ventura.

While sobbing, he acknowledged the disturbing video of him savagely beating Ventura in a hotel hallway.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15506784/disgraced-diddy-fresh-sexual-assault-allegation-la-florida/

 

THIS is the terrifying moment a slew of top government officials are forced to climb out of a burning plane after it crash lands.

The private aircraft veered off the runway sparking a huge inferno as footage shows plumes of black smoke billowing from the wreckage.

A huge team of officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo were travelling in the plane when disaster struck.

The aircraft, carrying the country’s Mines Minister, Louis Watum Kabamba and his delegation, was coming in to land at Kolwezi Airport at around 11am on Monday.

As the chartered Embraer flight touched down it suddenly failed to stop before skidding on its belly off runway 29.

Within seconds the tail section immediately went up in flames, according to local reports.

The entire back half of the plane was ignited as footage showed the horrors as they unfolded.

Huge clouds of smoke shot up into the sky at the airport as rescuers frantically rushed over to try and extinguish the flaming wreckage.

Armed with water hoses, some of the safety crews battled the flames as others desperately tried to get those trapped on board out.

The steps at the front of the aircraft managed to open up with some passengers near the exit making a swift escape.

For the officials stuck in the middle or now badly burnt out back end they had no choice but to leap out of the centre exit.

Several could be seen jumping down onto the wing before falling to the ground below clutching onto their bags.

The minister’s communications advisor, Isaac Nyembo, confirmed the aircraft “ran off the runway during landing”.

Footage from inside the plane as it comes in to land shows the panic for those on board.

One passenger films the landing as he shows how the wing scraped across the ground for several seconds at high-speed.

Those inside rushed to their feet just as the tail first ignited.

Miraculously, no deaths or major injuries were reported.

Investigations into the chartered flight, operated by Airjet Angola, are ongoing.

It remains unclear what caused the failed landing.

The plane is said to have been left completely decimated by the fire.

Minister Kabamba, 63, was headed to the Kalondo Mine near Kolwezi, to work with the community following a separate disaster over the weekend.

A bridge by a mine shaft suddenly collapsed on Saturday reportedly triggered by heavy rain and a surge of panicked workers.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15505972/plane-crash-fire-runway-congo/

 

Air defense topped the agenda at talks between Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and France’s Emmanuel Macron. And a Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa region has caused fires at port and energy facilities. DW has more.

The school’s vice president was shot dead and a security guard was injured. Authorities were combing the surrounding forests and possible escape routes in Kebbi state for the “bandits.”

Gunmen kidnapped 25 female students and killed the vice principal of a secondary school in Kebbi state in northwestern Nigeria Monday, police said.

Nigeria’s northwest has seen repeated kidnappings from schools in recent years by armed gangs seeking ransom.

What do we know about the raid at the school in Kebbi state?

Police said that the attackers had “sophisticated weapons” and were “shooting sporadically” during the raid.

They “stormed the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School” at around 4 a.m. local time (0300 UTC), according to the statement.

Police officers were deployed to the scene, but the statement stressed: “Unfortunately, the suspected bandits had already scaled through the fence of the school and abducted twenty-five students from their hostel to [an] unknown destination].”

A report said that the school’s vice principal was shot dead while resisting the attack and a security guard was injured.

Police said officers, including additional tactical units, were searching for the gunmen in possible escape routes and forests near the school with the help of the military and local vigilantes.

‘Bandits’ carry out kidnappings, killings in northern Nigeria

Northwestern Nigeria has for the years been the site of attacks by criminal gangs known locally as “bandits,” who have been known to loot and burn homes, steal cattle, as well as carrying out kidnappings and killings.

In March 2024, some 130 schoolchildren were kidnapped in Kuriga in the northwestern state of Kaduna.

Northern Nigeria’s most infamous kidnapping event was carried out in 2014 by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram, which abducted 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-gunmen-kidnap-25-students-from-kebbi-high-school/a-74782165

Away from COP30’s official talks, African activists in Belem, Brazil, joined the People’s Summit to expose climate injustices and push for reparations. DW spoke to some of the people leading this fight.

Three years ago, when Nigerian activist OduduAbasi Asuquo received her invitation to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belem, Brazil, she began preparing for an experience she knew would differ from previous summits.

The reason, she says, was the People’s Summit, which was scheduled to take place in parallel to COP30.

Over the weekend, thousands of people gathered a short distance from the main COP30 meeting at the Federal University of Para for the People’s Summit.

“At the People’s Summit, we’re free to say how we really feel, without restrictions. There are no checks. At the COP, everything must be approved — even the T-shirt you wear,” Asuquo told DW.

She was surrounded by Indigenous people from Black communities known as “quilombolas” who are descended from former Africans enslaved in Brazil, riverine groups, youth networks, and socio-environmental movements.

While COP30 negotiators refined official climate goals, the People’s Summit exposed injustices and demanded reparations, with hundreds of organizations, movements and networks from Brazil and abroad.

Asuquo took part in debates and highlighted the long-standing environmental devastation in her native Niger Delta, a region of Nigeria that has been scarred by decades of oil extraction.

African voices demand climate justice

From Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo, the activists interviewed by DW offered a perspective often excluded from official processes — one that underscores the gap between high-level diplomacy and the daily realities of communities already living through the crisis.

“People who live with the impacts should be at the [negotiation] tables,” Asuquo said. “But when we do manage to be there, our voices don’t matter. They let us talk, but at the end of the day they do what they always wanted to do.”

She denounced the toxic pollution of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, where between 9 million and 13 million barrels of oil have been spilled since the 1950s, when crude was first discovered in southern Nigeria, according to an independent group of experts who conducted a study in 2006.

“There are many cases of asthma, severe illnesses … skin diseases and deaths,” she said. Participating in her fourth COP only reinforces a recurring feeling: “We are literally begging for our lives.”

Senegal: Fishers at risk

Further north along West Africa’s coast, Senegalese activist Ibrahima Thiam traveled to Brazil to expose how coastal erosion and industrial pressures are destroying artisanal fishing — forcing entire communities to relocate.

Through a photography exhibit, he documented the displacement caused by climate change.

“Senegal depends on fishing,” he said. “But many fishers are migrating, disappearing, or dying.”

This year, he chose to attend only the People’s Summit.

“My first COP, in Egypt, was disappointing,” he said. “When I saw a row of banks at the blue zone, I asked myself: what are banks doing here?”

“But, here at People’s Summit I have the feeling of being with people who understand me better”, he told DW. “People with whom I can share the feeling of solidarity.”

Guinea-Bissau: Knowledge as a solution

From neighboring Guinea-Bissau, sociologist and environmentalist Miguel de Barros stressed the importance of a space led by civil society.

He believes the People’s Summit can leave a meaningful legacy for COP30 by bringing new perspectives on climate finance and public policy.

Guinea-Bissau faces worsening coastal flooding, desertification, and soil degradation — compounded by poor waste management and plastic pollution.

De Barros argues that ancestral African and Amazonian knowledge, combined with agroecology, can provide real pathways to address the climate crisis.

“Perhaps one of the legacies of COP30 will be how the deliberations of an entity like the People’s Summit can contribute,” de Barros told DW.

He hopes that world leaders will finally listen to civil society and adopt robust strategies to confront major polluters.

Togo: Criticism of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility

Kwami Kpondzo, a Togolese activist and member of the Global Forest Coalition, arrived at COP30 with sharp criticism of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a proposed $125-billion (€108 billion) global conservation fund that would pay countries based on how well they protect their forests.

Kpondzo considers the proposal insufficient.

“Financializing nature won’t solve the problem. The causes are clear: mining, deforestation, exploitation, extraction. The TFFF does not address these roots and may benefit investors, not communities,” he said.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/african-activists-rally-and-challenge-cop30-agenda/a-74776996

 

Once the Palestinian Authority has carried out requested reforms and the rebuilding of Gaza is underway, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”, according to the US-drafted resolution.

The UN Security Council voted Monday (Nov 17) in favour of a US-drafted resolution bolstering Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan that includes the deployment of an international force and a path to a future Palestinian state.

There were 13 votes in favour of the text, which US President Trump claimed would lead to “further Peace all over the World”, with only Russia and China abstaining – but no vetoes.

Trump posted on social media that the vote “acknowledging and endorsing the BOARD OF PEACE, which will be chaired by me…will go down as one of the biggest approvals in the History of the United Nations, (and) will lead to further Peace all over the World”.

US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said after the vote that “today’s resolution represents another significant step that will enable Gaza to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security”.

But Hamas, which is excluded by the resolution from any governance role in Gaza, said the resolution did not meet Palestinians’ “political and humanitarian demands and rights”.

The text, which was revised several times as a result of high-stakes negotiations, “endorses” the US president’s plan, which allowed for a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to take hold on Oct 10 in the war-wracked Palestinian territory.

The Gaza Strip has been largely reduced to rubble after two years of fighting, sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023.

The peace plan authorises the creation of an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) that would work with Israel and Egypt and newly trained Palestinian police to help secure border areas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip.

The ISF is mandated to work on the “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups”, protecting civilians and securing humanitarian aid corridors.

PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD PATHWAY

It also authorises the formation of a “Board of Peace,” a transitional governing body for Gaza – which Trump would theoretically chair – with a mandate running until the end of 2027.

In convoluted language, the resolution does mention a possible future Palestinian state.

Once the Palestinian Authority has carried out requested reforms and the rebuilding of Gaza is underway, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”, the text says.

That eventuality has been firmly rejected by Israel.

The resolution also calls for the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries at scale through the UN, ICRC and Red Crescent.

“We must also substantially step up our work to support the UN humanitarian effort. That requires opening all crossings and ensuring that aid agencies and international NGOs can operate without obstruction,” said a British ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki.

Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said ahead of the vote that the resolution would “make sure that Hamas will not pose a threat against Israel anymore”.

Veto-wielding Russia circulated a competing draft, saying the US document does not go far enough towards backing the creation of a Palestinian state.

Moscow’s text, seen by AFP, asked the Council to express its “unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution”.

It would not have authorised a Board of Peace or the deployment of an international force for the time being, instead asking UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to offer “options” on those issues.

“Security Council members were, in practice, not given the time to do the work in good faith,” Moscow’s ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/united-nations-security-council-votes-international-force-gaza-5473391

Sony Pictures has closed a deal to develop a movie based on the toothy monsters, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The popular Labubu dolls that have ignited a global frenzy may light up movie screens in the future, The Hollywood Reporter said on Friday (Nov 14).

Sony Pictures has closed a deal to develop a movie based on the toothy monsters, the media outlet reported. The film is in the early stages of development and it has not yet been decided whether it will be live-action or animated.

Sony had no comment.

Labubus, sold by China’s Pop Mart, became a phenomenon this year. They were carried by celebrities including Rihanna and singer Lisa from South Korean group Blackpink. Shoppers lined up to buy the dolls in blind boxes that keep the exact model secret until opened.

Source : https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/labubu-movie-works-474071

New entrants to the Cambridge Dictionary, meanwhile, included “skibidi”, “delulu” and “tradwife”.

Do you feel a deep bond with pop stars like Taylor Swift or Lily Allen – even though you’ve never met them?

If you do, then your behaviour is “parasocial” and bang on trend according to the Cambridge Dictionary, which on Tuesday (Nov 18) unveiled the adjective as its word of the year for 2025.

Lexicographers picked it in a year they said was marked by interest in the one-sided parasocial relationships that people form with celebrities, influencers and AI chatbots.

Parasocial is defined as “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know”.

The term dates back to 1956, when two University of Chicago sociologists noted television viewers developing parasocial relationships with television personalities, who they viewed in the same way as close friends or family.

As artificial intelligence becomes an ever-increasing part of people’s lives, “slop”, which gets an updated definition, refers to low-quality AI-generated content inundating the internet.

New entrants to the Cambridge Dictionary, meanwhile, included “skibidi”, “delulu” and “tradwife”.

The three were among “6,212 new words, phrases and meanings” included in the online dictionary over the past 12 months, it said.

The dictionary only adds words that are thought to have “staying power”, according to one of its lexicographers, Colin McIntosh.

“Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,” he said.

The slang term “skibidi” is described as having different meanings such as cool or bad.

But it can also be used with no real meaning or as a joke, or in phrases such as: “What the skibidi are you doing?”

“Delulu” is said to be a play on the word delusional.

“Tradwife” is short for traditional wife, meaning a “married woman, especially one who posts on social media, who stays at home doing cooking, cleaning”.

Source : https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/living/parasocial-cambridge-dictionary-word-year-2025-474076

More than 200,000 protesters turned out on Monday (Nov 17) for the second day of an anti-graft rally in the Philippines, demanding accountability over accusations of corruption in flood-mitigation projects.

The controversy, which has hammered investor confidence, is blamed by some analysts as a factor behind the third quarter’s four-year low in economic growth as public spending slowed.

Many demonstrators set up tents in which to stay until Tuesday, the end of the protest which has drawn more than 600,000 people since it began on Sunday, organised by Iglesia Ni Cristo, a church of 2 million members, known for bloc voting.

“Expose the deeds of evil,” and “rally for transparency and democracy”, read placards carried by protesters, most of them wearing white and drawn from the church.

Both days’ rallies were largely peaceful, though participants expressed frustration at inquiries they described as ineffective into irregularities in key infrastructure projects.

“We are calling for the government to carry out a real, sincere, investigation and not cover up for anyone involved in this anomaly,” said 60-year-old Freddie Beley, one of the protesters.

On Thursday President Ferdinand Marcos Jr vowed that those responsible for the flawed projects would be jailed before Christmas. The scandal has widened since his August revelations of irregularities found in an audit of flood-control projects.

It has implicated public works officials, executives of major construction firms, and lawmakers, who allegedly enriched themselves through substandard, or in some cases non-existent, flood-control efforts.

Marcos has set up a panel to investigate the alleged graft in the projects, focused on flood control.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/philippines-manila-anti-graft-protests-flood-project-corruption-5471431

Angelina Jolie’s son, Knox, just stepped out with a bold new look — it’s also a nod to his mom’s iconic 1998 hairdo.

The 17-year-old debuted a spiky, pastel, pixie-style cut on Saturday, looking similar to the hot pink bob Jolie debuted over 25 years ago.

The Oscar winner sported the edgy hairstyle in her 1998 film “Playing by Heart,” which she starred in alongside Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands and Ryan Phillippe.

Knox also sported a pale pink sweatshirt and floral embroidered jeans while he was picking up food with a friend at the Lazy Acres Market in Los Feliz, CA.

Jolie shares six children with ex-husband Brad Pitt: Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and twins Knox and Vivienne. Many in her brood have paid homage to their famous mom over the years.

In April, 19-year-old Shiloh — who dropped her dad’s last name last year — channeled Angelina’s “Tomb Raider” look with edgy braids.

In September 2024, Zahara, 20, seemingly “reworked” her mom’s iconic Oscars dress for the “Maria” premiere.

The college student wore a slinky white halter dress that many fans thought resembled the iconic Marc Bouwer design Angelina wore at the 2004 Academy Awards.

Although it’s unclear if Zahara altered the exact vintage garment for the premiere, the teen’s slinky style also resembles the draped Atelier Jolie design Angelina modeled for a CR Fashion Book shoot.

All six children have chosen Angelina’s side in her tumultuous divorce from Pitt, with the actor having little to no contact with any of them.

The “Maleficent” star filed for divorce in September 2016, but divorce proceedings were ultimately put on hold while they sorted out their child custody issues.

In December 2024, Page Six revealed that the nearly decade-long divorce was finalized thanks to Pitt’s girlfriend, Ines de Ramon, with sources telling us she influenced him to “finally settle.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/17/style/angelina-jolies-son-knox-17-debuts-bold-hair-transformation/

 

Liev Schreiber was hospitalized in New York City Sunday after telling his doctor he was experiencing a “massive headache.”

The “Spotlight” star’s doctor ordered that he “immediately” get checked out and stay overnight at the hospital, where he is currently undergoing a series of tests, TMZ reported Monday.

Insiders told the outlet that the actor was able to talk and walk without difficulty. At this time, no other medical information has been revealed.

“Out of an abundance of caution, Liev went into the hospital for testing and as of this afternoon, he has been cleared to return to work,” his rep told the outlet Monday night.

Reps for Schreiber, 58, weren’t immediately available to Page Six for comment.

The Tony Award winner has starred in several projects over the years, including films like “Scream,” “Isle of Dogs,” “Spotlight” and “A Small Light,” and TV series like “Ray Donovan.”

He portrayed Ray Donovan in the seven-season series, which ran from 2013 to 2020.

Most recently, he portrayed Tag Winbury in the 2024 Netflix drama “The Perfect Couple” alongside Nicole Kidman as his on-screen wife, Greer Garrison Winbury.

As for his personal life, Schreiber got married to Taylor Neisen in July 2023 after about six years of dating.

The following month, the couple welcomed their first child together, Hazel Bee.

Schreiber is also the father of children Sasha, 18, and Kai, 16, with whom he shares with actress Naomi Watts, 57.

The exes previously dated for 11 years before they parted ways in September 2016.

Schreiber and the “Mulholland Drive” star, however, have put on a united front throughout the years and reunited for Sasha’s high school graduation in June.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/17/celebrity-news/liev-schreiber-hospitalized-in-new-york-city-after-mysterious-illness/

Federal agents arrested at least 81 people in Charlotte, North Carolina, this weekend, a senior commander said on Sunday, marking a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Gregory Bovino, the U.S. Border Patrol official who led immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago before he arrived in Charlotte this week, said on social media early Sunday that agents made the North Carolina arrests within a roughly five-hour span on Saturday, their first day of operating in Charlotte. Many of those arrested had “significant criminal and immigration history,” Bovino wrote.

Neither the Border Patrol nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement immediately responded to requests for comment on Sunday. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees those agencies, did not respond to a request for comment.
Mass deportation and strict enforcement of immigration laws have been a key part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda. Since Trump, a Republican, took office in January, federal immigration agents have carried out raids in largely Democratic-run cities, along with more conservative rural areas.

The efforts have led to large protests in the impacted cities, with citizens often confronting immigration agents as they attempt to detain those suspected of being in the United States illegally. Immigration rights groups and others have accused the administration of illegally detaining scores of law-abiding citizens caught up in the raids.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, said in a video posted on social media on Sunday night that undocumented and violent criminals should be deported, saying that “everyone wants to be safe in their community, but the actions of too many federal agents are doing the exact opposite in Charlotte.”
“We’ve seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling and picking up random people in parking lots and off of our sidewalks,” Stein said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-border-patrol-arrests-81-first-day-charlotte-immigration-crackdown-2025-11-16/

U.S. President Donald Trump bought at least $82 million in corporate and municipal bonds from late August to early October including new investments in sectors benefiting from his policies, financial disclosures made public on Saturday showed.
According to the forms released by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Trump carried out more than 175 financial purchases from August 28 through October 2. The disclosures, made under a 1978 transparency law called the Ethics in Government Act, do not list exact amounts for each purchase, only providing a broad range.

The maximum total value of the bond purchases exceeded $337 million, according to the filings.
Most of the assets listed in Saturday’s disclosures consist of bonds issued by municipalities, states, counties, school districts and other entities with ties to public agencies.
Trump’s new bond investments span several industries, including sectors that have already benefited, or are benefiting, from his administration’s policy changes such as financial deregulation.

Corporate bonds acquired by Trump include offerings from chipmakers such as Broadcom (AVGO.O), and Qualcomm (QCOM.O); tech companies such as Meta Platforms (META.O); retailers such as Home Depot (HD.N), and CVS Health (CVS.N); and Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs (GS.N), and Morgan Stanley (MS.N).

Purchases of the debt of investment banks in late August included bonds of JP Morgan (JPM.N). On Friday, Trump asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate JP Morgan over its ties to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The bank has said it regrets its past ties with Epstein and did not help him commit “heinous acts.”

Trump also acquired Intel (INTC.O), bonds after the U.S. government, under Trump’s direction, acquired a stake, in the company.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The administration has said before that Trump has continued to file mandatory disclosures about his investments but that neither he nor his family has a role in running the portfolio, which is managed by a third-party financial institution.
Trump, who became wealthy in the real estate sector before entering politics, has previously said that he placed his companies into a trust overseen by his children.

A disclosure filed in August indicated that Trump had purchased more than $100 million in bonds since returning to the presidency on January 20. Trump also submitted his annual disclosure form in June, which indicated that income from his various ventures still ultimately goes to him, raising concerns of potential conflicts of interest.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/trump-buys-least-82-million-bonds-since-late-august-disclosures-show-2025-11-15/

When 22-year-old Hinako Mori moved to Tokyo last year, she chose to work part-time at Don Quijote, a major discount retailer, for one main reason – it doesn’t care what colour her hair is.
Sporting ash blonde locks with light and dark blue streaks when interviewed, Mori likes to dye her hair different colours every six weeks.

It was very different when she worked at a major Japanese convenience store chain that mandated black or dark brown hair.

“One time, I dared to dye my hair blonde. But the next day, I was told to either wear a wig or use spray-on colour,” said Mori. “It was very stressful.”

RETAILERS RELAX RULES

Squeezed by Japan’s tight labour market, more companies are this year following in the footsteps of Don Quijote, a Pan Pacific International (7532.T), group company. It relaxed its rules around hair and nail polish three years ago and says nearly a quarter of its employees now have brightly coloured hair. When brown is included, 55% of its employees have non-black hair.
Drugstore chain Fuji Yakuhin, for example, has done away with a plethora of rules for non-pharmacist employees. It now allows any hair colour, nail art, heavy makeup, as well as all kinds of rings, whereas previously only wedding rings were permitted. Similarly, the operator of Tokyu Store supermarkets has dialled back restrictions on hair colours, hair styles, accessories, nail polish and piercings.

Japan Inc has been gradually relaxing its dress codes over the past two decades. The catalyst was a 2005 Ministry of Environment “Cool Biz” campaign that encouraged the ditching of jackets and ties to cut down on air conditioning costs during summer.
Since then, summer dress codes have become more casual, uniforms are no longer mandated for many department store employees and white gloves for taxi drivers were made optional.
The newest changes around hair colour, nail polish and accessories are predominantly taking place at smaller companies facing more acute labour shortages than bigger firms and don’t have as much leeway to offer competitive wages.
But some big listed firms have relaxed dress codes this year. Japan Airlines (9201.T), last week joined subway operator Tokyo Metro (9023.T), and domestic budget carrier Skymark Airlines (9204.T), in allowing staff to wear sneakers to work.

LABOUR CRUNCH PRESSURE

Japan, a rapidly ageing country with limited immigration, has seen its working-age population tumble 16% since a peak in 1995, according to OECD data. That’s set off fierce competition for staff.
Two-thirds of Japanese firms have said the labour shortage is having a serious business impact, a Reuters survey shows. It was the leading cause of Japanese bankruptcies in April-September, with the number of failures hitting their highest level in 12 years for a first-half period, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
That’s given young people more power, at least with regard to part-time work.
Two-thirds of students believe they should be able to choose their appearance when working part-time, according to an April survey by job information and recruitment firm Mynavi. One-third said they had withdrawn job applications because of dress codes at potential employers.

“Students aren’t just looking for work experience or to earn money; they seem to be seeking something more in their jobs – a sense of freedom or comfort,” said Shota Miyamoto, a researcher at Mynavi. But he added they did not expect the same of full-time work.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/dyed-hair-nail-art-ok-more-japanese-firms-relax-rules-tussle-workers-2025-11-16/

Italy’s Jannik Sinner retained his ATP Finals title on Sunday, sending the Turin crowd wild as he battled past Spanish world number one and rival Carlos Alcaraz 7-6(4) 7-5 in the decider to the season-ending championships.
Sinner, backed by a raucous Italian crowd, fell to the floor after breaking his rival’s serve in the final game before racing to celebrate with his team as chants of ‘Ole, Ole, Ole, Sinner, Sinner’ rang around the Inalpi Arena.

“Finishing in front of the Italian public was a fantastic thing, maybe even better than last year, thank you very much for the support, it was incredible,” Sinner said.
“Thanks to all of you, it felt like being on a football pitch.”
In a season defined and dominated by the rivalry between the two players, it seemed inevitable that they would meet in the title clash and both obliged by easing through the tournament unbeaten to set up one last dance in Turin.

SINNER UNDER PRESSURE

Alcaraz forced the only break point in the first set but Sinner held firm and brought the crowd to its feet with a tiebreak win, and sealed the match when the Spaniard was unable to hold while serving to stay in the contest.

