Comedy icon Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday, hitting the century mark some six decades after he sang and danced with Julie Andrews in “Mary Poppins” and starred in his self-titled sitcom.
Comedy icon Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday, hitting the century mark some six decades after he sang and danced with Julie Andrews in “Mary Poppins” and starred in his self-titled sitcom.
“The funniest thing is, it’s not enough,” Van Dyke said in an interview with ABC News at his Malibu, California home. “A hundred years is not enough. You want to live more, which I plan to.”
As part of the celebration of Van Dyke’s birthday this weekend, theaters around the country are showing a new documentary about his life, “Dick Van Dyke: 100th Celebration.”
Van Dyke became one of the biggest actors of his era with “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” which ran from 1961-66 on CBS; appeared with Andrews as a chimney sweep with a Cockney accent in the 1964 Disney classic “Mary Poppins” and, in his 70s, played a physician-sleuth on “Diagnosis: Murder.”
Also a Broadway star, Van Dyke won a Tony Award for “Bye Bye Birdie” to go with a Grammy and four Primetime Emmys. In 1963, he starred in the film version of “Bye Bye Birdie.”
Just last year, he became the oldest winner of a Daytime Emmy, for a guest role on the soap “Days of Our Lives.”
In the 1970s, he found sobriety after battling alcoholism, and spoke out about it at a time when that was uncommon to do.
Now that he has hit triple digits, Van Dyke said he’s gotten some perspective on how he used to play older characters.
“You know, I played old men a lot, and I always played them as angry and cantankerous,” he told ABC News. “It’s not really that way. I don’t know any other 100-year-olds, but I can speak for myself.”
Belarus freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova and dozens of other prisoners on Saturday, capping two days of talks with Washington aimed at improving ties and getting crippling U.S. sanctions lifted on a key Belarusian agricultural export.
Belarus freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova and dozens of other political prisoners on Saturday, capping two days of talks with Washington aimed at improving ties and getting crippling U.S. sanctions lifted on a key Belarusian agricultural export.
President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 123 prisoners, Belarus’ state news agency, Belta, reported. In exchange, the U.S. said it was lifting sanctions on the Eastern European country’s potash sector.
A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced Western isolation and sanctions for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been repeatedly sanctioned by the West for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
John Coale, the U.S. special envoy for Belarus who met with Lukashenko in Minsk on Friday and Saturday, described the talks to reporters as “very productive” and said normalizing relations between the two countries was “our goal,” Belta reported.
“We’re lifting sanctions, releasing prisoners. We’re constantly talking to each other,” Coale said, adding that the relationship between the U.S. and Belarus was moving from “baby steps to more confident steps” as they increased dialogue, the Belarusian news agency reported.
Belarus has released hundreds of prisoners since July 2024. Among the 123 freed Saturday were a U.S. citizen, six citizens of U.S. allied countries, and five Ukrainian citizens, a U.S. official told The Associated Press in an email. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic negotiations, described the release as “a significant milestone in U.S.-Belarus engagement” and “yet another diplomatic victory” for U.S. President Donald Trump.
The official said Trump’s engagement so far “has led to the release of over 200 political prisoners in Belarus, including six unjustly detained U.S. citizens and over 60 citizens of U.S. Allies and partners.”
Who are some of the more prominent freed prisoners?
Pavel Sapelka, an advocate with the Viasna rights group, confirmed to the AP that Bialiatski and Kolesnikova were among those released.
Bialiatski, a human rights advocate who founded Viasna, was in jail when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 along with the prominent Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties. He was later convicted of smuggling and financing actions that violated public order — charges that were widely denounced as politically motivated — and sentenced to 10 years in 2023.
Bialiatski told the AP by phone Saturday that his release after 1,613 days behind bars came as a surprise — in the morning, he was still in an overcrowded prison cell.
“It feels like I jumped out of icy water into a normal, warm room, so I have to adapt. After isolation, I need to get information about what’s going on,” said Bialiatski, who seemed energetic but pale and emaciated in post-release videos and photos.
He vowed to continue his work, stressing that “more than a thousand political prisoners in Belarus remain behind bars simply because they chose freedom. And, of course, I am their voice.”
Kolesnikova, meanwhile, was a key figure in the mass protests that rocked Belarus in 2020 and is a close ally of an opposition leader in exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Known for her close-cropped hair and trademark gesture of forming a heart with her hands, Kolesnikova became an even greater symbol of resistance when Belarusian authorities tried to deport her in September 2020. Driven to the Ukrainian border, she briefly broke away from security forces at the frontier, tore up her passport and walked back into Belarus.
The 43-year-old professional flutist was convicted in 2021 on charges including conspiracy to seize power and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Others who were freed
Among the others who were released, according to Viasna, was Viktar Babaryka — an opposition figure who had sought to challenge Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, widely seen as rigged, before being convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges he rejected as political.
Viasna reported that the group’s imprisoned advocates, Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladzimir Labkovich, and prominent opposition figure Maxim Znak were also freed. But it later said it was clarifying its report about Stefanovic’s release, and Bialiatski told the AP that Stefanovic had not been freed, though he hopes he will be soon.
Most of the freed prisoners were sent to Ukraine, Franak Viachorka, Tsikhanouskaya’s senior adviser, told the AP. Eight or nine others, including Bialiatski, were being sent to Lithuania on Saturday, and more prisoners will be taken to the Baltic country in the next few days, Viachorka said.
Ukrainian authorities confirmed that Belarus had handed over 114 civilians, including five Ukrainian nationals. Freed Belarusian nationals “at their request” and “after being given necessary medical treatment” will be taken to Poland and Lithuania, they said.
Lukashenko’s press secretary, Natalya Eismont, said those released were sent to Ukraine because Kyiv was to free several imprisoned Belarusian and Russian nationals as part of the deal, although Ukrainian officials haven’t confirmed the claim yet.
Lukashenko wants rapprochement with the West
When U.S. officials last met with Lukashenko in September, Washington eased some of the sanctions on Belarus while Minsk released more than 50 political prisoners.
“The freeing of political prisoners means that Lukashenko understands the pain of Western sanctions and is seeking to ease them,” Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader in exile, told the AP on Saturday.
She added: “But let’s not be naive: Lukashenko hasn’t changed his policies, his crackdown continues and he keeps on supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine. That’s why we need to be extremely cautious with any talk of sanctions relief, so that we don’t reinforce Russia’s war machine and encourage continued repressions.”
