Category: World

President Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief announced plans on Monday to demote U.S. Senator Mark Kelly from his rank as a retired Navy captain for alleged “reckless misconduct” after he and other Democratic lawmakers urged troops to refuse any illegal orders.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon has begun proceedings that would ultimately slash Kelly’s retirement pay and attach a letter of censure to his military record. Kelly, who represents Arizona in the Senate, is a decorated military veteran and former NASA astronaut.

Kelly said he would “fight this with everything I’ve got.”
“Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way. It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that,” Kelly said in a statement on X.
Kelly could face additional measures in the future depending on his actions, Hegseth said in a statement on X.
The steps announced by Hegseth represent the latest actions taken by the Trump administration targeting critics of the Republican president. Democrats and other critics have accused Trump of seeking to stifle dissent.

Although extraordinary, the censure of Kelly stops short of the threat previously made by the administration to recall Kelly to active military duty status in order to prosecute him after what it described as seditious behavior.
Hegseth noted that Kelly has 30 days to respond and that the administrative process would conclude 15 days later.
“Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,” Hegseth wrote in his social media post.
Kelly and the other lawmakers have defended their remarks made in a November 18 video message, saying they were merely stating what U.S. law requires of troops if they are given an unlawful order.
The video message was released at a time of heightened concern among Democrats, echoed privately by some current U.S. military officials, that the administration is violating the law by ordering the U.S. military to kill suspected drug traffickers in strikes on their vessels in Latin American waters.

The Pentagon has called those strikes justified because the alleged drug smugglers are considered terrorists.
However, Hegseth said Kelly’s actions were “seditious in nature.”
Trump also has accused Kelly and the other Democrats of sedition, saying in a social media post that the crime was punishable by death. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, sedition and mutiny are among the most serious offenses and can be punishable by death.
“As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War – and the American people – expect justice,” Hegseth said, referring to the name that the administration informally has given the Department of Defense.
A formal change of the department’s name requires an act of Congress.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-demote-sen-kelly-retired-navy-rank-captain-stops-short-threatened-trial-2026-01-05/

The U.S. took the unprecedented step Monday of cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for every child — a move that leading medical groups said would undermine protections against a half-dozen diseases.

The change is effective immediately, meaning that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now recommend that all children get vaccinated against 11 diseases. What’s no longer broadly recommended is protection against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis or RSV. Instead, protections against those diseases are only recommended for certain groups deemed high risk, or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making.”

Trump administration officials said the overhaul, a move long sought by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., won’t result in families who want the vaccines losing access to them, and said insurance will continue to pay. But medical experts said the decision creates confusion for parents and could increase preventable diseases.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.

The change comes as U.S. vaccination rates have been slipping and the share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high, according to federal data. At the same time, rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising across the country.

Review came at the request of President Trump

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the overhaul was in response to a request from President Donald Trump in December. Trump asked the agency to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising U.S. guidance accordingly.

HHS said its comparison to 20 peer nations found that the U.S. was an “outlier” in both the number of vaccinations and the number of doses it recommended to all children. Officials with the agency framed the change as a way to increase public trust by recommending only the most important vaccinations for children to receive.

“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement Monday.

Trump, reacting to the news on his Truth Social platform, said the new schedule is “far more reasonable” and “finally aligns the United States with other Developed Nations around the World.”

Among those left on the recommended-for-everyone list are vaccines against measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, chickenpox and human papillomavirus, or HPV. The guidance reduces the number of recommended vaccine doses against HPV from two or three shots depending on age to one for most children.

Medical experts said Monday’s changes without what they said was public discussion or a transparent review of the data would put children at risk.

“Abandoning recommendations for vaccines that prevent influenza, hepatitis and rotavirus, and changing the recommendation for HPV without a public process to weigh the risks and benefits, will lead to more hospitalizations and preventable deaths among American children,” said Michael Osterholm of the Vaccine Integrity Project, based at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics said countries carefully consider vaccine recommendations based on levels of disease in their populations and their health systems.

“You can’t just copy and paste public health and that’s what they seem to be doing here,” said O’Leary. “Literally children’s health and children’s lives are at stake.”

Most high-income countries recommend vaccinations against a dozen to 15 serious pathogens, according to a recent review by the Vaccine Integrity Project, a group that works to safeguard vaccine use.

France today recommends all children get vaccinated against 14 diseases, compared to the 11 that the U.S. now will recommend for every child under the new schedule.

Doctors’ groups criticize decision

The changes were made by political appointees, without any evidence that the current recommendations were harming children, O’Leary said.

The pediatricians’ group has issued its own childhood vaccine schedule that its members are following, and it continues to broadly recommend vaccines that the Trump administration demoted.

O’Leary singled out the flu vaccine, which the government and leading medical experts have long urged for nearly everyone starting at age 6 months. He said the government is “pretty tone deaf” for ending its recommendation while the country is at the beginning of a severe flu season, and after 280 children died from flu last winter, the most since 2009.

Even a disease that parents may not have heard of, rotavirus, could come roaring back if vaccination erodes, he added. That diarrheal disease once hospitalized thousands of children each winter, something that no longer happens.

The decision was made without input from an advisory committee that typically consults on the vaccine schedule, said senior officials at HHS. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the changes publicly.

The officials added that the new recommendations were a collaborative effort between federal health agencies but wouldn’t specify who was consulted.

Scientists at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases were asked to present to the agency’s political leadership about vaccine schedules in other countries in December, but they were not allowed to give any recommendations and were not aware of any decisions about vaccine schedule changes, said Abby Tighe, executive director of the National Public Health Coalition, an advocacy organization of current and former CDC employees and their supporters.

“Changes of this magnitude require careful review, expert and public input, and clear scientific justification. That level of rigor and transparency was not part of this decision,” said Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, of the American Medical Association. “The scientific evidence remains unchanged, and the AMA supports continued access to childhood immunizations recommended by national medical specialty societies.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/childhood-vaccine-schedule-trump-rfk-hhs-9b8df9e2767c1261aaac4e2331e77fa3

The German government seems to have three things on its mind in regard to US capture of of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro: be cautious, wait-and-see and don’t upset Donald Trump.

Government spokespeople responded cautiously to journalists’ questions on Monday: For almost 40 minutes, Foreign Office spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer and government spokesman Sebastian Hille took questions on the subject of Venezuela at the Federal Press Conference in Berlin.

Why did Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) not describe last Saturday’s action by the US military as what many experts believe it was, namely a violation of international law, reporters wanted to know. On Saturday, US soldiers captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a spectacular operation in the capital Caracas and flew him to the US.

Hille read out a statement harshly criticizing Maduro: “Maduro has led his country into dangerous waters in recent years.” The statement also said that his term as president was the result of rigged elections, which is one of the reasons why Germany has never officially recognized Maduro.

The government spokesperson then stated, “The Chancellor has emphasized that everyone, including the US, must respect international law. This applies explicitly to state sovereignty and territorial integrity.” A choice of words that carefully avoided explicitly accusing the US of violating international law.

Germany’s Merz shies away from accusing US of violating international law

Over the weekend, Germany had also been part of the effort to come up with a European response and assessment of the US government’s decision to seize Maduro. The result was a statement released on Sunday and signed by 26 EU countries, but not Hungary. In the statement, EU Foreign Affairs Representative Kaja Kallas called for compliance with international law. Respecting the will of the Venezuelan people remains the only way for Venezuela to restore democracy, she added. The EU has repeatedly stated that Maduro lacks the legitimacy of a democratically elected president.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz avoided making a clear statement over the weekend. On Saturday, he wrote on X: “The legal situation regarding the US intervention is complex. We are taking our time to consider it.” He added that the principles of international law must apply to relations between states: “There cannot be political instability in Venezuela now. It is important to ensure an orderly transition to a government legitimized by elections.”

On Monday morning, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul felt compelled to once again come to the chancellor’s defense. Speaking on Deutschlandfunk public radio before a trip to Lithuania, Wadephul said: “Maduro led an unjust regime; eight million people have left the country. There are political prisoners.”

He added that the United Nations had described the human rights situation in Venezuela as very critical and that proceedings were underway against Venezuela at the International Criminal Court. Wadephul said Maduro is not the legitimately elected president of the country and that the geopolitical interests of the US also played a role in the attack.

Germany’s left-leaning politicians are critical

This statement was criticized as too weak by several German opposition politicians, who described the military action that ultimately brought Maduro to New York as a clear violation of international law. Katharina Dröge, parliamentary leader of the Green Party , said over the weekend: “The US intervention is a violation of international law. What is stopping the Chancellor from stating this clearly?”

She added: “In this situation, keeping a low profile is a disastrous strategy, Mr. Merz.”

Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, who also co-chairs the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), stated at the weekend: “The events in Venezuela are very worrying. The Venezuelan ruler Maduro has led an authoritarian regime that has clung to power through violence and oppression.”

“However, this cannot be a justification for disregarding international law,” Klingbeil added.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has hailed US action in Venezuela as part of a necessary “realignment of global politics.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/venezuela-germany-hesitates-to-condemn-us-attack/a-75399144

SCARY Movie star and bodybuilder Jayne Trcka has died at 62.

The athlete, who portrayed Miss Mann in the original Scary Movie film, passed away on December 12 in San Diego, California.

“There was trauma to the body, but we wouldn’t be able to indicate cause of death at this time,” a San Diego Medical Examiner spokesperson exclusively revealed to The U.S. Sun about the star’s sudden passing.

TMZ was first to report the news and noted that Jayne’s son wasn’t privy to any medical conditions or illnesses the actress had that could’ve caused her death.

Scary Movie, which premiered in 2000, was Jayne’s first acting role.

She was notable in the bodybuilding world after competing in many shows in the 1980s.

Jayne later starred on The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line is it Anyway?

She also appeared in a string of fitness magazines, such as Flex, MuscleMag International, and Women’s Physique World.

The TV star most recently worked as a realtor, according to a San Diego real estate agency’s website.

Scary Movie was the first parody film in the franchise, starring Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Regina Hall, and Carmen Electra.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15735893/scary-movie-jayne-trcka-dead/

South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has called for a “new phase” in ties with China as he met its leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday.

Regional security and lifting Beijing’s unofficial ban on Korean pop culture is high on Lee’s agenda, as he continues his four-day trip in China. He is set to meet China’s Premier Li Qiang and the chairman of parliament, Zhao Leji on Tuesday.

It marks the first visit by a South Korean leader since 2019. Bilateral ties had soured under Lee’s predecessor, impeached ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was very critical of China.

Xi, meanwhile, has appeared keen to shore up ties with South Korea amid a diplomatic row between China and Japan.

South Korea is a US security ally – like Japan – but also relies on China for trade. Experts say Lee is expected to keep walking a diplomatic tightrope between Beijing and Tokyo.

The visit marks the second time the two leaders have met since November when Xi visited South Korea for a regional economic summit.

On Monday Lee stated that the visit was “a crucial opportunity” for the “full-scale restoration of South Korea-China relations”, reported South Korean newspaper Chosun. “We want to usher in a new phase in the development of South Korea-China relations.”

Government officials and companies from both countries signed a series of cooperation agreements on technology, trade and environment.

Lee also took selfies with Xi, using a Xiaomi phone that the Chinese president had gifted him last year.

“The image quality is certainly good, right?” Lee posted on X along with the photos.

Later, at a banquet for Lee in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Xi urged the South Korean leader noted that the “international situation is becoming more turbulent and complex”.

The dinner followed the US’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro over the weekend.

Xi urged Lee to “firmly stand on the right side of history and make correct strategic choices”, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.

He also brought up the two countries’ shared history of resisting Japan militarism, saying that China and South Korea should now “work hand in hand to safeguard the outcomes of the victory of World War Two and uphold peace and stability in Northeast Asia”.

Xi’s eagerness to meet Lee signals the pressure he faces in finding a regional ally, Park Seung-chan, professor of China studies at Yongin University told the BBC.

“China may beat around the bush but its demand is clear: side with China and denounce Japan.”

During his four-day trip to China, Lee is expected to hold a memorial service in Shanghai for activists who fought for Korea’s independence from Japan.

But while South Korea is “still showing all its deference towards China”, it wants to “strengthen its relationships with both Japan and China”, Mr Park said.

Lee is reportedly planning to visit Japan later this month to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

The Japanese leader has come under fire from Beijing for suggesting in parliament that Tokyo could respond with its own self-defence forces in case of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, the self-governed island that China claims as its territory.

Security on the Korean Peninsula has also been part of the discussions.

Lee has sought to engage North Korea diplomatically, but there has been little progress so far.

He needs Chinese cooperation in pressuring the North’s Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons. Beijing is one of Pyongyang’s biggest supporters, economically and diplomatically.

Lee vowed on Monday to work with China on “viable alternatives for peace on the Korean Peninsula”.

On Sunday Seoul’s military said Pyongyang fired ballistic missiles off its east coast. And on Monday the North’s state news agency said the country test-fired hypersonic missiles to assess deterrence capabilities following recent developments, in an apparent reference to the US’s seizure of Maduro.

It remains unclear how much Lee will be able to push China on North Korea. In September, Xi had pledged to strengthen Beijing’s “traditional friendship” with Pyongyang.

And Seoul and Beijing are not natural allies.

US troops have been stationed in South Korea for decades in case of an attack from the North, and last year the two sides agreed to cooperate on building nuclear-powered submarines. The announcement drew warnings from China.

Lee has also sought to put a stop to China’s build-up of maritime structures in waters between the two countries. Beijing says the structures are fish-farming equipment, but they have sparked security concerns in Seoul.

The two leaders agreed on Monday to continue “constructive” dialogue on the matter, South Korea’s presidential spokesperson said.

Another item high on Lee’s agenda is China’s unofficial restrictions on South Korean music and dramas that have been in place for a decade. K-pop and K-dramas are either unavailable or difficult to access on Chinese media platforms.

While China has never acknowledged a ban on Korean artists, it’s believed to be a protest against South Korea’s decision to deploy a US anti-missile system in 2016, which China sees as a threat to its military operations in the region.

China is a massive market for Korean entertainment, which is already a huge global success.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70lw9x581no

“Until a few years ago, the butterfly pea flower was just another climbing plant in my village,” says Nilam Brahma who lives in Anthaigwlao, a village in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

Butterfly pea, also known as aparajita in India, grows as a vine and has a striking blue flower.

Around two years ago, Brahma heard that local women were making money selling the flowers, which can be made into tea, or a blue dye.

She decided to join them.

“The results surprised even me. The first time I earned $50 (£37) from selling dried flowers, I felt a shock. It made me believe I could control my own future,” she says.

The experiment led to a small business.

“I applied for a small loan and invested in solar dryers. The machines helped me dry flowers faster, preserve their colour, and meet the quality standards demanded by buyers.”

Thailand and Indonesia have been the leading growers and consumers of butterfly pea flowers. But there’s growing global demand for the flower, which is attracting entrepreneurs in India.

“The global demand for natural colourants is exploding,” explains Varshika Reddy, the founder of THS Impex, which exports natural dyes and additives.

Behind that demand is consumer appetite for natural ingredients and tighter controls in the US and Europe on synthetic food dyes.

In 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved butterfly pea flower as a food additive.

However, in 2022 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) raised safety concerns about using the flower.

Both the EU and the UK classify butterfly pea flower as a “novel” food, meaning it still needs approval for widespread use.

Nevertheless, Indian entrepreneurs still see potential and want to develop India’s market.

“The crop is still seen as a backyard ornamental or medicinal plant rather than a commercial commodity,” says Reddy. “There is no structured market awareness, no government classification, and no standard pricing mechanism, making farmers uncertain about returns.”

She is working with farmers to raise production standards.

“We work with a dedicated cluster of farmers and their families in Uttar Pradesh, including a significant number of women farmers.

“We have established formal contracts… we provide comprehensive agronomy support, including guidance on best farming practices, irrigation management, and crop-specific techniques,” she says.

Others in India have spotted the commercial opportunity.

“When you infuse the flower in hot water, it turns blue, and when you squeeze lemon into it, it turns purple. That felt magical,” says Nitesh Singh, who is based just outside Delhi.

Like Reddy, he thought that the flower had much more potential in India.

“It was here for thousands of years, but nobody knew it could become clean, healthy food,” adds Singh.

So, in 2018 he founded Blue Tea, hoping to grow an Indian brand, with Indian butterfly peas. To start with, it did not go well.

“Initially, we had to import because we couldn’t find good quality flowers in India. The flowers here had fewer petals, and once sun-dried, nothing would remain. We needed a flower with more pigment, more petals, to retain colour after drying.”

Over the past seven years, Singh has been working with farmers to raise the quantity and quality.

Having started with five farmers, he now works with 600 across the country.

“Training and quality control are the biggest challenges,” he says.

Plucking the flowers is a key part of the process. It’s a job that is predominantly done by women.

“Their hands are softer, and they instinctively know how to pluck delicate flowers without damaging the plant. So, women are trained in how to identify the flower for plucking,” says Singh.

Once harvested, the flowers have to be dried, which also has to be done with care.

“Temperature control is extremely important for drying this flower – one mistake and you lose its value,” he says.

Farmers do some of the drying before the flowers arrive at Blue Tea, where the moisture is checked and further drying is done.

“We use very mild temperatures for a longer time. If the heat is too high, the flower burns and you lose its medicinal quality and colour,” says Singh.

As well as the eye-catching colour, there is some evidence that butterfly pea flowers have health benefits. But more research needs to be done.

“When we began reviewing literature, we realised hardly any studies had focused on butterfly pea, despite its strong functional and herbal properties. Most of the available research involved rats and mice,” says V Supriya, assistant professor, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research in Chennai.

She ran a small study on people who were pre-diabetic, and found that those who consumed tea made with butterfly pea flowers, showed better sugar control, than those that didn’t.

“Butterfly pea was largely overlooked. But with evidence now emerging – especially from human trials – its health benefits may make it very popular,” says Supriya.

Pushpal Biswas owns a small farm in west Bengal, and was introduced to butterfly pea by Blue Tea.

“I used to grow rice and vegetables. But many a time I was not able to sell my produce and faced loses,” he says.

But everything has changed over the past seven years, thanks to the new crop.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyxln49760o

Nvidia boss Jensen Huang on Monday announced Alpamayo, a tech platform the company says will help self-driving cars think like humans.

“Alpamayo brings reasoning to autonomous vehicles, allowing them to think through rare scenarios, drive safely in complex environments, and explain their driving decisions,” Huang said on stage at the annual CES technology conference in Las Vegas.

Huang also said Nvidia has begun producing a driverless car powered by its technology, the Mercedes-Benz CLA, in partnership with the German automaker.

The vehicle will be released in the US in the coming months before being rolled out in Europe and Asia.

Wearing his trademark black leather jacket, Huang told an audience of hundreds that the project has taught Nvidia “an enormous amount” about how to help partners build robotic systems.

Analysts say the announcement reinforces Nvidia’s leadership in integrating AI hardware and software, deepening its push into physical AI.

“NVIDIA’s pivot toward AI at scale and AI systems as differentiators will help keep it way ahead of rivals,” said Paolo Pescatore, analyst at PP Foresight, from Las Vegas.

“Alpamayo represents a profound shift for NVIDIA, moving from being primarily a compute to a platform provider for physical AI ecosystems.”

Shares of the AI chip designer rose slightly in after-hours trading following Huang’s presentation.

It featured a video demonstration of the AI-powered Mercedes-Benz driving through San Francisco while a passenger, sat behind the steering wheel, kept their hands in their lap.

“It drives so naturally because it learned directly from human demonstrators,” Huang said, “but in every single scenario… it tells you what it’s going to do, and it reasons about what it’s about to do.”

Alpamayo is an open-source AI model, with the underlying code now available on machine learning platform Hugging Face, where autonomous vehicle researchers can access it for free and retrain the model, Huang said.

“Our vision is that someday, every single car, every single truck, will be autonomous,” he told the audience.

The project could pose a threat to companies like Elon Musk’s Tesla, which offers driver assistance software called Autopilot.

“Well that’s just exactly what Tesla is doing,” Musk posted on social media following the Alpamayo announcement. “What they will find is that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.”

Like Tesla, Nvidia also has plans to launch a robotaxi service by next year in collaboration with a partner, but has declined to name the partner or say where it will be.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jv1vd571wo

An earthquake with ⁠a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 hit the western Chugoku region of Japan on Tuesday (Jan 6), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said, followed by a series of sizeable ‍aftershocks.

The tremor was recorded at 9.18am local time in Shimane prefecture, JMA said.

The same region was hit soon afterwards by smaller quakes with magnitudes of 4.5, 5.1, 3.8 and 5.4, with no tsunami alerts issued.

There were no reports of any major damage.

Chugoku Electric Power operates the Shimane Nuclear Power Station, about 32km away from the first earthquake’s epicentre.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said there were no irregularities at the plant.

A spokesperson said the ‌utility was checking on any impact on the plant’s No 2 unit, ‍which ‌has been operating since December 2024 after being shut down following the March 2011 disasters in Fukushima.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the ‌world’s most seismically active areas.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/japan-earthquake-chugoku-shinkansen-operations-suspended-5812311

Millions of informal workers in India are heavily dependent on app-based platforms, with their livelihoods on the line as they negotiate the country’s gig economy.

Raju Kumar works as a delivery worker for Zomato, a leading Indian online food ordering platform, in India’s capital New Delhi.

The 27-year-old says he puts in close to 10 hours every day, navigating the city’s traffic jams to deliver orders to customers’ doorsteps. He is forced to race congested streets in a constant battle to complete the delivery on time, and is doing his best to avoid any complaints from customers.

Kumar earns about 700 to 900 rupees (€6.63-€8.52 or $7.75-$9.97) daily from the gig work.

“But there is no job security here,” he told DW.

“All it requires is one customer complaint or a random ID block, and I am out without notice or savings,” Kumar added, referring to a practice by platforms like Zomato and Uber where they cut off a worker’s account.

This could be motivated by a drop in customers’ ratings or by employees violating company policy, but it could also be due to a simple glitch.

Kumar said his account was deactivated for a week last month due to an algorithmic issue, hurting his income and leaving him unable to pay his rent.

In the western Indian city of Mumbai, the country’s business hub, 31-year-old Santosh Pawar is a gig worker employed by Blinkit, a firm focused on delivering groceries. He is also forced to race through the Indian metropolis to meet the company’s ten-minute delivery deadlines.

Workers say these ten-minute deliveries pose personal safety risks.

“Last month, I slipped on a waterlogged road and fractured my wrist. The platform offered nothing. There was neither compensation nor medical support… just a message asking when I would be back online,” Pawar told DW.

He continued working despite the pain.

“If I do not deliver, we don’t eat,” said Pawar.

Millions engaged in ‘endless hustle’ for India’s gig economy

Women, who form a growing segment of India’s gig workforce, face the same challenges.

“Our future looks shaky and uncertain. There is no steady work, just endless hustle and family worries,” said Priya Sharma, a gig worker in the beauty services sector in New Delhi. “Every canceled order chips away at our dreams. There is no safety net for tomorrow.”

So far, India gig economy is growing by absorbing surplus labor from agriculture and other informal sectors.

The NITI Aayog, a premier Indian government think tank, released a policy brief in 2022 hailing the gig and platform economy as a vital job engine fueled by the rise of digital platforms, widespread use of smartphones and an increasing demand for flexible jobs, among other reasons.

It projects the gig workforce in the world’s most populous nation to jump from 7.7 million in 2020-21 to about 23.5 million in 2029-30.

Mounting anger and frustration

As the number of gig workers rises, anger and frustration are also mounting over work conditions.

Platforms, for instance, have the power to arbitrarily suspend accounts without explanation, cutting off workers’ income. When gig employees fall sick or get injured on the job, there is often no insurance or paid leave.

This leaves workers bearing all the risks with platforms firmly in control.

Against this backdrop, some labor groups organized a strike on New Year’s Eve, one of the busiest times of the year for deliveries.

They demanded a minimum monthly income for every gig worker, ranging between 24,000 and 40,000 rupees (€227 to €380), transparent payment systems, and an end to arbitrary account suspensions.

“Our mission is to challenge the perception of gig workers as merely temporary labor. Instead, we aim to bring them into a united labor movement where their work is recognized with dignity, and they are provided with equal opportunities in a safe and secure working environment,” Sanjay Gaba, president of the All-India Gig and Platform Workers Union (AIGPWU), told DW.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/india-gig-workers-fight-for-fair-treatment-and-benefits/a-75397994

Colombian President Gustavo Petro issued a stark warning to Donald Trump after the capture of Nicolas Maduro sent shockwaves around the world.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro issued a stark three-word warning to President Donald Trump amid ramped-up attacks against alleged drug trafficking in Latin America: “Come get me!”

“Come get me,” Petro said. “I’m waiting for you here. Don’t threaten me, I’ll wait for you right here if you want to.”

He continued, “I don’t accept invasions, missiles, or assassinations, only intel. Come speak here with intelligence, and we’ll receive you and talk face-to-face with facts, not lies. Stop getting lied to by Colombian political mafias who condemned us to 700,00 deaths and made us the world’s most unequal country.”

It comes after Trump appeared to hint at a possible military operation in Colombia, with a brutal two-word comment about the country’s “sick” leader who allegedly peddles cocaine to Americans.

The statement was made just one day after the U.S. executed a special forces raid in Venezuela, resulting in the capture of both Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, over alleged drug trafficking charges.

Maduro is sitting for his first hearing Monday morning in a Manhattan federal court, where police had to break up a brawl among protestors outside the courtroom.

Following Maduro and Flores’ arrest and extradition to New York City, Trump issued threats of military intervention to other South American countries, including Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, unless changes were made to address drug trafficking crime.

“He’s making cocaine,” Trump said Saturday of Petro, repeating his previous claims. “They’re sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his a–.”

Critics questioned why Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted for drug trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in U.S. prison, days prior to Maduro’s capture.

At a press conference on Saturday, Trump was pressed on the pardon. He said Hernandez was “persecuted very unfairly.”

Trump suggested following Maduro’s arrest that the U.S. would “takeover” Venezuela amid transition, controlling its lucrative oil industry, which he made clear was one of the core objects of the military operations.

“The oil companies are going to go in and rebuild their system,” Trump said Sunday night. “It was the greatest theft in the history of America.