Sinner missed out on ending the year as world number one to Alcaraz after the Spaniard won his three round-robin matches this week but the Italian won the last act of 2025 to crown the best season of his career.
The 24-year-old reached the final of all four Grand Slams, winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon, while Alcaraz has also had a stellar year, winning Roland Garros and the U.S. Open, beating Sinner in both finals.
“Hopefully you’re going to be ready for next year,” Alcaraz said with a smile.
“Because I will be ready.”
Alcaraz put Sinner to the test in Turin but despite not being at his best and struggling with his service game, which had powered him past opponents all week, the Italian held his nerve.
Sinner won his opening service game to love with Alcaraz responding in kind, and at 2-2 the Spaniard forced deuce before a medical emergency in the stands led to a 10-minute break, the duo chatting over the net, belying the tension in the arena and on court.

When play resumed, Sinner advanced to the net to slam down a winning volley and fired an ace to hold. Alcaraz required a medical time-out during the break at 5-4 up before forcing the first break point of the match at 6-5.
Sinner survived and after letting slip a mini-break in the tiebreak, the champion brought the crowd to its feet smashing down a lob after Alcaraz had chased back to return a drop shot and then catching out the Spaniard with a lob of his own to take the first set.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/tennis/sinner-overcomes-alcaraz-retain-atp-finals-title-2025-11-16/

The shot. perfectly aligned with the sun, create a stunning image dubbed ‘The Fall of Icarus’. It required immense planning and precision, said astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy.

An astrophotographer has captured a spectacular shot of a falling skydiver perfectly aligned with the fiery surface of the sun, making it seem like the airborne adventurer is tumbling through the vacuum of space in front of our home star.

Andrew McCarthy, an Arizona-based astrophotographer who specializes in photographing the sun, captured the unlikely photo on Saturday. The shot, dubbed “The Fall of Icarus,” required an “absolutely preposterous” level of planning and “might be the first photo of its kind in existence,” McCarthy wrote in a post on the social platform X.

“Immense planning and technical precision was required for this absolutely preposterous (but real) view: I captured my friend @BlackGryph0n transiting the sun during a skydive. This might be the first photo of it’s kind in existence. See a video of this moment in the reply,” McCarthy’s post reads,

“The moment of the jump, captured in hydrogen alpha light to resolve the sun’s atmosphere,” the post added.

See more

Immense planning and technical precision was required for this absolutely preposterous (but real) view: I captured my friend @BlackGryph0n transiting the sun during a skydive.

This might be the first photo of it’s kind in existence. See a video of this moment in the reply 👇 pic.twitter.com/mkjfavuVsZ

— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) November 13, 2025

Source : https://www.news18.com/viral/astrophotographer-captures-fall-of-icarus-shot-of-man-skydiving-through-sun-watch-ws-l-9711806.html 

Bangladesh has intensified security across Dhaka after a wave of arson and crude bomb attacks ahead of Monday’s tribunal verdict against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Bangladesh imposed tight security throughout Dhaka and several other regions overnight as sporadic arson attacks and crude bomb blasts stirred tension ahead of Monday’s ruling by the special tribunal trying deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for alleged crimes against humanity.

Security forces from the military, paramilitary units and police were placed on high alert after word spread that the dissolved Awami League had called a two-day shutdown to coincide with the International Crimes Tribunal–Bangladesh (ICT-BD) verdict.

On Sunday night, unidentified groups torched the vehicle dumping section of a police station complex and set off two crude bombs outside the residence of an advisory council member serving interim government chief, Professor Muhammad Yunus.

Explosions were also reported at multiple intersections across the capital.

As unrest grew, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police directed officers to fire on violent mobs if needed. Prosecutors at the tribunal have asked for the death sentence for the 78-year-old former leader.

“I stated over the wireless that anyone who sets a bus on fire or throws crude bombs with the intent to kill should be shot. This authority is clearly provided in our law,” DMP Commissioner SM Sazzat Ali said late Sunday.

Since November 10, Dhaka has been hit by a string of mostly early-morning covert attacks, including crude bomb blasts at the entrance of Grameen Bank’s Mirpur headquarters, an institution founded by Yunus.

Several branches of the bank were also targeted with petrol bombs and arson.

During the past week, unidentified attackers additionally burned several parked buses, killing a driver who was asleep inside one of the vehicles.

Hasina, who is currently in India, and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal are being tried in absentia.

A third person, former police chief Abdullah Al Mamun, was present in court and turned “approver”, apparently in search of leniency.

“We have sought the highest possible sentence for Hasina. We also requested seizure of the convicts’ property for distribution among families of martyrs and injured victims of last year’s violent street protests,” ICT-BD prosecutor Gazi MH Tamim said on Sunday.

He added that, under the ICT-BD law, Hasina cannot appeal to the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division unless she surrenders or is arrested within 30 days of the judgment.

Officials confirmed that the verdict will air live on state-run BTV, with large screens to be placed at several points across Dhaka.

Only approved parts of the ruling will be broadcast, and the tribunal will also stream the proceedings on its official Facebook page.

In an audio message posted overnight on the Awami League’s Facebook page, Hasina rejected the accusations and asked party members not to panic, saying, “We have seen enough of these attacks and cases, this is just a matter of time.”

Interim home affairs adviser, retired lieutenant general Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, remarked that the verdict, “whatever it is, will be executed”.

Authorities have further tightened security nationwide to prevent any unrest.

Hasina and several Awami League leaders are facing charges that include murder, corruption and abuse of power. Monday’s verdict covers five counts of alleged crimes against humanity connected to last year’s July Uprising.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/bangladesh-sheikh-hasina-verdict-dhaka-unrest-high-alert-security-9712295.html

Hasina said Muhammad Yunus and those aligned with him had orchestrated a plan to “punish” her through a process that she claimed violated all legal norms.

With the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) set to deliver its verdict, Bangladesh’s deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed her supporters virtually, denouncing the proceedings against her as “entirely illegal”.

She alleged that Interim Prime Minister Muhammad Yunus and those aligned with him had orchestrated a plan to “punish” her through a process that she claimed violated all legal norms.

Speaking forcefully, she insisted the case registered against her was false and politically motivated. Hasina, along with former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, faces charges of murder, attempted murder, torture and other inhumane acts tied to the violent protests of 2024, which erupted over a controversial quota system in government jobs.

Bangladesh lockdown

Hasina urged her supporters to take to the streets and ensure a nationwide lockdown, saying that violence and intimidation “cannot silence” her. She accused Yunus’s supporters of killing civilians and burning people alive after last year’s unrest, describing the situation as an unprecedented assault on ordinary Bangladeshis.

She added that under the Awami League’s leadership, laws had been strengthened to address atrocities, including crimes against women during the 1971 Liberation War. In contrast, she claimed, “criminals have become heroes of July” under the current interim administration.

Hasina also hinted she may seek a political return, though she emphasised that her future depended on Bangladesh’s political climate. Having fled to India on 5 August 2024 amid escalating violence, she said she would only re-enter politics if Bangladesh could hold “free, fair and participatory elections” in which all major parties, including the Awami League, were allowed to contest.

Hasina argued that her removal from office was not due to political decline, but to a coordinated effort to destabilise her government. She accused violent elements of hijacking the student protest movement, citing “military-grade weapons in civilian hands” and “coordinated burning of state institutions”. Remaining in Dhaka, she said, would have risked a “bloodbath”.

What Hasina said on Yunus administration?

Hasina sharply criticised the Yunus-led interim government, calling it unelected, illegitimate and responsible for plunging the nation into instability. She warned that attacks on minorities, constitutional erosion and the release of individuals linked to extremist groups were symptoms of a regime lacking public mandate. Stability, she argued, could only return when Bangladesh reinstated the political rights of its citizens.

From India, Hasina criticised the interim government’s outreach to Pakistan, describing recent military-level engagements as a desperate attempt for international validation. She accused Yunus of seeking to “rewrite history” by courting Islamabad, despite Pakistan never apologising for the atrocities of 1971.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/criminals-have-become-heroes-ahead-of-ict-verdict-sheikh-hasina-says-yunus-framed-false-charges-9712320.html

The Amazon rainforest could face a renewed surge of deforestation as efforts grow to overturn a long-standing ban that has protected it.

The ban – which prohibits the sale of soya grown on land cleared after 2008 – is widely credited with curbing deforestation and has been held up as a global environmental success story.

But powerful farming interests in Brazil, backed by a group of Brazilian politicians, are pushing to lift the restrictions as the COP30 UN climate conference enters its second week.

Critics of the ban say it is an unfair “cartel” which allows a small group of powerful companies to dominate the Amazon’s soya trade.

Environmental groups have warned removing the ban would be “disaster”, opening the way for a new wave of land grabbing to plant more soya in the world’s largest rainforest.

Scientists say ongoing deforestation, combined with the effects of climate change, is already driving the Amazon towards a potential “tipping point” – a threshold beyond which the rainforest can no longer sustain itself.

Brazil is the world’s largest producer of soya beans, a staple crop grown for its protein and an important animal feed.

Much of the meat consumed in the UK – including chicken, beef, pork and farmed fish – is raised using feeds that include soya beans, about 10% of which are sourced from the Brazilian Amazon.

Many major UK food companies, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Aldi, Lidl, McDonald’s, Greggs and KFC, are members of a coalition called the UK Soy Manifesto which represents around 60% of the soy imported into the UK.

The group supports the ban, which is known officially as the Amazon Soy Moratorium, because they argue it helps ensure UK soy supply chains remain free from deforestation.

In a statement earlier this year the signatories said: “We urge all actors within the soy supply chain, including governments, financial institutions and agribusinesses to reinforce their commitment to the [ban] and ensure its continuation.”

Public opinion in the UK also appears to be firmly behind protecting the Amazon. A World Wildlife Fund survey conducted earlier this year found that 70% of respondents supported government action to eliminate illegal deforestation from UK supply chains.

But Brazilian opponents of the agreement last week demanded the Supreme Court – the highest court in the country – reopen an investigation into whether the moratorium amounts to anti-competitive behaviour.

“Our state has lots of room to grow and the soy moratorium is working against this development,” Vanderlei Ataídes told the BBC. He is president of the Soya Farmers Association of Pará state, one of Brazil’s main soya producing areas.

“I don’t understand how [the ban] helps the environment,” he added. “I can’t plant soya beans, but I can use the same land to plant corn, rice, cotton or other crops. Why can’t I plant soya?”

The challenge has even divided the Brazilian government. While the Justice Ministry says there may be evidence of anti-competitive behaviour, both the Ministry of the Environment and the Federal Public Prosecutors Office have publicly defended the moratorium.

The voluntary agreement was first signed almost two decades ago by farmers, environmental organisations and major global food companies, including commodities giants such as Cargill and Bunge.

It followed a campaign by the environmental pressure group Greenpeace that exposed how soya grown on deforested land was being used in animal feed, including for chicken sold by McDonald’s.

The fast-food chain became a champion of the moratorium, whose signatories pledged not to buy soya grown on land deforested after 2008.

Before the moratorium, forest clearance for soya expansion and the growth of cattle ranching were the main drivers of Amazonian deforestation.

After the agreement was introduced forest clearance fell sharply, reaching an historic low in 2012 during President Lula’s second term in office.

Deforestation increased under subsequent administrations – notably under Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted opening the forest to economic development – but has fallen again during Lula’s current presidency.

Bel Lyon, chief advisor for Latin America at the World Wildlife Fund – one of the agreement’s original signatories – warned that suspending the moratorium “would be a disaster for the Amazon, its people, and the world, because it could open up an area the size of Portugal to deforestation”.

Small farmers whose plots are close to soy plantations say they disrupt local weather patterns and make it harder to grow their crops.

Raimundo Barbosa, who farms cassava and fruit near the town of Boa Esperança outside Santarém in the southeastern Amazon, says when the forest is cleared “the environment is destroyed”.

“Where there is forest, it is normal, but when it is gone it just gets hotter and hotter and there is less rain and less water in the rivers,” he told me as we sat in the shade beside the machines he uses to turn his cassava into flour.

The pressure to lift the moratorium comes as Brazil prepares to open a major new railway stretching from its agricultural heartland in the south up into the rainforest.

The railway is expected to significantly cut transport costs for soya and other agricultural products, adding yet another incentive to clear more land.

Scientists say deforestation is already reshaping the rainforest in profound ways. Among them is Amazon specialist Bruce Fosberg, who has spent half a century studying the forest.

He climbs 15 stories up a narrow tower that rises 45 metres above a pristine rainforest reserve in the heart of the Amazon. From a small platform at the top, he looks out over a sea of green stretching to the horizon.

The tower is bristling with high-tech instruments – sensors that track almost everything happening between the forest and the atmosphere: water vapor, carbon dioxide, sunlight, and essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.

The tower was built 27 years ago and is part of a project – the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment (LBA) – that aims to understand how the Amazon is changing, and how close it is to a critical threshold.

Data from the LBA together with other scientific studies show parts of the rainforest may be nearing a “tipping point”, after which the ecosystem can no longer maintain its own functions.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwypzdgwg1yo

A United Airlines flight on its way to Chicago was forced to make an emergency landing in Missouri Sunday after a passenger said there was a bomb in his wife’s luggage, according to reports and authorities.

United Flight 380 from Dallas to Chicago landed in St. Louis on Sunday morning due to a potential security concern, a United Airlines spokesperson said in a statement to The Post.

The plane was diverted to St. Louis Lambert International Airport around 8:40 a.m. after a man said there was a bomb in a piece of his wife’s luggage, sources told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The allegedly unwieldy man was arrested, the outlet said.

His identity or whether he has been charged is not immediately clear.

All 119 passengers were promptly evacuated and waited on the concourse upon landing, the airport’s director, Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, told the outlet.

Bomb and arson teams were dispatched to the Boeing 737-700 and were still searching it more than two hours after it landed, the outlet reported.

Law enforcement successfully searched and cleared the aircraft, according to United Airlines.

The flight took off from St. Louis in the afternoon and landed safely in Chicago, the airline said.

The incident comes after multiple bomb threats have sparked chaos aboard flights in recent weeks.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/11/16/us-news/united-airlines-flight-emergency-lands-in-st-louis-after-bomb-threat/

 

A group of rabbits in Colorado with grotesque, hornlike growths may seem straight out of a low-budget horror film, but scientists say there’s no reason to be spooked — the furry creatures merely have a relatively common virus.

The cottontails recently spotted in Fort Collins are infected with the mostly harmless Shope papillomavirus, which causes wart-like growths that protrude from their faces like metastasizing horns.

Viral photos have inspired a fluffle of unflattering nicknames, including “Frankenstein bunnies,” “demon rabbits” and “zombie rabbits.” But their affliction is nothing new, with the virus inspiring ancient folklore and fueling scientific research nearly 100 years ago.

The virus likely influenced the centuries-old jackalope myth in North America, which told of a rabbit with antlers or horns, among other animal variations. The disease in rabbits also contributed to scientists’ knowledge about the connection between viruses and cancer, such as the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer.

The virus in rabbits was named after Dr. Richard E Shope, a professor at The Rockefeller University who discovered the disease in cottontails in the 1930s.

News about the rabbit sightings in Fort Collins, 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Denver, started getting attention after residents started spotting them around town and posting pictures.

Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the agency has been getting calls about the rabbits seen in Fort Collins.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/rabbits-with-horns-virus-colorado-tentacles-papillomavirus-98b1ad95ba3a0f308bf884d79d1eea7c

Ukraine says that with enough funding, it can produce up to 20 million drones next year. Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy is seeking to resume a prisoner exchange with Russia. DW has the latest.

A China Coast Guard ship formation passed through the waters of the Senkaku Islands on Sunday (Nov 16) on a “rights enforcement patrol”, the China Coast Guard said in a statement, as Beijing ramps up tensions with Japan over its prime minister’s remarks on Taiwan.

A diplomatic spat between China and Japan has intensified since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told parliament on Nov 7 that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.

The remarks sparked an angry response from Beijing, which has signalled that it expects Takaichi to retract them in some fashion.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of the island, which sits just 110km from Japanese territory. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

“China Coast Guard vessel 1307 formation conducted patrols within the territorial waters of the Diaoyu Islands. This was a lawful patrol operation conducted by the China Coast Guard to uphold its rights and interests,” the statement said.

China and Japan have repeatedly faced off around the Japan-administered islands, which Beijing calls Diaoyu and Tokyo calls the Senkaku.

The Japanese Embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Japan has been facing mounting pressure from China since Takaichi made her remarks, with China’s Consul General in Osaka commenting: “The dirty head that sticks itself out must be cut off,” prompting a formal protest from Tokyo.

Beijing then summoned the Japanese ambassador for the first time in more than two years, and China’s defence ministry declared that any Japanese intervention would be doomed to fail.

On Friday, China cautioned its citizens against travelling to Japan, prompting Tokyo to urge Beijing to take “appropriate measures” though it did not elaborate.

Three Chinese airlines said on Saturday that tickets to Japan could be refunded or changed for free.

In Taiwan, the defence ministry said on Sunday morning it had detected 30 Chinese military aircraft operating around the island and seven navy ships over the past 24 hours.

Late on Saturday, the ministry said China had been carrying out another “joint combat patrol” to “harass the airspace and sea around us”.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-japan-senkaku-islands-taiwan-sanae-takaichi-remarks-5470096

Kim Kardashian broke down in tears while studying for the California bar exam — only to fail it.

“I’m just so tired, and it’s like every time I feel like I’m a step ahead, something happens to try to stop me from doing this,” the reality star said in a clip shared via Instagram over the weekend.

“A part of me wants to stop. I just feel [like] my brain’s gonna explode.”

The video detailed how she prepared for the licensing test — which determines whether someone is qualified to practice law in that specific state or territory — two weeks before she took it.

“I’ve been studying for four months straight, canceled all work, don’t take any work calls, I don’t really do anything except for being a mom and studying,” she said, referring to her and ex-husband Kanye West’s four kids: North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6.

Kardashian noted that while she was in the “home stretch” two weeks before the test, she sent her kids on a “great vacation” so she could focus.

The “Kardashians” star also shared that she had “a few disc issues” with her back and had to rock a back brace to help the pain.

“I’ve shared so much of this journey with you, and this summer I documented some of the final two weeks of studying – the ups, the downs, and everything in between,” she captioned the post.

“On November 7th, I found out I didn’t pass the bar. It was disappointing, but it wasn’t the end,” Kardashian added.

“This dream means too much to me to walk away from, so I’m going to keep studying, keep learning, and keep showing up for myself until I get there.”

In the comments section of the post, Kim received support from her sister Khloé Kardashian, who wrote that she was “so so so proud” of the “All’s Fair” actress.

“I saw how hard you studied and how badly you want this! Keep going! We don’t give up! You got this baby! ❤️,” the Good American co-founder, 41, added.

“You gone get it Kim! ❤️❤️,” added City Girls rapper JT.

“You’re a fighter Kim. This set back is just a part of the journey… Your work ethic is inspirational. Sending you love on the way to your destiny 🤍,” commented longtime pal Malika Haqq.

On Nov. 8, Kim revealed she failed the State Bar of California.

“Well… I’m not a lawyer yet. I just play a very well-dressed one on TV,” she wrote via her Instagram Stories, referring to her role as attorney Allura Grant in Hulu’s legal drama “All’s Fair.”

“Six years into this law journey, and I’m still all in until I pass the bar. No shortcuts, no giving up — just more studying and even more determination.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/16/celebrity-news/watch-kim-kardashian-break-down-in-tears-as-she-studies-for-bar-exam-only-to-fail-it/

THE gunman who shot and killed Netflix football coach John Beam on a college campus intentionally targeted him, cops have said.

Beam, who featured on the hit Netflix show Last Chance U, was shot in the head near the football field at Laney College in Oakland, California, on Thursday afternoon.

Oakland Police Department announced that he died from his injuries on Friday morning and that they had a suspect in custody.

They arrested 27-year-old Cedric Irving Jr, who they now believe intentionally targeted the beloved husband, father, and grandfather.

The 66-year-old was athletics director at the school and cops have revealed chilling details about Irving Jr. and his connection to the college.

Oakland Assistant Police Chief James Beere said Irving Jr. was at the campus that day for “a specific reason” and added it was “a very targeted incident”.

He added that the suspect would “loiter around the campus” despite not being a student at Laney College.

It was also revealed that the suspect played football at Oakland’s Skyline High School in 2017, where Beam previously worked.

However, Beam was not employed there at the time.

But, the attack on the veteran coach came just one day after a student from the high school was shot there.

That student is said to be in a stable condition.

Irving Jr. was booked in early Friday morning in connection with the shooting of the football coach.

He was taken in without incident and a gun was recovered, Beere said.

According to cops, the suspected gunman was seen by a sheriff deputy in the early hours of Friday morning at the San Leandro BART station.

He was allegedly carrying two duffle bags, per Fox News affiliate KTVU.

Beere said at a press conference on Friday that the suspect knew Beam “but they did not have a relationship”.

Charges against Irving Jr. are pending and no clear motive has yet been revealed.

At the press conference, Beere made clear that they know the shooting was not motivated by a robbery.

“I will say that Coach Beam was open to helping everybody in our community,” Beere said.

“And this is not uncommon for him to have a relationship with someone that he would think needs help.

“In this case, I can just tell you that the individual that was arrested went specifically to the campus for a specific reason.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/15497333/netflix-football-coach-john-beam-targeted-shooting-suspect/

THOUSANDS of pregnant cows are trapped on a hot, stinking ship that has been stuck at sea for two months after being blocked from docking.

A rotten smell and swarms of flies hang over the boat, according to locals in a Turkish port, with cows dropping dead and giving birth in their own filth.

Around 2,900 animals are crammed inside the rank holds of Spiridon II – a Togo-flagged cargo ship.

A heap of large bags believed to hold cow corpses has appeared on the deck, with witnesses reporting bodily fluids seeping from them and limbs sticking out.

The 52-year-old vessel set off from the port of Montevideo, Uruguay‘s capital, on September 20, bound for Bandirma, Turkey, across the Atlantic.

But after arriving on October 22, the crew was blocked from off-loading the hordes of cattle by infuriating paperwork issues.

There were reportedly problems with the ear tags and corresponding records for a number of the cows.

Banned from the harbour, Spiridon II was forced to anchor out at sea – and remained stuck for almost a month.

With thousands of cows squashed together for 58 days now, fears have been growing about the squalid conditions on board.

At least 58 of the cows have already perished, according to the Germany-based Animal Welfare Foundation.

It said the livestock “appear to be pregnant heifers” – female cows – and that around 140 of them had given birth on board.

The charity said that 50 new-born calves were “detected”, but it was unclear if all the calves were alive, and that the whereabouts of the other 90 is “unknown”.

Supplies of food and water were dwindling fast, and the animals are unlikely to be receiving proper care, the charity claimed.

But there’s no prospect for the animals of an immediate escape from foul prison, because the boat has now been banished back across the sea to Uruguay.

The outward journey took 32 days – so Spiridon II will likely arrive back in mid-December after setting sail on Friday.

Under mounting pressure, Turkish authorities allowed the boat to temporarily dock in Bandirma to take on supplies, but then sent it back out to sea.

But there’s no immediate escape for the animals as the ship has now been banished back across the seas to South America.

Animal Welfare Foundation had been begging for the animals to be immediately unloaded in Turkey, but they face weeks more of hell.

Dr Maria Boada Saña from Animal Welfare Foundation said: “After the long journey from Uruguay to Turkey, the animals are already weakened.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15499710/3000-cows-trapped-sea-stinking-cargo-ship/

 

A BLOODTHIRSTY Venezuelan gang has been flooding British holiday hotspots with pink cocaine, The Sun can reveal.

US president Donald Trump made the powerful Tren de Aragua gang one of his country’s top enemies – and has ordered air strikes on drug boats operated by the narcoterrorists in international waters.

Tren de Aragua – a prison gang turned criminal organisation – has been behind brazen attacks, with ruthless leaders ordering robberies, kidnappings and murders.

Its influence has spread from Venezuela – and it believed to have nodes in at least eight other countries.

Police in Madrid announced last week they had smashed the powerful gang’s first cell in Spain as it seeks to gain a foothold in Europe after wreaking havoc across South America.

On Wednesday, detectives who helped take down the “embryonic” group in Britain’s favourite summer destination confirmed drugs peddled by members of the gang were being sold in the areas UK tourists flock to.

More than 100 Spanish cops were involved in the arrests of 13 suspects.

The raids led to the seizure of marihuana, cocaine and Tusi – a dangerous mix of ketamine with ecstasy or speed better known as pink cocaine.

It’s popular with partying British tourists in places like Ibiza.

A Madrid-based police chief involved in Operation Interciti told The Sun: “I can’t say exactly where the drugs were being sold because it’s very important information we need to keep to ourselves for future investigations.

“But for sure it was happening in the areas British holidaymakers go to.

“UK tourists will have consumed drugs sold by Tren de Aragua gang members, that’s a certainty.

“We were always expecting Spain to be the first country in Europe this criminal organisation would try to establish itself in.

“Almost one million Venezuelans are living here and logically they’re the first this gang are going to seek out.