Sanctions have hit the key export hard
Belarus, which previously accounted for about 20% of global potash fertilizer exports, has been forced to sharply cut them after Western sanctions targeted state producer Belaruskali and cut off transit through Lithuania’s port in Klaipeda, the country’s main export route.
“Sanctions by the U.S., EU and their allies have significantly weakened Belarus’s potash industry, depriving the country of a key source of foreign exchange earnings and access to key markets,” Anastasiya Luzgina, an analyst at the Belarusian Economic Research Center BEROC, told the AP, noting that Minsk likely hopes this paves the way for easing the more painful European sanctions.
The latest round of U.S.-Belarus talks also touched on Venezuela, as well as Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Belta reported.
Two US soldiers and an American civilian were killed, and several others wounded in an ISIS ambush near Palmyra, Syria. President Trump vowed “serious retaliation” against the attackers.
ISIS targeted US soldiers in central Syria.(Photo: AP/File)
Two US soldiers and an American civilian were killed, and three others wounded in an ambush by the Islamic State (IS) group in central Syria on Saturday, the US Central Command said.
The attack marked the first assault on US troops in Syria to result in casualties since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad a year ago, according to defence officials.
In a post on social media, Central Command said the identities of the deceased service members would be withheld for 24 hours, in line with Department of War policy, to allow notification of next of kin.
No further details were immediately released about the circumstances of the ambush or the condition of those wounded, news agency AP reported.
Syrian state media reported that shots were fired during a visit by US troops to a historic town in central Syria, leaving several people injured. The state-run SANA news agency said the shooting occurred near Palmyra and that two members of Syria’s security forces and several US service members were wounded.
Local reports said that the attacker was killed, without providing additional details.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least three Syrian security personnel and several Americans were wounded, adding that the attacker was a member of the Syrian security forces.
TRUMP VOWS RETALIATION
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that “there will be very serious retaliation” against the Islamic State (IS) group responsible for the attack.
“This was an ISIS attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” Trump said in a social media post.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, the president added that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa was “devastated by what happened” and emphasised that Syria was cooperating with US forces in the region. Trump noted that al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”
PANICKED 911 dispatch calls from the UPS plane crash in Kentucky last month reveal the horror scenes from the ground as 14 people died.
Over a thousand horrified onlookers called the emergency services as the massive cargo plane crashed on takeoff and erupted into a giant fireball at Louisville International Airport on November 4.
Some of the 911 calls from horrified witnesses on the ground near the UPS plane crash at Louisville Airport in November have been releasedCredit: WLKY-TV
Now, just over a month later, some of the 911 calls to MetroSafe from the night of the crash have been released.
“Oh my god there’s so many people who just probably died,” a stunned witness told dispatch in one audio shared with WLKY News.
In the background of the call, a man can be heard saying to the woman, “look at it” as the plane erupted in a fiery blaze and collided with two businesses including a petroleum recycling plant.
“God I don’t want to look at it. Oh my god. Oh please just get away from me,” she said.
Earlier in the call she could be heard shouting “it’s going up. Oil catches on fire. Get away.”
In another call shared with WDRB News, said: “Oh my god an airplane, a UPS airplane just crashed! I’m freaking out.
“So many people are probably hurt,” the caller frantically told 911.
Over a month after the horrific crash, clean up crews are still working on the decimated area.
A three-year-old girl, a mom of two, and three pilots were among the 14 killed in the devastating crash.
Twenty-three people also suffered injuries from the fireball explosion caused in part by the more than 38,000 gallons of fuel inside the aircraft at the time.
An initial report published by the National Transportation Safety Board after the incident revealed that the left pylon of one of the plane’s engines had “fatigue cracks” and suffered an “overstress failure”.
Bone-chilling surveillance images captured the left engine and pylon separating from the wing as the plane lifted from the ground.
A POPULAR budget airline is rumored to ‘collapse’ this week, with competitors believing it will cease all operations.
Competitors are preparing to help rescue the thousands of passengers who would be left stranded should the rumored demise actually occur.
Passengers may be left stranded as hundreds of flights risk being canceledCredit: EPA
Spirit Airlines is at an “imminent risk” of shutting down, according to a report by The Air Current.
The airline had already filed for bankruptcy a second time in August, less than one year after filing in November 2024.
By the time of its first bankruptcy filing in 2024, the airline had lost $2.5 billion since 2020.
Spirit Airlines now carries $2.5 billion in long-term debt, the majority of which is due in five years.
When filing for bankruptcy, the airline stated that all flight operations would remain the same as it worked on restructuring the company, according to NPR.
In March, Spirit Airlines CEO Dave Davis said, “It has become clear that there is much more work to be done and many more tools are available to best position Spirit for the future.”
A new report from The Air Current states that the airline needs $100 million in financing to stay afloat.
If Spirit is unable to secure financing by December 13, it may be forced to end all operations abruptly.
Should all operations shutdown, it will affect the thousand of flights booked through December 20.
Air Current reported that Spirit’s competitors are bracing to assist stranded passengers amid cancelations.
“At least two major U.S. airlines are planning for a possible demise of the struggling low-cost carrier as early as Saturday,” according to The Air Current.
The airlines reportedly already have a rescue plan for stranded flyers.
“Each is accelerating plans to provide a schedule to backfill what would be Spirit’s cancelled flights, along with rescue fares for Spirit customers who would be stranded by an abrupt end to its flying heading into one of the busiest travel periods of the year.”
Despite the report, Spirit Airlines said that it’s just a “rumor.”
TAYLOR Swift’s Eras Tour crew were left in shock and nearly “passed out” after she gave giving them $197M in bonuses.
The The Fate of Ophelia hitmaker, 36, is known for her generosity and has previously surprised her team with big bonuses after her tours.
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour crew broke down in tears as she gave them $197M in bonusesCredit: Disney
On her new Disney+ The End of An Era six-part documentary series, Taylor once again stunned her crew with a very kind gesture.
She gathered them around her and one-by-one handed out an envelope – with the bonus amount written inside.
Taylor said: “Everyone has the same message on their card, I was hoping you would open it.”
And judging by their surprised reactions, the amounts inside were no joke.
Taylor is said to have handed out $197 million in bonuses across the entire crew, including six-figure checks for the truck drivers who kept the tour moving.