Source : https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/195133/colombia-petro-trump-maduro-taunt

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday again condemned the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, criticizing the Trump administration’s aggressive foreign policy in Latin America for threatening the stability of the hemisphere.

“We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries,” Sheinbaum said in her daily news conference. “The history of Latin America is clear and compelling: Intervention has never brought democracy, has never generated well-being or lasting stability.”

“Unilateral action and invasion cannot be the basis of international relations in the 21st century,” she said. “They don’t lead to peace or development.”

Her comments came as Trump on Sunday threatened more military strikes on Venezuela — and raised the possibility of intervention in Mexico as well as in Cuba, Colombia and the Danish territory of Greenland. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said drugs were “pouring” through Mexico and that “we’re going to have to do something.”

He has been threatening action against cartels for months, with some members of his administration suggesting that the U.S. may soon carry out drone strikes on drug laboratories and other targets inside Mexican territory. Sheinbaum has repeatedly said such strikes would be a clear violation of Mexican sovereignty.

“Sovereignty and the self-determination of peoples are non-negotiable,” she said. “They are fundamental principles of international law and must always be respected without exception.”

Sheinbaum is part of a bloc of leftist Latin American leaders who have spoken out forcefully against the U.S. after its surprise attack on Caracas on Saturday morning. U.S. special forces abducted Maduro, Venezuela’s leftist president, and his wife, Cilia Flores, the former head of the National Assembly.

Venezuela says at least 40 people were killed in the attack. The couple have been indicted in New York’s Southern District on drug trafficking charges.

Right-wing leaders in the region, on the other hand, have cheered the removal of Maduro from power.

At her news conference on Monday, Sheinbaum called for cooperation among countries in the region, at one point quoting Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

“Washington called for good faith and justice toward all nations, and for the cultivation of peace and harmony among all,” she said.

Nations cannot impose their wills on other countries, she said, and do not have the right to their resources. That was a clear reference to Trump’s stated desire to exploit Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

“Only the people can build their own future, decide their path, exercise sovereignty over their natural resources, and freely define their form of government,” she said. “Each nation has the inalienable right to decide its political, economic, and social model, free from external pressure.”

Sheinbaum warned that infighting among Latin American nations would hurt the region economically.

Source : https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ar-AA1TCJVD

Sporadic protests that started with economic woes have evolved into political ones as they spread into different cities.

The demonstrations first kicked off last Sunday when shopkeepers staged a strike over economic concerns, but have since spread in size and scope, with protesters making political demands.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said that Khamenei stated the ongoing protests in Iran are yet to be called nationwide, adding that they are not gaining rapid momentum.

“From time to time and sporadically we witness protests, such as last night in Tehran, Kazerun and other cities,” he said, adding that 14 people, including security forces, have been killed since the demonstrations started.

“There might be further escalations if the government cannot come up with concrete and practical actions.”

Protests Saturday evening in Tehran were described as “limited” by the Fars news agency, which said they were “generally made up of groups of 50 to 200 young people”.

Tehran’s population is about 10 million.

Demonstrations were reported in the districts of Novobat and Tehran Pars in the capital’s east; Ekteban, Sadeghieh and Sattarkhan in the west; and Naziabad and Abdolabad in the south, Fars said.

Riots reported in Malekshahi

Demonstrators shouted slogans including “death to the dictator”, Fars said, though no major incidents were reported beyond some stone throwing and rubbish bins being set alight.

The news agency said the situation in Tehran “contrasted with an intensification of violence and organised attacks in other regions, notably the country’s west”.

In Malekshahi, a county of about 20,000 residents including a sizeable Kurdish population, a member of the security forces was killed in clashes, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

“Rioters attempted to storm a police station,” Fars said, adding that “two assailants were killed”.

Local media’s accounting of the protests is not exhaustive, and state-run outlets have downplayed their coverage of the demonstrations, while videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.

On Saturday, Iranian Supreme Leader sent a strong message to rioters in his first remarks on the demonstrations.

“We talk to protesters, the officials must talk to them,” Khamenei said on Saturday.

“But there is no benefit to talking to rioters. Rioters must be put in their place.”

Al Jazeera’s Asadi said that Khamenei ‘s recent statement recognised the economic problems the country is facing.

Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/4/sporadic-protests-in-tehran-as-clashes-reported-in-irans-west

Sarat Mani Chakraborty was reportedly attacked with sharp weapons in the Narsingdi district at around 10 pm on Monday.

A 40-year-old Hindu man has been killed in Bangladesh, in what is a second such incident in the last 24 hours in the country. Sarat Mani Chakraborty, a grocery store owner, was reportedly attacked with sharp weapons in the Narsingdi district at around 10 pm on Monday. He later died of his injuries.

Hours before he was killed, a 45-year-old factory owner was shot dead in the Jashore district. Rana Pratap, who was also the acting editor of a newspaper, was shot in the head by a group of men, who also slit his throat. Local sources alleged that he had multiple cases filed against him.

Pratap, the son of a schoolteacher from the neighbouring Keshabpur sub-district, had been running an ice factory in Kopalia Bazar for two years. On Monday evening, some men called him out of the ice factory, led him to an alley, and shot him. Seven bullet casings were found beside Pratap’s body.

A local resident said that the attackers arrived on a motorcycle and had an argument with Pratap, fired several rounds at his head and fled.

A police officer said Pratap was shot three times in the head.

“We are investigating who was involved,” he said.

Attack On Hindus In Bangladesh

Monday’s killings mark the latest in a series of violent incidents against minorities in Bangladesh, especially Hindus, who constitute about 7 per cent of the total population.

On Saturday, a Hindu woman in Jhenaidah district was raped by two men, who also demanded money from her. When she screamed, they tied her to a tree, cut off her hair, recorded the act, and circulated videos on social media. The woman fell unconscious and was taken to a hospital by local residents.

Days before that, Khokon Chandra Das, 50, was brutally attacked and set on fire. He ran a medicine and mobile banking business in his village, 150 km from the national capital, Dhaka.

The attack happened on his way home after closing his shop last Wednesday. He managed to jump into a pond, which helped put out the flames that nearly engulfed his head and face. The attackers fled after that. He died in the hospital on January 3.

Bajendra Biswas, another Hindu man, was shot dead in Mymensingh on December 29. Forty-year-old Biswas was killed while on duty at a garment factory by a colleague in Bhaluka.

He was a member of Ansar Bahini, a paramilitary auxiliary force under Bangladesh’s Ministry of Home Affairs, responsible for internal security and law enforcement in the country. He was killed by his colleague, Noman Mia.

On December 24, a 29-year-old Hindu man, Amrit Mondal, was lynched over alleged extortion in Rajbari.

On December 18, Dipu Chandra Das, 29, was lynched by a mob, and his body was set on fire over alleged blasphemy in Mymensingh.

The lynching of Das, who worked in a factory, drew the world’s attention to the killing of Hindus in Bangladesh administered by US-returned Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/hindu-man-killed-in-bangladesh-2nd-such-incident-in-24-hours-10373025?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Nikitha Godishala was found dead at Arjun Sharma’s US residence. Arjun allegedly withdrew USD 3,500 from her account before fleeing to India, where he was arrested by Interpol.

The sister of 27-year-old Telugu woman, Nikitha Godishala, who was found dead at her ex-boyfriend’s residence in the United States, has alleged that the accused carried out unauthorised financial transactions amounting to about USD 3,500 (approximately Rs 3.16 lakh) from the deceased’s bank account before fleeing the country after her death.

The accused boyfriend, Arjun Sharma, was arrested by Interpol in Tamil Nadu on Monday after returning to India. The arrest followed coordinated efforts between US federal agencies and Indian authorities to track him after his departure from the United States.

In a complaint submitted to the Indian Embassy in the US, Nikitha’s sister Saraswati detailed the transactions, stating that the money was withdrawn by Arjun in the days leading up to Nikitha’s murder, India Today reported.

Saraswati said that on December 27, Arjun sought money from both her and Nikitha. She added that Nikitha later approached her on Arjun’s behalf, requesting assistance of around USD 5,000. The victim’s sister said she refused a subsequent request from Arjun for an additional USD 1,000, noting that he had not returned USD 1,000 from the USD 4,500 he had earlier borrowed from her.

According to her complaint, Arjun owed a total of USD 4,500 (approximately Rs 4.07 lakh) to Nikitha’s family.

“I sent him USD 4,500, out of which he returned USD 3,500. I was contacted by Arjun on Jan 2nd and requested me for additional USD 1,000 to which I denied,” Saraswati stated in her complaint.

‘Accused Was Not Nikitha’s Ex-Boyfriend’: Victim’s Father

Meanwhile, the victim’s father, Anand Godisala, denied that the accused was her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, stating he was only a former roommate. “He (Arjun Sharma) is a former roommate and not her ex-boyfriend. He reportedly made the complaint (to the police in US) and fled to India. He should be caught and given tough punishment,” Anand told PTI.

The grieving father demanded strict punishment for those responsible for his daughter’s death. Seeking the Centre’s and Telangana government’s help to repatriate her remains, Anand said Nikitha last spoke to him on December 31 to wish him for New Year.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/nikitha-godishala-murder-ex-lover-looted-lakhs-from-her-before-fleeing-us-sister-alleges-ws-l-9811947.html

Heavy gunfire was reported near Venezuela’s presidential palace in Caracas after security forces opened fire in response to unidentified drones flying over the complex.

Heavy gunfire and reports of possible drone activity near Venezuela’s presidential palace triggered fresh security concerns in Caracas early on Tuesday, as the country remains on edge following the US-led operation that resulted in the capture and removal of President Nicolas Maduro.

According to witnesses cited by AFP, shots were fired near the Miraflores presidential palace in central Caracas around 8.00 pm local time (0000 GMT).

BNO News quoted the White House as saying that the US was “not involved” in the commotion reported from near Venezuela’s presidential palace.

A source close to the government told AFP that unidentified drones were seen flying over the palace complex, prompting security forces to open fire in response.

The source said the situation was later brought under control, though no immediate details were provided on damage or casualties.

BNO News, meanwhile, reported that heavy gunfire was heard across parts of Caracas over a period of roughly 45 minutes, including areas close to the presidential palace.

It added that residents also reported possible drone or aircraft noises during the incident and that some neighbourhoods experienced power outages.

There was no immediate explanation on the cause of the gunfire or the reported aerial activity.

A video also showed armed men running the streets of Caracas.

The development comes amid heightened political and security tensions in the Venezuelan capital, soon after Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim President following the capture of Maduro.

Rodriguez, a key ally of Maduro, assumed office after Maduro was captured by US military forces during a weekend raid and transferred to the United States.

Earlier on Monday, the Venezuelan government published a decree declaring a State of External Commotion, granting sweeping powers to the presidency and directing security forces to take action against individuals accused of supporting the US operation, CNN reported.

The decree instructs national, state and municipal police agencies to “immediately undertake the search and capture throughout the national territory of any person involved in the promotion or support” of what it describes as an armed attack by the United States against Venezuela.

According to CNN, the decree was dated Saturday and signed by Maduro on the same day he was captured by US forces.

It was later endorsed by interim president Rodriguez. While the decree had originally been drafted and announced in late September, weeks after the US began deploying naval assets in the Caribbean, its contents were not made public at the time and were subsequently updated to reflect developments over the weekend, CNN reported.

The measure carries the force of law for an initial period of 90 days, with the option of a further 90-day extension.

Under Venezuela’s Constitution, a declaration of this kind allows the President to exercise near-total authority over political, economic and social matters in cases of conflict that seriously endanger national security, citizens or state institutions.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/caracas-venezuela-presidential-palace-heavy-gunshots-drone-aircraft-sounds-heard-videos-nicolas-maduro-capture-us-venezuela-raid-9811940.html

Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison, only to be pardoned later by the US President.

Before deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was brought to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges, another leader had already stood trial in a US court for similar crimes. The outcome, however, could not have been more different.

Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison, only to be pardoned later by US President Donald Trump. Maduro, by contrast, is being treated as an international criminal to be tried in an American court.

Trump granted Hernandez a pardon in December, describing him as a victim of political persecution. At the time, Trump said the former Honduran leader had been “treated very harshly and unfairly”.

Asked later about the contrast between the pardon and the operation against Maduro, Trump said Hernandez’s case reminded him of his own legal troubles.“The man that I pardoned was, if you could equate it to us, he was treated like the Biden administration treated a man named Trump. This was a man who was persecuted very unfairly. He was the head of the country,” the US president said.

Trump has repeatedly argued that Hernandez was targeted because of his position as president and claimed the prosecution was politically motivated.

Criticising Trump for dual standards, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote on X, “If the President grounds his actions on the basis of drug trafficking charges, it is entirely hypocritical in light of his recent pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez who was responsible for bringing more than 400 tons of cocaine in the United States in order to ‘shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.’”

“The Administration says Maduro will be tried for drug trafficking in a US court – but Hernandez was convicted of the same crime by an American jury and Trump pardoned him,” she added.

Hernandez And Maduro: Similarities

Both the Hernandez and Maduro cases trace back to Drug Enforcement Administration investigations that began around 2010. The probes were handled by the same DEA unit and overseen by the same investigative team in the Southern District of the United States.

What Were The Charges Against Hernandez?

Hernandez was arrested shortly after leaving office in 2022 and extradited to the US to face drug-trafficking and weapons charges. Federal prosecutors accused him of accepting a $1 million bribe from drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman during his first presidential campaign.

In return, prosecutors said, Hernandez helped protect cocaine routes through Honduras.

Hernandez’s trial in 2024 lasted three weeks. Prosecutors said that he played a central role in an 18-year drug-trafficking network that moved more than 400 tonnes of cocaine into the United States.

They said he allowed traffickers armed with machine guns and grenade launchers to operate freely, while receiving millions of dollars to fund his political campaigns. Multiple state institutions, including the Honduran National Police, were accused of protecting drug shipments moving through the country. Prosecutors alleged that Hernandez transformed Honduras into a “narco-state”.

Hernandez denied the charges and said he was the victim of political persecution.

From Convicted Felon To Victim Of ‘Biden Setup’: How Hernandez Gained Trump’s Support

US media outlet Axios later reported that Hernandez wrote a four-page letter to Trump in October, praising him and asking for a review of his case “in the interest of justice”. The outlet also reported that longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone told the president that a pardon could boost Honduras’ National Party ahead of elections. Trump later said he believed the prosecution “was a Biden setup”. The pardon was so sudden that some of Trump’s aides, including his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, were also blindsided, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Well, he was the president, and they had some drugs being sold in their country, and because he was the president, they went after him… that was a Biden horrible witch hunt,” Trump told reporters.

What Are The Charges Against Maduro?

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a stunning US commando raid in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, on Saturday. “Operation Absolute Resolve”, which took months of meticulous planning, killed at least 40 in Venezuela, The New York Times reported.

The couple was brought to a federal courthouse in Manhattan on Monday ahead of their arraignment. They face charges including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine, according to an unsealed indictment.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/nicolas-maduro-trial-juan-orlando-hernandez-donald-trump-us-venezuela-updates-drug-trafficking-10351301?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Asked who is ultimately in charge of Venezuela, Trump gave a one-word answer: “Me.”

US President Donald Trump said the United States is not at war with Venezuela and will not push for elections there in the near term, days after US forces captured the now-deposed president, Nicolas Maduro, in a military raid. Trump argued that the South American country must first be stabilised and its infrastructure rebuilt following the capture of Maduro.

Speaking to NBC News, Trump said conditions on the ground made voting in Venezuela unrealistic in the next 30 days. “We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election if people can’t even vote,” Trump said.

Oil Money Proposal 

He claimed Washington will focus on restoring basic order and rebuilding the economy in the country first, and the “US oil companies” could play a central role in rebuilding Venezuela’s energy infrastructure.

“We have to nurse the country back to health,” he said, adding that the transition could take less than 18 months. Trump said the United States may subsidise part of the effort but insisted that oil companies would ultimately bear the costs and recover their investments.

“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” Trump said.

Not At War

The Republican leader rejected claims that the United States is engaged in a war with Venezuela. “No, we’re not,” he said. “We’re at war with people who sell drugs. We’re at war with people who empty their prisons into our country and empty their drug addicts and empty their mental institutions into our country.”

He said responsibility for Venezuela’s collapse lay with its leadership, which he accused of exporting crime and instability.

Maduro was seized during a US raid in Caracas and later arraigned in New York on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy. Trump said interim President Delcy Rodriguez has been cooperating with US officials but denied there was any communication between Washington and her camp before Maduro’s removal.

“No, that’s not the case,” Trump said, adding that a determination would soon be made on whether sanctions against Rodríguez would remain in place.

Trump “In-Charge” Of Venezuela

Asked who is ultimately in charge of Venezuela, Trump gave a one-word answer: “Me.”

Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been deeply involved in communications with Venezuela’s leadership, noting that Rubio “speaks to her fluently in Spanish” and that their “relationship has been very strong.” He also said the United States is prepared to launch a second military incursion if cooperation breaks down, though he said he does not believe that will be necessary. “We’re prepared to do it,” he said. “We anticipated doing it, actually.”

Trump dismissed criticism that he failed to seek congressional approval for the operation, saying lawmakers were aware of US actions. “We have good support congressionally,” he said, declining to elaborate on who knew what and when.

Shots Fired Near Venezuela’s Presidential Palace

Shots were fired late on Monday near Venezuela’s presidential palace. Quoting a source, news agency AFP reported that the situation was under control.

A video posted on social media shows what appear to be tracer bullets fired into the sky. The video showed many security force members rushing to the palace after the shots.

Unidentified drones flew over the Miraflores Palace in central Caracas, and security forces opened fire in response around 8:00 pm (0000 GMT), the source said, hours after Maduro’s deputy Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president following his removal.

Bursts of gunfire rang out, but not as strongly as in the pre-dawn attack on Saturday that toppled Maduro, according to a person who lives five blocks from the palace, who said the incident lasted about a minute.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-reveals-his-plan-for-venezuelas-future-oil-election-and-in-charge-10373906?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

All 40 people who died in the New Year’s Eve bar fire in Switzerland have been identified, police said on Sunday, with teenagers making up more than half of the death toll.
The final 16 victims have now been identified, Valais Police said, following the blaze at the mountain resort of Crans-Montana early on Jan. 1.

The fire was one of the worst disasters in recent Swiss history and has led to an outpouring of grief in Switzerland, which will hold a national day of mourning next week.

Hundreds of people held a silent procession through the frosty streets of Crans-Montana on Sunday to remember victims of the fire, which also injured more than 100 people.
Earlier on Sunday mourners attended a church service in the town where Bishop Jean-Marie Lovey said condolences had poured in from around the world, including from the Pope.
“Countless people join us – people whose hearts are broken,” Lovey told the service. “Many expressions of sympathy and solidarity reach us.
“Pope Leo XIV joins in our sorrow,” he added. “In a moving message, he expresses his compassion and his care for the victims’ families and strengthens the courage of all who are suffering.”

TEENAGERS AMONG THE DEAD

Some 26 of the 40 dead were teenagers, with the victims including a 14-year-old French national and a 14-year-old from Switzerland, police said. No names were released.
In total, 21 of the dead were Swiss citizens, seven were French and six Italian.
Other victims came from Romania, Turkey, Portugal, Belgium as well as one Swiss-French dual national and a 15-year-old girl who held French, Israeli and British nationality.

The mother of a 16-year-old Swiss boy Arthur Brodard confirmed overnight that he was among those killed.
“Now we can start our mourning, knowing he is in peace,” Laetitia Brodard-Sitre said on her Facebook page.

NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING

Switzerland will hold a national day of mourning on Friday, national president Guy Parmelin said on Sunday, with church bells ringing across the country and a minute’s silence planned.

“In this moment of reflection, everyone in Switzerland can personally remember the victims of the disaster,” Parmelin told newspaper Sonntagsblick.
The fire likely started when “fountain candle” sparklers were held aloft too close to the ceiling at the Constellation bar, the region’s chief prosecutor has said.
Some 119 people were injured, including many with severe burns.
The Swiss government said on Sunday that 35 patients have been transferred from hospitals in Switzerland to specialised clinics in Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/numerous-teenagers-among-dead-swiss-bar-blaze-police-say-2026-01-04/

China’s top diplomat accused the U.S. of acting like a “world judge” by seizing Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro to put him on trial in New York, with Beijing set to confront Washington at the United Nations over the move’s legality.
Beijing follows a policy of non-intervention and routinely criticises military activity conducted without the UN Security Council’s approval.

The U.S. military’s removal of the leader of one of China’s “all-weather” strategic partners from his capital in the dead of night will be a litmus test of Beijing’s assertion that it can play a role in resolving global hotspot issues without following Washington down the military route.

“We have never believed that any country can act as the world’s police, nor do we accept that any nation can claim to be the world’s judge,” Wang told his Pakistani counterpart during a meeting in Beijing on Sunday, referring to “sudden developments in Venezuela” without directly mentioning the United States.
“The sovereignty and security of all countries should be fully protected under international law,” China’s top diplomat added, in his first remarks since images of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed on Saturday stunned the world.
Maduro is scheduled to appear in a New York court on Monday to face drugs charges. Just blocks away, the UN Security Council will convene at Colombia’s request – backed by China and Russia – to debate U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to seize him, a move UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned could set “a dangerous precedent.”

Analysts note China, the world’s second-largest economy and leading global trading partner, will be crucial in marshalling criticism of Washington’s actions.
“There isn’t much in the way of material support that China can offer Venezuela at this time, but rhetorically, Beijing will be very important when it leads the effort at the UN and with other developing countries to rally opinion against the U.S.,” said Eric Olander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project.

“What we’ve seen in the cases of Zimbabwe and Iran, both sanctioned by the West, is that China demonstrates its commitment to these relationships through trade and investment, even under difficult circumstances,” he added.

‘A BIG BLOW FOR CHINA’

With Trump also threatening military action against Colombia and Mexico and having remarked that Cuba’s communist regime “looks like it’s ready to fall” on its own, Latin American countries that signed up to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship Global Security Initiative may now wonder how the pact will protect them if put to the test.

Xi on Monday urged all countries to abide by international law and the UN principles. He said major powers should set an example, while stopping short of naming the U.S. or Venezuela.
Beijing has had considerable success in persuading Latin American states to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, with Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras all siding with the $19 trillion economy’s talk of strategic partnership over the last 20 years.
Venezuela switched recognition in 1974, a relationship that deepened under Hugo Chavez, the socialist former soldier who took power in 1998 and became Beijing’s closest ally in Latin America, distancing his country from Washington while lauding the Chinese Communist Party’s governance model and presiding over democratic backsliding at home.
The close relationship continued after Chavez died in 2013 and Maduro became leader, even enrolling his son at the top-ranking Peking University in 2016.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-says-it-cannot-accept-countries-acting-world-judge-after-us-captures-2026-01-05/

The legality of the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will be under the spotlight at the United Nations on Monday, but Washington is unlikely to face strong criticism from allies over its military operation in the Latin American state.
The 15-member U.N. Security Council will meet on Monday after U.S. Special Forces seized Maduro in an operation on Saturday that knocked out power in parts of Caracas and struck military installations. Venezuelan authorities also said it was deadly. Maduro is now in detention in New York awaiting a court appearance on Monday on drug charges.

Russia, China and other Venezuelan allies have accused the United States of violating international law, but U.S. allies – many of whom opposed Maduro – have been less vocal about any concerns over the use of military force.
“Judging by the reactions from European leaders to date, I suspect that U.S. allies will equivocate exquisitely in the Security Council,” said Richard Gowan, director of global issues and institutions at the International Crisis Group, a think-tank.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres views the U.S. operation as setting “a dangerous precedent,” his spokesperson said on Saturday. Many legal experts also say the U.S. action was illegal, although Washington will be able to block any attempts by the U.N. Security Council to hold it accountable.

WASHINGTON CITES SELF-DEFENSE

In the wake of the U.S. operation, European states have largely called for international law to be respected without specifically calling out Washington, though French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the U.S. had violated “the principle of not resorting to force, that underpins international law.”
The U.N. Charter states that members “shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” There are currently 193 members of the United Nations.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz on Sunday cited Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which says that nothing “shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations.”

“In this case, you have a drug kingpin, an illegitimate leader indicted in the United States, coordinating with the likes of China, Russia, Iran, terrorist groups like Hezbollah, pumping drugs, thugs, and weapons into the United States of America, threatening to invade its neighbors,” he told Fox News.
However, legal experts say the U.S. operation was illegal because it lacked U.N. Security Council authorization, did not have Venezuelan consent, and does not constitute self-defense against an armed attack.
“The action violated international law,” said Tom Dannenbaum, a professor at Stanford Law School. “Serious legal objections to Maduro’s regime do not eliminate the need for a legal basis to use military force in Venezuela.”

U.S. VETO SHIELDS WASHINGTON

But Washington cannot be held accountable for any violation by the U.N. Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security. The U.S. wields a veto – along with Russia, China, Britain and France – so can block action.

Maduro was indicted in 2020 on U.S. charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. He has always denied any criminal involvement.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/legality-us-capture-venezuelas-maduro-focus-united-nations-2026-01-04/

U.S. President Donald Trumpsaid on Sunday that the United States might launch a second military strike on Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro if remaining members of the administration do not cooperate with his efforts to get the country “fixed.”
Trump’s comments to reporters aboard Air Force One raised the possibility of further U.S. military interventions in Latin America, and suggested Colombia and Mexico could also face military action if they do not reduce the flow of illicit drugs to the United States.

“Operation Colombia sounds good to me,” Trump said. He also said that Cuba, a close ally of Venezuela, “looks like it’s ready to fall” on its own without U.S. military action.
Maduro is in a New York detention center awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges. His capture by the United States has sparked deep uncertainty about what is next for the oil-rich South American nation.
Trump said his administration will work with remaining members of the Maduro regime to clamp down on drug trafficking and overhaul its oil industry, rather than push for immediate elections to install a new government.

Top officials in Maduro’s government are still in charge and have called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping.
“Here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said in an audio recording released by the ruling PSUV socialist party.
Images of the 63-year-old Maduro, blindfolded and handcuffed stunned Venezuelans. The operation was Washington’s most controversial intervention in Latin America, since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.
Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said on state television the U.S. attack killed soldiers, civilians and a “large part” of Maduro’s security detail “in cold blood.” Venezuela’s armed forces have been activated to guarantee sovereignty, he said.