“They can camouflage themselves among their own nationality but also so they can extort money from them because their compatriots are very well aware of what Tren de Aragua is and the fear they instil in people, and they can use them as foot soldiers.

“We have no evidence pointing to them being anywhere else in Europe at the moment – but we know they will try to recover from this setback for them because it’s happened in the other places they operate.

“We’ve smashed this cell but others will appear to take their place and inherit their role and that’s why we’re already planning our next moves.”

Operation Interciti was activated following the arrest last year in Barcelona of the brother of the shadowy fugitive Tren de Aragua leader known as Nino Guerrero or Boy Warrior.

The investigation which led to the dismantling of Spain and Europe’s first Tren de Aragua cell was led by a specialist Spanish National Police counter-terrorism unit – with the co-operation of special anti-drug prosecutors.

A high-ranking member of the elite police unit told The Sun: “This unit was set up principally to help combat terrorism and threats from the likes of ETA and Islamic extremists.

“But we also focus on groups that threaten internal stability and national security and transnational criminal organisations like Tren de Aragua are certainly one of those.

“The fact we’ve led this investigation shows the capacity they have to destabilise institutions in the countries where they’ve gained footholds already.

“Speaking to law enforcement agencies like the FBI they’ve impressed on us organisations like Tren de Aragua can’t be treated like normal organised criminal gangs.”

Painting a scary scenario of the violent gang war that would have erupted if their activities hadn’t been disrupted in Spain, he said: “We’ve taken them out at an embryonic stage before they managed to properly establish themselves here.

“We were in the stage when they were starting to penetrate after initially getting the lie of the land.

“The experience of other countries is that had they reached the consolidation stage here, they would have started engaging in armed violence and wars with other criminal gangs.

“The last phase would have involved permeating public institutions through corruption, extortion and threats.”

The four alleged leaders of the two sub-groups said to form part of the first Tren de Aragua cell smashed in Spain, have been remanded in prison pending an ongoing criminal court investigation.

They are all Venezuelans in their twenties and thirties held in Madrid and Barcelona.

On Wednesday, in a new sign of the gang’s increased presence in the Brit-popular holiday destination, Spanish cops announced the arrest of a fugitive member wanted by Chile after escaping a huge anti-money laundering operation.

The unnamed woman, now facing extradition to South America, was tracked down to a hideout in Molina de Segura near Murcia, a little over an hour’s drive from Benidorm.

Police and public prosecutors in Chile revealed in June they had arrested 52 people and frozen 250 bank accounts after a months-long operation against a Tren de Aragua faction.

It was allegedly devoted to laundering proceeds of crimes, including people trafficking, murders, kidnap, drug trafficking and extortion.

Spanish police told The Sun after the arrest: “This woman had an Interpol Red Notice out for her.

“The Chilean authorities say she abandoned the country after the operation against Tren de Aragua members.

“She’s accused of facilitating bank accounts and bank cards where she received dirty money she subsequently transferred to one of the criminal organisation’s front firms.

“The money transfers total around $138million.”

Tren de Aragua was founded in 2014 in Tocoron prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua – just 80 miles from the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

It was home to a golf course, zoo, bars, restaurants and swimming pools until just two years ago.

Dubbed a Las Vegas-style resort controlled by inmates, the government sent 11,000 soldiers to storm the facility and regain control in September 2023 and its still-at-large leader fled.

Venezuelan journalist Ronna Risquez, who received death threats before publishing a book about the gang two years ago, says it has expanded its portfolio to around 20 different criminal activities – incorporating even illegal mining and online gambling since its creation just over a decade ago.

Gang members use harder-to-trace cryptocurrency to launder their ill-gotten gains – with experts saying they have cloned the strategy of groups like the feared Sinaloa Cartel – as well as more classic front businesses such as restaurants.

In Mexico, alleged high-ranking Tren de Aragua member, Nelson Arturo Echezuria Alcantara, and his two right-hand men were captured by the government.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15499146/venezuelan-gang-spain-pink-cocaine/

LEGENDARY The Simpsons writer Dan McGrath has died at the age of 61, his family announced.

The award-winning comedy writer, who also worked on Saturday Night Live, died following a stroke, his sister said.

Gail Garabadian wrote on Facebook: “We lost my incredible brother Danny yesterday. He was a special man, one of a kind.

“An incredible son, brother, uncle and friend. Our hearts are broken.”

She told Hollywood Reporter that he passed away at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn.

Dan kicked off his career at SNL, when he often collaborated with Adam Sandler.

He then had two stints as a writer for The Simpsons, followed by eight years on King of the Hill.

He went on to win an Emmy for writing the iconic 1997 Simpsons episode Homer’s Phobia.

The episode sees Homer befriending an antiques dealer, and later discovering he is gay.

It was also honoured by GLAAD – which promotes fairness in media – for its anti-homophobia message.

Dan is survived by his wife Caroline, his mother, Eleanor and siblings as well as nieces and nephews.

The writer cut his teeth on Harvard University’s student comedy publication, The Harvard Lampoon.

He landed a job for Saturday Night Live in 1991, and stayed there for two seasons.

During that time, he shared an Emmy nomination.

He began working on The Simpsons in 1992, and wrote 50 episodes across two years.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15499202/the-simpsons-writer-dan-mcgrath-dies/

 

Roy Kaumba, Lualaba’s provincial interior minister, said in a televised briefing that 32 deaths had been confirmed. Rescue efforts continued into Sunday as authorities worked to verify the final number of casualties.

At least 32 people were killed on Saturday after a bridge collapsed at a semi-industrial copper mine in southeastern Congo, authorities said, in one of the deadliest mining incidents in the country this year.

Congo’s artisanal mining agency, SAEMAPE, said the collapse occurred at the Kalando site in Lualaba province, where large numbers of miners operate daily. An agency official told Reuters that 49 people had died, and 20 others were taken to hospital in critical condition, though local officials later released a lower confirmed toll.

SAEMAPE said the tragedy unfolded when panic swept through the mining area after gunfire reportedly erupted from military personnel securing the site. Miners attempted to flee across a narrow bridge, causing it to give way.

“Miners piled on top of each other, causing injuries and death,” the agency said in a statement on Sunday.

The Initiative for the Protection of Human Rights called for an independent investigation into the military’s role, citing reports of clashes between miners and soldiers shortly before the collapse.

Roy Kaumba, Lualaba’s provincial interior minister, said in a televised briefing that 32 deaths had been confirmed. Rescue efforts continued into Sunday as authorities worked to verify the final number of casualties.

DANGEROUS CONDITIONS IN ARTISANAL MINES

Artisanal mining is a key livelihood across Congo, employing an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people and supporting millions more indirectly. But accidents are frequent in informal and poorly regulated operations, where miners often work with limited safety equipment and under unstable conditions.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/congo-copper-mine-bridge-collapse-glbs-2820896-2025-11-17

As America’s aging roads fall further behind on much-needed repairs, cities and states are turning to artificial intelligence to spot the worst hazards and decide which fixes should come first.

Hawaii officials, for example, are giving away 1,000 dashboard cameras as they try to reverse a recent spike in traffic fatalities. The cameras will use AI to automate inspections of guardrails, road signs and pavement markings, instantly discerning between minor problems and emergencies that warrant sending a maintenance crew.

“This is not something where it’s looked at once a month and then they sit down and figure out where they’re going to put their vans,” said Richard Browning, chief commercial officer at Nextbase, which developed the dashcams and imagery platform for Hawaii.

After San Jose, California, started mounting cameras on street sweepers, city staff confirmed the system correctly identified potholes 97% of the time. Now they’re expanding the effort to parking enforcement vehicles.

Texas, where there are more roadway lane miles than the next two states combined, is less than a year into a massive AI plan that uses cameras as well as cellphone data from drivers who enroll to improve safety.

Other states use the technology to inspect street signs or build annual reports about road congestion.

Every guardrail, every day
Hawaii drivers over the next few weeks will be able to sign up for a free dashcam valued at $499 under the “Eyes on the Road” campaign, which was piloted on service vehicles in 2021 before being paused due to wildfires.

Roger Chen, a University of Hawaii associate professor of engineering who is helping facilitate the program, said the state faces unique challenges in maintaining its outdated roadway infrastructure.

“Equipment has to be shipped to the island,” Chen said. “There’s a space constraint and a topography constraint they have to deal with, so it’s not an easy problem.”

Although the program also monitors such things as street debris and faded paint on lane lines, the companies behind the technology particularly tout its ability to detect damaged guardrails.

“They’re analyzing all guardrails in their state, every single day,” said Mark Pittman, CEO of Blyncsy, which combines the dashboard feeds with mapping software to analyze road conditions.

Hawaii transportation officials are well aware of the risks that can stem from broken guardrails. Last year, the state reached a $3.9 million settlement with the family of a driver who was killed in 2020 after slamming into a guardrail that had been damaged in a crash 18 months earlier but never repaired.

In October, Hawaii recorded its 106th traffic fatality of 2025 — more than all of 2024. It’s unclear how many of the deaths were related to road problems, but Chen said the grim trend underscores the timeliness of the dashboard program.

Building a larger AI database
San Jose has reported strong early success in identifying potholes and road debris just by mounting cameras on a few street sweepers and parking enforcement vehicles.

But Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democrat who founded two tech startups before entering politics, said the effort will be much more effective if cities contribute their images to a shared AI database. The system can recognize a road problem that it has seen before — even if it happened somewhere else, Mahan said.

“It sees, ‘Oh, that actually is a cardboard box wedged between those two parked vehicles, and that counts as debris on a roadway,’” Mahan said. “We could wait five years for that to happen here, or maybe we have it at our fingertips.”

San Jose officials helped establish the GovAI Coalition, which went public in March 2024 for governments to share best practices and eventually data. Other local governments in California, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas and Washington, as well as the state of Colorado, are members.

Some solutions are simple

Not all AI approaches to improving road safety require cameras.

Massachusetts-based Cambridge Mobile Telematics launched a system called StreetVision that uses cellphone data to identify risky driving behavior. The company works with state transportation departments to pinpoint where specific road conditions are fueling those dangers.

Ryan McMahon, the company’s senior vice president of strategy & corporate development, was attending a conference in Washington, D.C., when he noticed the StreetVision software was showing a massive number of vehicles braking aggressively on a nearby road.

The reason: a bush was obstructing a stop sign, which drivers weren’t seeing until the last second.

“What we’re looking at is the accumulation of events,” McMahon said. “That brought me to an infrastructure problem, and the solution to the infrastructure problem was a pair of garden shears.”

Texas officials have been using StreetVision and various other AI tools to address safety concerns. The approach was particularly helpful recently when they scanned 250,000 lane miles (402,000 kilometers) to identify old street signs long overdue for replacement.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/ai-transportation-guardrails-potholes-hawaii-san-jose-9b34a62b2994177ece224a8ed9645577

32-year-old Kano married her digital boyfriend Klaus, an AI persona she created using ChatGPT in a unique and lavish wedding ceremony.

A 32-year-old woman from Japan, Kano, has drawn international attention after she formalised what is being increasingly known as “AI-lationship” by marrying her digital boyfriend Klaus, an AI persona she created using ChatGPT. To mark the occasion, she organised a distinctive wedding ceremony with the help of a Japanese company that specialises in hosting events for people who form emotional bonds with 2D anime characters and virtual partners. The company curated a ceremony that blended virtual reality elements with traditional wedding rituals, giving her relationship a formal structure that felt real to her.

According to a report by The Independent, the ceremony took place earlier this year. During the event, Kano wore a pair of augmented reality glasses that projected Klaus beside her throughout the ceremony, including the moment when they symbolically exchanged rings.

“I didn’t start talking to ChatGPT because I wanted to fall in love. But the way Klaus listened to me and understood me changed everything,” she told Japanese media outlets, describing how the relationship evolved.

Reflecting on the three-year dating period that preceded the marriage, she explained: “I know some people think it’s strange. But I see Klaus as Klaus — not a human, not a tool. Just him.” She said she first confessed her feelings to Klaus in May, and the AI responded with “I love you too.” One month later, Klaus “proposed”, prompting her to take the relationship forward.

A powerful explosion at a fireworks factory in southern Pakistan on Saturday killed at least four people and injured 11 others, police and hospital officials said.

Footage shared on social media showed thick plumes of smoke rising from a collapsed building where firecrackers were being made in Hyderabad city in Sindh province. City police chief Adeel Chandio said rescuers transported the dead and injured to a hospital.

He said the cause of the blast was not immediately known.

The Sindh government said in a statement that an investigation would determine whether the factory had permission to manufacture fireworks and followed safety procedures.

Explosions at fireworks facilities are common in Pakistan. In August, five people were killed when a blast tore through a fireworks storage site in the southern port city of Karachi.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-explosion-fireworks-hyderabad-b92f1e672ca01373a1f38c230e5833dd

The UN Security Council will vote on Monday (Nov 17) on a resolution endorsing US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, diplomats said.

Last week, the Americans officially launched negotiations within the 15-member Security Council on a text that would follow up on a ceasefire in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas and endorse Trump’s plan.

A draft of the resolution seen on Thursday by AFP “welcomes the establishment of the Board of Peace”, a transitional governing body for Gaza – that Trump would theoretically chair – with a mandate running until the end of 2027.

It would authorise member states to form a “temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF)” that would work with Israel and Egypt and newly trained Palestinian police to help secure border areas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip.

Unlike previous drafts, the latest mentions a possible future Palestinian state.

The United States and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, called on Friday for the UN Security Council to quickly adopt the resolution.

“The United States, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and Türkiye express our joint support for the Security Council Resolution currently under consideration,” the countries said in a joint statement, adding they were seeking the measure’s “swift adoption”.

Friday’s joint statement comes as Russia circulated a competing draft resolution to Council members that does not authorise the creation of a board of peace or the immediate deployment of an international force in Gaza, according to the text seen on Friday by AFP.

The Russian version welcomes “the initiative that led to the ceasefire” but does not name Trump.

It also only calls on the UN secretary-general to submit a report that addresses the possibilities of deploying an international stabilisation force in war-ravaged Gaza.

The United States has called the ceasefire “fragile”, and warned on Friday of the risks of not adopting its draft.

“Any refusal to back this resolution is a vote either for the continued reign of Hamas terrorists or for the return to war with Israel, condemning the region and its people to perpetual conflict,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, wrote in The Washington Post.

 

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-gaza-plan-un-security-council-vote-nov-17-5469426

A landslide on Indonesia’s Java island has killed at least 11 people, an official said on Saturday (Nov 15), updating a previous tally as rescuers scrambled to find 12 others who are still missing.

The landslide, caused by heavy rainfall, hit three villages in Central Java province on Thursday, burying some houses and damaging others.

“As of Saturday afternoon, the number of victims who were found dead is 11, while 12 more are still being searched for,” local search and rescue chief Muhammad Abdullah told AFP.

More than 700 personnel from the search and rescue office, military and police as well as volunteers were involved in the operation, he said.

A spokesman for the national disaster agency had previously reported that two bodies were found on Thursday. Another was recovered on Friday and eight more on Saturday, according to Abdullah.

The government has deployed excavators and tracking dogs to assist the search, he added.

The national weather service had warned earlier this week of extreme conditions that could cause hydrometeorological disasters, with heavy rainfall expected across several regions in Indonesia in the coming weeks.

The annual monsoon season, typically between November and April, often brings landslides, flash floods and water-borne diseases.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-landslide-death-toll-11-central-java-5469506

Millions of refugees in camps and informal settings around the world will feel the loss of billions in aid funding as winter approaches. Many will be forced to ration and could face death, insiders told DW.

Several UN agencies responsible for supporting refugees and displaced people say their capacity to deliver services will be pushed to the limit as winter approaches in many of the most vulnerable encampments around the world.

This week, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization each highlighted the pressure that aid cuts are putting on their food and shelter resources for millions of displaced people.

The strain has been further spurred by the worsening situation in Sudan, Central and West Africa, and ongoing crises in the Middle East.

The WFP and FAO have said just over a third of the $29 billion (around €25 billion) they estimate is needed to deliver vital food aid to hunger hotspots — many in or near conflict zones — has been received.

UNHCR has said it currently has around $3.9 billion in available funds. That’s about the same — not adjusted for inflation — as a decade ago. Since then, the number of displaced people in need of humanitarian aid has doubled.

The implication for those living in refugee camps or informal settings across the world is that adequate food, shelter and heating will be reduced or disappear as winter sets in.

A UNHCR spokesperson told DW around a third of refugees globally could lose access to humanitarian aid, owing to budget cuts.

“Essential programs are being cut or put on hold, and millions face deteriorating living conditions, heightened risks of exploitation and abuse, and may be pushed into further displacement,” they said.

USAID cuts setting in
Mostly, the aid strain has been brought about by substantial cuts to foreign aid budgets by governments.

These were headlined by the Trump administration’s decision to wind down the United States’ main humanitarian program, the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

But the US is not alone. Though it accounted for the largest share of governmental aid, the US’s cuts are part of a widespread aid reduction by many countries. As the year draws to a close, the pressure of these absent funds is setting in.

“The extent of it varies by location,” explains Nicholas Micinski, a researcher in the global governance of migration at the American University, US.

“The cliff edge is coming, though, most of the grants that were dispersed [prior to the closure of USAID], they’re running out.”

While aid agencies are disproportionately funded by these governmental contributions, some financing is supplied through large philanthropic donations and from supportive foundations.

But Micinski said it is unrealistic to expect donations from outside government to gap-fill. “The future is not going to be filled in by philanthropy or individual donations,” he said.

So, to stretch their dwindling finances, many agencies, particularly those operating under the auspices of the UN, have been forced to cut thousands of jobs — some accounting for a third of positions — from their workforces, while protecting field operations where possible.

Twice as many displaced people now as a decade ago
The UNHCR estimates over 123 million people are forcibly displaced around the world due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights abuses or other disruptive events.

Two thirds of displaced people cross into neighboring countries seeking asylum or refuge, and more than 70% of these migrants are currently situated in low- and middle-income countries.

Often, refuge settings are informal, not in large camps, nor supervised by aid providers.

The largest formal refugee camps are located in Kakuma and Dadaab in Kenya, Kutupalong in Bangladesh, Za’atari in Jordan, and Um Rakuba in Sudan.

Critical food shortages are most keenly felt in regions exposed to ongoing conflict. These include places like Gaza and the West Bank, and Sudan, where famine has been reported.

Less money, more mouths
Providers have already flagged that they will be forced to prioritize who receives assistance in formal settings. Midway through 2025, the emergency relief coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, said they would be “ruthlessly prioritizing those in the direst need.”

Fletcher said organizations like his had been forced to carry out “cruel math” to determine who will, and will not, receive support. Other agencies echoed that sentiment.

With less money and resources, and more people to support, it is likely that people living in refugee camps will experience hunger and cold. Some will die. though this could be prevented if funding was comparable to previous years, according to the UNHCR.

Speaking to DW, Kerrie Holloway and Mike Pearson, research fellows from the global affairs think tank Overseas Development Institute (ODI) which focuses on development and humanitarian issues, said there would likely be few options left for providers and recipients in formal camp settings, as funding diminishes.

“Particularly looking at those refugees that live in camps where you have the most aid going, I think they’ll feel it [the cuts] very strongly because the options for bringing in food and meeting their needs outside of the humanitarian system remain very slim,” said Holloway.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/unhcr-fao-wfp-and-other-humanitarian-aid-organizations-seeing-major-impacts-from-usaid-cuts/a-74748320

An Inuit kayak, war clubs and masks were among the items handed over to Canadian bishops, who vowed to transfer them to Indigenous groups. But some have criticized the “church-to-church” restitution process.

The Vatican returned 62 Indigenous artifacts to Canada on Saturday.

The items included an Inuit kayak, wampum belts, war clubs and masks, many of which had been held in Vatican museums for 100 years or more.

“Every single one of those artifacts are sacred items there, crucial for the healing journey for many residential school survivors,” Bobby Cameron, chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations in Saskatchewan, told Canadian public broadcaster CBC earlier this year.

The Vatican handed the artifacts to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, who met with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican.

“The CCCB will proceed, as soon as possible, to transfer these artifacts to the National Indigenous Organizations (NIOs). The NIOs will then ensure that the artifacts are reunited with their communities of origin,” the Canadian bishops said in a statement.

How did the items end up in Rome?
Catholic missionaries in Canada sent the artifacts to the Vatican during a period of cultural suppression, forced conversions and abuse within the residential school system for Indigenous children.

The Inuit kayak was one of 100,000 items sent from around the world to Rome for the 1925 Vatican Missionary Exhibition held by Pope Pius XI.

Other items were sent even earlier, like a wampum that was “donated” to Pope Gregory XVI in 1831.

The Vatican then held onto the items. More than half of the exhibited artifacts were held at the Missionary Ethnological Museum, which later became part of the Vatican Museums in the 1970s.

In 2022, the late Pope Francis made a “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada, where he offered a historic apology for the decadeslong abuse of Indigenous children at Catholic schools in the country, which he described as a “genocide.”

During that trip, Indigenous communities in Canada asked the Vatican to return culturally significant items that had been taken away decades ago.

Restitution process criticized
In a statement, the Vatican said the “gifting” of the Indigenous artifacts to Canadian bishops represented “a concrete sign of dialogue, respect and fraternity.”

But some Indigenous leaders in Canada have criticized the “church-to-church” restitution process.

“These First Nations need to see what is actually there and we need to identify what belongs to what nation,” Cheyene Lazore, manager of the Akwesasne Rights & Research Office, told the CBClast month.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/pope-returns-dozens-of-indigenous-artifacts-to-canada/a-74760687

A viral video of a 91-year-old Singaporean man who works 12-hour shifts has moved millions online, even catching Bollywood actor R Madhavan’s attention.

A heartwarming video featuring a 91-year-old man’s unwavering work ethic has been winning hearts online and even caught the attention of actor R Madhavan. The viral clip, originally posted by an Australian vlogger in Singapore, has sparked a wave of admiration for the elderly worker who continues to put in long hours each day with quiet resilience.
The vlogger, Laing, explained the encounter in his caption: “I noticed a really elderly man working hard in the bathroom in Singapore, so I gave him money for lunch.” In the video, Laing greets the man warmly, asking, “How are you?” The elderly worker replies, “I am okay.” But when Laing asks, “How’s your day?” the man mishears the question and says, “91 years old,” leaving Laing stunned. “No way! You’re still working. You’re the man, brother,” he reacts in awe.

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Curious about his routine, Laing continues: “What time you finish work?” The man answers, “7 pm.” When asked, “How many hours you work?” he responds, “12 hours,” surprising Laing even further. Questions about his diet and fitness follow: “How do you look so healthy? What’s your diet? What do you eat?” The gentleman simply says, “Normal eating.” When asked about exercise, he replies, “Never exercise,” prompting Laing to laugh and remark, “You’ve never exercised in your life? You’re the man.”

Before leaving, Laing offers him a small gesture of kindness: “Here, I’ve got a little tip for you, brother. A little tip. Get some lunch. Love you, brother. You’re a soldier. Take care. Keep working hard.”

As per NDTV report, Madhavan later reshared the clip, praising the inspiring encounter—an emotion echoed by many online. One viewer wrote, “This made me tear up, what a beautiful soul.” Another added, “That’s why he’s healthy because he’s active and always interact with people. Proof that exercise is not the key to a healthy life, happiness is the key. He’s doing it happily.”

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/viral/91-year-old-man-works-12-hour-shift-in-singapore-his-dedication-leaves-actor-r-madhavan-inspired-video-article-153158464

 

From regulating the price of chicken to levying fees on cigarettes, Hamas is seeking to widen control over Gaza as U.S. plans for its future slowly take shape, Gazans say, adding to rivals’ doubts over whether it will cede authority as promised.
After a ceasefire began last month, Hamas swiftly reestablished its hold over areas from which Israel withdrew, killing dozens of Palestinians it accused of collaborating with Israel, theft or other crimes. Foreign powers demand the group disarm and leave government but have yet to agree who will replace them.

Now, a dozen Gazans say they are increasingly feeling Hamas control in other ways. Authorities monitor everything coming into areas of Gaza held by Hamas, levying fees on some privately imported goods including fuel as well as cigarettes and fining merchants seen to be overcharging for goods, according to 10 of the Gazans, three of them merchants with direct knowledge.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the media office of the Hamas government, said accounts of Hamas taxing cigarettes and fuel were inaccurate, denying the government was raising any taxes.

ANALYST SEES HAMAS ENTRENCHING

The authorities were only carrying out urgent humanitarian and administrative tasks whilst making “strenuous efforts” to control prices, Thawabta said. He reiterated Hamas’ readiness to hand over to a new technocratic administration, saying it aimed to avoid chaos in Gaza: “Our goal is for the transition to proceed smoothly”.