Her handwritten letter said: “We’ve traveled the world like we set out to do. We’ve dazzled the crowds, but we’ve missed family too.
“My full gratitude doesn’t come from a bank, but here’s [bonus check amount] dollars just to say thanks. Love, Taylor.”
One professional dancer who worked closely on Taylor’s Eras tour nearly passed out when he opened his letter.
During episode two, Taylor prepared for something she calls “bonus day”.
At he end of each leg of the tour, Taylor prepares bonuses for every dancer, musician, and crew member.
Seen handwriting cards, she explained: “Bonus day is so important because setting a precedent with The Eras Tour is really important to me.
“Because people who work on the road, if the tour grosses more, they get more of a bonus, and these people just work so hard and they are the best at what they do.
“So, every single person on the crew, I’ve handwritten them a note. It took me a couple weeks, but it’s fun to write the notes.”
Professional dancer Kameron Saunders, 33, was one of the team members who received an envelope.
Reading Taylor’s message, he said: “Dearest Kam, we’ve travelled the world like we set out to do.
“We’ve dazzled the crowds, but we’ve missed family, too. My full gratitude doesn’t come from a bank, but here are XX dollars just to say thanks. Love, Taylor.”
The exact amount was bleeped out but it has been reported to People that the singer handed out a total of $197 million among her crew.
While assistant crew member Max was left visibly shaken as he read his letter and almost fell to his knees.
A person off camera asked “What’s wrong, Max? Are you alright?”
Clearly overwhelmed, he replied: “I’m gonna pass out.”
The documentary also featured an emotional Taylor breaking down in tears as she opened up about the horrific Southport attack.
TAYLOR IN TEARS
The star appeared shaken while she talked about the tragic events on her new Eras documentary.
Three schoolgirls were murdered by Axel Rudakubana at the Taylor Swift-themed class in Southport, Merseyside, last year.
The evil knifeman, 18, who killed Alice, Bebe and Elsie, was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January.
Taylor revealed that she met the families of the victims ahead of returning to Wembley stadium last summer. She vowed to put on a brave face as she wanted to be in a happy place for them and not show her pain.
Speaking through tears from a hotel in London Taylor said: “I am going to meet some of these families tonight and put on a pop concert, you know.
“I’m going to meet some of these families tonight.
“It’s going to be fine as I am not going to be doing this. I am going to be smiling so any of this gets out of the way before you go on stage.”
Taylor said since the shocking stabbings she has “felt like she is on thin ice” despite her love for being on tour.
AT least two people have been killed and eight others are critically injured after a mass shooting at a top Ivy League school.
Cops are responding to the active situation at Brown University in Rhode Island – with the suspect still understood to be at large.
Emergency personnel gather on Waterman Street at Brown University in ProvidenceCredit: AP
The mayor of Providence – where Brown University is situated – has confirmed that two individuals have been killed in the tragic shooting.
Another eight people are in the hospital in a critical but stable condition, said Mayor Brett Smiley. He added that these numbers could change.
University officials initially told students and staff that a suspect was in custody, before later saying that was not the case and that police were still searching for a suspect or suspects.
Donald Trump posted on Truth Social saying he was briefed about the shooting and that the FBI are at the scene investigating.
The president also claimed that a suspect was taken into custody, but changed his statement shortly.
Brown University is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the US with about 7,300 undergraduates and just over 3,000 graduate students.
Saturday was the second day of final exams for the fall semester.
The Providence police department issued a shelter-in-place order and stated that an active investigation was underway.
It said: “Multiple shot in the area of Brown University. This is an active investigation.
“Please shelter in place or avoid the area until further notice.”
Officials said that there have been multiple shooting victims, but they did not say how many or their conditions.
“The situation is ongoing, and all members of the community should continue to shelter in place,” Brown University said on its website.
It added: “We are very sorry to share that we have confirmed reports of multiple shooting victims, but we do not yet have information about their condition that we are in a position to share.
“They have been transported to local hospitals.”
Kristy DosReis, chief public information officer for the city, said authorities were still gathering information from the active scene.
Henna nights, bold fashion and zero family drama: Pakistan’s fake weddings give young people the excuse to have stylish, stress-free parties devoid of social pressure.
This isn’t a same-sex marriage but an all-women ‘fake wedding’ in IslamabadImage: Hunar Creative Market
The wedding stage looks inconspicuous at first glance: marigold-laden, with bright, cheery yellow tones adorning where the bride and groom sit.
It seems like a typical Pakistani mehndi — part of the country’s traditional three-day wedding festivities — yet a closer look reveals something unusual: the groom is a woman. This isn’t a same-sex marriage but a “fake wedding,” an organized event giving people the chance to get together and enjoy a spectacular night out free from social pressure.
Pakistan’s fake wedding trend, which has been gaining traction since 2023, replicates the aesthetics and festivities of a “real” wedding, but without the lifelong commitment or family pressures that usually define Pakistani marriages.
This type of event increased in popularity after a fake wedding organized by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 2023 gained considerable national and global attention on traditional and social media.
Viral fake wedding triggers backlash
The media coverage caused a significant backlash and criticism alongside its increasing popularity among young people and influencers.
Sairam H. Miran, a former president of the LUMS Student Council, told DW that students at the university faced considerable “online abuse” after footage from the event went viral.
“There is a tendency that people and media focus more on LUMS as an elite university which is out of touch with reality that gets far more traction than any positive news about the same students,” said Miran.
“Just like in the rest of the world, it is possible for university students in Pakistan to have fun and excel at their core jobs at the same time.”
LUMS, like many other Pakistani universities, organizes weekly social events for students and believed that fake weddings provided a more traditional and socially-sanctioned space for celebration and fun.
However, following the backlash, the student council and university took several precautions to ensure students’ safety and privacy, such as not allowing influencers post on public pages.
“There were consequences for the admin who are answerable to donors and parents, and we students who did not consent to becoming viral faced problems with our families as well,” Zara*, a LUMS student who graduated in 2023, told DW.
“The groom didn’t face problems with his family but the bride’s family were very angry,” she added.
Zara asked DW not to use her real name due to negative consequences after footage from the fake wedding went viral.
Fake weddings as gendered safe spaces
Enjoying wedding festivities without societal pressure or the watchful eyes of family is exactly why these fake wedding events are so attractive — especially to women.