The Cuban government said 32 of its citizens were killed during the raid.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez — who also serves as oil minister — has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela’s top court and has said Maduro remains president.
Rodriguez has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle. But she has publicly contradicted Trump’s claim she is willing to work with the United States.
Trump said Rodriguez may pay a bigger price than Maduro “if she doesn’t do what’s right,” according to an interview with The Atlantic magazine on Sunday.
The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that remark.

‘A QUARANTINE ON THEIR OIL’

Trump’s administration has described Maduro’s capture as a law-enforcement mission to force him to face U.S. criminal charges filed in 2020, including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro has denied criminal involvement.
But Trump also said U.S. oil companies need “total access” to the country’s vast reserves and suggested that an influx of Venezuelan emigrating to the United States also factored into the decision to capture Maduro.
“What really played (into the decision to capture Maduro) is the fact that he sent millions of people into our country from prisons and from mental institutions, drug dealers, every drug addict in his country was sent into our country,” Trump said.

The Venezuelan government has said for months Trump was seeking to take the country’s natural resources, especially its oil, and officials made much of a previous Trump comment that major U.S. oil companies would move in.
“We are outraged because in the end everything was revealed — it was revealed that they only want our oil,” Cabello said.
Once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America, Venezuela’s economy tanked in the 2000s under President Hugo Chavez and nosedived further under Maduro, sending about one in five Venezuelans abroad in one of the world’s biggest exoduses.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Venezuela’s next leader should keep Venezuela’s oil industry out of the hands of U.S. adversaries and stop drug trafficking and cited an ongoing U.S. blockade on tankers.
“That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

MUTED STREETS

Some Maduro supporters gathered at a government-sponsored protest march on Sunday afternoon in Caracas.
Once ruled by Spain, Venezuela’s “people must not surrender, nor should we ever become a colony of anyone again,” said demonstrator Reinaldo Mijares. “This country is not a country of the defeated.”
Maduro opponents in Venezuela have been wary of celebrating his seizure, and the presence of security forces seemed, if anything, lighter than usual on Sunday.
Despite a nervous mood, some bakeries and coffee shops were open and joggers and cyclists were out as usual. Some citizens were stocking up on essentials.
“Yesterday I was very afraid to go out, but today I had to. This situation caught me without food and I need to figure things out. After all, Venezuelans are used to enduring fear,” said a single mother in oil city Maracaibo who bought rice, vegetables and tuna.
To the disappointment of Venezuela’s opposition, Trump has given short shrift to the idea of 58-year-old opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado taking over, saying she lacked support.
Machado was banned from standing in the 2024 election but has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez, 76, who the opposition and some international observers say overwhelmingly won that vote, has a democratic mandate to take the presidency.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/venezuelas-maduro-custody-trump-says-us-will-run-country-2026-01-04/

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung arrived in China on Sunday as Beijing looks to deepen ties with the nearby country after heightened tensions between China and Japan over Taiwan, a self-ruled island it claims as its sovereign territory.

Lee’s four-day trip is his first visit to China since taking office in June. It comes at a time of heightened tensions between China and Japan, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in November that her country’s military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan.

China’s official news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday afternoon that Lee arrived in Beijing. During his stay, Lee will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, their second meeting in just two months.

Lee signals commitment to China’s ties

Ahead of his trip, Lee gave an interview to China’s state broadcaster CCTV at Seoul’s Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential office also known as the Blue House. Lee was quoted as saying that it was his first interview held in the presidential palace and that he hoped people would understand that his government cares about the relations between Beijing and Seoul.

In the interview, he assured that South Korea consistently respects the “One-China” policy when it comes to Taiwan, CCTV reported Friday. He said the healthy development of Beijing-Seoul relations depends on mutual respect. Lee also praised Xi as a “truly reliable neighbor.”

Last week, China staged large-scale military drills around the island for two days to warn against separatist and “external interference” forces. At that time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry accused Taiwan’s ruling party of trying to seek independence through requesting U.S. support.

The U.S. planned large-scale arms sales to Taiwan angered Beijing in December, leading to China sanctioning 20 U.S. defense-related companies.

Lee said Seoul’s cooperation with the U.S, its military ally, does not mean South Korea-China relations should move toward confrontation, CCTV reported. He acknowledged that past misunderstandings between his country and China had hindered bilateral relations.

“This visit to China aims to minimize or eliminate these past misunderstandings or contradictions, to elevate and develop South Korea-China relations to a new stage,” CCTV quoted him as saying.

To discuss the Korean Peninsula and strengthen economic ties

South Korea and the U.S. have urged China, North Korea’s traditional ally and economic pipeline, to use its influence on its socialist neighbor to convince it to return to talks or abandon its nuclear program.

But China has long been suspected of avoiding fully implementing U.N. sanctions on North Korea and sending clandestine aid shipments to help the North stay afloat and continue to serve as a bulwark against U.S. influence on the Korean Peninsula.

On Sunday, North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles toward the sea, South Korea’s military said, the latest weapons demonstration by the North ahead of its upcoming ruling party congress.

Lee’s visit is meant to strengthen bilateral ties and discuss ways to restore peace on the Korean Peninsula, South Korean officials said.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/china-south-korea-xi-lee-jae-myung-1e830bb1a85b46f89bfd630b87542910

Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to more than 6,100 prisoners and reduced other inmates’ sentences Sunday to mark the 78th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain.

It was not immediately clear whether those released include the thousands of political detainees imprisoned for opposing military rule.

The amnesty comes as the military government proceeds with a monthlong, three-stage election process that critics say is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo.

State-run MRTV television reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, pardoned 6,134 prisoners.

A separate statement said 52 foreigners will also be released and deported from Myanmar. No comprehensive list of those freed is available.

Other prisoners received reduced sentences, except for those convicted of serious charges such as murder and rape or those jailed on charges under various other security acts.

The release terms warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to any new sentence.

The prisoner releases, common on holidays and other significant occasions in Myanmar, began Sunday and are expected to take several days to complete.

Buses took prisoners out of Yangon’s Insein Prison after 11 a.m., where friends and families of detainees had waited since morning for the announced releases.

Among the first group freed from Insein Prison, according to the pro-army news outlet Popular News Journal, was Ye Htut, a former high-profile army officer who had served as information minister and presidential spokesperson in a previous military-backed government.

He was arrested in October 2023 and sentenced to 10 years in prison the following month after being convicted of sedition and incitement for writing Facebook posts that allegedly spread false or inflammatory news.

However, there was no sign that the prisoner release would include former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in the military takeover in 2021 and has been held virtually incommunicado since then.

The takeover was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the nation’s political conflicts, more than 22,000 political detainees, including Suu Kyi, were in detention as of last Tuesday.

Many political detainees had been held on a charge of incitement, a catch-all offense widely used to arrest critics of the government or military and punishable by up to three years in prison.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-amnesty-6100-prisoners-independence-day-549742ec63d257652d03f8bc136807b8

Denmark’s prime minister has told Donald Trump to “stop the threats” about taking over Greenland.

Mette Frederiksen said “it makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland”, adding: “The US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom.”

Her remarks come after Katie Miller – the wife of one of Trump’s aides, Stephen Miller – tweeted a map of Greenland in the colours of the American flag alongside the word “SOON”.

Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of Greenland becoming an annexed part of the US, citing its strategic location and mineral wealth, and doubled down on his claims after Frederiksen’s comments.

In her statement, posted on the Danish government website, Frederiksen said she was addressing the US “very directly”.

She said Denmark – “and thus Greenland” – was a Nato member and covered by the alliance’s security guarantee. Denmark already had a defence agreement with the US that gave it access to Greenland, she said, and Denmark had upped its investment in security in the Arctic region.

“I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have very clearly said that they are not for sale,” she said.

Hours later on Air Force One, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said.

Earlier the Danish ambassador to the US responded to the post by Ms Miller – a right-wing podcaster and former aide to Trump during his first term – with a “friendly reminder” that the two countries were allies and saying Denmark expected respect for its territorial integrity.

The exchange comes after the US carried out a major military operation against Venezuela on Saturday, capturing its president Nicolas Maduro and his wife and removing them to New York.

Trump later said the US would “run” Venezuela and US oil companies would “start making money for the country”.

The US president has previously refused to rule out using force to secure control of Greenland, a vast island in the Arctic.

Trump has claimed that making it part of the United States would serve US security interests due to its strategic location and its abundance of minerals critical to high-tech sectors.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g0zg974v1o

US President Donald Trump has said that his country will now “run” Venezuela and send US companies to fix its badly dilapidated oil infrastructure.

Oil prices fell on Monday (Jan 5) after a United States military operation seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whose country has the world’s biggest proven crude reserves.

Increased volumes of Venezuelan oil entering the market would add to oversupply concerns and put further pressure on oil prices, which have fallen in recent months.

In morning trade in Asia, Brent Crude was down 0.21 per cent at US$60.62 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate was off 0.35 per cent at US$57.12, both off earlier lows.

US forces attacked Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, bombing military targets and spiriting away Maduro and his wife to face federal narcotrafficking charges in New York.

US President Donald Trump has said that the US will now “run” Venezuela and send US companies to fix its badly dilapidated oil infrastructure.

After years of under-investment and sanctions, Venezuela currently pumps around one million barrels per day, down from around 3.5 million barrels per day in 1999.

But analysts say that alongside other major questions about Venezuela’s future, substantially lifting its oil production will not be easy or quick.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/oil-prices-fall-us-capture-venezuela-president-nicolas-maduro-5789431

ANYONE expecting elation on the streets of Venezuela after the arrest of hated President Nicolas Maduro would have been sorely disappointed.

After almost 30 years of brutal socialist dictatorship bringing the country to its knees, the power vacuum left by his capture was replaced by a sense of terror.

People are too scared to step outside, let alone party in public.

When I became one of the few British journalists to visit the South American nation in 2018, there was high anxiety everywhere I went.

This was a time when Maduro was being courted by then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Maduro called Corbyn a “friend of Venezuela”, while Corbyn hailed his country as a vision of the socialist utopia he wanted to bring to Britain.

Left wingers, such as former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, praised ex-president Hugo Chavez, who was Maduro’s mentor, for redistributing Venezuela’s incredible oil wealth away from the “elite” to “the majority of the population”.

But during my week-long assignment, there was no sign of the paradise they had described.

All I could see was a dystopian and bankrupt state where years of economic illiteracy and corruption — with leaders stealing natural resources to line their own pockets — had resulted in the rule of law ceasing to exist.

The security briefing I received before departing Gatwick airport was unnerving, to say the least.

Dire poverty

With 73 murders a day on average, I was told that it was no longer safe to travel at night in Venezuela and I was advised to remain inside my hotel from the early evening onwards.

But even during daylight hours my life would be in constant jeopardy, according to the security experts.

Not just because the capital Caracas had become a den of gang violence, where innocent people would be shot dead for a few dollars, but also because ordinary citizens were desperate and starving and would likely turn to crime to put food on the table.

It was with these dire warnings in my head that I nervously eyed the sparse, twinkling lights of the city after the nine-hour flight from Madrid had completed its descent.

Since Madura had been handed the keys to power following the death of Chavez in 2013, Venezuela had tumbled into a period of dizzying economic disaster.

Inflation rocketed to 82,700 per cent, making its bolivar currency worthless and resulting in people needing wheelbarrows of cash to perform basic transactions.

Despite the government sitting on pots of money from its oil revenue, public services had failed, unemployment was rife and crime had spun out of control to the point where just wearing a watch, we were told, was suicidal unless you had a well-armed bevy of bodyguards.

“We didn’t want a war, we didn’t look for it . . . it was Maduro who declared war on the Venezuelan people

Even street lighting had become unaffordable in many areas, an issue that photographer Ian Whittaker and I witnessed as we endured a very tense 30- minute car journey from the airport on the night of our arrival that August.

Our fixer in Caracas did little to calm my nerves as he chatted from the passenger seat, mentioning that he kept his job secret from neighbours for fear that having foreign currency would make him a kidnap target.

And so began my spell in a country that has become the focus of world news following the ousting of corrupt Maduro, who had kept his own nest well-feathered just like his dictator-style moustache, all while leading his people into chaos and dire poverty.

The despot was photographed in handcuffs and surrounded by DEA agents as he and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were taken to the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn to face drug trafficking- related charges yesterday.

It followed Saturday’s 2am storming of his military compound by a crack team of US special forces that had been spying on him for weeks, to the point they even knew what food he fed his dogs.

Maduro, 63, and his wife were reportedly asleep when the US forces burst in.

And having been frogmarched through the property in their pyjamas, they were whisked off on the USS Iwo Jima assault ship.

His downfall represents yet another coup for Trump, who branded Maduro the head of a cocaine-exporting drugs cartel at the same time as he took the unprecedented step of repeatedly sinking alleged drug- trafficking boats bound for the US.

The surprising turn of events brought a smile to my face, having visited the country and spending years hoping for change but seeing all previous efforts thwarted.

Just last month, brave opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was unable to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in person as there was a high risk she would be bumped off by Maduro’s goons.

The Nobel Institute commended “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.

Machado did eventually make a triumphant appearance, where she warned: “We need to address this regime not as a conventional dictatorship, but as a criminal structure. We didn’t want a war, we didn’t look for it . . . it was Maduro who declared war on the Venezuelan people.”

Seven years earlier, these sentiments were echoed by ordinary people in Caracas who risked arrest by criticising the regime.

Grandmother Estella Martinez was wearing a headband of worthless banknotes when we saw her outside the state-owned Bicentenario Bank, where she had spent the previous night hoping to collect her pension.

She said: “I have lived here all of my life and we have never had it so bad. This is a disaster.

‘Shot in back’

“I don’t have anything. I should get my pension and my disability payment for my spinal condition.

“I just want to get a coffee or something to take away the hunger. I can’t remember the last time I had a proper meal.”

Asked why she did not spend the folded 100 bolivar notes adorning her forehead, the former maid added: “This money is worthless now because of inflation. Five years ago, 100 bolivars would have been enough to fill my fridge. Today the shops won’t take them as they are worth so little.”

We also spoke to surveyor Antonio Cardenas, 64, who had lost his job and was still grieving the death of his son Goram, 20, shot by muggers three years earlier.

“We need to address this regime not as a conventional dictatorship, but as a criminal structure. We didn’t want a war, we didn’t look for it . . . it was Maduro who declared war on the Venezuelan people

Antonio said: “People are scared to criticise this government but the fact is this system does not work. My son was killed because the criminals were desperate for his money. They shot him in his back.”

Then there was security guard Francisco Bonilla, 41, whose salary was the equivalent of £7.81 a month and who sadly informed us: “It’s not enough to feed my wife and three children. We try to live off beans and cheese.”

Throughout, photographer Ian and I found the people of Venezuela to be welcoming, and grateful that we were taking an interest.

Despite Ian snapping away with a camera worth enough to feed an entire family for a year, the only point we felt threatened was when we were pulled over at a police checkpoint on day three.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15730950/venezuela-murders-inflation-maduro-socialist/

The Central African Republic held relatively peaceful elections on December 28, widely seen as a test for President Touadera’s decade in power. But can the country entrench stability and deliver economic transformation?

As voters in the Central African Republic await results of the December 28 elections, attention is already turning to how the country can consolidate security gains and transition into economic recovery.

Incumbent President Faustin-Archange Touadera, 68, seeking a third term, is widely tipped for victory following constitutional changes in 2023 that removed term limits. The vote, which African Union (AU) observers described as “step forward towards democracy,” took place against a backdrop of a fragile economy and a complex regional geopolitical landscape.

Touadera’s decade in power

Beverly Ochieng, senior analyst at Control Risks in Senegal, told DW that President Touadera’s dominance partly stems from his long tenure, and changing the constitution to consolidate his power.

She added Touadera does have a record over the last 10 years “of trying to push for peace across the country whether through peace agreements with various rebel groups or even paramilitaries.”

In an exclusive interview with DW, President Touadera said his record speaks for itself.

“Take a look at the situation in 2016 when I took office. There was no state authority throughout the country. You couldn’t go out without an escort,” he said, adding: “Our defense forces were completely non-existent. Today, we see a country that is gradually recovering, that is raising its head.”

During the last election, in 2020, only 50% of sub-prefectures were able to host polling normally, and the election was disrupted an attempted coup by rebels from the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC).

Security gains and remaining challenges

Analysts agree that CAR is far more secure than it was a decade ago.

“Let us not forget in December 2020 there were rebels literally at the doors of Bangui, and the situation has changed,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa Director at Human Rights Watch.

Mudge credits several factors: “The bilateral agreements he’s made with Russia and Rwanda, the UN peacekeeping force, but probably most importantly are these peace deals that he’s signed recently with three main rebel groups over the last few months.”

Ochieng adds: “10 years ago at the point when Touadera and various other candidates were seeking election, state presence was very minimal outside of Bangui and there has been progress even, though there have been various setbacks.”

Touadera himself emphasizes the role of international partners and bilateral allies.

“We have gone from 5,000 armed forces personnel to more than 23,000 on the ground today,” he told DW, adding that Central African troops now operate alongside international partners, including the UN mission MINUSCA (Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic).

Still, insecurity persists in areas such as Haut-Mbomou, which is in the far east of the country, bordering on the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Touadera points to disarmament efforts as evidence of progress: “We had identified 14 armed groups. Today, 11 armed groups have declared their self-dissolution.”

Despite these gains, critics warn that CAR’s reliance on foreign support — particularly from Russia — could narrow political space.

“The fight for peace and security is not over,” Touadera told thousands of supporters in Bangui during his campaign, pledging to strengthen the armed forces to preserve national unity.

Economic recovery: The next big test

CAR remains one of the poorest countries in the world, and pressure is mounting on the government to deliver economic reforms.

In fact, analyst Beverly Ochieng tells DW that despite consolidated security efforts, “without inclusion, it will be difficult for there to be much economic gain.”

Touadera’s main rival, Anicet-Georges Dologuele, who was defeated in 2016 and 2020, made the economy the centerpiece of his campaign.

“We no longer have an economy. What kind of country is this that produces nothing, that exports nothing?” Dologuele told DW.

He described the vote as: “A choice for national survival; a choice between resignation and hope.”

Analysts agree that gaining security is fundamental for economic progress.

“You can’t even have these conversations about the economy unless the country is secure,” Mudge told DW.

In Bangui, young people expressed both frustration and cautious optimism.

Brunel, a trainee jewelry maker, said: “Our concern is first of all to have stability so the authorities can create favorable conditions for the sons and daughters of the country to work.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/car-touadera-expected-to-win-peaceful-election/a-75230518

Addressing reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said, “PM Modi’s a very good man. He’s a good guy. He knew I was not happy. It was important to make me happy. They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly.”

US President Donald Trump has hinted at imposing fresh tariffs on India over its continued imports of Russian oil, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi “knew he was not happy.”

Addressing reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said, “PM Modi’s a very good man. He’s a good guy. He knew I was not happy. It was important to make me happy. They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly.”

Last year, Trump ramped up his tariff offensive, imposing a 25 per cent reciprocal tariff on India and another 25 per cent penalty for buying Russian oil, taking total duties in some categories to a staggering 50 per cent. This move led to a sharp deterioration of ties between New Delhi and Washington.

The US President’s latest threat comes only weeks after he had a telephonic conversation with PM Modi, during which the two leaders emphasised the need to maintain momentum in their shared efforts to enhance bilateral trade despite ongoing tariff tensions.

Their conversation took place the same day as negotiators from the two nations kickstarted a fresh round of talks aimed at resolving the tariff impasse.

Just a few days before the call, Trump had threatened fresh tariffs on Indian rice after a farmer representative at a White House roundtable complained of dumping by India, China and Thailand.

“Why is India allowed to do that? They have to pay tariffs. Do they have an exemption on rice?” Trump asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the time.

When told a trade deal is in the works, Trump added, “but they [India] shouldn’t be doing that… We will get it settled. Tariffs solve the problem in two minutes.”

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/pm-modi-knew-i-wasnt-happy-trump-hints-new-tariffs-russian-oil-2846577-2026-01-05

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s resurfaced X post from seven years ago denounces possible military action in Venezuela

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has gone viral on social media after an X post from seven years ago denouncing possible military action in Venezuela resurfaced.

Gabbard’s resurfaced post follows the arrest of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The couple will face U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

“The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future,” she wrote in 2019. “We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders— so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.”

In another post, the former Congresswoman noted U.S. history of successfully ousting authoritarian leaders, but struggling to build long-lasting democracy.

“Throughout history, every time the U.S. topples a foreign country’s dictator/government, the outcome has been disastrous,” Gabbard wrote. “Civil war/military intervention in Venezuela will wreak death and destruction to Venezuelan people, and increase tensions that threaten our national security.”

In that post, Gabbard also added a clip of an interview with Fox News in which she criticized the first Trump administration for what she considered “an increased saber rattling and tensions” pushing the U.S. to send in the military to “wage yet another wasteful counterproductive regime change war… under the guise of humanitarianism.”

Gabbard, at the time, was a Democratic representative from Hawaii. As a veteran of the Iraq war, the now-DNI has long opposed U.S. intervention in foreign countries. Gabbard made those comments during Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis in 2019, as U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido was on the brink of toppling Maduro’s regime.

Following the arrest of Maduro and Flores, Gabbard’s post has regained notoriety, leading users to deem it “didn’t age well.”

“Thanks for speaking out. I’m sure the U.S. will take your point and stay out of Venezuela,” one user commented ironically.

“Any update on this one?” another one said.

The investigators have obtained an arrest warrant charging the ex-boyfriend with murder.

A 27-year-old Indian woman reported missing since New Year’s Eve was found dead with stab wounds inside her ex-boyfriend’s apartment in Maryland, the police said.

The victim has been identified as Nikitha Godishala, a data and strategy analyst, from Ellicott City, Howard County police said. Her body was found at an apartment owned by Arjun Sharma, 26, her ex-boyfriend.

The investigators have obtained an arrest warrant charging the ex-boyfriend with both first- and second-degree murder.

According to investigators, Sharma made the missing person report to police on January 2 and told officers he last saw Godishala on December 31 at his apartment in the Maryland city.

On January 3, detectives executed a search warrant at the same apartment and found Godishala dead with stab wounds.

Sharma left the country on a flight to India on the same day he reported Godishala missing, the police said.

Through investigation, detectives believe Sharma killed Godishala shortly after 7 pm on December 31.

The investigation is ongoing, and no motive is known at this time. Howard County police said they are now working with federal law enforcement agencies to locate and arrest the ex-boyfriend.

The Indian Embassy said it is in contact with the family of Nikitha Godishala and is extending all possible consular assistance.

“The Embassy is also following up the matter with the local authorities,” it said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/indian-woman-27-found-dead-with-stab-wounds-at-ex-boyfriends-flat-in-us-cops-10308146?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

In Maduro’s absence, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stepped in as interim leader.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk dined with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on Saturday, just hours after lauding the US president for a military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

Sharing a photo from the dinner on the social media platform X, Musk wrote, “Had a lovely dinner last night with @POTUS and @FLOTUS. 2026 is going to be amazing!”

Earlier in the day, Musk reposted an image shared by the White House that showed Maduro blindfolded aboard the USS Iwo Jima.

Commenting on the image, Musk wrote, “Congratulations, President Trump! This is a win for the world and a clear message to evil dictators everywhere.”

Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were captured in a surprise nighttime operation carried out by US forces after being pulled from their bedroom. The couple was reportedly asleep in their home within the heavily guarded Fort Tiuna military complex in Caracas when American commandos entered the residence.

The operation was reportedly carried out by the US Army’s Delta Force with support from the FBI and was completed in under 30 minutes. US officials said no American personnel were killed in the raid.

Speaking at a press conference, President Trump said the United States would temporarily “run” Venezuela until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” can be ensured.

In Maduro’s absence, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stepped in as interim leader. The 56-year-old former labour lawyer strongly denounced the capture of Maduro and Flores, terming it a breach of international law.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/2026-going-to-be-amazing-musk-dines-with-trump-after-praising-potus-over-venezuela-attack-ws-l-9809593.html

Trump has previously issued warnings to Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, accusing him of failing to curb cocaine production and trafficking

President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested that Colombia could be the next focus of American action in the region, just a day after former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was captured by US forces.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump appeared to endorse the idea of US operations in Colombia when asked directly about the possibility. Responding to a question about potential action by the US military, he said: “Sounds good to me.”

The President also criticised Colombia’s leadership, saying: “Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man and selling it to the United States. But, he is not going to be doing that very long.”

Trump has previously issued warnings to Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, accusing him of failing to curb cocaine production and trafficking. On Wednesday, he suggested Petro could become a target of Washington’s anti-drug campaign.

“I haven’t really thought too much about him. He’s been fairly hostile to the United States,” Trump had said, adding: “He’s going to have himself some big problems if he doesn’t wise up.”

The US president went on to accuse Colombia of producing and exporting cocaine into the United States. “Colombia is producing a lot of drugs. They have cocaine factories. They make cocaine, as you know, and they sell it right into the United States,” he said. “So he better wise up, or he’ll be next. He’ll be next. I hope he’s listening.”

Trump added: “He’s going to be next because we don’t like people when they kill people.”

Relations between Trump and Petro have been strained for some time. Petro is Colombia’s first left-wing president in modern history. Until Trump returned to office in January, Colombia had been one of the largest recipients of US aid in South America.

Colombia continues to face major security challenges, including widespread cocaine production and a six-decade-long internal conflict involving government forces, left-wing rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and criminal organisations.

The country is the world’s largest producer of coca, the plant used to make cocaine. United Nations estimates suggest nearly 253,000 hectares are devoted to coca cultivation.

Critics of traditional eradication efforts argue that such policies disproportionately harm rural farmers without providing alternative livelihoods. President Petro’s government has instead prioritised targeting criminal networks involved in processing and trafficking drugs.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/us-attack-on-columbia-president-donald-trump-reaction-venezuela-strike-nicolas-maduro-article-153396363

Tahir Andrabi said that the leadership of China was in constant touch with the leadership of Pakistan, and “had made certain contacts with the Indian leadership as well in those three-four days from May 6 to 10th and maybe prior to that and after that.”