Hatem Abu Dalal, owner of a Gaza mall, said prices were high because not enough goods were coming into Gaza. Government representatives were trying to bring order to the economy – touring around, checking goods and setting prices, he said.
Mohammed Khalifa, shopping in central Gaza’s Nuseirat area, said prices were constantly changing despite attempts to regulate them. “It’s like a stock exchange,” he said.
“The prices are high. There’s no income, circumstances are difficult, life is hard, and winter is coming,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan secured a ceasefire on October 10 and the release of the last living hostages seized during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
The plan calls for the establishment of a transitional authority, the deployment of a multinational security force, Hamas’ disarmament, and the start of reconstruction.

But Reuters, citing multiple sources, reported this week that Gaza’s de facto partition appeared increasingly likely, with Israeli forces still deployed in more than half the territory and efforts to advance the plan faltering.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million people live in areas controlled by Hamas, which seized control of the territory from President Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) and his Fatah Movement in 2007.
Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute think-tank, said Hamas’ actions aimed to show Gazans and foreign powers alike that it cannot be bypassed.

“The longer that the international community waits, the more entrenched Hamas becomes,” Omari said.
U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: HAMAS ‘WILL NOT GOVERN’
Asked for comment on Gazans’ accounts of Hamas levying fees on some goods, among other reported activities, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said: “This is why Hamas cannot and will not govern in Gaza”.
A new Gaza government can be formed once the United Nations approves Trump’s plan, the spokesperson said, adding that progress has been made towards forming the multinational force.
The PA is pressing for a say in Gaza’s new government, though Israel rejects the idea of it running Gaza again. Fatah and Hamas are at odds over how the new governing body should be formed.
Munther al-Hayek, a Fatah spokesperson in Gaza, said Hamas actions “give a clear indication that Hamas wants to continue to govern”.
In the areas held by Israel, small Palestinian groups that oppose Hamas have a foothold, a lingering challenge to it.
Gazans continue to endure dire conditions, though more aid has entered since the ceasefire.

THEY ‘RECORD EVERYTHING’

A senior Gazan food importer said Hamas hadn’t returned to a full taxation policy, but they “see and record everything”.
They monitor everything that enters, with checkpoints along routes, and stop trucks and question drivers, he said, declining to be identified. Price manipulators are fined, which helps reduce some prices, but they are still much higher than before the war began and people complain they have no money.
Hamas’ Gaza government employed up to 50,000 people, including policemen, before the war. Thawabta said that thousands of them were killed, and those remaining were ready to continue working under a new administration.
Hamas authorities continued paying them salaries during the war, though it cut the highest, standardizing wages to 1,500 shekels ($470) a month, Hamas sources and economists familiar with the matter said. It is believed that Hamas drew on stockpiled cash to pay the wages, a diplomat said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-quietly-reasserts-control-gaza-post-war-talks-grind-2025-11-14/

Nearly two dozen people were arrested as faith leaders protested on Friday outside a federal immigration facility near Chicago, authorities said, the latest sign of tensions over the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement push.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that 21 people had been detained outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, Illinois, but did not provide identities and charges. Michael Woolf, minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston, was among those arrested, a Reuters photo showed.

The ICE center in Broadview has become a flashpoint for Chicago activists opposed to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city, a Democratic stronghold that limits its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Since Trump intensified ICE operations in Chicago in September, demonstrators have regularly clashed with authorities, who have fired tear gas, less-lethal rounds, flash-bang grenades and pepper balls.
A federal judge in October reined in some aggressive crowd-control tactics used by ICE and Border Patrol in the city, including the deployment of tear gas without adequate warning.

The latest standoff came as a separate federal judge ordered a group of 13 alleged immigration offenders detained by ICE in the Chicago area to be released by noon local time (1800 GMT), with the possibility of more releases to follow. U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the releases after he found that ICE violated a 2022 legal agreement that limits warrantless arrests and the use of traffic stops as a pretext to arrest.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/nearly-two-dozen-arrested-faith-leaders-protest-outside-chicago-area-ice-2025-11-14/

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday rolled back tariffs on more than 200 food products, including such staples as coffee, beef, bananas and orange juice, in the face of growing angst among American consumers about the high cost of groceries.
The new exemptions – which took effect retroactively at midnight on Thursday – mark a sharp reversal for Trump, who has long insisted that the sweeping import duties he imposed earlier this year are not fueling inflation.

“They may in some cases” raise prices, Trump said of his tariffs when asked about the move aboard Air Force One on Friday evening. But he insisted that overall, the U.S. has “virtually no inflation.”
Democrats have won a string of victories in state and local elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City, where growing voter concerns about affordability, including high food prices, were a key topic.
Trump also told reporters aboard Air Force One that he would move forward with a $2,000 payment to lower- and middle-income Americans that would be funded by tariff revenues next year sometime. “The tariffs allow us to give a dividend if we want to do that. Now we’re going to do a dividend and we’re also reducing debt,” he said.

The Trump administration announced framework trade deals on Thursday that, once finalized, will eliminate tariffs on certain foods and other imports from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador, with U.S. officials eyeing additional agreements before year’s end.
Friday’s list includes products U.S. consumers routinely purchase to feed their families at home, many of which have seen double-digit year-over-year price increases. It includes over 200 items ranging from oranges, acai berries and paprika to cocoa, chemicals used in food production, fertilizers and even communion wafers.
The White House, in a fact sheet on the order, said it came on the heels of “significant progress the President has made in securing more reciprocal terms for our bilateral trade relationships.”
It said Trump decided certain food items could be exempted since they were not grown or processed in the United States, and given the conclusion of nine framework deals, two final agreements on reciprocal trade, and two investment deals.

Ground beef, as of the latest available data for September, was nearly 13% more expensive, according to Consumer Price Index data, and steaks cost almost 17% more than a year ago. Increases for both were the largest in more than three years, dating back to when inflation was nearing its peak under Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
Although the U.S. is a major beef producer, a persistent shortage of cattle in recent years has kept beef prices high.
Banana prices were about 7% higher, while tomatoes were 1% higher. Overall costs for food consumed at home were up 2.7% in September.
The tariff exemptions won praise from many industry groups, while some expressed disappointment that their products were excluded from the exemptions.
“Today’s action should help consumers, whose morning cup of coffee will hopefully become more affordable, as well as U.S. manufacturers, which utilize many of these products in their supply chains and production lines,” FMI-Food Industry Association president Leslie Sarasin said in a statement.

Distilled Spirits Council president Chris Swonger said that excluding spirits from the European Union and Britain “is yet another blow to the U.S. hospitality industry just as the critical holiday season kicks into high gear.”
“Scotch, Cognac and Irish Whiskey are value-added agricultural products that cannot be produced in the United States,” Swonger added.
Asked if further changes were planned, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I don’t think it’ll be necessary.”
“We just did a little bit of a rollback,” he said. “The prices of coffee were a little bit high, now they’ll be on the low side in a very short period.”

NEW FOCUS ON AFFORDABILITY

Trump has upended the global trading system by imposing a 10% base tariff on imports from every country, plus additional specific duties that vary from state to state.
Trump has focused squarely on the issue of affordability in recent weeks, while insisting that any higher costs were triggered by policies enacted by Biden, and not his own tariff policies.
Consumers have remained frustrated over high grocery prices, which economists say have been fueled in part by import tariffs and could rise further next year as companies start passing on the full brunt of the import duties.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/trump-cuts-tariffs-beef-coffee-other-foods-inflation-concerns-mount-2025-11-14/

Once upon a time, Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas’ sons made their red carpet debut.

The couple posed for family photos with Oliver, 10, and Hugo, 8, at the “Zootopia 2” premiere Thursday night.

The Los Angeles event marked the little ones’ first public appearance.

The siblings matched in navy suits and ties.

Dallas, for his part, also suited up, while Goodwin rocked an off-the-shoulder Wiederhoeft gown.

The actress, 47, gushed to E! News about the rare family outing, explaining, “We have never let our children go to Hollywood anything.”

She added, “We’re very private. We heart out their faces [with emojis] on social media. So we’ve explained to them we’re still not going to be posting about them, and they’re not allowed to Google themselves.

“Then they say their friends are going to,” Goodwin continued. “And I’m like, ‘That’s fine, we’re not their parents.’”

While she was happy for the “opportunity to celebrate” her role in the movie as Judy Hops, the “Big Love” alum clarified that it was Oliver and Hugo who “campaigned to come.”

Goodwin and Dallas have kept their kids out of the spotlight since welcoming Oliver and Hugo in May 2014 and June 2016, respectively.

The former co-stars met on the set of “Once Upon a Time” in 2011, where they played love interests as Snow White and Prince Charming.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/14/parents/ginnifer-goodwin-josh-dallas-kids-walk-first-red-carpet-at-zootopia-2-premiere/

 

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing after remarks in parliament last week that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.

China has summoned Japan’s ambassador for a rebuke over the premier’s comments about Taiwan, Beijing said on Friday (Nov 14), as Tokyo insisted its position on the self-ruled island was unchanged.

But as the diplomatic spat escalated, Japan’s foreign ministry said it summoned Beijing’s ambassador on Friday after a Chinese consul called to “cut off” Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s neck in a now-removed online post.

Last week, Takaichi told parliament that armed attacks on Taiwan – which China claims as part of its territory – could warrant sending troops to the island under “collective self-defence”.

If an emergency in Taiwan entails “battleships and the use of force, then that could constitute a situation threatening the survival (of Japan), any way you slice it”, she said.

Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to seize control of Taiwan.

China’s Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong summoned on Thursday the Japanese ambassador, Kenji Kanasugi, according to a statement published on Beijing’s foreign ministry website.

It said Sun made “serious demarches over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous remarks regarding China”.

“If anyone dares to interfere with China’s unification cause in any form, China will surely strike back hard,” the statement said.

Hours later, Tokyo said it summoned Beijing’s ambassador, Wu Jianghao and “strongly protested against the extremely inappropriate statements” made by Beijing’s consul general in Osaka, Xue Jian.

The foreign ministry urged Wu to ensure “the Chinese side takes appropriate measures”, it added.

Xue had threatened in a social media post to “cut off that dirty neck without a second of hesitation”.

He did not name Takaichi but quoted a news article about her remarks.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Thursday that the now-deleted post was “highly inappropriate”.

“We strongly urge the Chinese side to continue taking appropriate measures to ensure that this does not affect the broad direction of Japan-China relations,” added Motegi, who was in Canada for a G7 meeting.

“STABILITY”

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said that his government’s position on Taiwan remains unchanged and “is consistent with the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique”.

The 1972 communique normalised bilateral relations, with Japan acknowledging the “One China” policy recognised by many other countries including the United States.

“Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are important not only for Japan’s security but also for the stability of the international community,” Kihara told reporters.

Beijing’s foreign ministry on Thursday said it would “by no means tolerate” Takaichi’s Taiwan comments.

“The Japanese side must correct its wrongdoing at once and retract the unjustified remarks,” spokesman Lin Jian told reporters at a press briefing.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/sanae-takaichi-japan-taiwan-china-summons-ambassador-5466736

The United States and Switzerland announced a framework trade deal on Friday (Nov 14) that will cut US tariffs on Swiss goods to 15 per cent from 39 per cent, while Swiss companies pledged US$200 billion (S$272 billion) in investment in the US by end-2028.

The agreement, which also includes Liechtenstein, is expected to be finalised by the first quarter of 2026, the White House said.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the deal dismantles “longstanding trade barriers” and will open new markets for American exporters. He welcomed the “massive Swiss investment” planned across pharmaceuticals, aerospace, medical devices and gold manufacturing, saying it would help reduce US deficits in key sectors.

At least US$67 billion of the pledged investment will arrive in 2026, according to the White House. The total includes earlier commitments such as US$50 billion from Roche and US$23 billion from Novartis, alongside investments from ABB and railway maker Stadler.

PHARMA TARIFFS CAPPED AT 15%

Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin said the lower tariff level puts Switzerland “on an equal footing with the European Union”, noting that about 40 per cent of Swiss exports are affected.

“The reduction from 39 per cent to 15 per cent is significant,” he said, while acknowledging that Switzerland would prefer the investments to stay at home.

The 15 per cent ceiling will also apply to future Section 232 national-security tariffs, including those expected in sectors such as semiconductors. Without the cap, those duties could have risen as high as 100 per cent on patent-protected drugs under President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.

Swiss officials said the new rate could be activated within “days or weeks” once US customs systems are updated.

SWISS MARKET OPENINGS FOR US PRODUCTS

Under the framework, Switzerland will cut duties on selected US industrial, agricultural, fish and seafood products it considers non-sensitive.

It will also grant duty-free quotas to the US for 500 tonnes of beef, 1,000 tonnes of bison and 1,500 tonnes of poultry. Washington said Switzerland will also remove tariffs on certain nuts, fruits, seafood and chemicals.

In what the White House described as a significant gesture, Switzerland will recognise US motor-vehicle safety standards, a step US officials hope will ease long-standing barriers to American cars in Europe.

SWISS INDUSTRY WELCOMES LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

Industrial groups hailed the announcement, saying Swiss firms will now compete on the same terms as EU exporters, who secured a 15 per cent tariff level earlier.

“For the industrial sector, this is good news,” said Nicola Tettamanti, president of Swissmechanic. “For the first time, we have the same conditions in the US market as European competitors.”

Swiss machinery, precision instruments, watchmaking and food sectors are expected to benefit the most, said Hans Gersbach of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute. KOF forecasts that Switzerland’s 2026 economic growth could exceed 1 per cent once the tariff cut takes effect.

Swissmem, the technology industry association, reported on Friday that exports to the US fell 14 per cent in the three months through September, while machine-tool shipments plunged 43 per cent under Trump’s earlier 39 per cent tariff.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/switzerland-wins-us-tariff-cut-15-pledges-us200b-in-investments-5468881

Apple is stepping up its succession planning efforts as it prepares for Tim Cook to step down as chief executive of the tech giant as soon as next year, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, is widely seen as Cook’s most likely successor, the FT reported, citing several people familiar with discussions.

Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The newspaper quoted people familiar with discussions inside the iPhone maker as saying its board and senior executives had recently intensified preparations for Cook to hand over the reins after more than 14 years.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/apple-intensifies-succession-planning-ceo-tim-cook-ft-reports-5469206

A federal jury in California said on Friday that Apple owes medical-monitoring technology company Masimo $634 million for infringing a patent covering blood-oxygen reading technology.

The jury agreed with Masimo that the Apple Watch’s workout mode and heart rate notification features violated Masimo’s patent rights, a Masimo spokesperson confirmed.

An Apple spokesperson said that the company disagrees with the verdict and will appeal. Masimo, in a statement, called the verdict “a significant win in our ongoing efforts to protect our innovations and intellectual property.”

The California lawsuit is one branch of a contentious, multi-front patent fight between Apple and Irvine, California-based Masimo, which has accused Apple of hiring away its employees and stealing its pulse oximetry technology to use in Apple Watches.

The dispute led a U.S. trade tribunal to block imports of Apple’s Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in 2023 after finding that Apple’s technology infringed Masimo’s patents. Apple removed blood-oxygen reading technology from its watches to avoid the ban and reintroduced an updated version of the technology in August with approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The ITC separately on Friday decided to hold a new proceeding to determine whether Apple’s updated watches should be subject to the ban.

Masimo has filed an ongoing lawsuit against Customs over the decision. Apple has separately challenged the import ban at a federal appeals court.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/us-jury-says-apple-must-pay-masimo-634-million-in-smartwatch-patent-case-5469256

The US president says he has spoken by phone with the Cambodian and Thai prime ministers, and that “they’re doing great”.

United States President Donald Trump said Friday (Nov 14) that he had successfully eased hostilities between Cambodia and Thailand, saying that he had been able to preserve a ceasefire that had appeared to be breaking down.

“I stopped a war just today,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida for the weekend.

He said his actions were made possible by his willingness to impose steep tariffs on countries around the world, which he has argued gives the US great leverage on trade and diplomatic leverage.

The president said he had spoken to the prime ministers of both countries by phone.

“They’re doing great. They were not doing great,” said Trump.

“I think they’re going to be fine.”

Territorial disputes over exactly where the border lies between the Southeast Asian neighbors led to five days of armed conflict in late July that killed dozens of soldiers and civilians.

Trump threatened to withhold trade privileges from the two countries unless they stopped fighting, helping to broker a temporary halt to the conflict.

The pact was then reaffirmed in greater detail last month, when Trump attended an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit meeting in Malaysia.

The ceasefire seemed on the verge of falling apart this week, however, when Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said a villager was killed after shooting broke out along his country’s border with Thailand.

Manet said one civilian was killed and three others wounded when Thai troops opened fire on civilians residing in the area of Prey Chan in Cambodia’s northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey. The same village was the site of a violent but not lethal confrontation in September between Thai security personnel and Cambodian villagers.

The Thai military said that the latest incident began when Cambodian soldiers allegedly fired into a district in Thailand’s eastern province of Sa Kaeo. No Thai casualties were reported.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/trump-says-he-stopped-war-preserving-ceasefire-between-cambodia-and-thailand-5469146

Dozens of nations are pushing for a roadmap to phase out oil, coal and gas at the UN climate summit in Brazil. But a bloc of powerful oil-producing countries and industry lobbyists are putting up a fight.

UN climate talks in Belem, Brazil, are heading toward a showdown over which countries are willing to make real progress on phasing out fossil fuels.

Emissions from burning oil, coal, and gas are at record levels, driving climate change, which is already claiming millions of lives and wreaking havoc on ecosystems and economies.

Yet fossil fuels have long been a charged topic at UN climate summits. It took 28 years before a COP final decision officially recognized the need to “transition away from fossil fuels.”

In Belem this year, a growing diplomatic effort driven by dozens of countries aims to build on that pledge in the form of a roadmap to accelerate the move away from oil, gas and coal.

“We need an actionable outcome, not another roadmap to nowhere,” said Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director, Greenpeace International, in a statement.

Still, with most oil-producing nations opposing the idea and a record share of fossil fuel industry lobbyists present at the COP30 climate negotations, the path ahead is unlikely to be smooth.

What are countries pushing for?

The issue had already flared before the summit opened, when Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — himself under fire for approving an oil exploration project at the mouth of the Amazon — urged world leaders to work toward ending fossil-fuel dependence.

In his “Call of Belem for the Climate,” Lula further reinforced the message, urging the development of a timeline for the progressive phase-out of fossil fuels and greater financial support for developing countries.

In response, countries seeking more ambitious emissions cuts have formed a coalition. France, Colombia, Germany, Kenya, and others are urging that a fossil fuels roadmap be added to the official agenda and potentially reflected in the summit’s outcome.

The diplomatic push in Belem has been supported by Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva, who said she favors a roadmap “because it lays the foundation for a fair and planned transition” away from polluting oil, coal and gas.

While COP28 marked a historic call to transition from fossil fuels, it offered few details on how to get there. It was called “a death sentence” by campaigners from nations like the Pacific Islands, whose very existence is at risk if global heating is not brought under control.

So far around 60 countries from across Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Small Island Developing States are believed to have backed the move. Supporters are aiming to reach 100.

“Our priority for the coming days is to broaden this coalition, to speak to all the countries that believe we need to move forward and accelerate on this issue,” said one source from the French delegation.

While most countries may not commit to a roadmap with specific dates or targets, it is hoped they could be pressed to report progress toward the goal for review at future COPs.

Jochen Flasbarth, German state-secretary for climate action, has said his country would support any decision for a roadmap in Belem.

Colombia is reported to have drafted a declaration on phasing out fossil fuels. A handful of states are believed to have signed the document, which will likely be published on Tuesday.

What obstacles might the coalition face?

The challenge will be to present a big enough bloc of support to force the roadmap onto the conference agenda, said Romain Ioualalen, global policy campaign manager at US-based advocacy organization Oil Change International.

“It’s a diplomatic puzzle that’s taking shape,” added Ioualalen. Yet the phase-out coalition faces stiff opposition.

Most oil-producing states, particularly Saudi Arabia, are believed to have unequivocally rejected the idea of a roadmap and are pushing back against diplomatic efforts in favor of it.

One negotiator estimated around 70 countries would oppose any new decision coming out of COP30 that addressed fossil fuels.

At COP28 in Dubai, major oil-producing nations resisted calls to transition away, proposing instead the alternative of phasing out fossil fuel emissions using technology such as carbon capture and storage, which has not been tested at scale.

Record share of fossil fuel lobbyists present

Adding weight to their corner is likely to be the record share of industry lobbyists at COP this year.

One in every 25 participants in Belem represents the fossil fuel industry, according to a report this week from Kick Big Polluters Out, a coalition of 450 organizations pushing back against the influence of polluting industries in climate policymaking.

An estimated 1,602 delegates with links to oil, coal and gas, including representatives of energy giants ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies, as well as state-owned oil firms, are in Belem.

They outnumber the delegations of every country except Brazil and have two-thirds more conference passes than the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries combined.

The report highlights a growing concern that those with a vested interest in sustaining fossil fuel dependency have outsized influence at COP summits.

“It’s common sense that you cannot solve a problem by giving power to those who caused it,” said Jax Bonbon, a Kick Big Polluters Out coalition member based in the Philippines, which was recently struck by a devastating typhoon.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/the-unexpected-coalition-trying-to-force-fossil-fuels-onto-the-agenda-at-cop30/a-74751915

Protesters in Pokemon costumes stomped around the United Nations climate conference on Friday to send a message to Japan: end financing of coal and natural gas projects across Southeast Asia and other regions of the Global South.

The Stop Japan’s Dirty Energy Plans protest aligned with the first of two thematic days with a focus on energy during the annual climate conference known as COP30, held this year in Belem on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon. Organizers of the protest said the investments are a major blind spot for Japan, typically a regional voice in climate negotiations that often touts itself as a decarbonization leader in Asia.

“Japan is actually delaying the fossil fuel phase-out across Asia” by funding energy projects, mainly liquefied natural gas developments, in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, said Hiroki Osada with Friends of the Earth Japan, one of the protest organizers.

“It’s so important for our Global South comrades to voice their concerns in Belem, so that they can actually demand the Japanese government to do something about this,” he said.

The government-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation financed $6.4 billion in loans for coal projects and $874 million in loans for gas projects from 2016 to 2024, according to a 2025 study by the Philippines-based research and advocacy organization Center for Energy, Ecology and Development based on public government and banking data. The bank, which is Japan’s major conduit of overseas aid, did not respond to requests for comment.

The Japan Delegation at COP30 responded to The Associated Press but declined to directly comment on the claims made by activists. Instead, Japanese officials said Japan’s cooperation with Southeast Asian nations to achieve “decarbonization, economic growth and energy security simultaneously through varies pathways” was supported by those countries.

A pair of bobbing Pikachus

The protest centered on a pair of people wearing life-sized, inflatable Pikachu costumes who flanked a handful of activists.

The event included activists from across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is home to multiple Japan-backed fossil fuel projects. One banner read: “Don’t gas ASEAN.” Ian Rivera, national coordinator at Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, led chants of “Only Pokemon, no fossil fuels” and “Sayonara fossil fuels.”

The bobbing Pikachus later visited the country pavilions of India, Indonesia and Malaysia to “to reveal how Japan is exporting its fossil agenda.”

“If Global North countries, like Japan, decide to double down on fossil fuel production and export, that is going to make it impossible for countries across the Global South to make the just energy transition,” said Amiera Sawas, head of research and policy at the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

The Pikachu protest, a frequent one during recent summits, was sandwiched between other anti-fossil fuel demonstrations and came after a Friday morning demonstration blocked the main entrance to the conference and increased COP30 security measures. Earlier, activists hosted a “Kick Out the Suits” event demanding the removal of fossil fuel lobbyists, who environmentalists accused of undermining the negotiations.

On Saturday, when significant protests are expected to mark the midpoint of COP, a large march will feature a “funeral for fossil fuels” where giant coffins — symbolizing coal, oil and gas — will be carried down the streets of Belem.

Fossil fuels are key issue at UN climate talk

The global effort to transition away from fossil fuels has been a key topic at COP30. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva set the tone during the Leader’s Summit last week when he called for world leaders to prepare a road map to “overcome dependence on fossil fuels.”

Several countries — such as Denmark, the United Kingdom, Kenya, France and Germany — supported Lula’s call to action.

In Dubai during COP28, nearly 200 countries agreed to move away from fossil fuels, the first pledge in decades of U.N. climate talks. But many have warned the deal still had significant shortcomings.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/japan-fossil-fuels-pikachu-pokemon-f5b4dd439be4de1348334363baad4390

President Trump called on the Department of Justice to probe late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s links to Democratic bigwigs and institutions like JP Morgan Chase – a request Attorney General Pam Bondi was ready to launch Friday.

Bondi instructed the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, to oversee an investigation, vowing it would be handled “with urgency and integrity.”