Rida Imran, founder of Hunar Creative Market, organized a collaborative women-only fake wedding with other artisans, artists, content creators and event managers in November.
Imran told DW that the mehndi event of a traditional Pakistani wedding, usually the first-day event of a typically three-day wedding, especially brings women together to apply henna, sing, dance and celebrate.
However, for most families, women are still under social pressure to behave in a non-boisterous way at weddings.
“Even though wedding celebrations are such an integral part of our culture and tradition, women still face a lot of scrutiny in how they act, look and celebrate,” said Imran.
“Having this women-only mehndi gave women the opportunity to enjoy the wedding without any social pressure or family scrutiny.”
Authenticity outshines Western wedding templates
Punjrush, a standup comedian and content creator who played the role of “bride,” shared that, as a single woman, she never imagined experiencing such a “drama-free wedding.” She usually feels there is tension between family members or pressures to follow social norms.
She added that the event felt like a “decolonizing moment,” since brand promotions and exhibitions follow a Westernized template, whereas Pakistan’s shaadi (wedding) culture is authentically South Asian.
In addition to authenticity, the sense of safety women feel at fake weddings stands in sharp contrast to other events in the country, such as raves and parties, which are often shadowed by uncertainty and safety concerns.
For example, in October 2024, police raided a Halloween party in Karachi, the capital of Pakistan’s Sindh province, an event widely circulated through news reports and social media and labeled as a “vulgar activity.” Many female attendees had their photos and videos leaked online, breaching their privacy.
According to Shifa Leghari, a journalist and social commentator, Pakistan’s fake weddings provide a much safer space for women without attracting suspicion from authorities or family members as it is a socially acceptable form of celebration.
“These events are also often ticketed or curated so they have controlled entry points and are very culturally appropriate, so people especially women are free to enjoy and men know to act respectfully as well as it is part of the culture of the wedding,” said Leghari.
A growing market for celebration
Within the industrial complex of Pakistani weddings, fake weddings have carved out a considerable niche, yet there is speculation about whether this trend fuels the ever-expanding lavish wedding industry or provides an alternative market outside the mainstream.
Pakistan’s wedding ecosystem — including venues, catering, designer fashion, jewelry, photography and makeup artists — is estimated to be worth at least 900 billion Pakistani rupees (€2.7 billion/$3.2 billion) annually.
Some organizers of fake weddings argue that rather than toeing the line, they provide alternative standards, ideas, vendors and services as they are based on creativity rather than a “copy-paste style” of most traditional weddings.
Over a million households have been left without power after Russia’s overnight drone and missile attacks. The strikes come on the eve of US-Ukraine talks in Berlin.
Zelenskyy says Russia used more than 450 attack drones and 30 missiles in the overnight assaultImage: Nina Liashonok/REUTERS
Odesa suffers major blackouts after Russian attack
Russian drone and missile strikes on Odesa have left the Black Sea port without power and residents queuing for water.
The attacks come as EU, US and Ukrainian officials prepare to meet in Berlin to discuss peace efforts. Key disputes include the future of the Donbas region and Russia’s demand to retain control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Diplomacy remains stalled as fighting intensifies.
Over 100 political prisoners released by Belarus in Ukraine, Kyiv says
Belarus released 123 political prisoners on Saturday, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, as its seeks sanctions relief from the United States.
Ukraine said 114 of those prisoners, including prominent protest leader Maria Kolesnikova, are now on its territory, according to Kyiv’s POW coordination center. Nine others, including Bialiatski, are in Lithuania after the release.
Ukraine said the freed prisoners will be given medical attention. The prisoners can then choose to go to Poland or Lithuania after they receive medical help.
A spokesperson for exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told AFP news agency that the freed captives were sent to Ukraine “unexpectedly.” The spokesperson said this was at the behest of Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said five Ukrainians were among the prisoners who were released by Belarus.
Over 1 million homes lose power after Russian overnight attack
More than 1 million households have been left without electricity following an overnight Russian attack, with repair work already underway, Ukraine’s grid operator has said.
Ukrenergo board chairman Vitalii Zaichenko told Ukrainian television that the situation was most severe in the Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions.
“At present, more than one million customers are without power. However, repair crews from both Ukrenergo and distribution system operators have already started restoration work to reconnect consumers. I hope that today we will restore electricity to most of what was disconnected overnight,” Zaichenko said.
He added that power supply conditions have improved in most regions on Saturday compared with previous days.
Zaichenko said Kyiv would face a total of six hours of outages, while some regions will see outages lasting 8 to 10 hours.
Russia launched more than 450 attack drones and 30 missiles of various types at Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday, damaging more than 10 civilian facilities, Ukrainian authorities said.
Analysis: Merz warning resonates as Ukraine talks loom
This is not the first time that Chancellor Merz warned of the tectonic changes that are already affecting Germany and Europe.
As Ukraine negotiations zoom in on Berlin, where Trump’s chief negotiator Steve Witkoff is expected to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, Merz’s words resonate all the more. Even here, among delegates of his traditionally inward-looking conservative CSU sister party in Bavaria.
Merz’s warnings were in part strikingly similar to Angela Merkel’s sober assessment of Trump’s intentions. When she returned from her first visit to see the new US President in 2017, she warned of Trump’s America turning its back on Europe. But Merz goes much further.
He underlines his assessment that Europe “is no longer in peace” with Russia by comparing the situation in Ukraine to 1938, when Germany first annexed Austria, then parts of Czechoslovakia, and Britain and France tolerated Germany’s aggression, hoping Hitler would stop there. He didn’t.
Merz’s warning comes less than 48 hours after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Europe is “next” for Putin.
The German chancellor sees Germany’s return to economic growth as the precondition to Germany being able to lead Europe into a stable future that can preserve the European way of life in freedom, prosperity and under the rule of international law.
The fact that CSU delegates gave Merz more applause than their own party leader, Markus Söder, upon his reelection at the same party conference shows that while Germany is busy with its inner turmoil over much-needed spending reform, there is a growing appetite to face tough truths even among regional politicians here in Germany.
Merz warns Putin will not stop if Ukraine falls
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin will continue his advance if Ukraine is defeated.
Speaking on Saturday at the party conference of the Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) in Munich, Merz said Putin would not stop and argued that the war was about redrawing Europe’s borders and restoring the former Soviet sphere of influence.