Pakistan has backed China’s claim that Beijing played a role in defusing tension with India during Operation Sindoor, calling it “diplomacy for peace” that was part of international efforts.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said that the leadership of China was in constant touch with the leadership of Pakistan, and “had made certain contacts with the Indian leadership as well in those three-four days from May 6 to 10th and maybe prior to that and after that.”

“So, I think those contacts, characterised by a very positive diplomatic exchange, contributed in bringing down temperatures and bringing peace and security in the region. So, I’m sure that the Chinese characterisation of mediation is correct,” he said on Thursday while replying to a question about Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s claim that India-Pak tensions were among the list of hotspot issues “mediated” by China in 2025.

India has maintained that the conflict with Pakistan in May last year was resolved through direct talks between the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries’ armies.

India has also been consistently maintaining that there is no place for any third-party intervention in matters relating to India and Pakistan.

Mr. Andrabi described China’s claim of mediation as “diplomacy for peace”.

“It was diplomacy for prosperity, for security, and this has been a hallmark of a number of international efforts that went into resolving that conflict in those three to four fateful days,” he added.

Speaking at a symposium in Beijing on Tuesday, Mr. Wang said tensions between India and Pakistan were among a list of hot issues mediated by China in 2025.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/pakistan-backs-chinas-claim-of-playing-a-role-in-defusing-tension-during-operation-sindoor/article70468334.ece

“I felt betrayed by my body,” she told the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of an initiative to eliminate the disease.

Cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer in women, took Jeanette’s life a year after she was diagnosed. In January each year, Cancer Awareness Month, WHO underscores that the illness is both preventable and curable.

What is cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is a reproductive cancer that develops in a woman’s cervix and can spread to other parts of the body if not detected or treated early.

In 2022, an estimated 660,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide and about 350,000 women died from the disease, according to WHO.

UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, warns that the illness takes away a woman’s life every two minutes.

Almost all cervical cancer cases are linked to infection with human papillomaviruses (HPV) – an extremely common virus transmitted through sexual contact.

Most sexually active people will have HPV at some point. In most cases, the immune system clears the virus naturally but persistent infection with certain carcinogenic types of HPV can cause abnormal cell growth that may ultimately develop into cancer.

How can it be prevented or treated?

Cervical cancer is both preventable and curable with proper access to screening, vaccination and treatment.

WHO recommends vaccination for HPV for all girls aged 9–14, before they become sexually active and cervical screening from the age of 30 (25 years for women living with HIV).

When diagnosed, it is one of the most successfully treatable forms of cancer, if it is detected early and managed effectively.

Unequal access to prevention and treatment, however, remains a problem, leading to higher rates of incidence and mortality in some regions of the world like sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia.

Source : https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166696

The last 25 years has seen some mind-bending technological changes.

At the start of the century, most computers connected to the internet with noisy dial-up connections, Netflix was an online DVD rental company, and the vast majority of people hadn’t even heard of a smartphone.

Fast forward two and a half decades, and innovations in AI, robotics and much else besides are emerging at an incredible rate.

So we decided to ask experts what the next 25 years could bring.

Here are their predictions for the technology we’ll be using by 2050 – and how it could reshape our lives.

Xiangzi explained that Jiaozi watches over his driving and takes care of the luggage he carries.

A tuxedo cat in China has captured the hearts of social media users after videos of him riding along with his truck owner went viral. The cat has been humorously compared to a bus conductor for the way he sits comfortably in the truck, reported South China Morning Post.

The driver, from Hebei province in northern China and nicknamed Xiangzi, calls his eight-month-old cat Jiaozi, which means “dumpling,” his best travel buddy. He shared that Jiaozi has been riding with him since he was just one month old and has grown into a 7.5-kilogram co-pilot.

Xiangzi explained that Jiaozi watches over his driving and takes care of the luggage he carries. He also said that a mat and cat litter box have been placed nearby to create a comfortable space for Jiaozi.

In the video, Jiaozi can be seen sitting near the front window, his paws resting on the handrail, enjoying the view outside, despite the rough road. In some videos, he is also seen holding the handrail and licking catnip nearby.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/chinese-cat-rides-truck-like-a-bus-conductor-wins-hearts-online-10270885

The US targeted four confirmed sites across Caracas in its targeted middle-of-the-night attack.

BBC Verify identified two military bases, a naval port and an airport after combing through various videos of explosions and smoke plumes.

Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base aka La Carlota — footage filmed at a distance shows two plumes of smoke and an explosion close to this military airfield in Caracas.

Port La Guaira — Caracas’ main conduit to the Caribbean Sea, located in Miranda state. Footage filmed nearby shows several plumes of smoke rising into the air, and at least one fire burning.

A grandmother and her 5-year-old grandson burned to death in Gaza when their tent caught fire while cooking, as thousands of Palestinians endure colder weather in makeshift housing.

The nylon tent in Yarmouk caught fire Thursday night while a meal was being prepared, a neighbor said. A hospital official said that two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli gunfire on Friday in Gaza.

The shaky 12-week-old ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group has largely ended large-scale Israeli bombardment of Gaza. But Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli forces, especially along the so-called Yellow Line that delineates areas under Israeli control.

On Friday, American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie visited the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Wintry weather hits tent cities

Over the past few weeks, cold winter rains have repeatedly lashed the sprawling tent cities, causing flooding, turning Gaza’s dirt roads into mud and causing damaged buildings to collapse.

Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are getting into Gaza during the truce. Figures recently released by Israel’s military suggest it hasn’t met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding.

Israel has said throughout the war that Hamas was siphoning off aid supplies, preventing the population in Gaza from receiving them. Last month, the World Food Program said that there have been “notable improvements” in food security in Gaza since the ceasefire.

Palestinians have long called for mobile homes and caravans to be allowed in to protect them against living in impractical and worn out tents.

Actor visits Rafah crossing

Jolie met with members of the Red Crescent on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing and then visited a hospital in the nearby city of Arish to speak with Palestinian patients on Friday, according to Egyptian officials.

Her visit sought to raise support for the displaced and humanitarian workers in the crises in Gaza as well as in Sudan, Jolie’s team told The Associated Press in a statement.

“What needs to happen is clear: the ceasefire must hold, and access must be sustained, safe and urgently scaled up so that aid, fuel and critical medical supplies can move quickly and consistently, at the volume required,” Jolie said about Gaza.

Reopening the crossing, which would allow Palestinians to leave Gaza — especially the ill and wounded who could get specialized care unavailable in the territory — has been contentious. Israel has said that it will only allow Palestinians to exit Gaza, not enter, until militants in Gaza return all the hostages they took in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war. The remains of one hostage are still in Gaza.

Israel also says Palestinians wanting to leave Gaza will have to get Israeli and Egyptian security approval. Egypt, meanwhile, says it wants the crossing immediately opened in both directions, so Palestinians in Egypt can enter Gaza. That’s a position rooted in Egypt’s vehement opposition to Palestinian refugees permanently resettling in the country.

For more than two decades until 2022, Jolie worked with the U.N. refugee agency, including as a special envoy.

Gaza’s humanitarian situation

On Friday, the foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim countries, including Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, expressed concern about Gaza’s humanitarian situation.

The situation has been “compounded by the continued lack of sufficient humanitarian access, acute shortages of essential life-saving supplies, and the slow pace of the entry of essential materials,” according to the joint statement.

The Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,271, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians in its count. The Israel-Hamas war began with the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

On Friday, two Palestinian men were killed in separate incidents by Israeli gunfire in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, a hospital official said. Israel’s military said troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip killed a person who “crossed the Yellow Line and approached the troops, posing an immediate threat to them.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-01-02-2026-301135cf2fd6a77cdbf22865e3cb4fe7

Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov is the first military officer to head Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidential office. The head of the military secret service HUR is one of the country’s most popular civil servants.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed Kyrylo Budanov as the new head of the presidential office of Ukraine. Budanov, head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, now fills one of the posts that became vacant in the wake of a corruption scandal in the upper echelons of power in Kyiv. His predecessor, Andrii Yermak, resigned at the end of November.

Budanov is already the third chief of staff under Zelenskyy. It is considered a powerful post; Yermak accompanied the president to important international meetings, including negotiations on ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The first soldier to head the office

This marks the first time a soldier has headed Zelenskyy’s presidential office. As head of the secret service, Budanov is one of the most popular political figures in the country, considered a potential rival to Zelenskyy in the next presidential elections. Only the president himself and the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces and current ambassador to the United Kingdom, Valerii Zaluzhnyi score higher in polls.

According to a poll conducted by the Socis Center, a Kyiv-based research institute, in mid-December 2025, Budanov would come in third in the first round of a presidential election with 5.7%. Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi would each get just over 20% of votes. The poll also showed that both Zaluzhnyi and Budanov could beat Zelenskyy in a runoff election. Still, neither of them has officially declared presidential ambitions.

The youngest head of the presidential office

At 39, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov is the youngest chief of staff during Zelenskyy’s term. In 2020, Zelenskyy had already made him the youngest head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, HUR.

According to media reports, Budanov comes from Kyiv and served as an officer in a special forces unit, with missions in Donbas from 2014 onwards. He is said to have carried out missions in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, particularly in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

He became better known after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Budanov’s name was also recognized in Europe after the secret service made international headlines with spectacular drone attacks on military airfields and other targets deep inside Russian territory. This was followed by attacks on Russian ships, refineries and oil terminals on the Black Sea. After the HUR sank two warships, Zelenskyy awarded Budanov the Hero of Ukraine medal in February 2024.

Media presence

Budanov has taken part in various combat missions himself. In November 2025, he made headlines when he landed by helicopter with military intelligence units in the Pokrovsk area, in western Donetsk that the Russian army had already declared captured. Parts of Pokrovsk remain under the control of Ukrainian forces.

Budanov has also contributed to his own fame with a degree of self-promotion unusual for an intelligence officer. At the beginning of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in June 2023, a video of Budanov appeared in which he remained silent for half a minute in front of a running camera. “More to follow, plans love silence” was written on the screen.

In a video posted on the Day of the Security Service of Ukraine, he blew out candles on a cake to the sound of explosions. Later, images of a cake in the shape of a map of the Russia, which Budanov received as a birthday present, went viral.

Budanov has also been unusually accessible to media. Of Ukraine’s senior leadership, only Zelenskyy gave more interviews than him.

Public criticism

But Budanov has also been criticized. In the fall of 2022, he predicted that the Ukrainian army would be in Crimea by the summer of 2023, which obviously did not happen. He has since become more cautious with such predictions.

And other operations have not gone so smoothly for him: One of the most famous missions led by Budanov was the recruitment of Russian military pilot Maksim Kuzminov, who flew to Ukraine in a Mil Mi-8 helicopter in August 2023. Kuzminov was killed in Spain six months later, presumably by Russian agents.

And at the end of 2024, reports appeared in Ukrainian media about Budanov’s possible dismissal after several operations led to losses of highly qualified personnel.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/who-is-zelenskyys-new-chief-of-staff-kyrylo-budanov/a-75375476

DISNEY World has again been hit with tragedy after reports of a sixth death at the ‘Most Magical Place on Earth’ in the span of a few months.

The Orange County Sheriff’s office said it was investigating a death at the Disney Springs area of the resort after a man was found dead in a garage.

On the OCSO “Calls for Service” page, it said it responded to an incident at the Disney Springs Orange garage around 9 pm Friday.

Officials said the death is being investigated as a suicide but no other details were available at the time.

Disney Springs is an outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex frequented by resort guests as well as local revelers. It’s one of the few areas of the resort that does not require a ticket for admission or payment for parking.

The discovery of a body at Disney World property Friday is only the latest tragic death at the 50-year-old resort since October.

Over the span of a month between mid-October and mid-Februrary, five deaths were reported at the resort. Two of the deaths were confirmed to be suicides.

It began October 14 with the tragic death of Summer Equitz. The 31-year-old, died by suicide after jumping off her hotel balcony.

On October 21, a man in his 60s was pronounced dead after suffering a medical episode at Disney’s Fort Wilderness.

Matthew Cohn, 28, died by suicide on October 23 at the Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

A woman in her 40s was pronounced dead on resort property November second and six days later a person found “down” at the Saratoga Springs section of the resort died.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15727423/disney-world-springs-death-sixth-garage-suicide-investigation/

LOST star Evangeline Lily has given fans a heartbreaking health update after suffering a horrific accident last year.

The news comes months after the Marvel actor suffered a horrifying face-first fall into a boulder that sent the bloodied actor to the hospital.

Lilly posted a video on her Instagram account to let fans know she received a “brain damage” diagnosis following the accident and suffered cognitive decline.

“It’s late on January 1. The first day of 2026. I’m entering into this new year, the year of the horse, with some bad news about my concussion,” Lilly told fans in the video.

Lilly said she wanted to address fan concerns after receiving a slew of messages in the months since her fall.

“The results came back from the scan, and almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity,” she said after suffering the traumatic brain injury.

She added: “I do have brain damage from the TBI and possibly other factors going on. My job now is to get to the bottom of that with my doctors.”

Lilly rose to fame as one of the lead stars of the groundbreaking TV show Lost. She played the character of Kate Austin in all of the show’s six seasons.

She went on to appear as the elf Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films and Hope Van Dyne and the Wasp in a slate of Marvel Cinematic Universe films beginning with Ant-Man in 2015.

In June 2024, Lilly announced her retirement from acting to focus on family and her humanitarian work.

Nearly a year later, in late May, LIlly shocked fans when she posted gruesome photos of her battered face with a slash of dried blood caked above her lips after being rushed to a hospital in Hawaii.

The star was taking a stroll along a beach in Hawaii at a the time, she said.

“I fainted at the beach. And fell face first into a boulder,” she wrote after the accident.

She went on: “At the hospital, the nurses and doctor went straight into action, more determined to find the cause of my blackout than to stitch up the hole punctured into my face by the rock.

“I smiled wryly at them. ‘You won’t find anything.’ I said with a woozy voice…” she added.

In a post to Substack following her fall, Lilly elaborated on a history of fainting spells since she was a child, attributing them to a low blood sugar diagnosis.

But as she grew older and fainting spells continued, doctors told her it was not from the hypoglycemia she was believed to have.

“For a good chunk of my life, I went with that – hypoglycemia. It added up — my metabolism is through the roof and I metabolize sugars, particularly, with [shocking] efficiency,” she told Us Weekly.

For now, she said, the cause of her blackouts remains a mystery adding: “I have come to believe that this ‘checking out’ is a result of my little soul reaching her limit of what she feels she can cope with in this life, and she ‘leaves the building,’ so to speak.”

Fans and costars flocked to Instagram to share messages of support.

Even legendary actor Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Lilly’s mother in the Ant-Man films, sent a message of support.

“You are a warrior,” she wrote. “Nothing-not even this will defeat you my friend.”

To which Lilly replied with a simple, “Thanks, mama.”

It wasn’t all bad news from Lilly.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15727197/evangeline-lilly-brain-damage-lost-hobbit-ant-man/

The protests began as an expression of discontent over high prices and economic stagnation, but have since expanded to include political demands.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday (Jan 3) acknowledged the economic demands of protesters in Iran, where demonstrations have spread to more than two dozen cities, even as he warned there would be no quarter for “rioters”.

The protests began on Sunday as an expression of discontent over high prices and economic stagnation, but have since expanded to include political demands.

“The president and high-ranking officials are working to resolve” the economic difficulties in the sanctions-battered country, Khamenei said in a speech marking a Shiite holiday.

“The shopkeepers have protested against this situation and that is completely fair,” he added.

But Khamenei nonetheless warned that while “authorities must have dialogue with protesters, it is useless to have dialogue with rioters. Those must be put in their place”.

At least eight people have been killed in the protests so far, including members of the security services, according to official figures.

The first deaths were reported on Thursday as demonstrators clashed with authorities.

On Saturday, the Mehr news agency reported that a member of an Iranian paramilitary force was killed during a demonstration in the country’s west.

“Ali Azizi, a member of the Basij, was martyred after being stabbed and shot in the city of Harsin during a gathering of armed rioters,” Mehr said, citing a statement from the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military that oversees the volunteer Basij force.

The Tasnim news agency, citing a local official, also reported a man killed on Friday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, when a grenade he was trying to use exploded “in his hands”.

The protests have mostly been concentrated in mid-sized cities in Iran’s west and southwest, where clashes and vandalism have been reported.

At least 25 cities have seen protest gatherings of varying sizes, according to an AFP tally based on local media.

However, local media do not necessarily report on every incident, and state media have downplayed coverage of protests, while videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.

POLITICAL DEMANDS

The Fars news agency reported gatherings on Friday in several working-class neighbourhoods of Tehran, which is home to around 10 million people.

But on Saturday, a public holiday, the atmosphere in the capital appeared quiet, with streets mostly empty as the skies spat rain and snow, according to AFP journalists.

In Darehshahr, in the country’s west, around 300 people blocked streets, threw molotov cocktails and “brandished Kalashnikovs” on Friday, according to Fars.

The movement kicked off on Sunday when shopkeepers went on strike in Tehran to protest economic conditions, and spread after university students elsewhere in the country took up the cause.

In recent days, the protests have taken on a more overtly political bent.

In Karaj, on the outskirts of the capital, “a few people burned the Iranian flag, shouting ‘Death to the dictator!’ and ‘This isn’t the last battle, Pahlavi is coming back!'” Fars reported, adding that others in the crowd objected to the slogans.

The pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979, when it was toppled by the Islamic revolution.

Since the protests began, authorities have adopted a conciliatory tone when it comes to economic demands, while warning that destabilisation and chaos will not be tolerated.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iran-khamenei-protests-economic-demands-fair-warning-rioters-5787821

It comes as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will make a state visit to China starting on Sunday (Oct 4), where Seoul has said peace on the Korean peninsula would be discussed.

North Korea fired several ballistic missiles from its capital Pyongyang towards the sea off its east coast at around 7.50 am local time on Sunday (Jan 4), South Korea’s military said.

The first launch of North Korea’s ballistic missiles in two months comes as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will make a state visit to China starting on Sunday, where Seoul has said peace on the Korean peninsula would be discussed.

“Our military has strengthened surveillance and vigilance in preparation for further launches,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, saying it is closely sharing information with the United States and Japan.

The missiles are believed to have already fallen, according to Japan’s Ministry of Defense.

The last time Pyongyang tested its ballistic missile was in November.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for more than double the production capacity of tactical guided weapons on his latest visit to a munitions factory on Saturday, North Korea’s state media reported.

In recent weeks, Kim has made a series of visits to factories that build weapons, as well as to a nuclear-powered submarine, and has overseen missile tests ahead of this year’s Ninth Party Congress of the Workers’ Party to set out major policy goals.

China’s President Xi Jinping will host Lee on a state visit starting on Sunday.

Wi Sung-lac, Lee’s security adviser, said Seoul expects Beijing to play a role in promoting peace on the Korean peninsula, without elaborating on details of the summit agenda.

Lee’s agenda with Xi includes persuading China to facilitate dialogue with North Korea, experts said, at a time when North Korea has dismissed Lee’s outreach.

In their November talks, Lee already asked Xi to make greater efforts to persuade North Korea to return to talks.

Wi added that during Monday’s summit, Lee and Xi are to hold “in-depth talks on substantive ways” to address security and economic issues facing the two countries.

Ahead of his trip, Lee gave an interview to China’s state broadcaster CCTV in which he said that he hoped people would understand that his government cares about the relations between Beijing and Seoul.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-fires-ballistic-missiles-towards-sea-its-east-coast-5788381

Royal Air Force Typhoon jets have joined French aircraft in a joint strike on an underground arms cache in Syria used by the Islamic State group (IS), the UK Ministry of Defence says.

The facility, identified by intelligence, was believed to be storing arms and explosives, the statement said, and was in mountains just north of Palmyra, an ancient site in central Syria.

“Our aircraft used Paveway IV guided bombs to target a number of access tunnels down to the facility… initial indications are that the target was engaged successfully,” the MoD said.

There was no sign of any harm to civilians in the strike late on Saturday and all the aircraft returned safely, the MoD added.

The Typhoon FGR4s were supported by a Voyager refuelling tanker.

IS – also known as Daesh – imposed jihadist rule over parts of Syria and Iraq until 2019.

“This action shows our UK leadership, and determination to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, to stamp out any resurgence of Daesh and their dangerous and violent ideologies in the Middle East,” UK Defence Secretary John Healey said.

RAF aircraft have carried out patrols over Syria to “prevent any attempted resurgence” of IS following its defeat at the battle of Baghuz in 2019, the ministry said.

“I want to thank all the members of our armed forces involved in this operation for their professionalism and their courage,” Healey said.

“They were among thousands of British personnel deployed over Christmas and New Year. This operation, to eliminate dangerous terrorists who threaten our way of life, shows how our armed forces are ready to step up, all year round, keeping Britain secure at home and strong abroad.”

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1m7l8keyexo

Stella Huang bought her first Jellycat plush toy when she lost her job during the pandemic.

A school friend was a fan of the British-designed toys and told her all about them. But she only fell in love with the brand when she saw a gingerbread house plushie on the Chinese social media app RedNote.

Christmas is not widely celebrated in China and is more of a commercial event than anything more traditional. “The festival doesn’t mean a lot to me… But I always like the sight of gingerbread houses,” she says. It was then that she asked her friend in their hometown Guangzhou to buy it for her.

That was in 2021, just as Jellycat was about to make it big in China and around the world.

“Everyone felt jittery, and no-one knew what would happen,” says Stella, who has developed a habit of petting and squeezing her plushies since Covid. She had to spend a lot of time at her home, in Beijing, which had some of the strictest lockdowns in China, if not the world.

Now 32, Stella has a new job, as a sales manager in the tourism industry, but is still buying Jellycats. Her collection has grown to 120 toys, costing a total of about 36,000 yuan ($5,145; £3,815).

“At my age, there are many things you can’t share with others… and the troubles we face are a lot more complicated than before,” she says with a sigh. “The plushies help me regulate my emotions.”

Originally aimed at children, the squishy toys have become a global hit, especially in China where a disenchanted youth has been turning to them for comfort.

Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia savagely shaded her ex Zach Bryan days after he tied the knot with Samantha Leonard.

The Barstool Media personality, 26, shared a TikTok of herself lip-syncing along to Taylor Swift’s “Mastermind” on Friday, sending her fans into a frenzy in the comments.

In the clip, LaPaglia recorded herself voicing the lyrics, “Checkmate, I couldn’t lose.”

“Bri is marked safe 📍 from the worst decision ever,” one follower commented under her clip. Meanwhile, a second person wrote: “You dodged a bullet. YOU definitely won girl!”

“All you’ve done is glown [sic] and blown up and he still tries to reach you, you escaped, checkmate you were never destined to lose,” another agreed.

“They can copy the recipe but the sauce still won’t taste the same,” a different netizen added.

The video comes shortly after LaPaglia’s boss, Dave Portnoy, sounded off on the country singer’s nuptials, making sure to have his former “BFFs” podcast co-host’s back.

“There ain’t no way that ain’t a Brianna robot. Ain’t no way,” the 48-year-old wrote via X on Friday, referencing the bride’s uncanny resemblance to LaPaglia.

Portnoy echoed his previous remarks about Bryan’s now-wife, 28, from an August episode of his “Unnamed Show” podcast.

“How is that even possible?” he asked his listeners at the time while showing side-by-side images of the women as he reacted to the news of Bryan’s new romance.

“I honestly don’t even know what I’m looking at here,” Portnoy admitted, going on to label Bryan “an absolute psychopath.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/01/03/celebrity-news/brianna-chickenfry-has-savage-reaction-to-ex-zach-bryans-wedding/

Trump had warned that the US would intervene if Iranian authorities used lethal force against peaceful demonstrators amid nationwide protests.

Iran’s parliament speaker on Friday warned that US military bases and forces in the region would be considered “legitimate targets” if the US takes aggressive action, following President Donald Trump’s threat of intervention over the protests in Iran.

The warning came hours after a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, said that any US interference in Iran’s internal unrest would lead to chaos across the region.

Earlier, Trump issued a strong statement, saying the United States would intervene if Iranian authorities used lethal force against peaceful demonstrators amid ongoing nationwide protests.

At least seven people died in Iran amid clashes between security forces and protesters as protests have rocked Iran since Sunday.

The unrest reflects mounting public anger over worsening economic conditions.

The protests started in Tehran, where shopkeepers gathered to criticise the government’s response to a steep drop in the national currency, weak economic growth and rising prices. Official figures show inflation reached 42.5 per cent in December.

Iranian government’s response to the protests

Iran’s civilian government, led by President Masoud Pezeshkian, has tried to show a willingness to engage with protesters.

“From an Islamic perspective… if we do not resolve the issue of people’s livelihoods, we will end up in Hell,” he said at an event aired on state television.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/iran-says-us-bases-legitimate-targets-after-trumps-locked-loaded-warning-amid-tehran-unrest-101767362452359.html

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the unraveling of a $2.9 million computer chips deal that he concluded threatened U.S. security interests if the current owner, HieFo Corp., remained in control of the technology.

The executive order cast a spotlight on a business deal that drew scant attention when it was announced in May 2024 during President Joe Biden’s administration. The deal involved aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp. selling its computer chips and wafer fabrication operations to HieFo for $2.92 million — a price that included the assumption of about $1 million in liabilities.

But Trump is now demanding that HieFo divest that technology within 180 days, citing “credible evidence” that the current owner is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China.

HieFo was founded by Dr. Genzao Zhang and Harry Moore. According to a press release that came out after the deal closed, plans for the technology acquired from Emcore were to be overseen by largely the same team of employees in Alhambra, California.

Zhang, who was a vice president of engineering at Emcore before becoming HieFo’s CEO, pledged to “continue the pursuit of the most innovative and disruptive solutions” with technology designed for purposes that would include artificial intelligence.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/president-trump-hiefo-emcore-divestment-fd324a0b76b1680dc5750e222ed74313

Kim Ju Ae ‍has been making ⁠increasingly ‍prominent appearances in state media over the past three years.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter, Ju Ae, who is likely being ⁠prepared as his successor, accompanied her parents on her first public visit to the Kumsusan mausoleum to pay respects to former leaders, state media photos published on Friday (Jan 2) showed.