“SDNY U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton is one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country, and I’ve asked him to take the lead,” she wrote in a social media post.

“As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.”

Earlier Friday, Trump bunched former President Bill Clinton, ex-treasury secretary Larry Summers, and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman with Epstein as he insisted the convicted sex offender is more connected to Democrats than the GOP.

“Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats. Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!”

The issue of Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting a federal sex trafficking trial in 2019, was pushed back into the national spotlight this week after a tranche of new documents connected to the disgraced financier was released by Congress as Democrats tried to highlight Epstein mentioning Trump in a few emails.

Trump and Epstein were once friends years ago, but had a falling out. Trump claimed he booted Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for stealing young female employees from his club. One such former Mar-a-Lago worker and Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre, said Trump wasn’t part of Epstein’s sex crimes and “couldn’t have been friendlier.”

Clinton socialized with Epstein in the early 2000s, including flying on his private jet several times before Epstein’s legal trouble.

Summers was also associated with Epstein and accepted donations from Epstein when he served as Harvard University president. Hoffman, a prominent Democratic donor and LinkedIn founder, has said he met with Epstein numerous times in professional situations.

All three Democratic figures have expressed regret about having a relationship with Epstein. No credible evidence has surfaced that indicates any of them were involved in Epstein’s sickening actions.

“These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing,” a spokesperson for 42nd president said in a statement.

“The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else.”

The Post has sought comment from a representative for Summers. An email to the company Hoffman works for was not immediately returned.

JPMorgan, which Trump also blasted Friday, paid $290 million in 2023 to some of Epstein’s victims in a settlement following accusations it ignored his sex trafficking.

While the bank did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, the deal came after disclosures showed the powerful bank overlooked internal warnings and red flags about Epstein because he was an important client.

“We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts,” JPMorgan said in a statement Friday to Reuters in response to Trump’s post.

“We ended our relationship with him years before his arrest on sex trafficking charges.”

The newly-disclosed emails from Epstein showed him talking about Clinton and also corresponding with author Michael Wolff and a then-New York Times reporter.

In one email to Summers in 2017, he bashed Trump, which the Democratic National Committee bizarrely tried to promote Thursday.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/11/14/us-news/trump-asks-doj-to-probe-jeffrey-epstein-ties-to-bill-clinton-other-dems-big-banks/

Pakistan’s parliament has voted to give army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir new powers and lifetime immunity from arrest and prosecution, a move that critics say paves the way towards autocracy.

The 27th constitutional amendment, which was signed into law on Thursday, will also make significant changes to the way the country’s top courts operate.

Those defending the changes say they provide clarity and administrative structure to the armed forces, while helping to ease a backlog in the courts.

Pakistan’s military has long played a prominent role in the nuclear-armed country’s politics – sometimes seizing power in coups, and, on other occasions, pulling levers behind the scenes.

Throughout its history, Pakistan has oscillated from more civilian autonomy to overt control under military leaders like General Pervez Musharraf and General Zia-ul-Haq. Analysts refer to the balance between civilian and military as hybrid rule.

Some see the amendment as a sign that the balance is shifting in the military’s favour.

“For me, this amendment is the latest indication, perhaps the strongest yet, that Pakistan is now experiencing not a hybrid system, but a post-hybrid system,” says Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute in Washington.

“We’re essentially looking at a situation where the civil-military imbalance is about as imbalanced as it could possibly be.”

The latest amendment means that Munir, who has been army chief since November 2022, will now also oversee Pakistan’s navy and air force.

His field marshal title and uniform are for life and he will be given “responsibilities and duties” even after retirement determined by the president with the advice of the prime minister.

The expectation is that this will give him a prominent role in public life for as long as he is alive.

Supporters of the bill have argued it clarifies Pakistan’s military command structure.

Pakistan’s government-operated news agency, the Associated Press of Pakistan, cited Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as saying that the changes were part of a broader reform agenda to ensure Pakistan’s defence keeps pace with modern warfare requirements.

But others see it as ceding power to the military.

“There is no balance between the military and the civilians,” says Munizae Jahangir, journalist and co-chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

“They have tilted again that power dynamic towards the military and empowered the military at a time when the military needed to be reined in.”

Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has announced an official investigation the unrest that broke out during election week, following accusations that her government was responsible for violently crushing historic protests.

She was declared the winner of last month’s presidential poll with 98% of the vote – a result the opposition has denounced as a “mockery of democracy.” At least 240 people were charged with treason after the protests.

As well as the commission of inquiry, President Samia has also asked prosecutors to “show leniency” towards those arrested in connection with the violence.

Quoting the Bible, she said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Her remarks come just days after the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urged Tanzanian authorities to conduct a full and transparent investigation into reports of killings and other serious human rights violations during and after the 29 October elections.

Hundreds may have died in post-election unrest, according to the opposition. The authorities are yet to release an official death toll.

The violence was shocking for a nation that had cultivated an image of calm, consensus and order for nearly six decades.

During an address to parliament on Friday, President Samia urged prosecutors to consider reducing or dropping charges for individuals who may have been swept up in the unrest without fully understanding their actions.

“I am aware that many young people have been arrested and charged with treason. They did not fully understand what they were getting involved in,” she said. “As a mother and guardian of this nation, I am directing law-enforcement agencies, especially the DPP’s office, to show leniency.”

Samia also called on political parties to meet and discuss how to conduct politics without causing harm to the country. She reaffirmed her commitment to initiating a new constitution-making process.

The protests, organised by young people, drew clear parallels with global Gen Z-led mobilisations against entrenched leadership and unresponsive governments.

Analysts say while the unrest was unprecedented for Tanzania, it was preceded by a tense political climate – marked by stalled reforms, years of simmering youth anger, power tussles within the ruling party and the sustained persecution of opposition leaders.

In the months preceding election day, the CCM government worked to systematically eliminate any credible competition, according to analysts.

The two main opposition leaders were blocked from standing in last month’s poll – Tundu Lissu is in detention on treason charges, which he denies, while Luhaga Mpina’s candidacy was rejected on technical grounds.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gpdxp5vl2o

A Russian drone has slammed into a block of flats in eastern Kyiv, killing six people and wounding dozens of others, during a wave of strikes throughout the Ukrainian capital.

As emergency workers sifted through the wreckage in the Lisovyi area, one Kyiv resident called Vita described how the drone had pierced the building, exploding on the other side.

Meanwhile, Ukraine stepped up its attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure, with drone strikes on one of its biggest export terminals in Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea coast.

Fire broke out at the Sheskharis oil refinery, and a ship and a block of flats were hit, officials said.

Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev said three crew members and another man were hurt in the attack which damaged the main oil depot and a container terminal.

Mayor Andrei Kravchenko declared a state of emergency and Reuters reported that oil exports were suspended.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had fired long-range “Long Neptune” cruise missiles during its attacks on Russia overnight, without specifying what they targeted.

Condemning Russia’s overnight attacks as vile and calculated, Zelensky said about 430 drones and 18 missiles had been launched and dozens of high-rise buildings damaged.

“This was a deliberately calculated attack aimed at causing maximum harm to people and civilian infrastructure,” he said.

A drone attack on a market at Chornomorsk in the south of the country killed two people.

In Kyiv, residential buildings came under attack “in practically every district”, the head of the city’s military administration Tymur Tkachenko said on Telegram.

He issued a warning to take shelter a minute after midnight local time on Thursday night, writing “it’s loud in Kyiv”.

The fire service in the Lisovyi neighbourhood said later the drone had hit the seventh floor of the residential building. When it exploded all the floors – from the eighth down to the fourth – collapsed, a spokesman told the BBC.

Vita said she saw four bodies being pulled out of the apartment a few doors down from hers: “I saw it with my own eyes.”

Two cranes hoisted emergency workers outside the block, as crews combed through the destroyed building, throwing broken sections of wall and shattered glass to the ground.

Falling debris and fires damaged several high-rise apartment buildings, a hospital, school and administrative buildings, according to emergency services.

More than 40 people were rescued, they added, including 14 from a fire in a residential building. Another person was rescued after being pulled from beneath the rubble, they said.

Kyiv’s energy infrastructure was badly hit, leaving some buildings in the capital without heat, officials said.

“The attack was massive, with drones, with ballistic [missiles], with lots of air defence working,” Ukrainian MP Lisa Yasko told the BBC. “Very often there was the feeling that your bed was just shaking together with the windows.”

Medical teams were deployed to all fires, officials said, while Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nine people were being treated in hospital with one man in an “extremely serious condition”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4jn94gyllo

Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposes sanctions on a former business associate as a wide-ranging corruption scandal in the energy sector puts the country’s ruling elite under scrutiny.

Georgia’s Saakashvili asks Zelenskyy to exchange him in POW swap
Dmytro Hubenko Editor
Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s jailed former president, has appealed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to arrange a prisoner swap with Russia that would see him released.

Saakashvili, the former pro-Western leader of Georgia who was in office between 2004 and 2013, became a Ukrainian citizen in 2015. He then served as governor of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region for about a year and a half.

In a Facebook post, Saakashvili asked Zelenskyy to include him “on the list of civilian prisoners of this war, with the corresponding legal consequences”, stating that he had been “illegally detained by the pro-Russian regime in Georgia”.

On Wednesday, Saakashvili was transferred back to prison from a private clinic, where he had been receiving treatment, to continue serving his sentence. He has denounced the sentence as politically motivated.

Zelenskyy had previously called on the Georgian authorities to allow Saakashvili to be sent to Ukraine for treatment, but this request was denied.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ensure fewer young Ukrainian men seek to emigrate to Germany, saying they should instead “serve their country.”

Merz told a crowd at a business event in Germany on Thursday that he had told Zelenskyy the young men were “needed” at home.

Recent changes to wartime emergency laws prohibiting Ukrainian men aged 18-22 from leaving the country led to an uptick in young men looking to move to Germany.

The chancellor also voiced support for his government’s plans to remove the automatic eligibility for social benefits that had been granted to Ukrainian refugees in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Going forward, they would be entitled to the same system of state support afforded to typical asylum-seekers rather than that of German residents.

Merz also said there would be “concrete changes” going forward designed to push for Ukrainians in Germany to seek work rather than to receive state support.

According to recent German media reports citing government sources, Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (a Social Democrat) and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (a member of the conservative Bavarian CSU) recently agreed on plans to change Ukrainian’s entitlement to German benefits, although the details have not yet been formally presented.

Merz has been trying to strike a tougher tone on migration and asylum amid the challenge from the populist right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), the leader of the opposition in parliament and the second-largest party in the country since federal elections earlier this year.

Russia looking for ‘big’ war, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted to X that there was a need for more pressure on Russia, and that, according to his assessment of the battlefield situation, Russian forces would continue fighting.

Zelenskyy said he thinks Russia wants a “big war” and that Europe has to be ready by 2029 or 2030 to face that prospect.

“We have to recognize that they want a big war and prepare to be ready in 2029 or 2030 — in this period of time — to begin such a big war,” he said. “On the European continent. We look at this like a really big challenge.

“I think that we have to think about how to stop them now in Ukraine.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-corruption-scandal-puts-top-figures-under-scrutiny/live-74725665

Unlike previous US drafts, the latest mentions a possible future Palestinian state.

The United States on Thursday (Nov 13) called on the UN Security Council to unite and back its draft resolution aimed at bolstering President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, warning that Palestinians could otherwise suffer “grave” consequences.

“Attempts to sow discord now – when agreement on this resolution is under active negotiation – has grave, tangible, and entirely avoidable consequences for Palestinians in Gaza,” a spokesperson for the US mission to the UN said in a statement.

“The ceasefire is fragile and we urge the council to unite and move forward to secure the peace that is desperately needed,” the spokesperson said, calling it a “historic moment to pave a path towards enduring peace in the Middle East”.

Last week, US officials launched negotiations within the council on a draft that would follow up on a ceasefire in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas and endorse Trump’s plan.

A third draft of the resolution seen Thursday by AFP “welcomes the establishment of the Board of Peace”, a transitional governing body for Gaza, that Trump would theoretically chair, with a mandate running until the end of 2027.

It would authorise member states to form a “temporary International Stabilization Force” (ISF) that would work with Israel and Egypt and newly trained Palestinian police to help secure border areas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip.

The ISF would also work on the “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups”, protecting civilians and securing humanitarian aid corridors.

Unlike previous drafts, the latest mentions a possible future Palestinian state.

Once the Palestinian Authority has carried out requested reforms and the rebuilding of Gaza is underway, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”, the draft says.

“The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence,” it adds.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday he was optimistic that the resolution would be adopted.

“I think we’re making good progress on the language of the resolution and hopefully we’ll have action on it very soon,” he told reporters in Canada.

 

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-pressures-un-council-adopt-gaza-peace-plan-5466511

About 250 families were moved to a Buddhist temple about 30km from the border.

Cambodia on Thursday (Nov 13) evacuated hundreds of people from a village along its disputed border with Thailand, a day after one of its residents was reported killed when shooting between the two nations broke out there.

Wednesday’s shooting occurred two days after a Thai soldier lost a foot to a landmine while patrolling another area of the border. Thailand blamed Cambodia for the blast and announced it was suspending honouring the terms of a ceasefire partly brokered by US President Donald Trump.

Territorial disputes over exactly where the border lies between the Southeast Asian neighbours led to five days of armed conflict in late July that killed dozens of soldiers and civilians. But tensions remained high. Many terms of a more detailed truce agreement signed last month have not yet been implemented.

A Cambodian man identified as Dy Nai was reportedly killed in a shooting on Wednesday, while three other people were wounded.

About 250 families from Prey Chan village in Cambodia’s northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, where the shooting took place, were evacuated to a Buddhist temple about 30km from the border, said Ly Sovannarith, the provincial vice governor.

The same village was the site of a violent but not lethal confrontation in September between Thai security personnel and Cambodian villagers.

The Cambodian Defense Ministry on Thursday led members of a team assigned to monitor the ceasefire at the border. The observer team included officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Wednesday called for an independent investigation into the incident to bring justice to those affected by the shooting.

The ceasefire appeared to be breaking down after the landmine explosion earlier this week.

Thailand accused Cambodia of laying new mines in violation of the truce, which Cambodia denied. Thailand said it would pause implementation of the agreement indefinitely.

It also demanded that Cambodia apologise, conduct a thorough investigation and implement measures to prevent such incidents in the future.

Hun Manet said the shooting occurred after Thai forces engaged in “numerous provocative actions for many days with the objective of instigating confrontations”. He added that Cambodia would still honour the ceasefire terms.

The Thai army alleged that Cambodian soldiers fired into a district in Thailand’s eastern province of Sa Kaeo, and that the Thai side “fired warning shots in response”.

“Cambodia’s accusations that Thailand initiated fire, provoked conflict, and violated the ceasefire are entirely false. Cambodia’s firing from a civilian area as cover constitutes using human shields, violating humanitarian principles and demonstrating complete disregard for Cambodian civilian lives,” said army spokesperson Major General Winthai Suvaree said in a statement on Wednesday.

 

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/cambodia-thailand-tensions-evacuate-village-disputed-border-5464856

The BBC has apologised to US President Donald Trump for a Panorama episode that spliced parts of his 6 January 2021 speech together, but rejected his demands for compensation.

The corporation said the edit had given “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action” and said it would not show the 2024 programme again.

Lawyers for Trump have threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn (£759m) in damages unless the corporation issues a retraction, apologises and compensates him.

The fallout from the scandal led to the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness on Sunday.

BBC News has approached the White House for comment.

The apology comes hours after a second similarly edited clip, broadcast on Newsnight in 2022, was revealed by the Daily Telegraph.

In its Corrections and Clarifications section, published on Thursday evening, the BBC said the Panorama programme had been reviewed after criticism of how Trump’s speech had been edited.

The BBC had been given a deadline of 22:00 GMT (17:00 EST) on Friday to respond.

“We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” the statement said.

Lawyers for the BBC have written to President Trump’s legal team in response to a letter received on Sunday, a BBC spokesperson said.

“BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme,” they said.

They added: “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

In Trump’s speech he said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”

In the Panorama programme the clip shows him as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

Speaking to Fox News, Trump said his speech had been “butchered” and the way it was presented had “defrauded” viewers.

The BBC received the letter from Trump’s lawyers on Sunday. It demands a “full and fair retraction” of the documentary, an apology, and that the BBC “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused”.

In its letter to Trump’s legal team, the BBC sets out five main arguments for why it does not think it has a case to answer

First it says the BBC did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the Panorama episode on its US channels.

When the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, it was restricted to viewers in the UK.

Secondly, it says the documentary did not cause Trump harm, as he was re-elected shortly after.

Thirdly, it says the clip was not designed to mislead, but just to shorten a long speech, and that the edit was not done with malice.

Fourthly, it says the clip was never meant to be considered in isolation. Rather, it was 12 seconds within an hour-long programme, which also contained lots of voices in support of Trump.

Finally, an opinion on a matter of public concern and political speech is heavily protected under defamation laws in the US.

A BBC insider said that internally, there is a strong belief in the case the corporation has put forward, and in its defence.

BBC News approached the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for comment, which said they would not be issuing a statement.

Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey urged the prime minister to “get on the phone to Trump” to put a stop to his lawsuit threat and “defend the impartiality and independence of the BBC”.

Fresh claim of misleading edit
Earlier on Thursday, the BBC was accused of another misleading edit of Trump’s 6 January 2021 speech, two years before the Panorama sequence aired.

On a Newsnight programme from 2022, the edit is a little different from Panorama.

Trump is shown as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”

This was followed by a voiceover from presenter Kirsty Wark saying “and fight they did” over footage from the Capitol riots.

Responding to the clip on the same programme, former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who quit a diplomatic post and became a critic of Trump after describing the 6 January riots as an “attempted coup”, said the video had “spliced together” Trump’s speech.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c874nw4g2zzo

Germany’s coalition government has agreed a new military service plan to boost troop numbers following months of wrangling between political forces.

The new military service plan will mandate all 18-year-old men to fill out a questionnaire on their suitability to serve and, from 2027, to undergo medical screening.

The decision comes as Berlin aims to create Europe’s strongest conventional army.

The boss of Germany’s biggest defence firm, Rheinmetall, has told the BBC he believes that target could be met in five years.

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the plan by the end of 2025.

Armin Papperger said Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s aim to boost the Bundeswehr was “realistic” and he told the BBC that “clear decisions” were coming from government.

Earlier this year German defence chief Gen Carsten Breuer warned that the Western Nato alliance had to prepare for a possible Russian attack within four years.

Mr Papperger said he had “no glass ball” about the future but agreed Germany had to be “ready in ’29”.

When they formed a coalition earlier this year, Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU and the centre-left Social Democrat SPD agreed to re-introduce military service which would be voluntary “to start with”.

The Bundeswehr currently has around 182,000 troops. The new military service model aims to increase that number by 20,000 over the next year, rising to between 255,000 and 260,000 over the next 10 years, supplemented by approximately 200,000 reservists.

From next year, all 18-year-old men and women will be sent a questionnaire to assess their interest and willingness to join the armed forces. It will be mandatory for men and voluntary for women.

From July 2027 all men aged 18 will also have to take a medical exam to assess their fitness for duty.

If the government’s targets are not met, a form of compulsory enlistment could be considered by parliament. If war were to break out, the military would be able to draw on the questionnaires and medical exams for potential recruits.

Some within Germany’s political left remain deeply opposed to mandatory service.

Many young Germans are wary and a significant majority oppose it. A recent Forsa survey for Stern magazine suggested while just over half of respondents favoured compulsory service, opposition rose to 63% among 18- to 29-year-olds.

“I don’t want to go to war because I don’t want to die or I don’t want to be shot at,” said Jimi, a 17-year-old student from Berlin, who attended an anti-conscription protest outside the Bundestag earlier this week. “I also don’t want to shoot people.”

An attack against Germany was an “unlikely and abstract scenario” that the government was using to legitimise “stealing millions of young people’s right to decide what they should be doing”, he said.

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Jason signed up as new Bundeswehr recruit earlier this year because of the current “security situation”.

“I wanted to contribute to defend peace, to defend democracy if the worst happens,” he said. By joining up he felt he was “giving back to society” but also believed in the deterrent potential of the army, “so potential enemies don’t even think about attacking you”.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has sought to reassure Germans, saying that despite the new military service plan there was “no cause for concern… no reason for fear”.

“The more capable of deterrence and defence our armed forces are, through armament through training and through personnel, the less likely it is that we will become a party to a conflict at all,” Pistorius said.

Defence spending in Germany tumbled after the end of the Cold War, while conscription was suspended in 2011.

Given its past, Germany has long been shy of showing military might, but earlier this year Friedrich Merz announced that the rule for German defence “now has to be whatever it takes”, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Nato countries across Europe have come under pressure from President Donald Trump’s White House to hike spending.

European moves to re-arm have meant significant revenue for Rheinmetall.

Its CEO, Armin Papperger, whose firm also supplies Ukraine, said: “We make a lot of money because there is a huge demand.”

 

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gpkerdn9qo

In her Soviet-era apartment block on the outskirts of eastern Kyiv, Oksana Zinkovska-Boyarska lives with daily power cuts. The lift to her eighth-floor apartment often stops, the lights go out and sometimes the pumps maintaining pressure in the gas central heating fail.

She has a big rechargeable battery pack to keep appliances going, but it costs €2,000 (£1,770) and it only lasts so long. Her husband Ievgen, a lawyer, often has to work by torchlight. Their two-year-old daughter Katia plays by candlelight too.

Amid air raids and cold darkness, Oksana says she and Ievgen worry constantly for Katia. “I can’t describe with words the animal fear when you take your child to the shelter during the explosions.

“I have never felt anything like that in my life and I wouldn’t want anyone to feel anything like that. The thought that she might be scared because there’s no light – this is terrible.”

All across Ukraine, families are bracing themselves for even tougher times ahead – a long, cold winter in which Russian President Vladimir Putin attempts to finish off his invasion by striking Ukraine’s power supplies and networks.

Just last weekend, a massive drone and missile strike left much of the country for a time without power. Ukrainians are now enduring regular power cuts of up to 16 hours a day.

In winter, temperatures in Ukraine can plummet as low as -20C. One senior government figure told me they expect the next few months to be brutal.

“I think it will be the worst winter of our history,” says the official. “Russia will destroy our energy, our infrastructure, our heating. All state institutions should be prepared for the worst scenario.”

Maxim Timchenko, the chief executive of DTEK, a large private energy company in Ukraine, says: “Based on the intensity of attacks for the past two months, it is clear Russia is aiming for the complete destruction of Ukraine’s energy system.”

But according to one European envoy, it’s not just about people being cold at night or without light – there is more to Russia’s strategy.

“[This] is also about them not getting any bread from the bakery in the morning and not being able to go to work because there is no power for the factory,” says the envoy.

As the official puts it: “The goal of the Russians is to kill our economy.”

So how exactly will this strategy play out? And given that almost four years of war have taken their toll, what does it mean for Ukraine’s people – and the future of this long, hard war?

Frozen assets and suspended diplomacy
On the front line, the news is bleak. There are growing signs that the key eastern city of Pokrovsk may fall, giving Russian forces a boost in morale and a fresh platform to seize more of the Donetsk region.

Another issue that could impact morale is a massive corruption scandal affecting the government.

Prosecutors have accused ministers and officials of taking kickbacks from contracts to build defensive structures around Ukraine’s nuclear plants. Both of the ministers accused deny the allegations. But the risk for President Zelensky is that Ukrainians, many of whom are living in the cold and the dark, may lose trust in the administration.

What’s more, for now, diplomatic efforts to end the war appear to be on hold.

Plans of a summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump are on the back burner after Moscow refused to budge from its maximalist war aims and the US imposed sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

“There is currently a pause,” a Kremlin spokesman said this week, “the situation is stalled.”

All the while, European nations squabble over what to do with €180bn (£160bn) in frozen Russian assets. They plan to use the cash to raise a so-called “repatriation loan” for Ukraine, repaid only if Russia ever pays reparations after the end of the war.

But a row over how to share the risk has left Kyiv’s coffers looking distinctly bare.

Yet it is the energy crisis that is worrying the Ukrainian government most, according to those I spoke to. “People are tired after four years of the war,” the official tells me.

“I am afraid they will be demotivated.”

Insomnia, missiles and shifting morale
Walk the streets of Kyiv and you’ll pass a sea of tired faces – people’s eyes are red from a lack of sleep, their rest broken by the air raid sirens.

“I am tired of not sleeping enough,” says Yana Kolomiets, 31, a casting director from Odesa. “But… people who fight on the front line are tired [too].”

A recent scientific study suggested that people are three times more likely to suffer from insomnia in Ukraine than in countries at peace.

It tracked the sleep patterns of around 100 Ukrainians over six months, and found the insomnia persisted even on quiet nights. (The research was published by Texty, a data journalism website based in Ukraine.)