Merz said this course posed a serious military threat to countries that were once part of that empire, including Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which are now members of NATO and the EU, as well as other former Warsaw Pact states.
He has also warned Europe to prepare for a lasting shift in relations with the United States.
“The decades of Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe, and for us in Germany as well. It no longer exists as we knew it. And nostalgia won’t change that,” he told a party congress in the southern city of Munich.
Merz told members of the CSU, sister party to his own Christian Democrats, this situation required Europe to strengthen its own defenses to deter an increasingly aggressive Russia. He warned strongly against making major concessions to Moscow in its war against Ukraine, repeating that Putin would not stop if Ukraine fell.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war have been intensifying. US special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Berlin over the weekend to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders.
Merz did not outline specific expectations for the talks but named four priorities: continued support for Ukraine, EU unity, major investment in Europe’s defense capabilities, and preserving NATO for as long as possible.
Zelenskyy says Russia hit energy sector in overnight attacks
Ukraine has been working to restore electricity and water supplies after overnight Russian strikes hit multiple regions, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
In a message posted on Telegram, Zelenskyy said the main impact was again on the energy sector, particularly in the south and in the Odesa region.
He said two people were injured in the Odesa region and more than a dozen civilian facilities were damaged nationwide.
According to Zelenskyy, thousands of families were left without electricity after strikes in the Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions, with additional attacks reported in the Dnipro and Cherkasy regions.
Zelenskyy said Russia used more than 450 attack drones and 30 missiles of various types in the overnight assault.
He said emergency and utility services were working to stabilize the situation and thanked those involved in restoration efforts.
He said the attacks showed Russia was not seeking to end the war but to inflict maximum damage on Ukraine and its population.
Zelenskyy called for stronger support for Ukraine, including enhanced air defense, greater long-range capabilities, support for troops at the front, and increased pressure on Russia to end the war it launched.
More power outages in Ukraine as Russia hits infrastructure
Russian missile and drone strikes have crippled a major Ukrainian power plant, leaving Kyiv in darkness and forcing workers to salvage Soviet-era equipment.
With over 200 attacks since the war began, repairs are slow and parts scarce. Officials warn only stronger air defenses can prevent repeat strikes as crews race to restore electricity amid relentless bombardment and daily air raid alerts.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses offsite power again
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all offsite power overnight for the 12th time during the war, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.
Military activity had disrupted the electrical grid, the agency said on Saturday, citing Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
Both external power lines have since been reconnected, according to the IAEA.
The Russian-controlled plant, located near the front line, is not operating but needs a constant electricity supply to keep its reactors cool, with backup diesel generators available when grid power is cut.
Russia says it carried out retaliatory hypersonic strike
Russia has said it struck Ukrainian industrial and energy facilities overnight using hypersonic missiles in what it described as a retaliation attack.
The Defense Ministry said on Saturday it carried out a “massive strike” on Ukrainian military and energy targets, including with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, in response to what it called Ukraine’s attacks on civilian targets in Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the strikes damaged more than a dozen civilian facilities across Ukraine, leaving thousands without power in seven regions.
“It is important that everyone now sees what Russia is doing … for this is clearly not about ending the war,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
“They still aim to destroy our state and inflict maximum pain on our people,” he added.
Russia has repeatedly carried out large-scale missile and drone attacks on civilian targets across Ukraine since 2022.
Ukraine has conducted strikes inside Russian territory, especially since 2023, using drones, missiles, and sabotage operations. Ukraine says its attacks are aimed at military or dual-use targets and it denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Berlin talks expected Sunday
The talks on a possible ceasefire in Ukraine between foreign policy advisers from the US, Ukraine, and Germany are expected to resume on Sunday in Berlin, German government sources told Germany’s DPA news agency.
The White House said Friday that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff would travel to Berlin for talks with Ukrainian advisors and European officials.
Several people were reported shot at the Rhode Island-based university.
Law enforcement officials gather outside the Brown University campus in ProvidenceImage: Kimberlee Kruesi/AP Photo/picture alliance
US police confirmed on Saturday that “multiple” people had been shot after reports of an active shooting situation on Brown University’s campus in Providence.
“Multiple shot in the area of Brown University. This is an active investigation. Please shelter in place or avoid the area until further notice,” Providence Police wrote on X.
Multiple shot in the area of Brown University. This is an active investigation. Please shelter in place or avoid the area until further notice.
There were no immediate details about the victims’ conditions or the circumstances of the shooting.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump said “the FBI is on the scene” and that “the suspect is in custody,” only to later reverse the latter statement.
Earlier, officials said a suspect was in custody, but the school emergency alert system later said “police do not have a suspect in custody and continue to search for suspect(s).”
Swifties can now watch the emotional moment Taylor Swift brought her Eras Tour crew to tears with her generous gift of $197 million in bonuses.
In a scene from her new docuseries “The End of an Era,” the “Lover” hitmaker could be seen passing out handwritten notes to each of her crew members as they gathered around the pop star.
“Everybody has the same message on their cards so I was hoping you could open it together,” Swift, 36, told the crowd in a clip shared on X Friday.
“Before you open yours I just want to say you guys this leg of the tour has been harder than anything I’ve ever done in a live setting and you guys have taken this on with such excitement, such curiosity and the endurance you’ve shown. The spirit you’ve shown.”
Taylor Swift sweetly shared the emotional moment when she gifted her Eras Tour crew with their reported $197 million in bonuses in her “End of an Era” docuseries. Disney
“How much you’ve given to these crowds, that gives to me every single night. The tour has done really well thanks to all of our hard work. So if you could kindly read the message.”
Then, one of the crew members named Cam read his message aloud.
“Dearest Cam, we’ve travelled the world like we set out to do. We’ve dazzled the crowds but we’ve missed family too,” he read.
“My full gratitude doesn’t come from a bank but here’s a [redacted] dollars just to say thanks. Love Taylor,” he continued. The exact amount of money Swift gave to the dancers was censored in the clip.
Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ crew’s reaction as they receive their bonus for working on the tour
Over the past two years, Swift gave out $197 million in bonuses to everyone working on her Eras Tour, including truck drivers, caterers, dancers and musicians pic.twitter.com/KjaZCZBRHJ
Almost immediately, the scene skipped to show a sea of crew members wiping away their tears at the thoughtful gesture.
In another moment, one of Swift’s production assistants, Max Holmes, was seen getting a hug from one of his co-workers after he said he was “gonna pass out.”