Ju Ae ‍has been making ⁠increasingly ‍prominent appearances in state media over the past three years, fuelling speculation by analysts and ⁠South Korea’s intelligence agency that she may be in line ‍to be the country’s fourth-generation leader.

Cheong Seong-chang, vice president at ⁠the Sejong Institute think tank, viewed Ju Ae’s first presence at the Kumsusan palace as her father’s calculated move ahead ‍of the upcoming ruling party Congress at which her succession might be formalised.

Kim was also accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and senior officials on the visit on Jan 1, with Ju Ae between her parents in the main hall of ‌the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, state news agency KCNA photographs showed.

Hong Min, an expert on North Korea at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, said North Korea had been portraying ‌an image of Kim’s “stable family” by showing the wife and the daughter along with Kim at major events.

Kim Ju ‍Ae, ‌who is believed to have been born in the early 2010s, attended this year’s New Year celebrations, according to state media on Thursday. In September, she travelled to Beijing with her father ‌on her first public overseas outing.

Kim visits Kumsusan to honour his grandfather and state founder, Kim Il Sung, and father Kim Jong Il on key dates and anniversaries in a gesture affirming the dynastic heritage of the nuclear-armed country.

North Korea has never confirmed Ju ‌Ae’s age.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesperson declined to comment on Ju Ae’s appearance. An official told reporters the government’s view is that it is too early to say she is a successor, given her age and that she does not hold an official position.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/kim-ju-ae-north-korea-potential-successor-kumsusan-mausoleum-visit-5772736

The month-long campaign by China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) agency will target AI videos that “distort, parody or vulgarise” classic Chinese films, television dramas and animated works.

China has launched a month-long campaign to crack down on artificial intelligence (AI)-altered videos that “distort, parody or vulgarise” classic Chinese films, television dramas and animated works.

The special campaign, which began on Thursday (Jan 1), was launched by the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), a ministry-level agency that oversees many major Chinese television and radio entities, including state broadcaster CCTV.

Spoof clips that “misappropriate and distort Chinese culture” will be taken down, NRTA said in a statement shared on WeChat on Dec 31.

Targets include AI-generated videos based on popular Chinese works like Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms – as well as portrayals of “exemplary Chinese heroes and figures”.

Clips containing violent, bizarre or vulgar content, as well as those promoting “wrong values” that “violate public order and good customs”, will also be taken down, NRTA said.

“With the rapid development of generative AI, some online accounts have misused these tools to make subversive changes, bizarre deconstructions and vulgar adaptations of classic Chinese films, television dramas and animations,” NRTA said, also criticising such content as “bizarre” and “vulgar”.

These videos “deviate from the core spirit of the original works”, enable copyright infringement, harm industry development and interfere with children’s cultural understanding and perception of reality, it added.

“The campaign will also clean up various forms of violent or obscene animated content that adapt characters well-known and loved by children,” NRTA said, adding that videos which distort perceptions of Chinese history and culture will also be removed, as it could “impact cultural identity”.

“The aim is to reverse the negative trend of spreading AI-altered videos and create a favourable online environment for the healthy growth of young people,” it said.

AI-altered videos often featuring satirical fake situations remain extremely popular especially among young users on many Chinese social media platforms.

NRTA’s campaign comes amid recent media reports about the growing popularity of AI-altered spoof clips. Classic films like the 1986 television adaptation of Journey to the West and the 1987 adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber, regularly feature in AI-generative videos.

On the popular short-video platform Douyin, one widely shared clip which has garnered more than 474,000 likes, shows the Buddha from Journey to the West holding a gun and flying a helicopter to the heavenly courts.

As part of its campaign, online platforms, which include social media apps and websites, that host videos will be required to strengthen their content review processes and remove “non-compliant” material.

Offending accounts will be penalised, NRTA said, adding that platforms must take responsibility in dealing with offending accounts.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported in December that the threshold for using generative AI tools to modify video clips is low, with many tutorials circulating on short-video platforms showing users how to create spoof content with minimal technical expertise.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-crackdown-campaign-vulgar-ai-videos-5785366

THIS is the shocking moment a McDonald’s customer launches a flying kick at a worker as punches are thrown and burgers hurled in a mass brawl.

The chaotic scenes were captured at a branch of the restaurant in Sao Paulo, Brazil showing the moment a confrontation turns violent last month.

The brawl was filmed by shocked onlookers and showed two staff members and a couple arguing before the argument escalates on December 13.

As both sides scream at each other, a female customer is seen hurling a fallen burger at one of the employees.

Enraged, an employee then throws what looks like a burger box at a man in a white t-shirt who appears to be accompanying the woman.

The man is then seen leading a girl away from the ugly scenes before he launches himself at staff gathered by the counter.

He runs toward the staff and aims a flying kick towards them as stunned customers watch on.

A member of staff is seen punching the man at the till area causing him to back away.

Others employees attempt to step in and calm the situation down as insults are hurled and the woman demands her money back.

At the end of the footage, she is seen picking something up from the counter and throwing it.

While the reason for the chaos remains unclear, Brazillian media reports suggest it could have stemmed from a food order.

There has been no confirmation as to whether anyone was injured during the incident.

And local authorities said a complaint had yet to be filed with the Civil Police.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s said in a statement that it regretted the scenes of violence at its Sao Paolo branch.

The fast-food giant said it is investigating the incident and taking appropriate measures.

They added that it rejects all forms of violence and remains committed to provide a safe and respectful environment for employees and customers.

It’s not the first time a mass brawl has broken out at McDonald’s either.

A wild punch-up broke out inside a McDonalds in front of kids in the UK in 2023 that saw thugs throwing punches and flying to the ground.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15724044/mcdonalds-customer-kicks-worker-punches/

A HECTIC moment showed a parachutist getting caught in the field goal netting and falling into a crowd at a college football game.

The horrifying spectacle took place at the Armed Forces Bowl between Rice and Texas State on Friday.

The scene happened just before kickoff in the contest, where five parachutists were due to land on the field.

However, per video and reports, only three safely landed in the stadium, with one landing outside the stadium.

The fifth parachutist was captured on video in a terrifying scene, as he flew straight into the field goal net cable.

The parachute was then tangled and left him suspended at the same height as the top of the goalposts, which is 35 feet, for several seconds.

Suddenly, the parachute came loose, and he plunged to the ground.

Numerous videos showed the man appearing to tumble between the endzone and the portion of the field that separates the stands from the field.

He was then helped by bystanders.

No injuries took place from the incident among those who were standing on the ground, and the parachutist is OK, a spokesperson for the Armed Forces Bowl told USA Today Sports.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/15725635/rice-texas-state-football-parachutist-falls-crowd/

On the first freezing winter day of 2026, surrounded by thousands of cheering New Yorkers and progressive Democratic allies, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged to tell a “new story of our city”.

“City Hall will deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance – where government looks and lives like the people it represents,” he told the crowd in his inaugural address.

It was the same message that propelled the 34-year-old Democratic socialist to an unexpected electoral victory in November. His pitch to lead the most expensive US city included big changes, such as universal childcare, free public buses and city-run grocery stores.

But the mayor is likely to encounter several challenges in trying to deliver on these promises, and he’ll need to keep on board other important political stakeholders – beginning on his first full day in office.

“He’ll put all of his political and other might behind getting these things accomplished,” said Patrick Egan, a professor of politics and public policy at New York University. But, he said, New York City is “a big place, it’s a complicated place, and so, all bets are off about whether these things can happen or not”.

Tommy Lee Jones and his family issued an emotional statement in the wake of his daughter Victoria’s death at 34.

“We appreciate all of the kind words, thoughts, and prayers,” the family wrote in a statement obtained by Page Six on Friday evening.

“Please respect our privacy during this difficult time. Thank you.” The statement was signed, “The Family of Victoria Kafka Jones.”

News broke Thursday that Victoria had been found unresponsive on the 14th floor of San Francisco’s Fairmont hotel early that morning.

The 911 call regarding the New Year’s Day incident, obtained by TMZ, pointed to a possible overdose due to “color change,” which usually refers to cyanosis, a “discoloration of the skin, lips or fingernails caused by a lack of oxygen in the blood,” per the Cleveland Clinic.

Despite bystanders performing CPR on Victoria and paramedics attempting to revive her upon arrival, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

While Victoria’s cause of death remains unclear, the San Francisco Police Department reportedly did not find drug paraphernalia, signs of foul play or anything pointing to a suicide.

A rep for the hotel released a statement to Page Six, reading, “We are deeply saddened by an incident that occurred at the hotel on Jan. 1, 2026. Our heartfelt condolences are with the family and loved ones during this very difficult time.

“The hotel team is actively cooperating and supporting police authorities within the framework of the ongoing investigation.”

Victoria is survived by her parents — Jones and his ex-wife Kimberlea Coughley — as well as brother Austin, 43.

The former couple welcomed Victoria in 1991, five years before ending their 15-year marriage.

Victoria had a brief acting career as a child, working with her dad on “Men in Black II” and “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.”

Victoria also appeared in a 2003 “One Tree Hill” episode.

Jones’ youngest child, who occasionally joined him for red carpets, developed a rap sheet in her subsequent years out of the spotlight.

Victoria was arrested at least twice in Napa County, Calif., in the year prior to her passing, starting with charges of obstructing a peace officer, using/being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of a narcotic controlled substance in April 2025.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/01/02/parents/tommy-lee-jones-breaks-his-silence-after-daughter-victoria-found-dead-at-34/

Taylor Swift was spotted hanging out with Stevie Nicks at her pal Este Haim’s wedding on New Year’s Eve.

The “Lover” songstress and the Fleetwood Mac hitmaker were photographed walking into the A-list soiree hosted at the Hotel El Roblar in Ojai, Calif., on Wednesday.

They appeared to be engaged in light conversation as they made their way to their seats.

Swift, 36, donned an elegant gold dress for the special occasion.

She styled her blond locks up in a bun.

As for Nicks, 77, she stunned in a black long-sleeve gown and wore her long hair in waves.

Security guards surrounded the duo, with one walking closely to Swift.

The “Love Story” singer and Nicks appeared to have arrived shortly before it started raining.

It’s unclear if Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce, was in attendance, but the pop star flew from California to Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday morning.

Haim, meanwhile, was later seen being covered with umbrellas as she made her way to the venue, which was covered by a massive canopy.

As Page Six exclusively revealed, the musician tied the knot to tech entrepreneur Jonathan “Johnny” Levin at the outdoor venue.

Haim looked chic, wearing a voluminous Louis Vuitton wedding dress designed by her pal Nicolas Ghesquière, per Vogue.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/01/01/entertainment/taylor-swift-rings-in-2026-with-stevie-nicks-at-este-haims-new-years-eve-wedding/

The US military says it struck two boats it alleges were carrying drugs on Wednesday, killing five people on board.

US Southern Command did not say where it had carried out the latest strikes but US forces have been targeting vessels they suspect of smuggling narcotics through the Caribbean and eastern Pacific for the past three months.

Wednesday’s strike came a day after the US targeted what it said were “three narco-trafficking vessels travelling as a convoy”, killing at least three people.

The Trump administration has cast its operations as a non-international armed conflict with the alleged traffickers but legal experts say they could be in violation of the laws governing such conflict.

In total, there have been more than 30 strikes on vessels as part of the Trump administration’s “war on drugs” with more than 110 people killed since the US carried out its first attack on a boat in international waters on 2 September.

That first attack has come under particular scrutiny from lawmakers in Washington since it emerged that US forces struck the targeted boat twice.

Two people who had survived the first strike and were clinging to the hull of their boat were killed in the second.

Some lawmakers expressed concern that the “double-tap” strike breached the rules of engagement.

In its post announcing the strike on a convoy of three boats carried out on 30 December, US Southern Command said that there had been a number of survivors, without specifying how many.

It said that “the remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels”.

It added that the US Coast Guard had been “immediately notified” to search for the survivors.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czdq1ple2l4o

Switzerland Crans-Montana Bar Fire: A devastating fire erupted during a New Year’s celebration at La Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, leading to chaos as partygoers attempted to flee the flames.

Panicked partygoers smashed windows and scrambled through smoke and flames to escape a deadly fire at a New Year’s celebration in a bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland’s luxury ski resort. Swiss authorities fear dozens are dead and more than 100 people were injured.

Witnesses described chaotic scenes, with screaming crowds and parents rushing to the bar, desperate to find their children. One witness told French broadcaster BFMTV that people were breaking windows to flee, some seriously injured, while parents arrived in cars trying to ensure their children were safe. Watching from across the street, he saw around 20 people escape through smoke and flames, calling the scene “like a horror movie.”

‘Ceiling Caught Fire’
Two French women, Emma and Albane, who were inside the basement-level La Constellation bar when the fire broke out shortly after midnight, told BFMTV that panic erupted almost instantly.

“It was absolute panic, everyone was screaming,” they said, describing how the crowd became uncontrollable as the flames spread. “One of the candles was brought too close to the ceiling, which caught fire. Within seconds, the entire ceiling was ablaze. Everything was made of wood,” one of the women added.

They said the party was in the basement when the fire rapidly spread to the upper level of the venue.

‘We had flames just a meter away’
The women said the main exit was far too small for the crowd, forcing some to take desperate measures to escape.

“The exit door was quite small compared to the number of people present. Someone broke a window so people could get out,” one of them told BFMTV.

They said firefighters and police arrived “within minutes,” but the flames were already dangerously close. “We had flames just a meter away; if we hadn’t run, we would surely have been injured,” one added.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/switzerland-crans-montana-bar-fire-swiss-bar-fire-eyewitness-describe-terrifying-escape-flames-just-a-meter-away-article-153382162

The focus on Donald Trump’s hand resurfaced amid discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about a potential peace deal.

US PresidentDonald Trump has responded to renewed speculation about bruising on his hand, saying it was caused by daily aspirin use to thin his blood. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Trump downplayed health concerns and asserted that his “health is perfect.”

“Let’s talk about health again for the 25th time,” Trump said in the interview, adding, “My health is perfect.”

While speaking on the bruising on his hand, Trump said it was as a result of aspirin that he takes daily to thin his blood. “They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart. I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?” Trump said.

He also shared an instance of when his attorney general, Pam Bondi, hit the back of his hand with her ring while giving him a high-five. The Republican president said he applies makeup or bandages when his hand is “whacked.”

Trump’s hand makes the headlines again
As Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks on a possible Russia-Ukraine peace deal, attention once again shifted to Trump’s right hand. Photographs taken ahead of the meeting, where the two leaders were expected to discuss a reported 20-point plan to end the war, appeared to show visible makeup on the US president’s hand. The images quickly went viral on social media, triggering a fresh wave of online speculation and memes. Some users even dubbed it a case of the “wrong concealer.”

This is not the first time Trump’s hand has drawn public scrutiny. In August, images of the president showing a large bruise on his right hand also went viral, reigniting questions about his health. The renewed chatter comes against the backdrop of earlier reports pointing to what aides had described as “persistent bruising” on Trump’s hands.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/want-nice-thin-blood-trump-breaks-silence-on-bruised-concealer-covered-hands-article-153382885

China’s push to localise automotive chips is gaining ground, but mostly in mature control systems rather than high-end computing. Observers say the main hurdles are technical, not geopolitical.

Chips are what make today’s cars smart – managing everything from power, braking, steering and the software behind every screen.

Pop open the hood of China’s latest smart vehicles and a growing share of those chips now comes from domestic suppliers, according to officials and industry observers, as the country’s drive to slot more homegrown semiconductors into cars gains traction.

But analysts say progress remains uneven, with adoption concentrated in core control functions rather than advanced computing platforms that power assisted driving and digital cockpit systems.

And while Beijing contends with a simmering rivalry with Washington and other parts of the West, experts told CNA the hurdles to wider adoption are mostly ecosystem-related, not geopolitical.

The push is unfolding alongside broader efforts to localise China’s semiconductor supply chain, including measures encouraging chipmakers to rely more heavily on domestic equipment.

While chips used for core control systems are relatively mature, advanced processors depend on lengthy certification, deep software integration and stable long-term supply – capabilities that domestic players are still building, analysts said.

Those constraints are most acute in high-end computing and software integration, said David Zhang, secretary general of the International Intelligent Vehicle Engineering Association (IIVEA).

“When automakers adopt local chips, they often have to invest far more time and resources in Research and Development (R&D) integration. This is not something that can be solved quickly, as foreign chips benefit from toolchains refined over many years,” he told CNA.

“HISTORIC LEAP”
The global chip crunch during the COVID-19 pandemic exposed how fragile automotive supply chains could be, and the extent to which Chinese carmakers relied on overseas suppliers.

In the aftermath, Chinese automakers and chip firms have spent recent years working to build a more resilient supply chain and strengthen self-reliance.

Japanese media outlet Nikkei Asia reported in May 2024, citing people familiar with the matter, that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had encouraged leading automakers to raise domestic chip sourcing to around 20 per cent to 25 per cent by the end of 2025. The ministry has not publicly confirmed the guidance.

Latest indications of progress this year have come from high-profile product launches by leading domestic EV makers.

XPeng debuted its in-house Turing AI chip in the G7 SUV in June and later rolled it out in the updated P7 sedan, describing it as one of its most powerful on-vehicle computing platforms to date.

In November, GAC Aion, a major Chinese electric vehicle maker whose cars are widely used in ride-hailing fleets, said its premium Hyper GT model had entered production, calling it China’s first intelligent new-energy vehicle using 100 per cent domestically designed chips.

Zou Guangcai, deputy secretary-general of the China Automotive Chip Industry Innovation Strategic Alliance, a state-backed group, said China’s automotive chip industry had made a “historic leap” compared with three years ago.

“More than 1,000 companies across the supply chain are now involved, with over 90 per cent of chip products having entered the R&D, validation, mass production or on-vehicle deployment stage,” he said at a forum on Dec 18.

Some new Chinese vehicle models have crossed 20 per cent domestic sourcing, with a small number going further, Zou said.

China EV100, a local industry think tank, has put chip localisation among Chinese automakers at about 15 per cent overall.

Jia Dongyao, an associate professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), said localisation is advancing in certain chip types, alongside closer coordination across the supply chain.

According to him, progress in automakers’ localisation plans and industry-level coordination has been faster than many external observers might expect, a shift reflected in the ambitious targets now being flagged by some major carmakers.

SAIC Motor and Dongfeng Motor Group have both flagged 2025 as a key milestone, with SAIC targeting around 30 per cent localisation and Dongfeng aiming for 60 per cent, with ambitions to push it to 80 per cent.

Neither company has publicly disclosed whether these targets have been met. CNA contacted both for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Jia cautioned that there is no standard metric for chip localisation, and estimates vary widely depending on whether they are calculated by unit count, value, or vehicle model.

Lim Chee Kiang, an automotive consultant at Germany-based Marketperformance GmbH, said China’s localisation push is being driven more by industry dynamics than policy mandates.

“Chinese vehicles … are a lot more advanced in smart cockpit and autonomous driving feature content than vehicles from the West. Fundamental to these software-defined vehicles are the chips or ‘brains’ controlling the systems and sub-systems,” he told CNA.

He added that because Chinese EV makers control vehicle design, software and production domestically, they are in a stronger position to push homegrown chips into real-world use – shaping demand and accelerating the growth of local supply chains.

FROM TRACTION TO FRICTION
But analysts warned that several speed bumps lie ahead for wider homegrown chip adoption among Chinese automakers.

Uneven uptake remains a key sticking point, with localisation strongest in core control components while the most technically demanding systems still rely largely on foreign chips.

“Most of the gains are concentrated in power semiconductors … and intelligent control chips,” Brady Wang, associate director at Counterpoint Research, told CNA, adding that progress is largely driven by the rapid expansion of the domestic EV market.

More than 75 per cent of chips in a typical vehicle rely on well-established technologies where China already has strong manufacturing capacity, analysts said.

Pointing to China’s massive 8-inch and 12-inch mature-node capacity – wafer lines widely used in automotive control systems – alongside advantages in materials, demand and cost competitiveness, Lim said he expects “market forces alone will drive localisation”.

In contrast, high-end processors for more complex tasks, such as assisted driving and top-tier cockpit computing, remain largely sourced from global suppliers.

Leading automotive semiconductor suppliers remain concentrated in Europe, the United States and Japan, analysts noted, and production of the most advanced chips still takes place largely overseas using long-established toolchains.

While some Chinese automakers have made inroads in producing more advanced chips, efforts have been expensive.

NIO’s 5 nm Shenji NX9031 driving chip took three years to develop and cost billions of yuan in R&D, with the company saying the investment was equivalent to building hundreds of battery swap stations.

Supply stability is also critical to ensuring that China’s more than 200 licensed vehicle manufacturers can adopt domestic chips with confidence, experts said.

Leading automakers such as SAIC Motor, FAW Group and Great Wall Motor are already working with domestic automotive-grade chipmakers, including Horizon Robotics and Black Sesame Technologies, on intelligent driving and cockpit systems.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-cars-domestic-chips-automakers-localisation-5725321

Four years after Germany phased out light plastic bags, how has the EU addressed plastic waste — and why do single-use items still pile up in takeaway restaurants, shops and the environment?

Single-use plastic is like the toxic ex that just keeps reappearing. Plastic straws, cutlery and Styrofoam boxes still show up on takeaway counters, coffee shops and restaurants across Europe, despite being blocked and officially dumped by the EU in 2021.

The bloc targeted several items after discovering that 85% of the trash washing up on its shorelines was plastic — almost half of which were disposable items such as straws, takeaway boxes, cutlery and plates.

In order to tackle this growing problem of discarded plastic, which can release harmful chemicals and tiny particles that enter the environment and the human body — potentially raising the risk of serious health issues including cancer and infertility — the EU decided to take action.

The logic was simple. Just ban the sale, production and import of the worst offenders and the problem will vanish.

But the reality is very different. Roughly 70% of takeaway restaurants surveyed in Germany’s capital, Berlin, still offer banned plastic items, according to tests carried out by NGO Environmental Action Germany (DUH) in 2024. A continent-wide report by five NGOs from the same year found the prohibited items are still widely available in most European countries.

More than 400 million metric tons of plastic are produced each year — about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) per person. With production still rising and global regulations largely ineffective, researchers warn the problem will continue to worsen.

Plastic, plastic everywhere
One theory puts the persistence of single-use plastics following the EU’s ban down to leftover stockpiles from the COVID pandemic. Particularly at the height of the 2020 lockdowns, takeaway orders surged when restaurants closed or people avoided eating out.

But experts, like Britta Schautz from Berlin’s consumer watchdog, say the timeline doesn’t quite add up.

“The ban came into effect in 2021,” said Schautz, who has spent a decade helping consumers cut down on plastic.

It’s unlikely most restaurants would be able to store mountains of containers for so long, Schautz told DW, adding that plastic becomes porous over time and has a limit on how long it can safely hold food and beverages.

She said a lack of compliance from retailers and food businesses is the more likely reason.

Many small business owners who have switched to paper or aluminum substitutes record higher expenses. “It’s a disaster,” one restaurant owner told DW. “We can’t get the right paper plates and it’s costly.” Another confirmed the difficulties, adding that handing out plastic straws held sentimental value for him.

But, in theory, the sentimentality could cost him dear, as he could be fined up to €100,000 ($116,000) in Germany for not sticking to the new rules.

Failure to enforce the rules is another problem. When DW contacted authorities in five of Germany’s biggest cities to ask how they monitor compliance and sanction violators, not one could point to an example of any fines. Most said they only act on complaints or, at most, carry out random checks.

Imposing fines consistently and communicating the ban more effectively would be a better deterrent, said Thomas Fischer, who heads the department for circular economy at Environmental Action Germany. He compared the effect to dodging the fare in public transport. If people felt that violations were punished, they wouldn’t do it, he told DW.

Other countries have taken tougher measures. Kenya banned plastic bags in 2017 backed by fines of as much as 4 million Kenyan shillings — roughly $31,000/€26,000 — or up to four years in jail. And unlike Germany, it’s not just an empty threat. Two years after the ban was introduced, authorities had already registered several hundred arrests and prosecutions. Three Kenyan fruit vendors were arrested over using prohibited plastic bags.

Ways around the plastic ban
Online retail is one of the law’s blind spots. Plastic straws and cutlery are widely available on major retail platforms like Temu, eBay and Fruugo.

“It’s really easy to order banned plastics from countries outside the EU,” said Schautz. “And manufacturers there don’t have to adhere to EU legislation when producing such things.”

But even in the EU, manufacturers exploit gaps in the law. Some bypass restrictions by producing disposable cutlery that’s a little thicker and labeling it “reusable.”

“Reusable does not mean reused,” said Nathalie Gontard of the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, adding that the EU ban has increased consumption in some cases.

“The law can be easily circumvented by just increasing the thickness,” said the plastics researcher. Gontard also recalled companies contacting her during the drafting of EU bans for advice. A while later, “they came back to me and said: ‘Sorry, but we don’t need help anymore. We’ll just increase the thickness.'”

A patchwork of plastic legislation
Around the world, at least 90 countries have introduced some form of plastic ban. But the rules vary widely, targeting different regions and items. Experts say this fragmented system does little to curb waste.

In Germany, only plastic bags between 15–50 micrometers thick are banned. Yet 87% of bags handed out in 2022 fell into this category, highlighting the confusion around the law.

Even in Kenya, where the plastic bag ban is considered relatively successful and observers confirm cleaner streets in large cities such as Nairobi, progress has slowed. Plastics bags are now entering Kenya from neighboring countries without bans.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/why-plastic-bans-arent-working-and-what-needs-to-change/a-74980708

With ties between the Koreas at rock bottom, South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung is advancing several initiatives aimed to build bridges with the Kim Jong Un regime — including one focusing on the martial art of taekwondo.

In a clear departure from his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has adopted a softer stance on North Korea during his first seven months in office, offering carrots rather than sticks to the regime in Pyongyang.

The change became obvious in recent weeks as Seoul pushed multiple initiatives to reopen communication channels and build trust with North Korea.