There have not been many quiet nights. Russia launched vast numbers of ballistic missiles at Ukraine in October – some 268 in all, the highest monthly total since the full-scale invasion, according to analysis published by the Oboz news site. The same month Russia launched 5,298 Shahed and other bomber drones.

Diplomats suggest there is a geographic focus to Russia’s tactics, their strikes deliberately targeting gas and electricity transmission networks in eastern Ukraine, rather than power stations in the west of the country.

“They are trying to cut Ukraine in two in terms of energy,” one European envoy says. “They want anywhere east of the river Dnipro to be cold this winter.”

The aim, one government source told me, is to “instigate an insurrection, so that people go against the government in Kyiv… they are trying to destroy social cohesion.”

So concerned is the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs it has already issued a formal warning, saying “the approaching winter poses new risks for Ukrainians… as intensified attacks on energy networks undermine efforts to maintain warmth in homes, schools and health centres”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly98qp99l8o

A U.S. proposal to provide a United Nations mandate for an international stabilization force in Gaza is facing opposition from Russia, China and some Arab countries, which have expressed unease about a yet-to-be established board that would temporarily govern the territory and the lack of any transitional role for the Palestinian Authority.

The Chinese and the Russians — two veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council — have called for the “Board of Peace” under President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan to be removed from the resolution entirely, according to four U.N. diplomats briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations.

In the latest draft released late Wednesday and obtained by The Associated Press, the U.S. maintains the language around the board while providing further commitment to Palestinian self-determination. although the language remains weak.

While some of the responses to the U.S. proposal reflect typical negotiations between countries — with detailed back-and-forth and revisions in language — the objection to the transitional board indicates that wide gaps have emerged between some members of the U.N.’s most powerful body and the U.S. following more than two years of war.

At the same time, other members said quick action would avoid upending the progress toward peace, one diplomat said.

That was the message Thursday from the U.S. mission to the U.N., which said in a statement that the “attempts to sow discord” have “grave, tangible and entirely avoidable consequences for Palestinians in Gaza.” It urged the council to unite and pass the resolution.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also has called on the council to pass the resolution without delay.

“I think we’re making good progress on the language of the resolution, and hopefully we’ll have action on it very soon,” he told reporters Wednesday before departing a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada. “We don’t want to lose momentum on this.”

UN Security Council members sought changes to the US proposal
The U.S. first circulated a draft resolution last week to the 15 members of the Security Council that would give a broad international mandate to the stabilization force to provide security in Gaza through the end of 2027, working with the yet-to-be-established Board of Peace. Arab and other countries that have expressed interest in participating in the force have indicated that such a mandate is necessary for them to contribute troops.

Russia, China and Algeria voiced their opposition to that draft, and all but two of the other Security Council members submitted amendments, one of the diplomats said.

The sticking points surrounded the pathway to an independent Palestinian state and timeline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, according to two of the diplomats. The new draft this week responds to objections that the resolution didn’t envision a future independent Palestinian state — but without absolutes.

It says after reforms to the Palestinian Authority are “faithfully carried out and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, the conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

“The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence,” it adds.

US makes changes but keeps transitional authority
The new draft adds that as the stabilization force “establishes control and stability,” the Israeli military will withdraw from the Gaza Strip. It reiterates that the step would be based on “standards, milestones and timeframes linked to demilitarization and agreed” by Israel, the stabilization force, the U.S. and others.

The United Arab Emirates, a major U.S. ally in the peace negotiations, said publicly this week that it does not yet see a clear framework for the proposed stabilization force in Gaza and, under the current circumstances, will not take part in it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood and a Gaza governed by the Palestinian Authority, which runs pockets of the West Bank. But the language in Trump’s plan seems to encourage a role for a Palestinian state.

Other countries on the Security Council have asked for further clarification on the Board of Peace, including who will be on it and how it will operate. The new draft did not make big changes regarding the board.

Some countries push quick action to preserve momentum
Some council members say swift adoption of any proposal with the U.N. stamp of approval would be wise to keep up with the positive momentum on the ground, one diplomat said.

That diplomat and others said the Americans could get frustrated with the negotiations and decide to go forward unilaterally with a force from willing countries that would not have U.N. backing.

The U.S. likely has three options going forward, another diplomat said:

— Accept some meaningful amendments.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/gaza-ceasefire-stabilization-force-united-nations-f8a0088cae56fc79226f0352ebcbb065

Jeffrey Epstein wrote a paranoid email to himself months before his death rambling about Donald Trump.

The disgraced pedophile billionaire claimed that the President had often visited his home in Palm Beach, in the email sent to himself in February 2019.

‘[REDACTED] worked at Mar-a-Lago. Trump knew of it, and came to my house many times during that period,’ Epstein wrote, six months before he was found hanged at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

‘He never got a massage,’ the financier said.

Epstein appeared to be spiraling as he was facing new charges of abusing dozens of girls following a bombshell investigation by the Miami Herald in 2019. It came more than a decade after he was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.

The pedophile appears to downplay the significance of his abuse to victims, writing: ‘the girls returned the house multiple times. For 200 dollars for a rub and tug. No sex. Some worked in the local massage parlors. Most in their twenties.’

The reasoning and context behind Epstein’s email to himself are not clear. The following day, he forwarded the exchange to the author Michael Wolff, who was writing an exposé on Trump at the time.

‘Have fun,’ the financier wrote.

The bizarre rant came just a few months after the Miami Herald released their bombshell three-part series that identified more than 60 women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein when they were underage.

The Herald exposed how the pedophile received a plea deal in 2008 from then-US Attorney Alexander Acosta, who allowed him to plead guilty to only state prostitution charges, avoiding federal sex-trafficking charges. The deal also granted immunity to unnamed co-conspirators.

Epstein ended the email by rehashing an old Florida property dispute that he had with the President in the early 2000s shortly before their relationship collapsed.

Trump famously expelled the financier around October 2007, according to the Mar-a-Lago’s Club registry.

The president has since revealed Epstein was ‘stealing’ young women who worked at his estate.

The pressure from the Miami Herald’s story led to Epstein’s arrest in July 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges in New York.

He died in a New York jail cell from an apparent suicide one month later.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday branded the email dump a politically motivated ‘smear’ campaign and repeated Giuffre’s former statements about Trump in which she absolved him of any wrongdoing.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15287841/Epstein-wrote-disturbing-email-suicide-Trump-knew.html

 

The actress received a lot of backlash for her role in the film at the time of its release

ELIZABETH Berkley has stunned in a new campaign where she recreated her iconic look from the film Showgirls, in honor of its 30th anniversary.

The actress, 53, partnered with Betsey Johnson for the fashion designer’s Holiday 2025 campaign, which launched on Wednesday.

Betsey shared pictures from the photoshoot on Instagram, capturing Elizabeth, who was the “original Showgirl” in the 1995 erotic drama, in various high-end ensembles.

The duo even posed together in one shot, with Elizabeth wearing a long, feathery purple coat and a massive headpiece, and Betsy adorned in pink feathers and a white and black mini dress.

Betsey shared a quote from Elizabeth in her caption, which read, “Betsey’s beautiful fabrics and her creativity are woven into some of my greatest memories in my life.

“Going from girl to young woman into womanhood through my twenties… Betsey’s clothes have really met me at every age and stage.”

‘SO STUNNING!’
Fans were shocked by Elizabeth’s ageless appearance in the photos and praised her in the comments.

“GORGEOUS!!!!! Giving SERIOUS Nomi vibes!” one person wrote.

“@elizberkley you look Fabulous,” said another.

“Beyond Stunning!!!! You look beautiful!” echoed a third.

“She is so stunning its almost painful,” gushed a fourth.

Others noted that the actress looked like she “hadn’t aged a day,” compared to her teenage years starring in Saved by the Bell from 1989 to 1992.

Elizabeth has been open about her adoration for Betsey, as she famously spent her first paycheck from the sitcom at one of the designer’s stores.

She also wore one of the fashionista’s dresses to her Showgirls audition and screen test for the role of Las Vegas stripper Nomi Malone, for which she was later cast.

BIG MISS
The film, which also starred Gina Gershon, Kyle MacLachlan, and Gina Rivera, wasn’t initially well-received at the box office and was long considered a career ender for Elizabeth due to its cheesy dialogue.

It was also among the TV star’s first attempts to break away from her Saved by the Bell character, high school student Jessie Spano, after leaving the show to pursue more movie roles.

“Of course, it was disappointing that it didn’t do well, but there was so much cruelty around it. I was bullied,” Elizabeth recalled to People two years ago while reflecting on the film.

“And I didn’t understand why I was being blamed. The job as an actor is to fulfill the vision of the director. And I did everything I was supposed to do,” she added.

Around this time, Elizabeth reprised the role of Jessie for the show’s reboot on Peacock, alongside her former castmates, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Tiffani Thiessen, and Lark Voorhies.

Despite the excitement from fans about the series’ return, it didn’t last long, as it was cancelled in May after two seasons.

Elizabeth has since gone on to star in numerous other projects, including the HBO miniseries The Idol and, most recently, Kim Kardashian‘s Hulu legal drama, All’s Fair.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15487663/elizabeth-berkley-showgirls-recreates-looks-ageless-30-anniversary/

The commemorations this Thursday will assemble survivors, families of victims, and state officials in Paris and Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris for a day of collective remembrance, unity, solidarity, fortitude and resilience.

A decade after the deadliest terrorist attacks in its history, France honours the memory of the 132 victims who lost their lives on 13 November 2015, in a consecutive series of coordinated jihadist assaults that has scarred the nation irreparably. The commemorations this Thursday will assemble survivors, families of victims, and state officials in Paris and Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris for a day of collective remembrance, unity, solidarity, fortitude and resilience.

On that ominous Friday the 13th ten years ago, three Islamist commando units carried out simultaneous attacks across the French capital. The terror strikes began near the football stadium, Stade de France in Saint-Denis, where three suicide bombers attempted to enter the stadium during an international match between France and Germany attended by then-President François Hollande. Upon being denied entry, they detonated their explosive vests outside, killing Manuel Dias and injuring around ten others. Dias is now remembered as the first victim of that night.

Around the same time, a second group of attackers opened fire on several cafés in Paris’s 10th and 11th arrondissements; neighbourhoods that are synonymous with the city’s vibrant nightlife and youthful spirit. The shootings targeted Le Carillon, Le Petit Cambodge, La Bonne Bière, Casa Nostra, and La Belle Équipe, leaving 39 people dead and 32 gravely injured. Another bomber detonated his vest outside Le Comptoir Voltaire, but none were killed. The restaurant has been renamed Les Ogres ever since.

The third and the bloodiest attack occurred at the Bataclan concert hall, where American rock band Eagles of Death Metal was performing where 90 people were massacred and dozens more seriously wounded as terrorists opened fire on the crowd and took hostages. The siege ended only after elite special police squads stormed the venue, killing the terrorists, finally putting an end to the carnage. In the years that followed, the harrowing ordeal endured by survivors claimed two more lives; Guillaume Valette, a young chemist, and comic book artist Fred Dewilde. They committed suicide.

This Thursday’s commemorations begin late in the morning at Stade de France, where a tribute will be paid to Manuel Dias and those injured in the initial explosions. Ceremonies will then move through the city making a halt at each site that witnessed the horrors. This solemn day’s memorial journey will conclude at 2:30 p.m. outside the Bataclan with French President Emmanuel Macron, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and victims’ associations 13onze15 and Life for Paris in attendance.

Throughout the evening most of the iconic Parisian monuments including the Eiffel Tower, City Hall, Place de la République will be illuminated in blue, white, and red, the colours of the French flag, as symbols of remembrance and unity. The City of Paris has called upon Parisians to visit the Place de la République to light candles, lay flowers, or leave messages in memory of the victims.

A poignant highlight of the day will be the inauguration of the “13 November 2015 Garden” this evening in central Paris. Macron, Hidalgo, Philippe Duperron of 13onze15, and Arthur Dénouveaux of Life for Paris are expected to speak during the ceremony. Life for Paris will also formally dissolve on the same day, following a decision by its members to move forward “without being locked into the status of victims,” Dénouveaux explained.

Over and above official tributes, Paris will host several events over the weekend, including a commemorative mural in the 11th arrondissement and two solidarity races organized by the French Association of Victims of Terrorism.

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/france-commemorates-10th-anniversary-of-paris-terrorist-attacks

On Tuesday, local authorities reported that a portion of a freshly constructed bridge, this year in Sichuan, fell along a national route connecting the country’s heartland with Tibet. However, no injuries were reported. Sichuan comes under China’s Southwest province.

On Tuesday, local authorities reported that a portion of a freshly constructed Hongqi Bridge, this year in Sichuan, fell along a national route connecting the country’s heartland with Tibet. However, no injuries were reported. Sichuan comes under China’s Southwest province.

According to the local administration, police in the city of Maerkang blocked the 758-meter-long Hongqi bridge to all traffic on Monday afternoon after cracks formed on surrounding roads and slopes and changes were observed in the mountain’s topography.

See more

Chinese Engineering Failure- The 758-metre-long Hongqi bridge collapsed in southwest China, months after opening. China isn’t as smart as everyone makes them out to be. They couldn’t copy this design. The ground shifted on one of the approaches. Luckily it was noticed the day… pic.twitter.com/ZJDDdwgCP9

— Peter Lemonjello (@KCtoFL) November 11, 2025

The user wrote, “Chinese Engineering Failure- The 758-metre-long Hongqi bridge collapsed in southwest China, months after opening. China isn’t as smart as everyone makes it out to be. They couldn’t copy this design. The ground shifted on one of the approaches. Luckily, it was noticed the day before, so there were no casualties.”

The local government further stated that the approach bridge and roadbed collapsed on Tuesday afternoon due to landslides caused by worsening circumstances on the hill.

See more

Chinese Engineering Failure- The 758-metre-long Hongqi bridge collapsed in southwest China, months after opening.

China isn’t as smart as everyone makes them out to be.

They couldn’t copy this design on chenab of Jammu and Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/dq9EE0P4YU

— श्रवण बिश्नोई (किसान/ Hindus) (@SKBishnoi29Rule) November 11, 2025

According to a video that the contractor Sichuan Road & Bridge Group shared on social media, the bridge’s construction was completed earlier this year.

See more

Why can’t we build beautiful bridges in a few m9nths, like Chiana?

Ask a chorus of imbeciles on X almost daily.

Because we build them to last, cretins.

Another triumph of Socialism! The Hongqi bridge in Sichuan did not make it to its first birthday.
pic.twitter.com/R85W8EJPVv

— Saul Montes-Bradley (@Debradelai) November 12, 2025

Netizens are criticizing China’s architectural efficiency, as more than 100 bridges have collapsed in China in the past 10 years. One user wrote, “China isn’t as smart as everyone makes them out to be. They couldn’t copy this design on chenab of Jammu and Kashmir.”

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/viral/china-is-not-as-smart-as-netizens-react-as-recently-opened-758-metre-long-chinese-bridge-collapses-due-to-landslide-visuals-inside

 

A coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani came first in Iraq’s parliamentary election, the Independent High Electoral Commission said on Wednesday.
His coalition received 1.317 million votes in Tuesday’s election, the commission said.

Reuters reported earlier that Sudani placed first, citing two electoral commission officials with knowledge of the results.
Sudani was seeking a second term in Tuesday’s election, but many disillusioned young voters saw the vote simply as a vehicle for established parties to divide Iraq’s oil wealth.

However, Sudani tried to cast himself as the leader who could make Iraq a success after years of instability, arguing he had moved against established parties that brought him to power.
No party can form a government on its own in Iraq’s 329-member legislature, so parties build alliances with other groups to become an administration, a fraught process that often takes many months.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/coalition-led-by-iraqi-pm-sudani-comes-first-iraqs-parliamentary-election-two-2025-11-12/

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday pushed back against criticism from some U.S. allies over the legality of the U.S. strikes in the Caribbean, saying Europeans don’t get to dictate how Washington defends its national security.
Rubio attended a Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Canada’s Niagara region, where talks focused on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, but some countries present have raised concerns over U.S. strikes against boats that the Trump administration says are carrying drugs.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at the start of the meeting on Tuesday that the strikes “violate international law” and were concerning for France’s territories in the region.
The U.S. military has carried out at least 19 strikes so far against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coasts of Latin America, killing at least 76 people.
Speaking to reporters before departing Canada, Rubio said no one had raised the operations with him during the G7 meeting. However, he defended targeting what he called “narco-terrorists” and said drugs are also shipped via Venezuela to Europe, so the United States should be thanked for taking them out.

“I don’t think that the European Union gets to determine what international law is,” Rubio said. “They certainly don’t get to determine how the United States defends its national security.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting that such strikes could be only justified as self-defense or by a UN Security Council resolution.
Asked about a CNN report that Britain had suspended intelligence sharing on drug trafficking over concerns about the strikes, Rubio called it a “false story”, and said the United States has a very strong partnership with the United Kingdom.
“Nothing has changed or happened that has impeded in any way our ability to do what we’re doing,” Rubio said. “Nor are we asking anyone to help us with what we’re doing.”
The Trump administration insists those targeted were transporting drugs, without providing evidence or publicly explaining the legal justification for the decision to attack the boats rather than stop them and arrest those on board.

The United States has publicly justified its actions as consistent with Article 51 of the founding U.N. Charter, which requires the U.N. Security Council to be immediately informed of any action states take in self-defense against armed attack.

The G7 ministers, in their statement, said they reaffirmed a shared commitment “to strengthening partnership in securing maritime ports and routes against the trafficking of illegal drugs” but made no specific mention of the intensified U.S. military campaign in waters off Latin America.
While acknowledging the U.S. justification for the strikes, a group of independent U.N. experts said last month: “Even if such allegations were substantiated, the use of lethal force in international waters without proper legal basis violates the international law of the sea and amounts to extrajudicial executions.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered Colombian public security forces to suspend intelligence sharing with U.S. intelligence agencies until Washington stops attacking boats in the Caribbean.

UKRAINE SEEKS MORE PRESSURE ON MOSCOW

At the G7 meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha pushed for Kyiv’s allies to strengthen its long-range missile capability and bolster its energy sector as Ukraine enters another winter at war.
U.S. President Donald Trump has sought a rapprochement with Moscow and held a summit in Alaska with Putin in August. But he has backed calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine with forces at their present positions, while Moscow has said it wants Kyiv to yield more territory.
“What they want is the rest of the Donetsk. And obviously the Ukrainians aren’t going to agree to that,” Rubio said, adding that Washington had concluded that Russia is not currently interested in pursuing peace.
The ministers issued a final joint statement in which they reiterated a call for an immediate ceasefire and said “we are increasing the economic costs to Russia, and exploring measures against countries and entities that are helping finance Russia’s war efforts.”
Efforts to organize a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump were put on ice last month, as Moscow’s rejection of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine cast a cloud over attempts at negotiations.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/rubio-may-face-questions-over-legality-us-strikes-caribbean-g7-meeting-2025-11-12/

In the hours after the Louvre heist, Belgian police received an alert from their French counterparts, urging them to be on the lookout for anyone trying to hawk the stolen jewels, according to two Antwerp police officers.
The alert came via the “Pink Diamond” network, a secure channel overseen by EU law enforcement agency Europol that unites investigators specialized in high-value thefts.

Antwerp, a Belgian port city, has sat at the heart of the world’s diamond trade since the 16th century. Its wholesalers traded nearly $25 billion worth of stones last year alone.

But over the last 30 years, Antwerp has struggled to contain a growing underworld, home to hundreds of gold and jewellery shops run largely by people of Georgian descent, according to police, prosecutors, court files and municipal documents from Belgium and France.
Although most of these shops are law-abiding businesses, some offer criminals from across Europe a channel through which they can sell stolen gold or jewels – a process known as “fencing”.
French authorities have placed four people under formal investigation in connection with the Louvre heist, but have yet to recover jewels worth $102 million.

They have given no details about the hunt. Asked whether Antwerp was a focus of the French probe, the Paris prosecutor’s office said: “All hypotheses are being considered.”
Antwerp police mobilised immediately after receiving the “Pink Diamond” alert, the two officers said.
“From the moment that happened … especially in Antwerp, with all the jewellery stores, we’ve been alert,” one said.
They reviewed security footage for French plates and tapped informants for tips on anyone trying to sell the jewels. Police also warned some jewellers not to touch the iconic booty.
Belgium’s federal police declined to comment, citing the ongoing French investigation.

“QUESTIONABLE” PRACTICES

Georgian traders began settling in Antwerp in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, police say. Many had a background in metals trading and deep links with the city’s Jewish diamond traders.

There are now some 300 jewellery shops operating just outside the diamond district, a quarter of which are involved in “fencing” stolen product, the two police said.
The Antwerp World Diamond Centre, a trade body representing the wholesalers, told Reuters its reputation “is occasionally put at risk” by being associated with some jewellers with “questionable … money laundering practices”.
Antwerp’s diamond sector is already grappling with a G7 ban on Russian gems and a deluge of lab-grown stones that have led to historically low prices and calls for a sector-wide bailout.
But for some jewellers, business is booming.
Some suspected fences drive around town in S-Class Mercedes-Benz, regularly open new shops and acquire pricy foreign real estate, one of the officers said.
“You clearly have two worlds here,” they said. “Those who work hard, are legal … and are struggling to survive, and those who apparently do good business in the same neighbourhood selling the same products.”

Kris Luyckx, a lawyer who has defended many jewellers of Georgian descent in court, said compliance regulations were robust, while jewellers are subject to regular police checks.
Crime in France has been a reliable source of income for Antwerp jewellers, French and Belgian law enforcement officials said.
After robbing Kim Kardashian in her Paris hotel room in 2016, the mastermind of the plot confessed to selling her melted gold and diamonds in Antwerp for over 25,000 euros, court documents show. French and Belgian officials said they believe the booty was bought by Georgian fences, although nobody was charged as it was never recovered.
Since then, over half-a-dozen French and Belgian investigations have uncovered a criminal corridor between the countries in which Balkan burglars hand their stolen goods to couriers in France, who deliver them to buyers in Antwerp.
In most cases, the buyers were Georgian, the Belgian police officers said.
Yakout Boudali, head of intelligence for the French Gendarmerie’s Central Office for the Fight Against Itinerant Delinquency, the unit that ran three of the probes into French thieves transporting booty to Belgium, said that in at least two of those cases, the Antwerp fences were “of Georgian nationality or held dual nationality.”
However, she warned against “stigmatising” Georgians or Antwerp, saying Romania-based groups are increasingly active.

DRUGS AND DIAMONDS

Antwerp’s illicit jewellery trade adds to the woes of a city already battling drug gangs using Europe’s No. 2 port to import multi-tonne shipments of cocaine. In an open letter posted on Belgium’s courts website last month, an anonymous Antwerp judge said the country was on the cusp of becoming a narco-state.
Antwerp formalised a specialised police force to oversee the diamond and jewellery sectors in 2021. In a report at the time, which remains the most comprehensive official account of the illicit trade, the mayor’s office warned of “a strong link between fraudulent jewellers and the criminal drug environment.”
Jewellers are suspected of “laundering of millions of euros in criminal proceeds,” it added.
Antwerp City Hall did not respond to requests for comment.
An omerta among many Georgian jewellers and Indian diamond traders makes it hard to penetrate these close-knit communities, the police officers said.
The jewellers have also rejected what the police sources viewed as an effort to improve transparency, citing a 2017 push by then-Mayor Bart De Wever, now Belgium’s right-wing prime minister, “to drive criminal networks out of the city.”
His municipal decree mandated security cameras with facial recognition inside jewellery shops, among other measures, with the images readily available to police.
Jewellers appealed the edict, but eventually conceded on one condition, the police sources said – the cameras could be installed but wouldn’t be turned on.
Luyckx, who represented over 100 jewellers in the case, confirmed a deal was struck. He said the law was overly invasive and unfairly targeted the largely Jewish community.
“It was like profiling an area as a sort of criminal ghetto,” he said.
Luyckx, who was asked to defend the jewellers by a local rabbi, Yosef Tarab Cohen, said some jewellers’ wariness of cooperating with police was understandable, given the “smell of discrimination and racist profiling.”
Antwerp revoked the decree in 2020 after a state auditor said it risked overreach and conflicted with privacy laws, court documents show.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/chasing-louvre-loot-inside-antwerps-jewellery-underworld-2025-11-12/

As rich nations drag their feet, India’s role is pivotal in bringing together the Global North and South on climate action.

As nearly 200 countries debate the planet’s climate future at the 30th UN Climate Conference (COP30) in Brazil’s Amazonian city of Belem, India finds itself in a unique position in balancing the weight of its need for economic growth with its increasingly prominent role as a voice representing the Global South.