The Grammy winner then hugged several crew members and exchanged “I love yous” with the elated room.
Elsewhere in the scene, Swift explained that giving out bonuses to her tour crew is significant to her “because setting a precedent with the Eras Tour is really important to me.”
“People who work on the road — if the tour grosses more, they get more of a bonus. And these people just work so hard. And they are the best at what they do,” she said in a different clip shared online.
Mayhem strikes again at Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball Tour.
Lady Gaga briefly paused her final Mayhem Ball Tour concert in Sydney on Friday after one of her dancers fell off the stage during heavy rainfall at Accor Stadium.
Video circulating on social media showed the Grammy winner, 39, performing her song, “Garden of Eden” when her dancers marched to the front of the rain-soaked stage’s runway.
The move resulted in Michael Dameski sliding all the way off of the slippery platform.
Lady Gaga was forced to pause her show after one of her dancers fell off the rain-soaked stage at Accor Stadium in Sydney. Best Image / BACKGRID
The band of dancers were quick to respond as Gaga appeared to quickly run to the rescue.
Another concertgoers’ POV showed the pop star waving her arms as she told the rest of her crew to “stop” and halted the performance to check on her fallen friend.
“Just one second,” she said on the microphone, before climbing off the stage to ask Dameski, “Are you okay?”
She then briefly paused the show to allow the dancers to find more appropriate shoes for the unwieldy weather.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presides over the 13th plenary meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this picture released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, December 12, 2025. KCNA via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, the North’s KCNA news agency reported on Saturday.
In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment.
Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials gathered to welcome the troops.
KCNA said the unit had been dispatched in early August and carried out combat and engineering tasks in the Kursk region of Russia during Moscow’s war with Ukraine.
Last month, Russia’s Defence Ministry said North Korean troops who helped Russia repel a major Ukrainian incursion into its western Kursk region are now playing an important role in clearing the area of mines.
Under a mutual defence pact between the two countries, North Korea last year sent some 14,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russia in Kursk, and more than 6,000 were killed, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western sources.
Kim said nine soldiers were killed during the mission, describing their deaths as a “heartrending loss,” and announced that the regiment would be awarded the Order of Freedom and Independence. The nine fallen soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, along with other state honours, KCNA said.
The welcoming ceremony was held on Friday in Pyongyang and was attended by senior military officials, ruling party leaders, families of the soldiers and large crowds, according to the report.
A street cleaner walks near sculptures at the foot of skyscrapers of the Moscow International Business Centre, also known as Moskva-City, in Moscow, Russia, October 2, 2025. REUTERS/Ramil Sitdikov/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The European Union agreed on Friday to indefinitely freeze Russian central bank assets held in Europe, removing a big obstacle to using the cash to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.
The EU wants to keep Ukraine financed and fighting as it sees Russia’s invasion as a threat to its own security. To do so, EU states aim to put to work some of the Russian sovereign assets they immobilised after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
A first big step, which EU governments agreed on Friday, is to immobilise 210 billion euros ($246 billion) worth of Russian sovereign assets for as long as needed instead of voting every six months on extending the asset freeze.
This removes the risk that Hungary and Slovakia, which have better relations with Moscow than other EU states, could refuse to roll over the freeze at some point, forcing the EU to return the money to Russia.
PLANNED LOAN TO UKRAINE
The indefinite asset freeze is meant to help convince Belgium to support the EU’s plan to use the frozen Russian cash to extend a loan of up to 165 billion euros to Ukraine to cover its military and civilian budget needs in 2026 and 2027.
The loan would be paid back by Ukraine only when Russia pays Kyiv war damages, making the loan effectively a grant that advances future Russian reparations payments.
EU leaders – the European Council – are to meet on December 18 to finalise details of the reparations loan and resolve remaining problems, which include guarantees from all EU governments for Belgium that it would not be left alone to foot the bill should a potential Moscow lawsuit prove successful.
Before that, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will visit Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday, with further European, EU and NATO leaders joining them later, the German government said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, writing on X social platform in English, praised the decision as a “landmark step toward justice and accountability”.
“This decision strengthens the foundation for the reparations loan mechanism and brings us closer to a future in which Russia pays for its crimes and destruction caused,” she wrote.
Germany sees no alternative to the reparations loan and would provide 50 billion euros in guarantees, European diplomatic sources said.
Danish Finance Minister Stephanie Lose, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters “some worries” still needed to be addressed but “hopefully we’ll be able to pave the way towards a decision at the European Council next week.”
European Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis said solid guarantees were being put together for Belgium.
RUSSIAN CENTRAL BANK SAYS IT’S SUING EUROCLEAR
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Facebook he believed the EU move to freeze Russian assets indefinitely via a qualified majority vote – requiring the support of 15 of the 27 member states representing 65% of the EU population – would cause irreparable damage to the bloc.
Hungary would do all it could to “restore a lawful state of affairs,” he said.
Russia’s central bank said the EU plans to use its assets were illegal and reserved the right to use all available means to protect its interests, remarks shrugged off by Dombrovskis.
The bank also said it was suing the Brussels-based central securities depository Euroclear – which holds 185 billion euros of the total assets frozen in Europe – in a Moscow court over what it said were damaging actions, affecting its ability to dispose of its funds and securities.
Euroclear has been subject to Russian lawsuits in Moscow courts since the EU froze the assets in 2022.
Nvidia (NVDA.O), has told Chinese clients it is evaluating adding production capacity for its powerful H200 AI chips after orders exceeded its current output level, according to two sources briefed on the matter.
The move comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the U.S. government would allow Nvidia to export H200 processors, its second-fastest AI chips, to China and collect a 25% fee on such sales.
Demand for the chip from Chinese companies is so strong that Nvidia is leaning toward adding new capacity, one of the sources said. They declined to be named as the discussions are private.
“We are managing our supply chain to ensure that licensed sales of the H200 to authorized customers in China will have no impact on our ability to supply customers in the United States,” an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters after the story was published.
Major Chinese companies including Alibaba (9988.HK), and ByteDance have already reached out to Nvidia this week about purchasing the H200 and are keen to place large orders, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
However, uncertainties remain, as the Chinese government has yet to greenlight any purchase of the H200. Chinese officials convened emergency meetings on Wednesday to discuss the matter and will decide whether to allow it to be shipped into China, said one of the two sources and a third source.