“Both Yoon and Lee want the same thing because there has been a stalemate in inter-Korean ties since the North’s last nuclear test, in September 2017,” said Choo Jae-woo, a professor of foreign policy at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.

The Korean Peninsula has been divided since 1948. The subsequent decades have seen periods of tension and relative rapprochement between Seoul and Pyongyang, but the bilateral ties have “broken down” in recent years, Choo said.

Lee gives ground on denuclearization
The conflict over the North’s nuclear arsenal is still the main stumbling block between the countries. Ex-President Yoon was adamant that denuclearization of the North was a pre-condition to any talks on the future of bilateral ties. Pyongyang would not agree to that stipulation. Lee, however, pushed denuclearization down the list of priorities and now sees it as an “eventual goal,” Choo said.

“Lee wants to prioritize immediate stability and peaceful coexistence and believes that any step to achieving that is reasonable and justifiable,” Choo said.

In mid-December, Lee reinstated the North Korea policy office, which had been retasked under Yoon with implementing further sanctions on the North. Now, the office will work to open dialogue on military matters between the two nations and prepare for negotiations that aim to de-escalate tensions and build confidence.

Taekwondo as cultural bridge
Similarly, South Korea’s Unification Ministry is reportedly considering lifting some of the sanctions imposed in 2010 over a North Korean submarine’s torpedoing of the South Korean corvette Cheonan. The incident claimed the lives of 46 South Korean sailors. At the time, Seoul responded by suspending cross-border trade and imposing restrictions on South Koreans travelling to the North.

Lee has now proposed a workaround to the ban on individuals who support North Korea from traveling to the North. In what could be seen as a propaganda coup for Pyongyang, Lee has suggested that any South Korean citizen who wish to travel to the North should be permitted to do so via China.

Last week, Seoul lifted restrictions on North Korean newspapers. The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean Workers’ Party, can now be read in the South.

Lee has also created the new position of peace envoy for the peninsula, charged with seeking new diplomatic channels to revive talks with the North, and wants to revive a proposal from 2018 that would see a joint application from North and South for UNESCO to recognize taekwondo as a shared Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Moreover, the South Korean government has asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to travel to the North in order to breach the inter-Korean stalemate.

Yoon’s hard-line approach ‘was not a success’
Analysts note a reduction in South Korean military drills in 2025.

Pyongyang has consistently accused Seoul of using the maneuvers, which tend to involve US troops, as preparations for an invasion of North Korea.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has also called for a decrease in military posturing in favor of diplomacy.

Source:https://www.dw.com/en/south-koreas-lee-ditches-hard-line-path-on-kim-north-korea/a-75360538

The ‍New Year’s Day announcement marks the second mass release in a week amid US pressure on President Nicolas ⁠Maduro’s government.

In a statement published on Instagram, the Ministry of Penitentiary Service said that there had been “88 new releases” of people detained “for crimes committed during violent actions by extremist groups.”

“These actions are part ‌of the comprehensive review process of cases ordered ‌by ⁠President Nicolas Maduro,” it added.

The ‍New Year’s Day release comes after Maduro’s government decided to free 99 people on Christmas Day as “a concrete expression of the State’s commitment to peace, dialogue and justice.”

Venezuela’s disputed 2024 re-election of Maduro
In July 2024, mass protests erupted in Venezuela after Maduro was declared to have won a third six-year term.

The country’s opposition claimed victory for the now-exiled former ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

Around 2,400 people were arrested, but nearly 2,000 have since been released.

Venezuelan NGOs estimate that about 900 political prisoners remain in detention in the country, including individuals arrested before the election.

US increasing pressure on Venezuela
Amid the threat of military action from the Trump administration, Maduro has lately been keen to show a more conciliatory side.

In recent months, the United States has ramped up pressure on Caracas, amassing a ‌huge military presence in the Caribbean, carrying out strikes near the Venezuelan coast on suspected drug boats off the coast of Venezuela and seizing tankers transporting Venezuelan oil.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/venezuela-releases-88-jailed-after-post-election-protests/a-75362835

A volunteer security official was reportedly also killed during the clashes. As Iran slips deeper into economic crisis, the unrest, which began Sunday in Tehran, has spread to other cities.

Several people have been killed in Iran amid growing social unrest, according to reports on Thursday.

With Iran mired in economic crisis, the country has been gripped by protests that began with a merchants’ strike in Tehran and have since spread to other cities.

The semi-official Iranian media agency, Fars, reported Thursday that two people had been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in the western city of Lordegan.

Three people were killed in Azna, in the neighboring province of Lorestan, Fars reported.

A human rights group, Hengaw, also said there had been deaths in the city. Hengaw said security forces had killed and wounded several protesters after firing on them.

The group also said another protester was shot dead in the central Isfahan province on Wednesday.

Death of security official raises fears of tough crackdown
Meanwhile, the state-run IRNA news agency said a volunteer member of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force was killed on Wednesday night in Kuhdasht, in the west of the country. The death is the first among Iran’s security forces since the unrest began on Sunday.

The Basij volunteer force is loyal to Iran’s Supreme Leader ​Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which operates in parallel to Iran’s armed forces and reports directly to the Ayatollah.

The Student News Network, believed to be close to the Basij, cited a deputy governor of Lorestan province as saying that the Guard member was “martyred at the hands of rioters during protests.”

A further 13 Basij force members and police officers were injured in the clashes, Saeed Pourali said, according to the Student News Network.

Many social media users in Iran, however, have disputed the authorities’ version of events.

The protests are the biggest since the Women, Life, Freedom movement following the death in police custody in 2022 of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

Those protests were suppressed by a brutal crackdown that saw hundreds killed and thousands jailed.

There are fears that the death of the 21-year-old volunteer security official could mark the beginning of a new crackdown by Iran’s theocratic regime against the demonstrations, which are the most serious challenge to the Islamic regime since the Women, Life, Freedom movement.

Why are Iranians protesting?
Protests have swept across Iran in recent days. The unrest began with a merchants’ strike in Tehran on December 28 against the severe economic crisis gripping the country, which has seen the value of its currency plummet to an all-time low, while inflation soared to over 40% in December.

The Iranian economy has struggled for years due to Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.

The unrest has grown into broader demands for political change as students and other segments of the population have joined the protests in cities across the country.

In response, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has replaced the central bank chief and has instructed his interior minister to listen to the protesters’ “legitimate demands.”

During an event broadcast on state television, Pezeshkian said, “From an Islamic perspective… if we do not resolve the issue of people’s livelihoods, we will end up in hell.”

But authorities have also warned protesters against exploiting the situation, promising a “firm” response to the unrest.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/at-least-5-civilians-1-security-official-killed-as-protests-spread-across-iran/a-75361629

The U.S. Justice Department revealed it has 5.2 million pages of Epstein files left to review and needs 400 lawyers from four different department offices to help with the process through late January, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday.
This is likely to extend the final release of the documents to much later than expected after a December 19 deadline set by Congress, the document said.

The White House and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The Trump administration ordered the Justice Department to release the files tied to criminal probes of Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender, who was friends with U.S. President Donald Trump in the 1990s, in compliance with a transparency law passed by Congress last month.
Collectively, the Criminal Division, the National Security Division, the FBI and the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan are providing 400 attorneys to review the files, the document said, a more precise, and potentially much larger, figure than previous estimates from the department.

The review will occur between January 5-23, the document added.
Department leaders are offering telework options and time off awards as incentives for volunteers, the document said, adding that lawyers who assist will be expected to devote three to five hours a day to review about 1,000 documents a day.
The DOJ said last week it had uncovered more than a million additional documents potentially linked to Epstein.
So far, the disclosures have been heavily redacted, frustrating some Republicans and doing little to quell a scandal that threatens the party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The law, approved by Congress with broad bipartisan support, requires all Epstein-related files to be made public, despite Trump’s months-long effort to keep them sealed. Under the statute, all documents were to be released by December 19, with redactions to protect victims.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-doj-review-52-million-pages-epstein-files-document-shows-2025-12-31/

Finnish police on Wednesday seized a ship sailing from Russia on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecoms cable running from Helsinki to Estonia across the Gulf of Finland, an area hit by a string of similar incidents in recent years.
The seized cargo vessel “Fitburg” was en route from the Russian port of St Petersburg to Israel at the time of the incident, Finland’s Border Guard authority told a press conference in Helsinki.

“At the moment we suspect aggravated disruption of telecommunications and also aggravated sabotage and attempted aggravated sabotage,” Helsinki Chief of Police Jari Liukku told reporters.
Concern is growing in Europe at what officials see as an increase in hybrid threats from Russia since it launched its war in Ukraine, which Moscow denies.
Earlier this month, NATO’s top military commander said the alliance must be ready to respond to these type of threats to defend its territory.
Hybrid threats refer to both military and non-military tactics designed to undermine an adversary’s security. They can include cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, sabotage of key infrastructure and use of drones or irregular armed groups.

STATES ON HIGH ALERT IN BALTIC SEA SINCE UKRAINE CONFLICT
The Fitburg’s 14 crew members were from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and were all held by Finnish police, investigators said. The ship sailed under the flag of St Vincent and Grenadines.
According to LSEG data, the owner of the vessel is Fitburg Shipping Company Ltd and the manager is Albros Shipping and Trading Ltd. Reuters was not able to reach either of those companies via telephone.
Eight NATO states border the Baltic Sea, which also borders Russia. They have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecoms links and gas pipelines that run along the relatively shallow seabed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

NATO has boosted its presence in the Baltic with frigates, aircraft and naval drones in recent years.
“We remain in contact with the Finnish authorities, through exchange of information, via the NATO shipping centre located at our Allied Maritime Command in Northwood, UK,” an official at the military alliance said.

The Fitburg was dragging its anchor in the sea, and was directed to Finnish territorial waters, the police and Finland’s Border Guard said. The cable belongs to Finnish telecoms group Elisa.
‘HOPEFULLY NOT DELIBERATE’ SAYS ESTONIAN PRESIDENT
Estonia’s justice ministry said a second telecoms cable connecting the country to Finland had also suffered an outage on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if the cable, belonging to Sweden’s Arelion, was running parallel to Elisa’s.
An Arelion spokesperson confirmed that the company had suffered an outage.
“I’m concerned about the reported damage… Hopefully it was not a deliberate act, but the investigation will clarify,” Estonia’s President Alar Karis said on X.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/finland-suspects-ship-causing-undersea-cable-damage-president-says-2025-12-31/

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his administration was removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland but he added in his social media post that federal forces will “come back” if crime rates go up.
Local leaders in those cities and Democrats have said the deployments, which have faced legal setbacks and challenges, were unnecessary. They have accused the Trump administration of federal overreach and of exaggerating isolated episodes of violence to justify sending in troops.

Trump, a Republican, has said troop deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Memphis and Portland were necessary to fight crime and protect federal property and personnel from protesters.
“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” Trump wrote.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!”
Judges overseeing lawsuits filed by cities challenging the deployments have consistently ruled that the Trump administration overstepped its authority and found that there is no evidence to support claims that troops are necessary to protect federal property from protesters.

Iran has been gripped by demonstrations amid the country’s economic crisis, with social discontent fueling open protest against the regime. Media and authorities have pinned the blame on foreign intelligence services.

Thousands of people have protested in Iran in recent days against the dramatic devaluation of the currency, amid an economic crisis that has engulfed the country.

What began as a strike by shopkeepers and bazaar merchants on Sunday has become an outcry of political anger, with some even chanting “Death to the dictator!” The spontaneous protests have already spread from Tehran to other cities, such as Isfahan and Mashhad.

Is the currency crash an inflationary crisis?
One US dollar is currently worth 1.45 million Iranian rials. A year ago, the exchange rate was 820,000 rials, meaning the monthly wages of an average Iranian in full-time work are now only worth slightly more than $100 (€85).

Basic food supplies can easily consume an entire monthly income. In a heavily import-dependent country like Iran, an inflationary shock like this has had immediate, destabilizing social consequences.

Gissou Nia, a human rights lawyer and Iran expert from the Atlantic Council think tank, sees the economic crash as the catalyst for the protests, but not as its core issue. “As with the protests since December 2017, there’s often an economic catalyst,” she told DW. “But if we listen to the slogans, and the extent of the protests, it’s about profound dissatisfaction with the Iranian regime and the desire for that regime to disappear.”

It appears many Iranians no longer see the country’s economic collapse as a crisis that can be rectified, but as a systemic failure of the regime of aged revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Nia underlined the radical nature of the slogans, and their continuity. “We’re hearing things like ‘Zan, Zendegi, Azadi’ — Woman, Life, Freedom, a reference to the protests of 2022. We’re also hearing ‘Death to the dictator.’ The regime has got to go,” she said.

Previous protests made demands on the leadership for reform, but these have now mostly disappeared. The system itself is the target, and the movement is uniting different generations and their politics.

What role does the bazaar have to play?
The fact that these protests began in the bazaar is a historic shift. For decades, the bazaar has been the economic lifeline of the system, and the anchor of its political stability. The market is seen as a political early warning system and a potential multiplier of the protests. A strike by merchants in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar played a crucial role in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which overthrew the monarchy.

Strikes in the bazaar have hit not just the food supply, but also the conservative backbone of the Islamic Republic. Nia described it as the “lifeblood of Iran’s central markets. The shop owners and others gathered to protest because the current economic situation is no longer tenable.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has little political leeway for making concessions to the demonstrators. In a moment of unusual openness, he recently admitted, “If the problems aren’t solved, we cannot govern.” Some argue that this is tantamount to a declaration of political bankruptcy.

The government’s draft budget for 2026 envisages tax rises of 62%, with inflation at 50%, which many on the street see as straightforward robbery. Public reactions suggest Iranians no longer differentiate between “reformers” and “hard-liners” in their political leadership, but instead see the entire political class as devoid of credibility.

How badly is the crisis affecting people?
The economic crisis has broadened into a crisis of Iranian society and infrastructure. Savings have been devalued, and food and medicines are hard to come by and barely affordable. Water and electricity supply cuts have become increasingly common. And it’s not just those on the margins who are affected, but broad swaths of the urban middle classes.

“The reality is that people can’t afford to buy food. There are many things they can’t pay for,” said Nia. The water supply in many cities is now regularly cut off, which could make political mobilization easier. When a person has nothing more to lose, they are more likely to be prepared to risk standing up to state violence.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/iran-on-the-brink-key-information-about-the-protests/a-75346485

At least five Americans, including a New Yorker, are being detained in Venezuela following the Trump administration’s latest military and economic pressure campaign against Caracas, according to a new report.

James Luckey-Lange, 28, of Staten Island, is among the recently US citizens imprisoned in Venezuela, with the New Yorker deemed to be wrongfully detained, officials told the New York Times.

Luckey-Lange, whose family reported him missing earlier this month, disappeared soon after entering Venezuela’s border as part of a long trip across Latin America that was inspired by the death of his mother, musician Diane Luckey.

“He has been traveling around, figuring out what to do with his life,” Eva Aridjis Fuentes, a filmmaker who worked with Luckey-Lange on a documentary about his mother, told the Times.

“He has had so much loss.”

It’s unclear if Luckey-Lange entered Venezuela with a visa, with the grieving son writing on his blog earlier this month that he planned to research gold mining near the Guyana-Venezuela border.

He was last heard from on Dec. 8, when he informed his family that he was heading to Caracas to catch a flight home to New York on Dec. 12.

His aunt, Abbie Luckey, said she has not been contacted by US officials regarding her nephew’s disappearance, with the relative pleading for any information on his whereabouts.

Others being detained by Caracas include three Venezuelan-American dual passport holders and another American citizen with no known ties to the country, a US official told the Times.

Two of the five prisoners, including Luckey-Lange, are being wrongfully detained, with the remaining three allegedly facing criminal charges that American officials believe could be legitimate.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has previously used detained Americans, regardless of whether or not they faced legitimate criminal charges, as bargaining chips with the US.

Seventeen American citizens and permanent residents have been freed this year as part of negotiations between the Trump administration and Maduro’s government.

Those talks, however, were suspended following Trump’s decision to apply military and economic pressure against Maduro, with Venezuela beginning to detain Americans again in the fall.

Previous detainees have detailed abusive conditions in Venezuela’s prison system, with many condemning Caracas over the lack of due process and bogus charges pressed against them.

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/12/31/us-news/venezuela-is-holding-at-least-5-americans-captive-including-a-new-yorker/

President Trump announced plans Wednesday to pull National Guard troops out of three cities where they were deployed to assist in crime prevention and protect federal agents carrying out immigration enforcement operations.

“We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, despite the fact that CRIME has been greatly reduced by having these great Patriots in those cities, and ONLY by that fact,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago were GONE if it weren’t for the Federal Government stepping in,” the president argued. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again – Only a question of time!

“It is hard to believe that these Democrat Mayors and Governors, all of whom are greatly incompetent, would want us to leave, especially considering the great progress that has been made???”

Trump’s announcement follows the Supreme Court rejecting his bid last week to overturn a lower court ruling blocking him from deploying about 300 National Guard troops to Chicago to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The Trump administration’s justification for the attempted troop deployment to the Windy City used a law that permits the president to take over the National Guard if he isn’t able to execute the law with “regular forces.”

The Supreme Court ruling in the Chicago case presented an obstacle to the administration’s efforts to federalize Guardsman in other states, such as California and Oregon.

Trump had previously ordered 4,000 California National Guard troops to deploy Los Angeles to quell violent riots targeting ICE agents and facilities.

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/12/31/us-news/trump-removing-national-guard-from-chicago-portland-and-los-angeles-warns-we-will-come-back-stronger/

The US Congress has released the transcript of testimony by former Special Counsel Jack Smith, in which he defended his decision to lead two now-defunct criminal investigations into Donald Trump.

The transcript, released on New Year’s Eve by the House Judiciary Committee, is 255 pages. It features questions from lawmakers, and Smith’s robust defense of the attempts to prosecute Trump for illegally retaining classified documents after leaving office, and his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases, and the prosecutions ended after his re-election.

Since returning to office, Trump has demanded investigations of officials who criminally charged him.

The release also features video of Smith’s nearly eight hours of deposition testimony, which took place behind closed doors earlier this month.

“The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions,” Smith tells lawmakers early in his deposition.

He argues that his investigation, which was launched under President Joe Biden, “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power”.

He adds that his team “also developed powerful evidence that showed that President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January of 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a ballroom and a bathroom”.

He adds that Trump “repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents”.

The White House on Wednesday did not immediately respond to the BBC’s message seeking comment.

Trump said after his indictment in the classified documents case that it was a “dark day for the United States of America”. The case was dismissed by a Florida judge in 2024.

The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021. He claimed in 2024 that there had been “nothing done wrong at all” and it was a “day of love”. Trump pardoned over 1,500 Capitol riot defendants after taking office.

The congressional interview with Smith took place on 17 December.

In 2022, then-US Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith as a special counsel to investigate Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

Before Trump returned to office in January, Smith wrote a report that concluded there was enough evidence to charge Trump in both investigations.

Democrats questioning Smith during the deposition focused on Trump seeking retribution, among other topics. The Trump administration fired Smith and his staff.

“I have no doubt that the President wants to seek retribution against me,” Smith said, adding later that the justice department now “wants to seek retribution against anybody who worked on cases against President Trump”.

Representative Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, asked Smith if he thinks Trump instructed House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan to call him for a deposition, to which Smith answered that he did not know.

“I’m here in good faith,” he said.

Smith also testified about call records his team had requested for certain members of Congress, a move that outraged some Republican senators.

Smith said such requests are standard, and were critical to finding out how the White House communicated with lawmakers before and on 6 January 2021.

He said his team used the records to establish which members of Trump’s inner circle had contacted Republican lawmakers – and which senators the president allegedly tried to reach the day of the Capitol attack.

Smith said the records did not include the content of the calls or texts, but rather “when the call started, when the call stopped … and who the call is from.”

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mkn2ylv3zo

The world welcomes 2026 with celebrations unfolding across time zones, from fireworks in the Pacific and Australia to quieter, tradition-led events in parts of Asia and Europe, alongside large public gatherings and heightened security in major global cities.

As midnight rolled across time zones, India’s celebrations unfolded as part of a global wave welcoming 2026, with countries marking the moment through spectacular fireworks, quiet ceremonies and age-old traditions rooted in local culture.

As the clock struck midnight, fireworks lit up the skies as crowds gathered at major landmarks, ushering in the New Year with optimism and celebration.

In Delhi, iconic locations such as India Gate and Connaught Place saw heavy footfall, with revellers ringing in the year well past midnight. More than 680 police personnel were deployed, particularly in high-density zones like Connaught Place, to manage traffic and ensure public safety. Around 20,000 police personnel were deployed across the national capital as Delhi Police rolled out an intensified enforcement and surveillance plan to maintain law and order and curb New Year’s Eve violations such as drunk driving and motorcycle stunts.

Further south, Bengaluru buzzed with energy as crowds spilled onto Mahatma Gandhi Road and Brigade Road. Fireworks illuminated the night sky as people across Bengaluru welcomed New Year 2026 amid celebrations.

Revellers ushered in the New Year in Kashmir with special programmes at the famous tourist spots across the valley. Tourists and locals made a beeline to the tourist destinations of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonamarg to ring in 2026. According to officials, tourists from across the country visited these destinations to enjoy the recent snowfall and these destinations witnessed a heavy rush of visitors. The celebrations were also held near the historic Clock Tower at the Lal Chowk City centre.

The Pacific island nation of Kiribati became the first place on Earth to enter 2026, with celebrations beginning on Kiritimati (Christmas Island) due to its position near the International Date Line. Thousands of residents marked the occasion with community gatherings and traditional festivities as the clock struck midnight locally.

NEW ZEALAND WELCOMES 2026 WITH SKY TOWER FIREWORKS
New Zealand’s Auckland welcomed 2026 with a fireworks display launched from the Sky Tower, the country’s tallest structure, becoming the first major city to mark the new year despite wet weather in the city centre.

Countries across the South Pacific are the earliest to ring in the new year, with midnight in Auckland, home to about 1.7 million people, arriving 18 hours before celebrations begin in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute spectacle featured around 3,500 fireworks fired from multiple levels of the 240-metre (787-foot) Sky Tower. However, several smaller community events across New Zealand’s North Island were cancelled on Wednesday due to forecasts of rain and possible thunderstorms.

AUSTRALIA’S NEW YEAR UNDER SHADOW OF MASS SHOOTING
Australia’s east coast welcomed 2026 two hours after New Zealand, with Sydney pressing ahead with its New Year’s Eve celebrations amid heightened security following the country’s deadliest mass shooting in nearly three decades.

The festivities come weeks after two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 people and injuring at least 40. The attack has cast a sombre shadow over celebrations in the country’s largest city. Thousands gathered along Sydney’s waterfront on Wednesday evening for the annual fireworks display centred on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, under a heavy police presence.

A minute of silence was observed for the Bondi Beach victims, and tribute imagery including a menorah was projected on the bridge pylons. For the first time at the event, many officers were seen openly carrying rapid-fire rifles.

ASIA EMBRACES TRADITIONS, QUIETER FESTIVITIES
Across East and Southeast Asia, celebrations varied by culture and local conditions. In Japan, many still observed traditional customs such as temple bell ringing to mark the new year. Seoul in South Korea featured countdowns and light displays around Bosingak Pavilion. Singapore also welcomed the fresh year with a grand display of fireworks.

In parts of Indonesia, including Jakarta and Bali, festivities were scaled back to reflect solidarity with communities affected by floods and landslides, with prayers and cultural shows replacing typical fireworks. Bangkok lights up the night sky with fireworks and dazzling displays as it welcomes the New Year. Here is a glimpse of the celebrations in the city often called the Venice of the East.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/world-begins-ringing-in-new-year-as-new-zealand-welcomes-2026-with-spectacular-fireworks-display-in-auckland-2844636-2025-12-31

British boxer Anthony Joshua has been discharged from a Lagos hospital after surviving a serious road accident in Nigeria. The crash occurred December 29, 2025, on the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, when his vehicle hit a stationary truck. Two close associates died at the scene, officials confirmed Thursday. He was traveling with friends and team members at the time of the crash.

British boxing star Anthony Joshua has been discharged from a Lagos hospital after surviving a serious road accident in Nigeria that claimed the lives of two of his close associates, officials confirmed Thursday.

The former world heavyweight champion was involved in the crash on December 29, 2025, while travelling with friends and members of his team on the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, a major highway in southwest Nigeria. The vehicle they were in reportedly lost control and collided with a stationary truck, killing two passengers at the scene.

Authorities from both Lagos and Ogun states said Joshua, who sustained only minor injuries, was discharged late Wednesday after being deemed clinically fit to continue his recovery at home. Though physically spared from serious harm, he was described as “heavy-hearted” as he copes with the loss of his friends.

Anthony Joshua pays his respect

According to the joint statement by officials, Joshua and his mother visited a Lagos funeral home to pay their respects as the bodies of the deceased were prepared for repatriation. The two men who died, identified as Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele, were close to Joshua and integral members of his training circle. Ghami worked as a strength and conditioning coach, while Ayodele was long-time trainer and friend.

Joshua, 36, is a British-Nigerian athlete who has returned frequently to Nigeria in recent years. The crash occurred just days after he defeated YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami on December 19, part of his efforts to re-establish himself at the top of heavyweight boxing. He had been in discussions about a potential 2026 showdown with Tyson Fury.

Source: https://www.freepressjournal.in/sports/anthony-joshua-medical-update-former-heavyweight-boxing-champion-released-from-hospital-after-surviving-fatal-car-crash-in-nigeria

According to officials in Kyiv, Ukrainian long-range drones struck an oil depot north of Moscow, as well as an oil refinery and an oil terminal in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. Follow DW for more.

North Korea’s Kim praises troops fighting for Russia

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-kyiv-says-it-struck-russias-oil-facilities/live-75346952

Fake videos of political leaders often go viral online. DW’s Fact check department analyzes how content farms use algorithm-driven formats, and what narratives they reinforce.

Disinformation campaigns targeting politicians are nothing new, but the widespread availability of AI tools has accelerated the spread of deepfake videos and false claims.

DW Fact check has examined viral videos featuring three world leaders — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump — looking at how the video formats work, how they spread and what narratives they push.