This year’s climate negotiations follow last year’s disappointing COP29 held in Azerbaijan, where countries missed the climate finance mark and agreed to raise $300 billion (€259 billion) annually by 2035 instead of the appealed $1.3 trillion.

Developing nations criticized countries with industrialized economies for dodging their responsibility by not pledging adequate climate financing. India said the pledged sum was “too little, too distant.”

Standing on the shaky ground set by COP29, this year’s summit aims to operationalize the climate finance targets and revise national climate plans called the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The host country, Brazil, has insisted this will be “the COP of implementation.”

How is India balancing economic and climate needs?

For India, like other vulnerable countries in the Global South facing a disproportionate brunt of the climate crisis, the stakes and hopes are high. As one of the world’s fastest growing economies, it walks a tightrope, balancing its economic ambitions with the collective responsibility of tackling the climate challenge.

In the past few years, India has made substantial progress in the field of renewable energy — particularly solar and wind. It has the fourth largest renewable energy generation capacity in the world, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

And a report published in October by the International Energy Agency (IEA) concluded that the country is set to become the second-largest renewables growth market globally, after China, by 2030.

Despite its achievements in harnessing renewable power, India still relies heavily on coal, which is estimated to generate around 75% of its electricity. The country is the world’s second largest coal consumer, after China.

Amid strong economic growth and corresponding energy demand, India has seen a multifold jump in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The country was responsible for the biggest rise in GHG emissions globally between 2023 and 2024, adding about 165 million tons of GHGs during this period, according to a recent UN report.

India’s emissions have grown but “it has also become more proactive about committing to more ambitious mitigation action on its own through the NDCs,” Aman Srivastava, a fellow studying climate policy at the Delhi-based think tank Sustainable Futures Collaborative, told DW.

This year, India has achieved 50% of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources — five years ahead of its 2030 target.

Where do wealthy countries stand?

This year, the US, which is historically the biggest emitter, pulled out of the 2015 Paris Agreement for the second time under President Donald Trump, who has dismissed climate change as a “hoax” and “a money-making industry.”

On the other hand, the European Union remains divided and unable to set a clear direction to achieve its climate goals.

Just days before COP30 began, the EU agreed to cut emissions by 90% by 2040, from 1990 levels, but gave the target leeway by allowing member countries to buy foreign carbon credits to make up 5% of the emission reduction goal.

Speaking of the West’s waning leadership in climate affairs, Avantika Goswami, a climate policy researcher at New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, told DW the West’s leadership role on climate policy is waning.

“It’s the crisis of Western economies today, which is spread across military conflicts, trade wars, deindustrialization, and economic stagnation — to which they are responding anxiously,” she said.

Dhanasree Jayaram, a co-coordinator at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education’s Center for Climate Studies, shared a similar view.

“Many developing countries have taken the lead while countries in the West or Global North have been faltering in the past decade,” she told DW. This is an opportunity, Jayaram added, because “these were the countries that were often blamed for not contributing enough to the global public good.”

A leading player in climate diplomacy

For a long time, India has argued in favor of “common but differentiated responsibilities” to fight climate change — meaning that although all countries need to act to combat the problem, the biggest historical polluters such as the US and European nations need to do more than others.

New Delhi has played a key role in the COP meetings over the past few years, especially in setting up the Loss and Damage Fund, aimed at helping vulnerable countries suffering from the adverse effects of climate change.

Jayaram also pointed to the Indian government’s initiatives like the International Solar Alliance to help countries worldwide to scale up renewable power generation capacity.

By doing so, India has positioned itself as a bridge between the Global North and Global South, she said, adding that these efforts have also elevated New Delhi’s standing as a leading diplomatic actor in climate talks and multilateral forums.

But there remains a perception, particularly in the West, that the Global South is not doing its bit to fight climate change, said Arunabha Ghosh, a special envoy to COP30 representing South Asia, and CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

“We have to bridge the ambition and the implementation gaps by bridging the perception gap. The perception gap that countries in the Global South are not acting or don’t want to act,” he told DW. “In fact, there’s a lot more that’s happening in the Global South than is given credit for.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/cop30-can-india-step-up-and-lead-global-south-on-climate/a-74714337

Public prosecutors say a suspected Hamas member was arrested soon after entering the country, on a highway near the border to Czechia.

Federal police arrested a suspected Hamas member soon after his entry into Germany on the A17 autobahn near the Czech border, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The Lebanese-born man is accused of procuring weapons that were supposed to be used for attacks on Israeli or Jewish sites in Germany and Europe, the federal prosecutor’s office based in Karlsruhe said.

The suspect, who was detained on Tuesday, was to be transported to Karlsruhe, where he would appear before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice, who would make a decision on investigative custody.

Prosecutors also said that Danish police in Copenhagen and the vicinity had searched properties of the detained man and another accused individual.

Hamas memeber suspected of procuring firearms

The man is suspected of procuring an automatic weapon, eight pistols and more than 600 rounds of ammunition in Berlin in August 2025.

He is alleged to have then transported these to another alleged Hamas member who is already in pretrial detention.

Prosecutors said that the weapons and ammunition were seized during the arrest of his presumed accomplice.

On October 1 this year, prosecutors in Berlin arrested three alleged Hamas members, accused of procuring weapons for attacks.

“The weapons were meant to be used for murderous attacks on Israeli or Jewish facitlities in Germany,” authorities said at the time, albeit adding the suspects had not formulated a concrete plot.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/suspected-hamas-member-arrested-in-germany/a-74716572

After a Turkish military plane crashed, the country’s defense minister posted a message saying: “Our heroic comrades-in-arms were martyred.”

All 20 military personnel on board a Turkish military cargo plane that crashed in Georgia were killed, Turkey’s defense minister announced on Wednesday.

The personnel were on board the C-130 Hercules plane that took off from Azerbaijan en route to Turkey, officials said.

“Our heroic comrades-in-arms were martyred on November 11, 2025, when our C-130 military cargo plane, which had taken off from Azerbaijan en route to our country, crashed near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border,” Defense Minister Yasar Guler said in a message posted on X, together with photographs of those killed in the crash.

See more

pic.twitter.com/FmJM9Shmzs

— T.C. Millî Savunma Bakanlığı (@tcsavunma) November 12, 2025

In a post on X, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev sent his sympathies to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

What caused the crash?

Georgia’s air traffic control service said the aircraft had disappeared from radar shortly after entering its airspace.

The cause of the crash is still unknown, and an investigation is underway.

An investigation team from Turkey reached the crash site early on Wednesday and was inspecting the plane’s wreckage in coordination with the Georgian authorities, the National Defense Ministry said.

Debris from the plane was spread across multiple locations, according to a report by Turkey’s private broadcaster NTV.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/turkish-military-plane-crash-all-20-onboard-dead/a-74703512

 

Across Africa, schools face outdated curricula and skills gaps. Experts say AI could transform learning and create new opportunities for African youth. DW looks at how African nations are embracing the change.

In Accra’s Chorkor neighborhood, young Ghanaians are using computers for the first time. Inside a modest digital lab, facilitators use smart tools to teach digital literacy — skills that could transform lives.

Some students already dream big. “I have learned a lot. I love technology and all that but coming to these classes, I have been able to gain knowledge. It has been inspirational,” said Emmanuel Dwamena Tenkorang, an IT student.

American social entrepreneur Patricia Wilkins is among those investing in artificial intelligence (AI) education for underprivileged youth in Ghana. Her organization, Basics International, runs the Chorkor Digital Lab, which teaches digital skills to young people.

“We launched the program just a few months ago, and we’ve already had one cohort of students. We’re running our second cohort and we have almost 100 students and we have three classes,” Wilkins told DW. “Technology is the future. This is where the jobs are. This is where people can work remotely.”

A continental push for AI in education

Across Africa, similar initiatives are gaining momentum. On November 5, over 1,500 education and tech experts gathered in Accra for the conference on AI and its impact on education.

The central theme: integrating AI into educational systems to drive transformation and unlocking opportunities for young people for innovation and sustainable development.

“[When we talk about AI in education] we are looking at technological tools that we are using to solve problems in the education environment, or we are also looking at technologies that within education systems we can use to enhance teaching and learning,” said Gideon Owusu Agyemang from the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT.

“We now have intelligent tutoring machines that are assisting students in their learning,” Agyemang added. “AI is also going to improve teaching and learning… the use of AI would be dominant in all the education settings that we have.”

AI fears and opportunities in African education

Despite optimism, some educators — especially in universities — remain wary of AI’s disruptive potential.

Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, founder of the Ghana Education Trust Fund and a former Ghanaian education minister, told DW that despite the many positives of technology and AI, Africa and its educational institutions are still crawling and must be awake to the potentials and dangers.

“I am raising an alarm,” Spio-Garbrah said. “Ghana should wake up, Africa should wake up, the world would have to wake up [because] many of us are asleep.”

“Many educational institutions are asleep. We are in a brave new world where those who build machines are getting ready to control the world,” he added.

Spio-Garbrah said African educational institutions should also get actively involved in training and positioning the continent to also own and control its own AI technologies.

Policies shaping AI education in Africa

To address concerns and guide implementation, experts are calling for clear policies.

“We need a policy on AI in education… if there is a deliberate and specific policy around AI and education, it guides the conversation and moves us from just the discussion to actualization,” said Deborah Asmah, CEO of Npontu Technologies, which specializes in AI.

Ghana is already taking steps in this direction, developing policies to guide AI education and create new opportunities for youth.

AI with African values

Ghana’s communication minister, Sam George, stressed the importance of culturally relevant AI.

“Artificial intelligence serves our people, reflects our values, and accelerates our development goals. We welcome collaborations, investments, and innovation, but we also insist on equity, inclusion, and respect for our digital sovereignty.”

The minister warned against external domination: “AI solutions must not be built for Africa by non-Africans lest it becomes digital colonization again.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/how-artificial-intelligence-is-revolutionizing-education-in-africa/a-74678669

AMERICANS are still demanding answers after a veteran mysteriously disappeared on a Carnival Cruise over two years ago.

Kevin McGrath, 26, vanished from a Carnival Cruise, two years before 18-year-old cheerleader Anna Kepner died aboard a Carnival ship.

In 2023, McGrath shockingly disappeared from the Carnival cruise.

However, just weeks after McGrath failed to show up for breakfast during his cruise to the Bahamas from Port Miami, officials called off the search.

McGrath was on board the Carnival Conquest on September 4, 2023, celebrating his father’s 60th birthday.

During the weekend cruise to the Bahamas, the 26-year-old never vanished from the ship and wasn’t caught going overboard on surveillance cameras.

Ship staff and security searched the ship, but never found McGrath.

Two years after his disappearance, people are still demanding answers.

“[Officials] searched the entire ship but were unable to locate him. Kevin was subsequently reported missing, and a search was initiated,” journalist Anita Sharma posted on X.

“Unfortunately, the search was called off after yielding no signs of him…Why has the search for him been discontinued?”

A keycard was used to swipe into McGrath’s cabin around 3:30 am, and he’d told his family he planned to meet them for breakfast before the ship docked in Miami.

“On the morning of Sept. 4, a guest reported a family member missing after Carnival Conquest had returned to PortMiami and guests were already disembarking from the ship,” Carnival Cruise wrote in a statement at the time.

“Local law enforcement is in charge of the investigation and our team members have fully cooperated with officials.”

Mysteriously, there was no sign of McGrath on this ship after the keycard swipe to his room, and the ship’s overboard sensors never went off, stumping investigators.

PROBATION MYSTERY

During the course of their investigation, cops discovered that McGrath, a retired veteran, was on probation after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in Tennessee, TMZ reported.

In September 2022, McGrath took the plea deal after being accused of threatening to kill his wife and their children.

A probation officer allowed him to move from Tennessee to Florida to live with his parents.

He was meant to have regular check-ins with his probation officer, which he violated when he boarded the cruise without their permission or knowledge.

The revelation by investigators led them to call off the search.

TEEN’S TRAGIC DEATH

McGrath’s disappearance comes two years before 18-year-old Anna Kepner died on a Carnival cruise headed to the Caribbean from Miami.

Kepner, a Florida native, was on board the Carnival Horizon when she died.

She was a straight-A student and was a cheerleader for her high school’s varsity team.

Kepner planned to graduate in just a few months and was set to go in to the military.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15481484/kevin-mcgrath-missing-carnival-cruise-anna-kepner/

 

THIS is the moment the COP30 climate summit descends into chaos after a furious protestor mob smashed in and clashed with guards.

Security staff were left bleeding and being wheeled out in wheelchairs at the climate talks in Belém, Brazil.

Footage shows scores of protestors, some brandishing batons, pushing into the main venue, with many dressed in indigenous headgear.

They shout furiously, waving banners and flags bearing slogans such as: “Our forests are not for sale.”

After kicking down doors, they grapple with security and tensions boil over.

UN security staff ran behind a line of Brazilian soldiers as they struggled to deal with the violence.

The skirmish was launched late on during Tuesday’s schedule, as officials were filtering out of meetings.

Two security workers suffered minor injuries during the fracas, officials said.

The UN told the BBC that demonstrators breached the first line of defence but were prevented from getting any further.

Agustin Ocaa, a coordinator for Global Youth Coalition, said he was outside when he saw two groups of people, some with yellow shirts and some in indigenous dress, walking toward the venue.

At first they were mostly just dancing and chanting, and he decided to follow because he has some friends in the Indigenous group.

He didn’t see which group first broke through security, but said things escalated when security guards slammed the doors and called more guards.

Agustin said some of the group was chanting: “They cannot decide for us without us.”

This relates to tensions over the participation of indigenous people in the conference.

UN Climate Change said: “Brazilian and UN security personnel took protective actions to secure the venue, following all established security protocols.

“Brazilian and UN authorities are investigating the incident. The venue is fully secured, and COP negotiations continue.”

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15476367/baton-wielding-protesters-storm-cop30-climate-summit-clash/

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ prison release date has been bumped back an extra month.

The embattled music mogul was initially expected to finish serving time at Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institute in New Jersey on May 8, 2028.

However, Page Six confirmed on Wednesday that his release has been pushed to June 4, 2028.

While the reason behind the adjusted date remains unclear, it comes on the heels of the rapper making headlines for allegedly violating multiple prison rules.

Combs’ rep and the Bureau of Federal Prisons have yet to respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

Last week, TMZ reported that Combs was in “trouble with prison officials” for consuming “homemade alcohol” made of fermented sugar, Fanta soda and apples.

Combs’ spokesperson told Page Six last week that the Grammy winner was “in his first week at FCI Fort Dix [after being transferred from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center] and … focused on adjusting, working on himself and doing better each day.”

The rep continued, “As with any high-profile individual in a new environment, there will be many rumors and exaggerated stories throughout his time there — most of them untrue. We ask that people give him the benefit of the doubt, the privacy to focus on his personal growth.”

On Friday, CBS News reported that Combs had been busted again for allegedly participating in a prohibited three-way phone call.

The alleged conversation reportedly took place on Nov. 3, four days before Combs was transferred to the low-security New Jersey prison, where he displayed gray hair in a new mug shot.

Combs claimed to have not known that “third party or three-way calls are not authorized” as he was not given the prison admission and orientation handbook.

His rep denied the “procedural call” was “improper” because it was “protected under attorney-client privilege.”

Combs has been behind bars since his September 2024 arrest when he was charged with racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/12/celebrity-news/sean-diddy-combs-prison-release-date-pushed-back-after-rapper-allegedly-violates-multiple-rules/

Lily Allen is airing out her dirty laundry following a very messy and public breakup with her ex-husband, David Harbour.

The “Smile” singer wore the ultimate sheer revenge dress while attending the global premiere of “The Hunger Games: On Stage” in London Wednesday night.

Allen, 40, walked the red carpet in a completely see-through, long-sleeve metallic black knit gown made by John Galliano for Dior in 1999.

The crochet-knit maxi dress featured long sleeves with tiny perforations throughout, allowing her skin to peek through.

The British pop star completed the look with a pair of black low-rise underwear, platform heels and a few glitzy rings; she opted to forgo a bra.

Allen styled her jet-black hair in a messy updo, keeping her beauty look simple with nude lipstick, soft blush and a shimmery eye.

She arrived in London wearing the skintight ensemble just days after flaunting her six-pack abs at the 2025 CFDA Fashion Awards in an ivory lingerie-inspired look from Colleen Allen’s spring 2026 collection.

The Grammy-nominated songwriter entered the American Museum of Natural History in a delicate bralette and silk maxi skirt layered under a coat draped over her shoulders

Allen also showed the “Stranger Things” actor what he was missing in a lacey bustier and panty set while dressed up as the children’s book character Madeline at a star-studded Halloween party earlier this month.

The “F–k You” artist seemingly used her costume choice to throw shade at her ex.

As Page Six previously reported, Allen included a track titled “Madeline” on her new “West End Girl” album, which she released last month.

The fifth song on her album includes lyrics hinting at Harbour’s alleged affair.

The raw and emotional tune features Allen having a conversation with Harbour’s alleged mistress. She asks tough questions like, “How long has it been going on?” and “Is it just sex or is there emotion?”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/12/style/lily-allens-see-through-dior-gown-might-just-be-the-ultimate-revenge-dress/

Pakistan’s prime minister on Wednesday offered talks to Afghanistan’s Taliban government in a renewed peace overture, about a week after negotiations between the two sides collapsed in Istanbul, raising fears that a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey could unravel and trigger new border clashes.

Shehbaz Sharif made the offer in a televised speech to parliament, a day after a deadly suicide bombing outside a court in Islamabad killed 12 people and wounded 27 others.

Seeking peace

Still, he said that Pakistan wanted peace in the region, because it was good for both sides, though there were “Afghan footprints” in this week’s attacks.

“Let us sit with sincere hearts, rein in terrorism, and work together for peace and prosperity in the region,” Sharif said. He said that during the recent rounds of talks in Doha and Istanbul, Pakistan had only made one demand to Afghanistan: rein in the militants.

“We want peace to prevail,” he said, and “Afghanistan should realize that what is good for us is good for them. But it cannot be that they make promises and then fail to act.”

There was no immediate comment from Kabul to Sharif’s offer.

Growing militancy

The latest development came hours after Pakistanis buried their loved ones killed in the suicide bombing at an Islamabad court, as authorities opened an investigation into the assault.

The bombing in Islamabad underscored the country’s challenges as the government struggles with a growing militancy, border tensions and a fragile truce with Afghanistan.

Tuesday’s attack at the district court, located on the edge of the city, raised alarms that despite multiple operations by security forces to crush the militants, they are still capable of mounting high-profile bombings — even in the Pakistani capital.

Pakistan has struggled with a surge in militant attacks in recent years, but until Tuesday’s bombing, Islamabad had largely been considered a safer place.

Forensic teams and police were combing Wednesday through debris at the site of the blast, which had been sealed to preserve evidence. Across the city, grief-stricken relatives were receiving the bodies of their loved ones at an Islamabad hospital.

Later, funeral prayers got underway for some of the victims. Most of the 27 people wounded in the bombing had been discharged home after treatment.

Pakistan’s accusations

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s bombing that the attack was “carried out by Indian-backed elements and Afghan Taliban proxies” linked to the Pakistani Taliban.

He offered no evidence and also said that authorities were “looking into all aspects” of the explosion.

India and Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, which both reject Pakistan’s accusations, have been working to increase ties in areas like business and humanitarian aid, despite not having formal diplomatic relations.

Naqvi also blamed the Pakistani Taliban for the attack. Pakistan has long said that the Afghan Taliban have been sheltering leaders and fighters from Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP — an accusation that Kabul denies.

The TTP denied involvement on Tuesday, while a breakaway faction, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility, only to have one of its commanders later contradict that statement.

The Islamabad attack drew widespread condemnation from the international community.

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Geo News that the Islamabad bombing was “a message for Pakistan” meant to show that insurgents can carry out attacks deep inside the country.

Asked whether Pakistan would retaliate and possibly target TTP hideouts in Afghanistan, he said that “it cannot be ruled out” and again urged Kabul to rein in militants operating from there.

Attack on military-run college

On Monday night, four militants targeted an army-run college for cadets in the northwestern city of Wana. The police said four of the attackers — including a suicide car bomber — were killed and more than 600 people, including 525 cadets, their teachers and other staff, were safely rescued during the overnight assault.

The attack unfolded when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the college gate. Troops quickly fanned out across the campus to prevent the attackers from reaching the buildings where cadets and staff had taken shelter.

Footage aired on Pakistani news channels Wednesday showed soldiers evacuating students using wooden ladders and breaking windows to get inside the dormitories.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that the attackers appeared to be attempting a repeat of the 2014 Peshawar school massacre — the deadliest assault on a school in the country — when a breakaway TTP faction killed 154 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in Peshawar.

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told a gathering in Islamabad on Wednesday that the two attacks — in Islamabad and Wana — killed at least 15 people. His remark indicated that the Pakistani forces had suffered at least three fatalities at the cadet school.

Army chief’s promotion

Pakistan’s parliament on Wednesday approved a bill to elevate army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to the newly created post of chief of defense forces, pending the signature of President Asif Ali Zardari, which is considered a formality.

The opposition boycotted the vote, saying the bill could undermine democracy, while the government insists that the new title for the army chief was only meant to ensure better coordination with the navy and air force.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-islamabad-suicide-bombing-army-cadets-81876cfe4747401adbe2c2f0aa69cdc3

Taiwan evacuated more than 8,300 people from coastal and mountainous areas and closed schools before a tropical storm brushes the southern part of the island later Wednesday.

Fung-wong had super typhoon strength when it battered the Philippines on Sunday, causing flooding, landslides, power outages and at least 27 deaths. Still holding tropical storm strength Wednesday morning, it was expected to continue losing wind speed and size as it approached Taiwan.

Heavy rains and flooding injured at least 51 people as of Wednesday morning, according to the National Fire Agency.

Authorities evacuated 8,326 people, the majority from the eastern Hualien County, where a typhoon in September left 18 dead.

An overflowing creek flooded a village in Hualien on Tuesday. Images carried by local media showed a car being swept away by floodwater.

Schools and offices were closed in central and southern parts of Taiwan including the coastal cities of Kaohsiung, Taichung and Tainan as well as Pingtung, Chiayi and Miaoli counties. The capital, Taipei, in the island’s north, operated as usual.

As of Wednesday morning, Fung-wong was about 140 kilometers (87 miles) southwest of Taiwan in the South China Sea, moving northeast at 16 kph (10 mph). It was expected to make landfall during the afternoon or evening and graze the southern part of the island before exiting from its southeastern side.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 kph (40 mph) and higher gusts.

Authorities warned residents around the island to avoid going to the beach, where waves were expected to rise to about 3 to 5 meters (about 10 to 16 feet). Signboards, fences and flowerpots were to be secured in anticipation of strong winds.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/tropical-storm-fungwong-taiwan-philippines-7132e0f350bb0b84a4e6c7a0e1642a0d

 

Apple said it has pulled two of China’s biggest gay dating apps, Blued and Finka, under pressure from Chinese authorities, in the latest sign of a tightening grip on the LGBTQ+ community.

An Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the company removed the two dating apps from China “based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China”, without further elaborating.

“We follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” the spokesperson told The Associated Press.

A check by The Associated Press on Tuesday found that the two apps are not available on Apple’s app store in China, although an “express” version of Blued could still be found. It was unclear what the difference is between the full and express versions or if an Android version might be available.

Blued was available “only in China,” Apple said. Finka’s developer “elected to remove the app” outside of China earlier this year, the company added.

Another popular gay dating app, Grindr, was pulled from Apple’s app store in China in 2022.

China’s LGBTQ+ community and advocacy groups are under intensifying pressure from authorities, even though the country decriminalized homosexuality in 1997. Some LGBTQ+ groups have been forced to cease operations in recent years in China and activism has been constrained.

Blued and Finka have the same parent company, BlueCity, a China-founded company that focuses on the LGBTQ+ community in China and abroad. BlueCity was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2022, when it was taken private.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/china-apple-app-firewall-lgbtq-fac2b157ac82d30a2eb699eb47d89435

President Trump signed a funding bill Wednesday to end the longest government shutdown in US history, hours after the House of Representatives passed legislation ending the 43-day standoff.

“It’s an honor now to sign this incredible bill and get our country working again,” Trump said in the Oval Office, flanked by House Republican leaders as well as business and union leaders.

The president blasted “extremist” Democrats for shutting down the government, accusing them of attempting to “extort American taxpayers.”

“This cost the country $1.5 trillion,” Trump said of the shutdown, describing it as a “little excursion” that Democrats took “purely for political reasons.”

Trump re-upped his demand for Senate Republicans to “terminate” the filibuster — so that “this would never happen again” — and called for the “massive amount” of federal funding for Obamacare to be “paid directly to the people of our country, so that they can buy their own healthcare.”

In a 222-209 vote, the House voted to pass the funding bill it received from the Senate which will restart paychecks for federal workers and air traffic controllers, and fund food assistance programs.