Very limited quantities of H200 chips are currently in production, Reuters reported on Wednesday, as the U.S. AI chip leader is focused on producing its most advanced Blackwell and upcoming Rubin lines.
CHINA PROMOTING OWN AI INDUSTRY
Supply of H200 chips has been a major concern for Chinese clients and they have reached out to Nvidia seeking clarity on this, sources said.
Nvidia logo and Chinese flag are seen in this illustration taken August 27, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights
As part of the briefing provided by Nvidia, the company has also given them guidance on current supply levels, said one of the first two people, without providing a specific number.
The H200 went into mass deployment last year and is the fastest AI chip in Nvidia’s previous Hopper generation. The chip is manufactured by TSMC (2330.TW), using the Taiwanese firm’s 4nm manufacturing process technology.
TSMC and China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Chinese companies’ strong demand for the H200 stems from the fact that it is easily the most powerful chip they can currently access.
It is about six times more powerful than the H20, a downgraded chip from Nvidia tailored for the Chinese market that was released in late 2023.
Trump’s decision on the H200 comes at a time when China is pushing to promote its own domestic AI chip industry. As domestic chip companies have yet to produce products that match the H200, there have been concerns that allowing the H200 into China could stymie the industry.
“Its (H200) compute performance is approximately 2-3 times that of the most advanced domestically produced accelerators,” said Nori Chiou, investment director at White Oak Capital Partners.
“I’m already observing many CSPs (Cloud Service Providers) and enterprise customers aggressively placing large orders and lobbying the government to relax restrictions on a conditional basis,” he said, adding Chinese AI demand exceeds the capacity of local production.
Participants attend the memorial ceremony to mark the 88th anniversary of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre on the National Memorial Day at the Nanjing Massacre Museum in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, December 13, 2025. REUTERS/Staff Purchase Licensing Rights
China held a low-key memorial ceremony on Saturday for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with President Xi Jinping not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan.
Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said last month that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Chinese-claimed Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan.
China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital.
A post-World War Two Allied tribunal put the death toll in the eastern city of Nanjing at 142,000, but some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars have denied a massacre took place at all.
MEMORIAL CEREMONY
At Saturday’s ceremony being held at the national memorial centre in Nanjing, Shi Taifeng, head of the ruling Communist Party’s powerful organisation department, referenced Xi’s speech at a military parade in Beijing in September marking 80 years since the end of World War Two.
But Shi’s remarks were far less combative than recent rhetoric from Chinese government officials.
“History has fully demonstrated that the Chinese nation is a great nation that fears no power and stands on its own feet,” he said.
He did not mention Takaichi but alluded to China’s previous claims that she seeks to revive Japan’s history of militarism.
“History has proven and will continue to prove that any attempt to revive militarism, challenge the postwar international order, or undermine world peace and stability will never be tolerated by all peace-loving and justice-seeking peoples around the world and is doomed to fail.”
Doves flew over the site after the ceremony, which was completed in less than half an hour, in front of an audience that included police officers and school children.
XI LAST ATTENDED EVENT IN 2017
China marked its first national memorial day for the massacre in 2014, where Xi spoke and called on China and Japan to set aside hatred and not allow the minority who led Japan to war to affect relations now.
Xi last attended the event in person in 2017 but did not deliver public remarks.
China’s State Council Information Office, which handles questions from foreign media to the central government, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Xi’s absence.
The unhinged homeless woman accused of stabbing a tourist changing her baby at Macy’s Herald Square was released from a psychiatric hospital hours before the attack — and bought the knife she used at the store after hearing “voices” in her head telling her to “kill,” prosecutors revealed.
Kerri Aherne, 43, had been let out of the Manhattan Psychiatric Center following a year of treatment when she strolled into the iconic Midtown store, purchased the blade and carried out the savage attack against a 38-year-old California mother Thursday afternoon, prosecutors said at her arraignment Friday night.
“She had purchased a knife at Macy’s and looked for someone to kill because voices in her head told her that she had to kill someone or else she would be killed,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Paul Barker told the court.
Kerri Aherne was arrested and charged with attempted murder for the alleged attack at Macy’s during the busy holiday season. James Keivom/Pool/ New York Post
Aherne was wearing a ragged white sweater and a face mask when she was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on attempted murder, assault, child endangerment and weapons possession charges.
Barker noted that while the alleged knife-wielding fiend had no priors in the Big Apple, she was arrested in her native Massachusetts in 2018 for making online posts threatening to kill Sen. Elizabeth Warren and “getting a gun” to shoot someone at a “local police station.”
The troubled suspect first arrived in New York City via Uber from Massachusetts while on leave from a hospital there, he added.
It’s unclear why she then began receiving treatment at a separate hospital in Manhattan.
Aherne launched her vicious attack after seeing the victim enter the seventh-floor bathroom of the crowded flagship store with her 10-month-old daughter around 3:10 p.m., according to prosecutors and sources.
The victim, who had been holiday shopping at Macy’s with her husband and children, was repeatedly hacked in the back, shoulder, and arm with the knife.
“In the course of the assault, the baby fell from the table to the floor, but the mother was able to subdue the assailant,” Barker added.
The slashed mom, who works as a civilian for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, where her husband is a deputy, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, while her attacker was arrested.
While the victim’s back and arm were riddled with stab wounds, she was miraculously discharged from the hospital Friday.
“She is better,” her husband told The Post, declining to comment further.
Court records show Aherne has long struggled with mental illness.
The Tewksbury native was deemed an incapacitated person in 2019, with her mother and sister appointed as her guardians, records show.
She was placed on a court-ordered treatment plan to keep her taking Prolixin, an antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia, according to the records.
She last posted on her Facebook — which features anti-Trump comments, movie clips and incoherent rants — in 2018.
“Going a little insane,” one of her last posts prophetically states, along with a still from a Michael Jackson video.
A creepy naked snap of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein lounging in a bubble bath was among 70 new photos Democrats of the House Oversight Committee released Friday night.
The vile image shows Epstein reclining in a bathtub, with a curtain exposing just the upper half of his bare body as he stares into the camera with a smug smirk.
Another photo in the latest batch shows the disgraced financier – fully clothed – in a selfie-style shot with what looks like a noticeably swollen upper lip.