Fake and false videos about political leaders
Claim: This TikTok video, with over 360,000 views, claims the German government has fixed gasoline prices at €3 ($3.50) per liter.

Verdict: Fake

The video combines visuals of Friedrich Merz, stock footage and a banner with the words “Fuel price shock: Fixed at €3 — now it’s serious!” Although the regulation of price fluctuation and CO2 price increases have been discussed in Germany, no official announcement has fixed the prices at €3. The current price is set at €1.64 per liter. Such a drastic increase would have a huge financial impact on many people.

We also analyzed the technical part of the video: The voice-over shows several anomalies, including noticeable glitches. Not only that, AI detection tools such as HIVE indicate a 69.6% likelihood that the content contains AI-generated or deepfake elements.

Claim: A post on X with over 766,000 views claims the UK has issued a 10 p.m. curfew and will shut off television and internet at night.

Verdict: False

The post includes a video of a man repeating the claim, superimposed on photographs with ominous music playing in the background. He references the UK’s digital ID plans, alluding to a smartphone-based identification system for governmental services in the UK, which caused controversy and concerns of government overreach.

The UK government did indeed implement new rules governing how children use social media on July 25, 2025, under the Online Safety Act. These regulations require platforms to conduct robust age checks — using methods like facial scans, photo ID, or credit card verification. However, no curfews were enforced, nor was internet access restricted.

Claim: In this TikTok video with 578,000 views, we see US President Donald Trump and hear a voice-over that sounds like him. The words “Macron warns Zelemskyy [sic] — Trump fires back with harsh message” written on a banner.

Verdict: Fake

The video also features subtitles of the voice-over and constant zooming into images of French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The voice-over sounds like Trump, but its intonation is generic and monotone. The HIVE AI-detection tool estimates that it is 99% likely that the audio is AI-generated.

Content farms pushing many low-quality videos
Marcus Bösch, political scientist and communications expert and a former DW contributor, said there are steps users can take to identify fake videos. “The first thing you should do is take a look at the account that posted the video,” he told DW media partner #Faktenfuchs.

The TikTok account that posted the video of Merz has what looks like an AI-generated profile image, and the profile name includes a string of numbers, typical indicators that it is part of a content farm.

We found multiple other accounts posting similar videos targeting Merz (including here, here, here and here). They all bear the hallmarks of a so-called “content farm.” Eva Maitland, senior analyst for the New York-based NewsGuard — a company analyzing the credibility of news websites — defines these networks as follows:

“A content farm is a website or a network of websites or a social media account or network of social media accounts designed to pump out large volumes of content very quickly and very cheaply.”

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays an important role for such accounts, as keywords will make them appear more often in search engine results and therefore gather more views and clicks. Video topics might change depending on the news cycle and changing public interest.

Repetitive video formats with emotive claims
Maitland noted that as content farms try to publish as much and as fast as possible, they often use content based on templates. Both the account that posted the video of Merz and the account that shared the video of Trump had posted several videos in similar visual styles.

The fake “news item” has become a recurring format, which DW Fact check has written about previously. These videos mimic legitimate reporting and attach themselves to real political debates. The accounts above also show the repeated use of phrases like “breaking news” or “shocking announcement.”

This is a classic strategy in disinformation dissemination. “You take something people have already heard before, or something that contains a grain of truth — because that makes it very believable,” said Bösch.

The videos typically use authentic footage of the politicians but overlay them with AI-generated voice-overs. They include fabricated claims on upcoming policies, such as “Starting in January: Sick? Then stay home, or else you’ll be fined and won’t get paid!”

Julia Smirnova, senior researcher at the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS), told #Faktenfuchs, “The videos are designed to trigger a moment of surprise, shock, annoyance or joy in viewers.”

Financial or political motives
Maitland urges users to question what the purpose of the content is: “Are they trying to inform me or are they trying to get me to react in a certain way?”

The true motives behind the videos are challenging to determine. Importantly, platforms have a threshold for monetization. For TikTok it is based on views and engagement: at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 30 days.

Maitland suggests that “the aspect that the videos are extremely low quality, they’re templated, they’re AI-generated, they’re being produced in high-volume, low-quality, indicates that the campaign may be more motivated to generate income as opposed to genuinely affecting people’s viewpoints.”

Countermeasures
The profile that posted the video on Merz states that “All videos are satire and do not contain any real statements whatsoever.” Accounts protect themselves in this way, as social media platforms like TikTok allow for AI content as freedom of expression.

Whether users believe the content is difficult to determine. Comment sections show mixed reactions: Some users treat the content as a joke, but many take it seriously, while some question the claims.

NewsGuard found that the claim of the UK curfew has spread from TikTok to other platforms like Facebook and X. This poses a challenge to users who try to verify the video’s source, because it’s stripped from the context of the account.

A recent report from the voice AI platform Resemble AI found that there has been a record increase in the number of deepfake cases and sophisticated attacks. As AI tools are becoming more sophisticated, this type of content farm video and posting behavior is likely to grow in the future.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-content-farm-videos-on-merz-starmer-and-trump/a-75262035

The flight’s final moments have also been haunted by a desperate message sent from on board

A NASCAR legend has shared a chilling theory about what may have gone wrong in the horror jet crash that killed retired driver Greg Biffle and six others.

The doomed flight was rocked by reports of a “large, loud pop” during takeoff before it circled back in the sky.

Biffle’s close friend Kenny Wallace said he believes the airplane’s flaps may have been down, which created intense drag after the Cessna Citation lost a motor while taking off.

In a YouTube video, he theorized that pilots applied full-throttle power to the surviving engine but didn’t have enough power to straighten it out as they landed.

Wallace spoke out after Biffle was killed along with his wife, Cristina, and their two children, Emma and Ryder, when the private jet went down on December 18.

Craig Wadsworth, Dennis Dutton, and Dutton’s son Jack were also killed, according to a statement from the families.

Seven people died in total after the Cessna C550 jet, owned by Biffle, crashed at Statesville Regional Airport around 10:15 am.

An investigation to establish the exact cause of the tragedy is underway.

Wallace laid out his thinking on his YouTube channel as he tried to make sense of the final minutes.

“Here’s what I think,” he said.

“I think the plane took off, I think they lost a motor, and then, I guess it started having a lot of drag on it.

“That’s where all the up and down was taking place. They decide to come back. The flaps are down, and they don’t have any horsepower.

“There was so much drag and they had the throttle wide open, they just didn’t make it. I think that’s what happened. They just didn’t make it to the runway.”

Wallace stressed that he was thinking of the family in the wake of the tragedy, and said the loss of life was devastating.

“May the Lord be with everybody, this is a very heartfelt discussion,” he said.

“It was a very tragic loss. Everybody wants to know what happened.

“I think it was a tragic loss of life and that’s what I respectfully think is what happened.”

“It has been a sad, sad couple of weeks here with the Greg Biffle tragedy.”

LOUD POP
Friends and family told The US Sun the jet erupted into a fireball just minutes after takeoff from Statesville on December 18.

Former neighbor Jonathan Donahue said the trouble began almost immediately after the jet left the ground.

“All I know,” he said, “is that there was a large, loud pop, like something broke on the plane at takeoff, and he immediately had to turn around and make an emergency landing.”

Flight data backs up that account, showing the jet climbed sharply before turning back toward the airport.

Its speed and altitude fluctuated as the pilots battled poor visibility in low clouds and drizzle.

Moments later, the jet clipped light poles, smashed into a tree line, and exploded less than a mile from the runway.

No distress call was ever made.

FINAL MESSAGE
The flight’s final moments have also been haunted by a desperate message sent from on board.

Biffle’s mother-in-law, Cathy Grossu, told People she received a text from her daughter moments before the crash that said: “We’re in trouble.”

Grossu added: “She texted me from the plane and she said, ‘We’re in trouble.’ And that was it. ‘So we’re devastated. We’re brokenhearted.’”

Cristina’s mom said the group had been heading to Florida for a “birthday trip” when the crash happened.

“To think that they would be killed on a birthday trip, that was just such a fun time for the family,” she said.

“And to see the horrific way that it ended, it’s just, it is so hard to bear. I cannot believe they’re gone.”

She said she had seen Cristina and Biffle only hours earlier, after they visited her at her home.

“I don’t remember what the last words that I said to my daughter or to Greg or to my precious Ryder,” she said.

“I don’t remember. I know we hugged, but I don’t remember those last words and that’s going to haunt me. But they were happy.”

INVESTIGATION CONTINUES
WCNC chief meteorologist Brad Panovich said after looking at public flight data that the jet took off, then circled back, pointing to a possible mechanical issue.

The Federal Aviation Authority said that the Cessna C550 crashed while attempting to land.

Dutton, a 40-year aviation veteran and recently retired Delta Airlines pilot, died alongside his son Jack, an Auburn University junior who dreamed of becoming a pilot too.

Jack had just earned his FAA Instrument Rating, a milestone he proudly shared online weeks before the crash.

Aviation expert Michael Henderson told The US Sun he believes it was “very likely a single engine problem” on a “very reliable jet.”

“He had power. He was able to climb. He could have made it back,” Henderson said.

Henderson claimed poor visibility would have sealed their fate in the low fog and drizzle.

“He was using visuals rather than instruments. There was low fog and drizzle, and he was having a real hard time seeing the airport,” Henderson said.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/sport/15715316/nascar-legend-chilling-theory-greg-biffle-plane-crash/

The withdrawal of Emirati forces from Yemen following a Saudi airstrike may help defuse a confrontation between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but the incident has exposed simmering distrust between two Gulf oil powers with long-running differences.
The airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition early on Tuesday on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla was followed by calls on all UAE forces to leave Yemen, and a statement from Riyadh that its national security was a red line.

The UAE said it was surprised by the strike, shortly before announcing that it was pulling its remaining forces from Yemen for their safety.
The crisis, precipitated by the surprise advance of UAE-backed separatists through southern Yemen in early December, brings to the surface years of divisions between the two Gulf heavyweights on everything from oil quotas to geopolitical influence.
A Gulf source familiar with Saudi thinking told Reuters that the escalation had been triggered by a misperception resulting from talks in Washington in November between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. President Donald Trump about the war in Sudan.

High-level talks including phone calls between Saudi Arabia and the UAE had taken place since December though they had not yet yielded results on the ground, the source said.
Any further conflagration between Saudi Arabia and the UAE would bode ill for the financially powerful Gulf, which prides itself on being an island of stability in a turbulent Middle East. Disagreements between Saudi Arabia and the UAE could hamper consensus on oil output decisions. The two are preparing for a virtual meeting with other OPEC+ members on Sunday.
“Relations between the two states are never easy, but the friction does appear to be at its most intense for years,” said Neil Quilliam, associate fellow at think tank Chatham House.

DECEMBER ADVANCE

Following their sudden advance in early December, the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces now hold large swathes of land in Yemen, including in the strategically important Hadramout province.

The STC had previously been an important part of the coalition fighting alongside the Saudi-backed, internationally-recognized government against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which holds Yemen’s capital Sanaa and the heavily populated northwest.
Their sweep through the south brought the STC within reach of Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, in an area to which many prominent Saudis trace their origins, lending it cultural and historical significance for them.
It also put Saudi Arabia and the UAE on opposing sides of a smouldering civil war that erupted in Yemen in 2014.
Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have publicly said they are in talks with Yemeni groups to try and bring the situation under control, but the coalition has now carried out airstrikes in the province twice in the last few days.
The STC has been rejecting calls by the Saudi coalition for its forces to withdraw from the areas it seized, saying it will continue securing Hadramout and Mahra province to its east.
In a statement on the strike in Mukalla, the UAE said it had tried to de-escalate since the STC’s advance and denied being behind any operations that would undermine Saudi security or target its borders.

DIVERGENCE ON SUDAN

“Both countries like to play down friction in the relationship and argue that competition amongst states is a normal state of affairs,” said Quilliam. “But the intensity of the competition has certainly sharpened in the past year and is playing out in multiple theatres.”
One such place is Sudan, a country engulfed in civil war and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises since April 2023.
The Quad, which groups Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the U.S. and the UAE, has led diplomacy on the conflict, but the war has raged on.
Sudan is a sensitive issue for the UAE. U.N. experts and members of the U.S. Congress have accused the country of sponsoring Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are fighting the Sudanese army. The UAE denies backing either side.
Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince discussed Sudan at the November meeting in Washington.
The Gulf source said the UAE leadership was angered as they had been “misinformed” that during the November meeting the Saudi Crown Prince had not just asked for further sanctions against the RSF, but also for more direct sanctions against the UAE for its alleged support to the group.
The misperception led to the escalation in Yemen, the source said.
The UAE foreign ministry did not confirm or deny this account and referred Reuters to an earlier statement issued on Friday in which the UAE had welcomed Saudi Arabia’s efforts to support security and stability in Yemen and said it also remained committed to backing stability in the country.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemen-strike-shows-depth-distrust-between-saudi-arabia-uae-2025-12-30/

When Bianca Jones, a 33-year-old special education teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, decided a couple of years ago that she wanted to buy a house, she started digging into her Experian credit report. She was shocked by what she found.
Her student debt had been double-counted, making it look as though she owed a quarter of a million dollars and putting home ownership out of reach. Jones disputed the items with Experian, one of the major credit reporting agencies, multiple times in writing and over the phone, but got nowhere.

“They kept saying it’s been verified, it’s been verified…They never investigated. They never tried to remove it,” Jones said in an interview.
Eventually, Jones complained to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal watchdog created by Congress in 2010 to protect consumers in their financial dealings, helping her lawyers show a judge the lengths she’d gone to mitigate damage to her credit, according to her attorneys, legal papers and a copy of the complaint. That paper trail eventually helped Jones successfully sue Experian to correct her record.
Jones closed on a house purchase in the Memphis suburb of Millington for $300,000 in January.

“If I didn’t have this agency to go to, I don’t think I’d be in the house right now,” said Jones. “It actually changed my life.”
Experian and the CFPB did not respond to a request for comment on Jones’ case.

AGENCY FACING SHUTDOWN

In interviews, consumers who had fallen on hard times or known difficulty, lawyers who work with the poor and credit counselors told Reuters the CFPB had been a lifeline for people facing hardship and they feared that, without it, many consumers would be left unprotected from financial predators.
Conceived by Senator Elizabeth Warren to police the type of lending that fueled the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB has long been a target of conservatives and industry. Congress created the agency as part of post-crash reforms in 2010 as the sole federal body primarily charged with protecting consumers’ rights in the financial marketplace.

The CFPB now faces extinction under President Donald Trump’s second administration, which says the agency is a political weapon for Democrats and a burden on free enterprise.
Speaking to reporters at the White House in February, Trump said it was “very important to get rid of the agency,” claiming, without spelling out evidence, that Warren had “used that as her little personal agency to go around and destroy people.”
In an interview, Warren dismissed the criticism as a sign the CFPB was doing its job. “This is not about vendettas. This is about enforcing the law as it is written, so that billionaires and billionaire corporations don’t cheat American families. I think that’s a pretty good thing,” she said.
White House Budget Director Russell Vought, a staunch CFPB critic and the agency’s acting head, told “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast in October he plans to shutter the CFPB. The administration is fighting in court to fire up to 90% of its workers, while planning to move pending investigations and litigation to the Justice Department.

The agency says it is due to run out of money in early 2026 and Vought says he cannot legally seek more until the Federal Reserve returns to what the administration deems “profitability,” a position a federal judge flatly rejected on Tuesday, finding it without legal merit. Congressional Republicans also slashed the CFPB’s maximum allowable funding in July.
Together, the administration, congressional Republicans and industry-backed lawsuits have undone a decade’s worth of CFPB rules on matters ranging from medical debt and student loans to credit card late fees, overdraft charges and mortgage lending.
The agency has also dropped or paused its probes and enforcement actions, and stopped supervising the consumer finance industries, leading to a string of resignations.
The CFPB and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Warren said that as a law professor studying bankruptcy she saw that consumer protections were weak and fragmented, and that America needed a single federal agency dedicated to protecting consumers from unfair, deceptive and abusive practices.
“I was stunned by the number of people in financial trouble who had lost a job or got sick but who had also been cheated by one or more of their creditors,” she told Reuters. “For no agency was consumer protection a first priority, it was somewhere between fifth and tenth, which meant there was just no cop on the beat. If the CFPB is not there, people have nowhere to turn when they get cheated.”

CRITICS COMPLAIN OF OVERREACH

Republicans said the agency was redundant, with federal bank watchdogs, like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and state regulators already looking out for consumers, and that its funding and leadership structure were unconstitutional. Like other banking regulators, the CFPB’s funding is not set annually by Congress and does not come directly from taxpayers. Rather, the agency draws on the Federal Reserve and its director was until recently protected from removal at will by the president.
Republicans accused the CFPB’s first director Richard Cordray, a Democrat, of using those powers to crush small banks and businesses via overzealous enforcement and complex regulations, and of overstepping the agency’s legal authority by trying to regulate companies Congress had exempted from its oversight, such as auto dealerships.
Conservative and industry groups tried several times to curb its powers or extinguish it altogether via the courts. In 2020 the Supreme Court handed the president the power to fire the director, which he has since used. Critics on the political right accused former director Rohit Chopra, a Democrat, of exceeding his authority, flouting the federal rule-making process, and harming consumers with an ill-conceived crackdown on financial firm fees.
Thomas Hoenig, who served as vice chair of the FDIC from 2012 to 2018, said he was skeptical of some of the CFPB’s work under prior administrations, but that it still served an important purpose.
“If you take them out of the picture altogether, you’re going to get more abuse, not less,” he said. “I’m disappointed to see the CFPB just go away.”

“VERY IMPORTANT FOR ME”

For some, though, the agency has been a lifeline. Millions of Americans like Jones who are struggling with credit reporting errors, predatory lenders, debt collectors, fraud, discrimination or other challenges, are now filing complaints every year with the agency, which prompts companies to fix the issues, sometimes by paying the complainants, or explain themselves.
When companies repeatedly break the rules, the CFPB punishes them and tries to make their customers whole. To date, it has returned $21 billion to consumers, according to CFPB data.
Morgan Smith, a 31-year-old single mother and social services worker in Issaquah, Washington, turned to those resources when she realized she had been a victim of identity theft.
After her wallet and ID were stolen from her car, she learned that someone had opened up a string of accounts in her name, she said: a rental car that ended up in a crash, an unpaid storage unit and a hotel room at an amusement park. Reuters was unable to confirm Smith’s account independently.
“I went straight to the CFPB and I was navigated there to their consumer education tab where I was able to find out how to deal with fraud and scams. It gave me all the information I needed to know…my rights,” she said.
“That was very important for me to have this resource.”
Without the CFPB, borrowers would once again rely on a hodgepodge of federal, state and other local agencies which lack the CFPB’s resources, expertise and legal powers, say consumer groups.
“Prior to the CFPB coming around, we’d have to say, ‘write your attorney general, write to the FTC,’ whoever it was, and it became this sort of letter-writing campaign,” said Sam Hohman, who runs the Nebraska nonprofit Credit Advisors Foundation, which helps people get out of debt and offers consumer education services.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trumps-funding-cuts-put-americas-consumer-watchdog-brink-collapse-2025-12-30/

China is requiring chipmakers to use at least 50% domestically made equipment for adding new capacity, three people familiar with the matter said, as Beijing pushes to build a self-sufficient semiconductor supply chain.
The rule is not publicly documented, but chipmakers seeking state approval to build or expand their plants have been told by authorities in recent months that they must prove through procurement tenders that at least half their equipment will be Chinese-made, the people told Reuters.

The mandate is one of the most significant measures Beijing has introduced to wean itself off reliance on foreign technology, a push that gathered pace after the U.S. tightened technology export restrictions in 2023, banning sales of advanced AI chips and semiconductor equipment to China.
While those U.S. export restrictions blocked the sale of some of the most advanced tools, the 50% rule is leading Chinese manufacturers to choose domestic suppliers even in areas where foreign equipment from the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Europe remain available.
Applications failing the threshold are typically rejected, though authorities grant flexibility depending on supply constraints, the people said. The requirements are relaxed for advanced chip production lines, where domestically developed equipment is not yet fully available.

“Authorities prefer if it is much higher than 50%,” one source told Reuters. “Eventually they are aiming for the plants to use 100% domestic equipment.”
China’s industry ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The sources did not wish to be identified as the measure is not public.

‘WHOLE NATION’ APPROACH

China’s President Xi Jinping has been calling for a “whole nation” effort to build a fully self-sufficient domestic semiconductor supply chain that involves thousands of engineers and scientists at companies and research centers nationwide.
The effort is being made across the wide supply-chain spectrum. Reuters reported earlier this month that Chinese scientists are working on a prototype of a machine capable of producing cutting-edge chips, an outcome that Washington has spent years trying to prevent.
“Before, domestic fabs like SMIC would prefer U.S. equipment and would not really give Chinese firms a chance,” a former employee at local equipment maker Naura Technology (002371.SZ), said, referring to the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (0981.HK).

“But that changed starting with the 2023 U.S export restrictions, when Chinese fabs had no choice but to work with domestic suppliers.”
State-affiliated entities placed a record 421 orders for domestic lithography machines and parts this year worth around 850 million yuan, according to publicly available procurement data, signaling a surge in demand for locally developed technologies.
To support the local chip supply chain, Beijing has also poured hundreds of billions of yuan into its semiconductor sector through the “Big Fund”, which established a third phase in 2024 with 344 billion yuan ($49 billion) in capital.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

The policy is already yielding results, including in areas such as etching, a critical chip manufacturing step that involves removing materials from silicon wafers to carve out intricate transistor patterns, sources said.

China’s largest chip equipment group, Naura, is testing its etching tools on a cutting-edge 7nm (nanometre) production line of SMIC, two sources said. The early-stage milestone, which comes after Naura recently deployed etching tools on 14nm successfully, demonstrates how quickly domestic suppliers are advancing.
“Naura’s etching results have been accelerated by the government requiring fabs to use at least 50% domestic equipment,” one of the people told Reuters, adding that it was forcing the company to rapidly improve.

Advanced etching tools had been predominantly supplied in China by foreign firms such as Lam Research (LRCX.O), and Tokyo Electron (8035.T), but are now being partially replaced by Naura and smaller rival Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC) (688012.SS), sources say.

Naura has also proven a key partner for Chinese memory chipmakers, supplying etching tools for advanced chips with more than 300 layers. It developed electrostatic chucks — devices that hold wafers during processing — to replace worn parts in Lam Research equipment that the company could no longer service after the 2023 restrictions, sources said.
Naura, AMEC, YTMC, SMIC, Lam Research, and Tokyo Electron did not respond to requests for comment.
China’s progress is being viewed with concern by global competitors, as foreign suppliers are squeezed out of the China market.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-mandates-50-domestic-equipment-rule-chipmakers-sources-say-2025-12-30/

Insiders are concerned by AJ’s mental scars, with a return to the ring unclear without the two pals who were always in his corner

DEVASTATED Anthony Joshua said yesterday “I feel pain all over my body” after the high-speed horror smash which killed two of his pals.

The former world heavyweight boxing champ had a miraculous escape from Monday’s death crash in Nigeria but it claimed the lives of close aides Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele.

Sources close to the British fighter, 36, who will remain in hospital into the New Year, said he had searing pain in his knees and cried out in agony as he was taken from the wreckage of the Lexus 4×4 but tests revealed no fractures.

The star will remain in hospital while medics keep an eye on him and carry out further tests over the next few days.

Joshua’s promoters Matchroom declined to detail his injuries last night but confirmed: “Anthony is in a stable condition and will remain there for observation.”

The crash came ten days after AJ celebrated knocking out YouTuber Jake Paul in a money-spinning bout in the US.

“Massive parts of the Anthony Joshua machine.

But insiders fear the grief and mental scars from the road tragedy could put potential mega-fights next year in doubt — including a long-awaited showdown with his bitter UK rival Tyson Fury.

Joshua was being comforted in hospital by his mum after miraculously escaping with his life while close aides Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele died.

AJ was said to still be in pain but insiders were more concerned by his mental scars, with a return to the ring unclear without the two pals who were always in his corner as his career skyrocketed.

The pair were killed instantly on Monday morning as the Lexus SUV they were travelling in slammed into a parked lorry on the notoriously dangerous Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Makun.

AJ and the local hired driver – both sitting on the opposite side of the car from Sina and Latz – cheated death by inches.

Tributes poured in yesterday to AJ’s strength and conditioning coach Sina and his personal trainer Latz, both 36.

Boxing pundit Steve Bunce described them as “massive parts of the Anthony Joshua machine”.

He said: “They are with him all the time.

“He calls them his boys.

“They’re more than that.

“They are friends.

“They may have strict jobs, they might be his strength and conditioning coach, his personal trainer, his dietitian, his nutritionist, but they’re close and he loves that close circle.”

Joshua – who raked in a reported £70million from his recent KO of YouTuber Jake Paul — was being lined up to face fellow Brit Tyson Fury next year, but insiders say plans for the £100million mega-bout are now on the back burner.

Fury yesterday paid a heartfelt tribute, saying of Sina and Latz: “This is so sad.

“May God give them a good bed in heaven.”

He then shared a lengthy interview in which Joshua previously spoke about dealing with a personal tragedy.

Fury added later: “I wish AJ a speedy recovery and would like to send my sincere condolences to the families of his friends.”

Round-the-clock care

Eddie Hearn, chairman of AJ’s Matchroom promoters, said: “With the heaviest of hearts.

“Two great men.

“Rest in eternal peace Sina and Latz.

“My thoughts and deepest prayers are with everyone.”

AJ – whose parents are both Nigerian – was being comforted by his mum Yeta Odusanya yesterday after she rushed to her son’s bedside.

He is being given round-the-clock care at Nigeria’s top private medical unit, the £2,000-a-night Duchess International Hospital in Lagos.

Nigeria’s president Bola Ahmed Tinubu said he had spoken to Joshua and the fighter’s mum. He went on: “I wished him well and prayed for him.

“He assured me he is receiving the best care in the hospital.”

The boxer and his pals were on holiday in the west African nation, and were expected to stay a week.

They were on their way to AJ’s family home for New Year celebrations in Sagamu when tragedy struck at 11am on Monday.

A relative last night spoke of the family’s “shock” at hearing the tragic news.