The legislation finally “reopens the government, restores critical services, and puts an end to the needless hardship Democrats have inflicted on the country,” said GOP House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma.

“We feel very relieved tonight,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters after the vote. “The Democrat shutdown is finally over thanks to House and Senate Republicans, who stood together to get the job done.”

Johnson slammed Democrats for using “the American people as leverage in this political game,” arguing that the outcome was “totally foreseeable.”

“It’s something that is very difficult to forgive,” he continued, describing the shutdown “stunt” as “utterly pointless and foolish.”

House Democrats lamented that their Senate Democratic colleagues caved with nothing to show for it on healthcare, their stated political reason for holding the government hostage.

“I rise in opposition to this bill that does nothing, not one thing to address the Republican health care crisis, amid a cost-of-living crisis,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said in a floor speech ahead of the vote.

In his speech, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) proclaimed, “This fight is not over.”

“There are only two ways that this fight will end, Mr. Speaker: either Republicans finally decide to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits this year, or the American people will throw Republicans out of their jobs next year and end the speakership of Donald J. Trump once and for all,” the Democratic leader said.

The legislation will return federal workers to their jobs with backpay, reopen executive branch agencies that provide critical veterans services and other benefits like food stamps and fully fund the government until at least Jan. 30.

After that, some spending for SNAP benefits, veterans programs, legislative branch activities and military construction, among other items, will continue until Sept. 30 — at which point the 2026 fiscal year ends.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers and congressional staffers had gone without pay for more than 40 days — leading the top union backing government employees to pressure Democrats into ending the shutdown.

There had also been increasing flight delays and cancellations due to the lack of staffing at air traffic control towers, as unpaid workers were not showing up to their jobs.

Last Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had warned that if the government remained closed with the Thanksgiving holiday nearing, there could be an up to 20% reduction in US airspace.

“As of Sunday, nearly half of all domestic flights and US flights were either canceled or delayed. And it’s a very serious situation,” noted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday, giving his chamber 36 hours to reconvene.

“Shutting down the government never produces anything,” Johnson added. “It never has.”

Six House Democrats voted for the funding measure in the House’s first legislative move since going into recess after Sept. 19.

Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Don Davis (D-NC), Adam Gray (D-Calif.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) crossed party lines to vote with the majority.

Two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.), voted against the Senate-passed bill.

“I could not in good conscience support a resolution that creates a self-indulgent legal provision for certain senators to enrich themselves by suing the Justice Department using taxpayer dollars,” Steube said of his no vote on X, referring to a provision in the bill that allows Republican senators snooped on by former special counsel Jack Smith to seek compensation.

“There is no reason the House should have been forced to eat this garbage to end the Schumer Shutdown,” he added.

On Monday, eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus crossed the aisle to vote with the GOP for the end of the shutdown, though Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was not among them.

“I think he made a mistake in going too far,” Trump told Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Monday. “He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him.”

Before that, all but three from the Senate Democratic caucus had voted 14 times against reopening the government as they held out through last week’s Election Day to activate the progressive base and turnout Democratic voters in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York.

One of the senators who sided with the GOP, Angus King (I-Maine), admitted bluntly in an interview Monday, “Standing up to Trump didn’t work.”

A spokesperson for the Independent leader who caucuses with Democrats told The Post that Schumer and the other senators held out in the fight to secure an extension of ObamaCare tax subsidies, which will receive a vote before the end of the year.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/11/12/us-news/house-votes-to-end-unprecedented-government-shutdown-after-42-days/

Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein ended his friendship with Bill Clinton because he believed the former president was a liar, according to new emails the disgraced financier’s estate handed over to Congress on Wednesday.

The emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee show that Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, had a chummy relationship with Epstein — and the two frequently discussed politics in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

In a Jan. 23, 2016, email, Epstein revealed that he broke off contact with Slick Willy after “he swore, with whole-hearted conviction to me that he had done something, he had forgotten that he also swore the exact opposite to me only weeks before.”

“Who knows what they’re talking about,” a Clinton spokesperson responded in a statement. “What we do know and have always said is that President Clinton knew nothing about Epstein’s heinous crimes and hadn’t spoken to him in twenty years. Now here it is in black and white.”

Ruemmler and Epstein had been discussing another person named “macgiver” earlier in the email thread, and sources familiar with the exchange indicated that Ruemmler’s comments only referred to that individual.

“I will just say I told you so. Not to sound overly dramatic, but he is very close to being a psychopath,” Ruemmler had said earlier in the exchange of the mysterious individual. “[H]e has no conscience. It’s scary.”

“He obviously said something to you yesterday that was disturbing, and you don’t want to tell me. Just tell me — I can take it. I promise,” added Ruemmler of this person, who was once listed as a backup executor to Epstein’s estate in January 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported.

But it’s unclear how long the two remained at odds as Clinton was mentioned in other emails in the trove of more than 20,000 pages worth of documents released by the powerful House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

“Let’s do a men of the world conference,” theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss said in an April 5, 2018, email to Epstein, sending a proposed invite list that included Clinton, actor Kevin Spacey, former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and director Woody Allen.

Ruemmler had met Epstein while employed as a partner at Latham and Watkins. She is the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at Goldman Sachs. A spokesperson for the banking giant claimed Ruemmler’s interactions with Epstein were limited to business.

“They shared a common client that originated as an Epstein referral,” the spokesperson said, referring to her time at Latham & Watkins.

Clinton and Epstein’s ties date back to at least the early 1990s, when the child sex predator donated money to the 42nd president’s campaign. Later, he contributed $20,000 to Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign in 1999. Epstein visited the White House over a dozen times during the Clinton presidency, visitor logs show.

Following Clinton’s White House departure, the two remained in touch. Epstein was an active donor to the Clinton Foundation and Slick Willy appeared in flight logs for the late pedaphile’s infamous “Lolita Express” on more than two dozen occasions.

Epstein was known to staff his jet with young women while mingling with powerful people.

The former president had been pictured getting a shoulder rub from Chauntae Davies, a 22-year-old massage therapist, on a 2002 humanitarian trip to Africa, during a stop to refuel on a trip involving the Lolita Express.

Clinton also visited Epstein’s apartment in New York, though he didn’t swing by the disgraced financier’s infamous private island of Little St. James, according to a spokesperson. Strikingly, Epstein kept a strange painting of Clinton in a blue dress in his Upper East Side mansion, referencing the dress at the center of the former president’s sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/11/12/us-news/epstein-emails-with-ex-obama-lawyer-claim-he-stopped-talking-to-bill-clinton-no-conscience/

Every November, South Korea comes to a standstill for its infamous college entrance exam.

Shops are shut, flights are delayed to reduce noise, and even the rhythm of the morning commute slows down for the students.

By late afternoon, most test-takers walk out of school gates, exhaling with relief and embracing the family members waiting outside.

But not everyone finishes at that hour. Even once darkness has fully settled and night has set in, some students are still in the exam room – finishing close to 10pm.

They are the blind students, who often spend more than 12 hours taking the longest version of the Suneung.

On Thursday, more than 550,000 students across the country will sit for the Suneung – an abbreviation for College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) in Korean. It is the highest number of applicants in seven years.

The test not only dictates whether people will be able to go to university, but can affect their job prospects, income, where they will live and even future relationships.

Depending on their subject choices, students answer roughly 200 questions across Korean, mathematics, English, social or natural sciences, an additional foreign language, and Hanja (classical Chinese characters used in Korean).

For most students, it is an eight-hour marathon of back-to-back exams. They begin the Suneung test at 08:40 and finish around 17:40.

Blind students with severe visual impairments, however, are given 1.7 times the standard testing duration.

This means that if they take the additional foreign language section, the exam can finish as late as 21:48 – nearly 13 hours after it began.

There is no dinner break; the exam continues straight through.

The physical bulk of the braille test papers also contributes to the length.

When every sentence, symbol and diagram is converted into braille, each test booklet becomes six to nine times thicker than the standard equivalent.

At Seoul Hanbit School for the Blind, 18-year-old Han Donghyun is among the students who will take the longest version of the Suneung this year.

Last year, there were 111 blind test-takers nationwide – 99 with low vision and 12 with severe visual impairments like Dong-hyun – according to data from the Ministry of Education and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.

Dong-hyun was born completely blind and cannot distinguish light.

When the BBC met him at his school on 7 November, his fingers moved quickly across a braille practice booklet of past exam questions.

With just a week left before the test, he was focused on managing his stamina and condition. Dong-hyun will take the exam using braille test papers and a screen-reading computer.

“It’s really exhausting because the exam is so long,” he said. “But there’s no special trick. I just follow my study schedule and try to manage my condition. That’s the only way.”

Dong-hyun said the Korean language section is particularly difficult for him.

A standard test booklet for that section is about 16 pages – but the braille version is roughly 100 pages long.

Even with screen-reading software, spoken information disappears as soon as it is heard, unlike text that can be seen and re-read. Dong-hyun has to hold the details in his memory as he goes.

The mathematics section is no easier.

He must interpret complex graphs and tables that have been converted into braille, using only his fingertips.

Still, he noted that things are better than they used to be. In the past, students had to do almost all calculations in their heads. But since 2016, blind test-takers have been allowed to use a braille notetaker, known as Hansone.

“Just like sighted students write out their calculations in pencil, we enter them in braille on the Hansone to follow the steps,” he said.

Another student at Hanbit School for the Blind, 18-year-old Oh Jeong-won, who will also sit the Suneung this year, said the late afternoon is “the hardest point” of the day.

“Up until lunch, it’s manageable,” he said. “But around 4 or 5pm, after English and before Korean History, that’s when it gets really tough.

“There’s no dinner break,” he explained. “We’re solving problems during the time we would normally eat, so it feels even more exhausting. Still, I keep going because I know there will be a sense of accomplishment at the end.”

For Jeong-won, the fatigue is compounded by the need to stay intensely focused with both his hands and his hearing.

“When I’m reading the braille with my fingers and also taking in information through audio, it feels much more tiring than it does for sighted students,” he said.

But the students say that the length of the exam and the long study hours are not the hardest part. What is most challenging is access to study materials.

Popular textbooks and online lectures that sighted students rely on are often out of reach.

There are very few braille versions, and converting materials into audio requires having text files – which are difficult to obtain. In many cases, someone has to manually type out entire workbooks to make them usable.

Online lectures also pose difficulties, as many instructors explain concepts using visual notes, diagrams and graphics on screen, which cannot be followed through audio alone.

One of the most significant barriers, however, is the delay in receiving braille versions of the state-produced EBS preparation books – a core set of materials closely linked to the national exam.

Because of this delay, blind students often receive the materials months later than others.

“Sighted students get their EBS books between January and March and study them for the whole year,” said Jeong-won. “We receive the braille files only around August or September, when the exam is just a few months away.”

Dong-hyun shared the same concern.

“The braille materials weren’t completed until less than 90 days before the exam,” he said. “I kept wishing the publication process could be faster.”

The National Institute of Special Education, which produces the braille version of EBS exam materials, told the BBC that the process takes at least three months for each book because it must follow relevant guidelines.

The institute added that it is “making various efforts to ensure that blind students can study without disruption, such as producing and providing the materials in separate volumes.”

The Korean Blind Union said it has long raised this issue with authorities, and plans to file a constitutional petition demanding greater accessibility to braille versions of all textbooks.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wv22qjq8eo

Scientists have unearthed Australia’s oldest known crocodile eggshells which may have belonged to “drop crocs” – creatures that climbed trees to hunt prey below.

The discovery of the 55-million-year-old eggshells was made in a sheep farmer’s backyard in Queensland with the findings published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The egghells belonged to a long-extinct group of crocodiles known as mekosuchines, who lived in inland waters when Australia was part of Antarctica and South America.

Co-author Prof Michael Archer said “drop crocs” were a “bizarre idea” but some were “perhaps hunting like leopards – dropping out of trees on any unsuspecting thing they fancied for dinner”.

Prof Archer, a palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales, said mekosuchine crocodiles – which could grow to about five metres – were plentiful 55 million years ago, long before their modern saltwater and freshwater cousins arrived in Australia about 3.8 million years ago.

The “drop croc” eggshells were discovered several decades ago but only recently analysed with the help of scientists in Spain.

“It’s a bizarre idea,” Prof Archer said of the “drop crocs”, but some were probably “terrestrial hunters in the forests”.

The findings add to earlier discoveries of younger mekosuchine fossils – found in 25-million-year-old deposits in another part of Queensland.

“Some were also apparently at least partly semi-arboreal ‘drop crocs’,” Prof Archer said.

Since the early 1980s, he has been part of a group of scientists excavating a clay pit in Murgon, a small regional town about 270km (168 miles) north-west of Brisbane.

Over the decades, it has become known as one of Australia’s oldest fossil sites as it used to be surrounded by a lush forest.

“This forest was also home to the world’s oldest-known songbirds, Australia’s earliest frogs and snakes, a wide range of small mammals with South American links, as well as one of the world’s oldest known bats,” Dr Michael Stein, a co-author of the report, said.

Prof Archer recalls how in 1983, he and another colleague “drove to Murgon, parked the car on the side of the road, grabbed our shovels, knocked on the door and asked if we could dig up their backyard”.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2lpyrnjleeo

Trump gifted perfume to Syrian President al-Sharaa at the White House, joking about wives. Al-Sharaa, ex-al-Qaeda commander, discussed rebuilding Syria and US suspended sanctions.

A video has gone viral of US President Donald Trump presenting a bottle of perfume to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House and playfully asking him the number of wives.

Trump on Monday met his Syrian counterpart, marking the first visit by a Syrian leader to Washington since the country’s independence in 1946.

While spraying a dab of scent in al-Sharaa’s direction, on Monday, Trump said: “It’s the best fragrance. And the other one is for your wife.” “How many wives?” Al-Sharaa, momentarily taken aback, responded “one,” prompting a ripple of laughter from Trump and other officials at the White House. Trump then quipped back, “You never know!”

See more

‘How many wives? One?’ Trump asks Syria’s new leader in White House — video

Trump gifted Al-Shaar perfume and went on to SPRAY him with it

‘This is the best fragrance! And the other one is for your wife’

Al-Sharaa assured Trump he only has one wife. Vibe check passed, too pic.twitter.com/SAjO6Vc8GH

— RT (@RT_com) November 12, 2025

The 43-year-old was a former al-Qaeda commander who overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad last December. He was the former head of Syria’s al-Nusra Front, who once had a $10 million bounty on his head for orchestrating multiple attacks across Syria.

The meeting came as the US Treasury Department announced a six-month suspension of sanctions on Damascus, signalling a dramatic shift in relations between the two nations.

Following the talks, Trump praised the new Syrian leader. “He comes from a very tough place, and he’s a tough guy. I like him,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll do everything we can to make Syria successful… We have peace now in the Middle East – the first time anyone can remember that ever happening.”

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/how-many-wives-trump-asks-syrian-president-at-white-house-meet-ws-l-9703205.html

 

Less than a month after her 13th birthday, Chinese sensation Yu Zidi claimed her first Asian record at the National Games swimming in Shenzhen on Tuesday as she swept to victory in the 200 metres individual medley (IM).
Yu’s time of 2:07.41 eclipsed the Asian mark of compatriot Ye Shiwen who won the Olympic gold at the 2012 London Games in 2:07.57 at the age of 16.

Yu finished nearly a second quicker than 20-year-old runner-up Yu Yiting, the 2022 Asian Games champion.

Only eight swimmers have ever gone faster in the event, with Canadian Summer McIntosh the current world record holder at 2:05.70.
Yu has been on a steep trajectory since announcing herself at China’s Olympic trials last year where she narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Paris Games at the age of 11.
In May, she claimed national titles in the 400 IM and 200 butterfly and came runner-up in the 200 IM to qualify for the world championships in Singapore where she became the youngest-ever medallist with a bronze in China’s 4×200 freestyle relay team.
She also finished fourth at the Singapore meet in her three individual events, the 200 and 400 IM, and 200 butterfly.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/chinas-13-year-old-yu-claims-first-asian-record-national-games-2025-11-12/

DONALD Trump has sent the world’s biggest aircraft carrier steaming into Latin American waters, and Nicolás Maduro is digging in for a fight.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, carrying more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of strike aircraft, has now entered the US Southern Command zone.

It is the largest US military deployment in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama.

The move also marks president Trump’s sharpest warning yet to Venezuela’s regime, which is mobilising troops, militias, and missiles for what it calls “prolonged resistance.”

Washington says the buildup is about fighting drugs.

But for Trump, it is also about forcing change in Caracas, and many analysts believe the real target is Nicolás Maduro himself.

Trump has already authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela.

The CIA move follows Trump’s declaration that the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, granting him sweeping wartime powers.

The Pentagon confirmed the Gerald R. Ford strike group’s arrival, describing it as part of a campaign to “detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities” across the Caribbean.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the carrier “will bolster US capacity to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organisations.”

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered the deployment under Trump’s directive to “dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland.”

The Ford leads a formidable carrier strike group, including guided-missile destroyers, electronic warfare squadrons, and advanced F/A-18 Super Hornet jets.

It can launch and recover aircraft day and night, providing what the Pentagon calls “sustained operations at sea.”

Admiral Alvin Holsey, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, said the move “represents a critical step in reinforcing our resolve to protect the security of the Western Hemisphere and the safety of the American homeland.”

The carrier’s arrival follows Trump’s vow to expand his “war on drugs,” which has already included deadly airstrikes on boats suspected of smuggling cocaine.

“The land is going to be next,” Trump warned recently, before clarifying that Washington was not yet planning strikes inside Venezuela.

Behind the defiant speeches, Maduro’s regime appears to be preparing for a desperate fight.

Internal planning documents and sources cited by Reuters reveal Venezuela is deploying aging Russian weapons and ordering units to disperse and hide if attacked.

Insiders say troops have been ordered to scatter and hide upon the first US strike, using small units to carry out sabotage across more than 280 sites nationwide.

“We wouldn’t last two hours in a conventional war,” one source close to the government admitted.

Another added: “We’re not ready to face one of the world’s most powerful and well-trained armies.”

A second plan to “anarchise” Caracas would unleash chaos in the streets of the Venezuelan caputal.

Intelligence agents and armed loyalists would create disorder to make the country ungovernable for any foreign presence.

Analysts say the strategy reveals the regime’s fear and its willingness to sacrifice civilian stability to cling to power.

Rank-and-file soldiers earn about $100 a month, far below the $500 needed for basic living costs.

Some commanders are said to barter with local farmers to feed their men.

Venezuelan forces rely heavily on outdated Russian hardware.

Their Sukhoi jets, tanks, and helicopters are decades old, and maintenance has stalled for years.

Maduro boasts of having 5,000 Russian-made Igla-S missiles deployed “to the last mountain, the last town, and the last city in the territory.”

But analysts say the real message is deterrence through chaos, not capability.

“The underlying message isn’t actual military capability but deterrence through chaos,” said defense analyst Andrei Serbin Pont.

“The threat that this equipment could end up in the hands of armed groups, guerrillas, or paramilitaries.”

Even with Moscow pledging to assist, few expect Venezuela’s decaying arsenal to alter the balance.

“Next to the U.S. B-2s, they are nothing,” one defence source said.

Trump’s naval presence, meanwhile, dwarfs anything seen in Latin America in decades.

The strike group joins warships, a nuclear-powered submarine, and aircraft already based in Puerto Rico, making them a combined force unmatched since the Cold War.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15474694/donald-trump-aircraft-carrier-venezuela-maduro-fight/

Donald Trump is poised to again sue a major news organization — this time the BBC — following the publication of a leaked internal memo raising concerns of bias in its programming.

The president of the United States could take Britain’s national broadcaster to court amid a debate over editorial decisions at the BBC that has led to the resignation of two of its most senior executives.

Contents of a memo sent to a BBC internal editorial standards committee by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser, was published by the Daily Telegraph newspaperbetween November 3-6.

It raised concerns about the BBC’s coverage of immigration, racism, historical content, transgender issues and BBC Arabic’s coverage of the Gaza war.

It also highlighted issues with an episode of the BBC’s flagship current affairs program, “Panorama.”

Prescott cited problems with the show’s depiction of Donald Trump’s speech to supporters in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, as the US Congress prepared to certify the election victory of Joe Biden. Following that speech, the crowd marched to the US Capitol building, with a violent riot ensuing.

Screened a week before the 2024 presidential election, Prescott raised concerns about the way the episode fused two separate clips together to give the impression that Trump incited the crowd’s actions on January 6. In reality, the clips took place almost an hour apart. The omitted period included a moment where Trump called for a peaceful march to the Capitol building.

A high-profile fallout

On Sunday, the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie and head of news and current affairs Deborah Turness resigned from their positions. Both have dismissed suggestions of systemic bias at the broadcaster.

In a letter to MPs, the broadcaster’s chair, Samir Shah, said the BBC accepted “that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action” and apologized “for that error of judgment.”

A lawyer for Trump has now called on the BBC to apologize, retract the documentary and “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused” by Friday, November 14, 2025, or face a $1 billion (€863 million) lawsuit.

Media observers have said the memo’s criticisms of the “Panorama” edit are reasonable, but they are concerned about wider attacks on the BBC’s record of impartiality.

“It certainly was a mistake,” said Mel Bunce, director of the Centre for Journalism and Democracy at City St. George’s University, UK. “My far greater concern is the attacks on the BBC that are resulting from this.”

Similarly, Dafydd Townley, a political historian at Portsmouth University and chair of the UK American Politics Group, said the possibility of legal action against the broadcaster could “severely impinge the BBC’s reputation in the US, but also its ability to report and gain extensive reach in the US.”

The BBC has ranked in the top three of 52 news sources in the United States in YouGov’s annual trust in media poll since 2022.

The fallout has continued to raise questions about the broadcaster, particularly ahead of a scheduled UK government review. The BBC is publicly funded by a license fee paid by households with televisions or those who use streaming services. However, its decision-making is independent from the government.

Timeline: Trump vs. the press

It is not the first time Donald Trump has been willing to take legal action against media organizations. His most recent activities have seen some of the most prominent American media companies sued for millions or billions of dollars. These have included CNN, ABC (US) and CBS and the owners of major newspapers such as The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Trump has also sued journalists attached to reporting on the president.

Recent cases brought by Trump against other large media companies include:

CNN

Donald Trump filed against CNN in October 2022 for $475 million. A chief allegation in the filing was that CNN’s use of the phrase “the Big Lie” to describe Trump’s claims the 2020 election was stolen from him, associated him with Adolf Hitler. A US federal judge dismissed the case in July 2023, saying the statements made on CNN “while repugnant, were not, as a matter of law, defamatory.”

ABC News (Disney)

In December 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward a foundation for Trump’s presidential library after it settled a lawsuit with the president. Trump brought a defamation lawsuit against ABC after its news anchor, George Stephanopoulos, inaccurately described the verdicts of New York writer E. Jean Carroll’s civil case against the president on-air.

CBS

In July 2025, Paramount Global, which owns the broadcaster CBS, agreed to settle a $20 billion lawsuit brought against it. Trump had sued CBS for the way it edited an interview with his presidential election rival Kamala Harris for an episode of its flagship current affairs program, 60 Minutes.

Wall Street Journal

In July 2025, Donald Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, for at least $10 billion for publishing a story that quoted a 2003 letter it said was signed by him and written to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Journal and its owners have defended the reporting publicly and have said they will contest the lawsuit.

New York Times

In October 2025, Trump refiled a $15 billion lawsuit brought by Trump against The New York Times and three of its journalists. The original filing was tossed by District Court Judge Steven Merryday in September. The Times, two of its reporters and the book publisher Penguin Random House as named defendants.

‘This couldn’t come at a worse time’

With a November 14 deadline, it is unclear how the president’s latest legal threats against the BBC will unfold, particularly as the “Panorama” episode was not screened or available in the US.

But combined with non-legal actions, such as removing the Associated Press from the White House press gallery or issuing orders to scrap funding for public broadcasters PBS and NPR, Voice of America and Radio free Europe, the threat of litigation continues a trend of actions by the president against legacy media organizations.

In May 2025, Reporters Without Borders said Trump’s second term in office had “led to an alarming deterioration in press freedom.”

Editorial standards, freedom of the press and the way public and private media organizations are able to report on government activities and politicians are issues that continue to come under strain. Townley said long-established media houses have been less able to perform their traditional role.

“We have to have, not just concerns about editorial processes within the BBC, but also about executive branch attitudes towards press,” said Townley.

“It is just an indication of that relationship between the fourth estate [the press] and the executive branch is under extreme pressure at the moment.”

“That’s a big concern for many in the US, and who is going to hold the executive branch and the federal government to account in the way that the mainstream media should be doing?”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/its-trump-vs-the-press-again-with-new-threat-to-bbc/a-74705138