Nigerian authorities confirmed AJ escaped with minor injuries as the Lexus – said to have been speeding – went out of control and sideswiped a stationary truck, carving open its passenger side.

Video footage showed the stricken boxer crying out in agony as he was helped from the wreckage, with witnesses saying he was complaining of searing pain in his leg.

A Mitsubishi 4×4, said to have been carrying AJ’s security team, was undamaged yards away.

Sina — who was in AJ’s corner during the Paul fight in Miami — had worked with him for more than ten years as his full-time sport and exercise rehabilitation coach.

He helped the Watford-born boxer prepare for some of his biggest fights, including his world title-winning bout against Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.

The fitness guru was a qualified sports and exercise rehabilitator who specialised in musculoskeletal injuries and corrective exercise and co-founded the Evolve Gym in London.

“There is no one kinder, no one more generous, no one more compassionate, no one more brotherly.

His uncle, Shahryar Rumi said yesterday he was “an angel living amongst us”.

Speaking outside the family home in North West London, he went on: “There is no one kinder, no one more generous, no one more compassionate, no one more brotherly.

“They were friends, Anthony Joshua and Sina.

“They worked together, but they began as friends. Even on this trip. He didn’t want him to be alone, so he went with him.”

Latz was one of AJ’s oldest friends and knew him long before his superstar career.

He played football for Aylesbury United, Tooting & Mitcham United, Hillingdon Borough, AFC Hayes, Chalfont Wasps and Northwood before joining Team AJ.

A fund-raiser set up to build a mosque in his honour and towards clean water projects in Africa had last night topped £160,000.

The organiser said: “I’m absolutely devastated hearing about the passing of my brother.

‘Highway of Death’

“I’m absolutely shocked that he died and I want to be part of the people who help keep his legacy alive.”

Inquiries into the cause of the fatal crash were last night continuing.

Police Commander Babatunde Akinbiyi of Nigeria’s traffic unit said checks showed the Lexus “experienced a tyre burst due to excessive speed” then “lost control”.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/15712796/anthony-joshua-pain-car-crash-boxing-future/

ACTOR Isiah Whitlock Jr – whose starring role in The Wire launched an iconic catchphrase – has died aged 71.

Whitlock Jr was best known for his recurring roles in Law & Order and Veep as well as being a regular in Spike Lee films.

His iconic catchphrase “Sh*******t” was also enshrined into pop-culture after he first delivered the line in 25th Hour.

In an interview in 2008, Whitlock Jr revealed he had picked up the phrase from his uncle Leon.

“I did it there, and I did it in She Hate Me,” he said.

“But then, when I got on to The Wire, I saw a couple of opportunities where I could do it, and I did.

“And they started writing it in.”

Whitlock Jr was born in South Bend, Indiana, and began his acting career after graduating from college, when he joined San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater.

The star first appeared on screen in 1987 in a guest role on CBS’ Cagney & Lacey.

He continued to appear on TV for the following 35 years, starring in the Law & Order franchise in multiple episodes of Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent.

Best known for his role as corrupt State Senator R. Clayton “Clay” Davis in The Wire, he appeared in all five seasons of the popular crime drama.

Whitlock Jr later got to play a man obsessed with The Wire in the 2011 comedy Cedar Rapids.

The star was confirmed dead on Tuesday by his long-time manager Brian Liebman.

“Isiah was a brilliant actor and even better person,” Liebman told Deadline.

“He was loved by all who had the pleasure to work with or know him.

“He will be greatly missed.”

A fan favourite on HBO‘s political comedy Veep, he played Secretary of Defence General George Maddox.

Whitlock Jr was a series regular on Showtime’s legal thriller Your Honor, where he portrayed a politician with connections in organised crime.

His final TV role was in the Netflix murder mystery series The Residence, where he depicted the Chief of Police, opposite Uzo Aduba.

The show premiered in March.

The star had a long-standing relationship with Spike Lee, appearing in six of the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s movies: 25th Hour (2002), She Hate Me (2004), Red Hook Summer (2012), Chi-Raq (2015), BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods (2020).

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15713020/isiah-whitlock-jr-dead-thewire-actor/

Robbers stole €30 million in gold, jewellery, and cash from Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen, breaking into 3,000+ deposit boxes over Christmas.

Robbers stole gold, jewellery and cash worth around 30 million euros ($35 million/Rs 314.4 crores) from a German bank in the city of Gelsenkirchen during the extended Christmas break, using a large drill to break into the bank’s underground vault, police and bank officials said on Tuesday.

The thieves, who remain at large, smashed open more than 3,000 safe deposit boxes at a branch of Sparkasse savings bank in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia before fleeing with the loot.

Bank officials told German news agencies that the branch was “broken into over the Christmas holidays” and that “more than 95 percent of the 3,250 customer safe deposit boxes were broken into by unknown perpetrators”.

Police said the robbers drilled their way into the vault room from a parking garage connected to the building.

As news of the robbery spread, hundreds of distressed customers gathered outside the branch on Tuesday, demanding information. The bank remained closed for security reasons.

German businesses were shut on Thursday and Friday last week for Christmas, and investigators believe the gang may have spent several days inside the building, breaking open the deposit boxes during the holiday period.

The robbery came to light after a fire alarm was triggered in the early hours of Monday, prompting emergency services to investigate and discover the hole leading into the vault.

Witnesses reported seeing several men carrying large bags in the stairwell of the parking garage during the night between Saturday and Sunday, police said. Security camera footage later showed a black Audi RS 6 leaving the garage early on Monday morning with masked individuals inside.

‘Professionally executed’

Police said the car’s licence plate had been stolen earlier from the city of Hanover.

A police spokesman told AFP that the break-in was “indeed very professionally executed”, likening it to the heist movie Ocean’s Eleven.

“A great deal of prior knowledge or a great deal of criminal energy must have been involved to plan and carry this out,” the spokesman said.

Police said the safe deposit boxes had an average insurance value of more than 10,000 euros, putting the estimated damage at around 30 million euros. Several victims have told investigators that their losses were far higher than the insured amounts.

The police spokesman said “disgruntled customers” had gathered outside the branch, where staff had received threats, prompting authorities to maintain a security presence.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/oceans-eleven-style-heist-at-german-bank-stuns-police-robbers-steal-cash-gold-worth-millions-ws-l-9801336.html

Work is continuing to fix a power issue in the Channel Tunnel after an outage shut it down and disrupted travel plans for thousands of people.

The Channel Tunnel partially reopened allowing some Eurostar and LeShuttle services – which carries vehicles and passengers through the tunnel between Folkestone and Calais – to resume with delays.

On Tuesday, a problem with the overhead power supply and a broken down LeShuttle train blocked all routes, causing travel chaos for thousands trying to get away for New Year.

Getlink, who run the Channel Tunnel, said it hopes it will return to normal overnight.

But passengers are braced for a second day of possible disruption, with some travellers saying they have spent hours stuck onboard trains overnight as they waited for them to move.

One man told the BBC he had boarded the 19:01 service to Paris, but as of 02:30 GMT he was still stuck on the train at the entrance to the tunnel.

He said staff told him there was a “50% chance we go to Paris, 50% chance we go back to London”.

Earlier on Tuesday, Eurostar suspended services until further notice.

By midday, at least a dozen Eurostar services between the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands had been cancelled.

Some Eurostar and LeShuttle services resumed on Tuesday evening after one of the tunnel’s two lines reopened, but delays continued.

Earlier on Tuesday, Eurostar urged its customers “to rebook their journey for another day if possible, with free exchanges available”.

“We also advise customers not to come to our stations if their trains have been already been cancelled.”

By midday on Tuesday, at least a dozen Eurostar services between the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands had been cancelled.

The rail operator apologised and said passengers could rearrange their plans free of charge or can cancel their booking and get a refund or an e-voucher.

Passengers told the BBC how they had been left stranded and looking for alternative routes to get to their destination.

Two American tourists spent hundreds of pounds to reach Paris on Wednesday after their Eurostar service was cancelled from London St Pancras International.

Haley Adams, 38, and Hannah Hagar, 35, paid $580 (£430) for flights to the French capital to celebrate Hannah’s 36th birthday there.

The pair had their Eurostar tickets refunded but said they will have to pay for an extra night at a hotel in London and cannot get a refund from the hotel they were going to stay at in Paris tonight.

“There’s been a lot of queuing,” Adams said. “We have been here for five hours.”

A family from Mexico said their trip of a lifetime has been cast into doubt as their Eurostar service was cancelled.

Monserrat Hernandes, her brother John Paul and mother Olga were among dozens of people looking frantically at their phones near the Eurostar departure area at St Pancras.

The family got on the Eurostar just after 08:00 GMT but after their train left for Paris it had to return due to the incident.

“They say nothing is travelling today… there’s no hope for leaving tomorrow,” she said.

They are now searching for a flight or a ferry to make it to Paris.

“It’s like an American movie,” she added. “Hopefully I find the love of my life.”

In France, Ben Clark, from Bedfordshire, said he had been stuck on-board Le Shuttle in Calais with his wife and three daughters for hours.

“The first two-and-a-half hours weren’t too bad but the girls have got restless in the last half an hour so we’ve let them run around the boarding carriage to burn off some energy,” he said.

“Some people are getting angry but there’s nothing that can be done, others are sleeping in their cars. We have used up our snacks and now have no plan B or C.”

National Rail has advised passengers not to come to London St Pancras International if their Eurostar train is cancelled, while the Department for Transport said disruption is “likely for the remainder of the day” while faulty overhead cables are repaired.

A photograph shared with the BBC by a train driver for Eurostar appears to show overhead electrical cables strewn across the tracks.

Currently only one of two main tunnels in the Channel Tunnel is available for trains to run on, Eurostar said.

Eurostar’s services resumed with the 15:04 train from London to Brussels departing after 16:00.

As of 18:00, only a few services to Paris Gare du Nord and Brussels were scheduled to depart London St Pancras International this evening.

The broken down LeShuttle train was also moved out of the Channel Tunnel. The operator said none of its passengers were stranded inside the tunnel after the power failure caused its closure.

LeShuttle has apologised and warned of delays of approximately five hours, telling passengers to “please check in as planned”.

The LeShuttle service “resumed very gradually on one track” shortly before 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT), the EuroTunnel Press Office said.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3w7wg93yeeo

Protests and strikes in Iran over inflation and currency devaluation have spread from the capital, Tehran, to several other cities on a third day of unrest.

The protests began on Sunday after shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar staged a strike when the Iranian rial hit a record low against the US dollar on the open market.

Since then, videos verified by BBC Persian have shown demonstrations in the cities of Karaj, Hamedan, Qeshm, Malard, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Shiraz and Yazd. Police were also seen using tear gas in an attempt to disperse demonstrators.

The Iranian government said it “recognises the protests” and would listen “with patience, even if it is confronted with harsh voices”.

President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X late on Monday that he had instructed the interior minister to hold talks with what he described as “representatives” of the protesters so that measures could be taken “to resolve the problems and act responsibly”.

He also accepted the resignation of Iran’s central bank governor, Mohammadreza Farzin, and named former economy and finance minister Abdolnasser Hemmati to replace him.

University students have also joined the protests, chanting anti-government slogans including “Death to the dictator” – a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran.

Some protesters were also heard chanting slogans in support of the son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including “Long live the Shah”.

In response, Reza Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the United States, wrote on X: “I am with you. Victory is ours because our cause is just and because we are united.”

“As long as this regime remains in power, the country’s economic situation will continue to deteriorate,” he added.

The US state department’s Persian-language account on X also expressed support for the protests.

It said the US “praises their courage” and stands with those seeking “dignity and a better future” after years of failed policies and economic mismanagement.

Iran was reportedly high on the agenda of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida on Monday,

At a joint news conference afterwards, Trump declined to say whether he supported regime change in Iran, but said: “They’ve got a lot of problems: tremendous inflation, their economy is bust, their economy is no good, and I know people aren’t so happy.”

The president also said he might back another round of Israeli air strikes on Iran if the country rebuilt its ballistic missile or nuclear programmes.

During a 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, the US carried out air strikes on key Iranian uranium enrichment sites. Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqj2llkjv8vo

Foreign dignitaries including Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will attend Zia’s funeral.

The funeral of Bangladesh’s former prime minister Khaleda Zia will be held on Wednesday, and she will be buried with full state honours beside her husband, the late president Ziaur Rahman, the interim government said on Tuesday.

Zia, the longtime chief of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and a three-time prime minister, died earlier in the day in Dhaka after a prolonged illness. She was 80.

Her funeral will be held on Wednesday after Zohr prayers at Parliament’s South Plaza and the adjoining Manik Mia Avenue, Law Advisor Asif Nazrul said.

She will later be laid to rest with full state honours beside the grave of her husband, former president and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, at Zia Udyan in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka, Nazrul told reporters after a special meeting of the interim government’s Advisory Council at the state guest house Jamuna.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir attended the meeting as a special invitee.

Foreign dignitaries including Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will attend Zia’s funeral.

Jaishankar will represent the government and people of India at the funeral, for which he will travel to Dhaka on Wednesday, an official statement said.

Quoting a Pakistan High Commission official in Dhaka, state-run BSS news agency reported, “We have the confirmation that our Deputy Prime Minister will come here (Dhaka) and join the Janaza.” Earlier in a televised address to the nation, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus announced a three-day state mourning and a one-day general holiday.

“At the death of former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, I declare three days of state mourning and a one-day general holiday tomorrow on the day of her Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayers),” he said.

Yunus urged people to maintain discipline and order during the funeral prayers and the observance of mourning across the country.

“I know that all of you are deeply saddened at this time. I hope that you will show patience during this time of mourning and cooperate with all those concerned who are involved in observing the formalities, including her Namaz-e-Janaza,” he said.

During the mourning period, the national flag will be flown at half-mast at all government, semi-government and autonomous institutions, educational institutions and on all government and private buildings across the country, as well as at Bangladesh missions abroad.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/former-bangladesh-pm-khaleda-zia-to-be-buried-beside-her-husband-ziaur-rahmans-grave-10110600?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

China’s role in the May 7-10 Operation Sindoor came under serious scrutiny and criticism, especially the military assistance provided by Beijing to Islamabad.

After US President Donald Trump, China has claimed credit for mediating peace between India and Pakistan during the military conflict earlier this year, despite New Delhi’s pushback, which has repeatedly rejected any third-party mediation. Like Trump, the Chinese Foreign Minister also projected Beijing as a peace negotiator for other global conflicts, including tensions in northern Myanmar, between Cambodia and Thailand, and the Iranian nuclear issue.

“This year, local wars and cross-border conflicts flared up more often than at any time since the end of WWII. Geopolitical turbulence continued to spread… To build peace that lasts, we have taken an objective and just stance and focused on addressing both symptoms and root causes,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, speaking at the Symposium on the International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations in Beijing.

Wang Yi then claimed that “tensions between India and Pakistan” were among the list of hotspot issues “mediated” by China this year.

“Following this Chinese approach to settling hotspot issues, we mediated in northern Myanmar, the Iranian nuclear issue, the tensions between Pakistan and India, the issues between Palestine and Israel, and the recent conflict between Cambodia and Thailand,” he claimed.

India’s Stand On Ceasefire

New Delhi has maintained that the military conflict between India and Pakistan, which started on May 7, was resolved through direct talks between the DGMOs (Director General of Military Operations) of the armies of the two countries.

At the May 13 press briefing, the Ministry of External Affairs had said, “Regarding ceasefire and what sort of role other countries played, etc. See, the specific date, time, and wording of the understanding were worked out between the DGMOs of the two countries at their phone call on 10th May 2025, commencing at 15:35 hours.”

India has also been consistently maintaining that there is no place for any third-party intervention in matters relating to India and Pakistan.

China’s Role in India-Pak Tensions

China’s role in the May 7-10 Operation Sindoor came under serious scrutiny and criticism, especially the military assistance provided by Beijing to Islamabad.

On the diplomatic front, Beijing called on India and Pakistan on May 7, asking both nuclear-powered nations to exercise restraint even while expressing regret over India’s airstrikes.

“China finds India’s military operation early this morning regrettable,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement, reacting to questions on India’s airstrikes and escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.

The statement, without naming Pakistan, claimed, “China opposes all forms of terrorism,” in an apparent reference to the Pahalgam terrorist attack and urged both sides to exercise restraint in the interest of peace.

But China’s active military support to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor has become a sharp reminder of the negative impact of Beijing and Islamabad’s close ties on their relations with New Delhi.

For its part, China, whose arms exports amount to over 81 per cent of Pakistan’s military hardware, sought to downplay India’s assertion that Beijing used the conflict as a “live lab,” declining to directly answer the charges made by Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Rahul R Singh.

Gen Singh said China’s strategy during Operation Sindoor was based on its ancient military strategy of “36 stratagems” and killing the adversary with a “borrowed knife” to buttress the point that Beijing extended all possible support to Pakistan to cause pain to India.

What China Said On India Ties

In his speech on China’s foreign policy initiatives, Wang Yi spoke of the good momentum of improvement of relations between India and China, as he mentioned Beijing’s invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held in Tianjin in August this year.

“This year, we invited the leaders of India and North Korea to China. China-India relations showed good momentum, and the traditional friendship with the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) was cemented and further promoted,” he said, adding that the SCO summit was a resounding success.

The Foreign Minister claimed that China’s engagement with neighbouring countries entered a new stage of building a community with a shared future at a faster pace.

On US Tariffs

In apparent reference to US President Donald Trump unleashing unilateral tariffs against China and other countries, Wang Yi said, “This year, economic globalisation met serious setbacks. The tariff war dealt a blow to international trade rules and disrupted the global economic order. The choice between openness and isolation became imperative.”

He stressed the China-US relationship is one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in today’s world.

“The strategic choices of the two countries will shape the course of world history,” he said.

“On major issues of principle, we maintained firm and unequivocal positions. On issues concerning China’s core interests, we responded with strength and held our ground,” he said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/after-donald-trump-chinas-mediation-claim-on-india-pakistan-war-10121339?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

China’s military exercises come less than two weeks after the US announced a record $11.1 billion arms package to Taiwan. Taipei condemned the drills as irresponsible but said it would not escalate tensions.

China launched rockets and deployed warships, bombers and amphibious assault vessels around Taiwan on Tuesday in the second day of large-scale military drills aimed at rehearsing a blockade of the self-ruled island.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry confirmed live-firing drills, adding that it detected more than 130 Chinese military aircraft and 22 navy and coast guard vessels around the island in the 24 hours until 6 a.m. local time (2200 GMT).

The exercises, named “Justice Mission 2025”, include live-fire drills in multiple zones surrounding Taiwan and simulate strikes on maritime and key ports, according to China’s Eastern Theater Command.

According to Chinese authorities, the war games are due to finish at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and will cover five large zones around Taiwan.

Why is China conducting drills around Taiwan?

Chinese military spokesperson Shi Yi called the drills “a stern warning against ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatist forces, and…a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity,” state broadcaster CCTV reported.

On Monday, China said the drills were aimed at “deterrence” of outside military intervention.

The exercices come less than two weeks after the US announced a record $11.1 billion (€9.43 billion) arms package to Taiwan, including missiles, drones, artillery systems and military software.

Tensions have also been high in the region after a statement from Japan that its military could get involved if China acted against Taiwan.

China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Tuesday blasted “pro-independence forces in Taiwan” and Japan’s leaders.

“In response to the continuous provocations by pro-independence forces in Taiwan and the large-scale US arms sales to Taiwan, we must resolutely oppose and strongly counter them,” Wang said during an end-of-the-year diplomatic event in Beijing.

Meanwhile, Chinese state media on Tuesday published a poster showing the Taiwan’s President Lai being crushed by one hammer striking the island’s south while another hits its north.

Additionally, on Monday, the Chinese ​military released an AI-generated video depicting automated humanoid robots, microdrones and weaponized robotic dogs attacking Taiwan.

Taiwan is a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its territory.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/china-fires-rockets-on-second-day-of-drills-around-taiwan/a-75338221

In Germany, it is only permitted to sell fireworks in the three days leading up to New Year’s Eve. Some line up early to buy them, but others have safety concerns and want to see them banned altogether.

In the early hours of Monday [December 29], residents in the state of Thuringia called the police out to a local supermarket, warning that thieves were trying to break in. But when the police arrived, the group of young men, armed with hot tea and blankets, just wanted to be first in line when the supermarket opened. December 29 is the start of the three-day window in Germany when fireworks can be sold, to adults over the age of 18, to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

All over the country, undeterred by the cold and dark, people line up and wait every year for fireworks to go on sale. The coveted products have names like Giftzwerg (“poison dwarf”), Hysteria, Hurricane Force. The fireworks come in brightly colored packages of various sizes, with a fuse sticking out.

When the fuse is lit, they shoot up into the air. Black powder produces loud explosions, while colorful effects are created by metal powder, in combination with other chemicals.

Only a minority let off private fireworks

Germany has a long tradition of people letting off their own fireworks on New Year’s Eve. For the manufacturers, it’s a profitable and steadily growing business. The German Pyrotechnic Industry Association calculates that in 2024 its turnover was €197 million ($232 million) — a record high, up from €180 million the previous year. The association estimates that 10% to 15% more goods will be on sale in 2025.

Yet only 22% of people living in Germany want to see in the New Year with a private fireworks display. These were the findings of a representative survey of 2,500 people over the age of 18 by the opinion research institute Civey. The survey was commissioned by Germany’s Association of Technical Inspection Agencies (TÜV).

“It’s only a minority of people who set off their own firecrackers, rockets, or other fireworks on New Year’s Eve,” says Joachim Bühler, the CEO of the TÜV association. He explains that the tradition is most popular among younger people and families with children.

More and more people seriously injured

But while some regard fireworks as colorful, exciting, and fun, the rockets and firecrackers have serious downsides. In addition to creating an enormous amount of trash, the Federal Environment Agency records that burning fireworks to ring in the new year generates more than 2,000 metric tons of fine particulates, which constitute a risk to health. 2,000 tons is around 1% of Germany’s entire annual particulate pollution.

The most serious concern, however, is that injuries and damage to property are increasing year on year, especially in big cities. Firecrackers can cause serious injuries like acoustic trauma, burns and the loss of body parts, such as fingers or an entire hand.

More and more often, injuries are caused by fireworks that have been purchased illegally on black markets in Poland, Czechia and the Netherlands, and have considerably more explosive power. According to the police, they’re comparable to bombs and grenades. In 2024, two young men died in Germany after handling so-called spherical bombs that contained more than 600 grams of black powder. A doctor described one of the men as having been “ripped to shreds.”

This year, fireworks have been banned for the first time in large parts of Czechia. Starting in 2026, the Netherlands is banning private fireworks altogether. The hope is that this will stop the two countries being used as key transshipment points for home-made firecrackers and goods smuggled in from China.

German customs officials report that in 2024 they seized more than seven tons of pyrotechnics that were not authorized for use in Germany. That’s considerably more than in all three of the previous years put together.

“For many people, ordinary fireworks aren’t enough anymore,” warned Jochen Kopelke, the chair of the federal German Police Union. “They want them to be more and more powerful, with big explosions and lots of fire.”

Many organizations want firecrackers banned

There has also been an increase in the deliberate use of pyrotechnics as a weapon, including against police officers, firefighters and paramedics. Aggression and violence tend to break out on New Year’s Eve, especially in the bigger cities. Some neighborhoods almost resemble a war zone.

This is why the security services are calling for a blanket ban on all fireworks. A petition to this effect, launched by the police trade union (GdP) in Berlin, has already been signed by almost 2.5 million people.

The branch leader of the GdP in Berlin, Stephan Weh, believes politicians have to do something.

“All that’s happened in the last few years has been the imposition of localized bans on firecrackers, guns and knives, in specific zones. But these make no difference to the excesses of violence,” he says. “We don’t want to wait until one of our colleagues loses their life in this wild, senseless firecracker frenzy.”

More than 50 civil society organizations have also come together to call for a ban on private New Year’s Eve fireworks, under the hashtag #böllerciao (“Bye-bye, firecrackers”). Medical associations, Environmental Action Germany, animal welfare organizations, and the German Children’s Fund are among those supporting the initiative. Around 750,000 people have signed their petition.

One in three against a ban on fireworks

Increased aggression on New Year’s Eve also affects people’s perception of security. The TÜV survey found that almost one in three — women in particular — do not feel safe in public if there are firecrackers around. 32% of those surveyed and 45% of women surveyed said they didn’t feel safe outside on New Year’s Eve because of fireworks.

More and more people would welcome restrictions on private fireworks. Almost half are in favor of a total ban, with only the smallest fireworks excepted, such as sparklers or table fireworks. 22% would like to see a ban on firecrackers, both large and small.

However, there are also people — 33%, according to the survey — who reject any sort of ban, citing tradition and personal freedom.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/almost-half-of-all-germans-want-a-ban-on-fireworks/a-75345435

The United Nations warned Tuesday (Dec 30) that recent actions by Israel against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees risked depriving millions of people of basic services such as education and healthcare.

Israel’s parliament passed new legislation on Monday formally stripping the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of diplomatic immunity, and barring Israeli companies from providing water or electricity to the agency’s institutions.

According to UNRWA, the legislation also grants the Israeli government the authority to expropriate the agency’s properties in East Jerusalem, including its headquarters and main vocational training centre.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini condemned the legislation as “outrageous”, decrying it on social media as “part of an ongoing, systematic campaign to discredit UNRWA and thereby obstruct the core role that the agency plays providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine refugees”.

Filippo Grandi, the outgoing head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and a former UNRWA chief, also criticised the move as “very unfortunate”.

In an interview with AFP, he highlighted that UNRWA, unlike other UN agencies, provides basic public services such as education and healthcare to the millions of registered Palestinian refugees it serves across Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

“If you deprive those people of those services…then you had better find a substitute,” he said, warning: “I think it would be very difficult.”

“At the moment, there is a great risk that millions of people will be deprived of basic services if UNRWA is further deprived of space to work, and resources to work.”

It has accused the agency of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some UNRWA employees took part in the militant group’s Oct 7, 2023 assault on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

A series of UN-linked internal and external investigations found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but stressed Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its headline allegation.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/un-condemns-israels-moves-against-agency-palestinian-refugees-5770421