A naked photo of late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein lounging in a bubble bath was among new photos Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released on Friday. Oversight Dems
“In the interest of transparency, we will continue to release photos from the Epstein estate,” House Democrats said in a statement following the latest photo dump.
Lawmakers signaled there will be “more to come.”
Early Friday, the committee received 95,000 images from Epstein’s estate, but only released 19, showing celebrities, royalty, political heavyweights, and dark glimpses of Epstein’s twisted kinks.
Many photos featured film director Woody Allen, former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon, Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
President Trump and former President Bill Clinton were also seen in what appear to be pictures taken of earlier photographs.
In one image, Clinton poses with Epstein and his accomplice, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, along with another couple.
A black-and-white photo shows Trump posing with six women whose faces were obscured.
In another picture, apparently taken on a private jet, Trump is seen with his tie loosened and sitting next to a blonde woman. The woman’s face is also blacked out.
One image shows a display of “Trump condoms” — a popular novelty item during the 2016 presidential campaign — featuring a cartoon of the 45th and 47th president and the message “I’m huuuuge!”
While the latest round of images didn’t include the president, one photo shows a pumpkin carved with a face, topped with a blonde wig and a sign reading “TRUMPKIN” and “Make Halloween Great Again.”
The suspects have been identified as Manjot Bhatti, Navjot Bhatti, and Amanjot Bhatti, while the fourth suspect, still at large, remains unnamed.
Three Indian-origin truck drivers have been arrested in connection with a shootout between two rival tow-truck groups in Canada. The search is still on for a fourth suspect, said Peel Regional Police, sharing a video of the shootout in Brampton.
The incident occurred around 10:45 pm (local time) on October 7 in a parking lot in the McVean Drive and Castlemore Road area. Two separate groups engaged in an altercation during which gunshots were fired. One person was hurt, but the injuries were not serious, said a senior police officer.
“Following a lengthy investigation, investigators identified three individuals associated with one of the involved groups. On November 20, police executed a search warrant at a residence in Caledon. As a result, investigators located and arrested the suspects,” read a police statement.
The suspects have been identified as Manjot Bhatti, Navjot Bhatti, and Amanjot Bhatti, while the fourth suspect, still at large, remains unnamed.
Manjot has been charged with the intentional reckless discharge of a firearm, possession of a loaded prohibited firearm, careless storage of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, knowledge of unauthorized possession of a firearm, and being an occupant of a vehicle despite knowing there was a firearm.
His bail hearing is pending at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton, and he has since been released on bail, the police said.
US President Donald Trump was among several prominent figures featured in the images released on Friday
Democratic US lawmakers have released two new batches of photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, revealing details of the convicted paedophile’s home and ties to the rich and powerful.
US President Donald Trump, former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon are among the high-profile figures featured in the photos. The images, many of which have been seen before, do not imply wrongdoing.
The nearly 100 photos released by members of the House Oversight Committee on Friday are some of more than 95,000 images obtained via subpoena, the Democrats said.
The justice department is separately approaching a deadline next week to publish all Epstein-related documents.
In the first batch of photos released on Friday by lawmakers, Epstein is seen with multiple high-profile figures, none of whom have yet commented. Many of them have previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
Trump appeared in three of the images released on Friday. One image showed him standing next to a woman whose face has been redacted.
Another showed Trump standing next to Epstein while talking to model Ingrid Seynhaeve at a 1997 Victoria’s Secret party in New York – an image that was already publicly available.
A third photo showed Trump smiling with several women, whose faces have also been redacted, flanked on either side of him.
An additional photo showed an illustrated likeness of the president on red packets next to a sign that reads: “Trump Condom”.
The White House called the release a “Democrat hoax” against Trump that has been “repeatedly debunked”. Trump had for months argued the Epstein saga was a distraction orchestrated by his critics to take attention away from his administration’s accomplishments.
Friday’s files also include private images of Epstein, including one of him in a bathtub and another that appears to show sexual toys. They also show him with several other prominent people including former President Bill Clinton and tech billionaire Bill Gates.
One photo featuring Clinton shows him standing next to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 for her role in facilitating the disgraced financier’s abuse.
Two other people the BBC has yet to identify are also in the image, which appeared to have been signed by Clinton.
Clinton has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. In 2019, a spokesperson said he “knows nothing about the terrible crimes” Epstein pleaded guilty to.
One image included in Friday’s batch was a cropped section of a picture originally taken by a photographer working for Getty Images in 2018, which showed King Charles in conversation with Microsoft founder Gates at a London summit.
The image contained in Epstein’s collection was cropped to show only Andrew and Gates.
Andrew, who has faced years of scrutiny over his past relationship with Epstein, was stripped of his “prince” title and left his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge, earlier this year. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is also seen in some of the images. In one, he is shown speaking with Epstein at a desk, and in another, standing beside him in front of a mirror.
A third image shows him speaking with filmmaker Woody Allen.
Other prominent figures who appear in the images include US economist Larry Summers, lawyer Alan Dershowitz and entrepreneur Richard Branson. Not all the images show those individuals in the company of Epstein.
No additional context or details were included, so it is not clear when, why or where many of the photos were taken or by whom, including images from what appear to be Epstein’s estate in the US Virgin Islands, showing multiple rooms – including one with a dental chair surrounded by sculptures of moustached men on the walls, a scene which featured in a previous release of Epstein files.
There is an image of an orange pumpkin with a blonde wig that has been carved in the likeness of Trump. Above it, a sign reads: “Trumpkin. Make Halloween Great Again.”
Republicans, who are in the majority on the House Oversight Committee, have accused Democrats of “cherry-picking photos and making targeted redactions to create a false narrative about President Trump”.
In a statement, Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the congressional committee, said: “It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends.”
“These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world. We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW,” he added.
Epstein’s connection to multiple high-profile figures, along with various unanswered questions about the case, and his 2019 suicide in a Manhattan jail as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges, has fuelled online conspiracies and demands for greater transparency around the investigations into the billionaire financier.
Following months of pressure from across the political spectrum, the justice department has until 19 December to release all documents related to the Epstein case as required by a bill passed nearly unanimously by Congress and signed by Trump in November.
That upcoming deadline is separate from the congressional investigation into the Epstein case.
Friday’s publications mark the second time in a month that Democrats on the committee have published new images from its inquiry into Epstein.
They originally released 19 images on Friday morning before publishing another nearly 80 later in the day, saying in a statement: “In the interest of transparency, we will continue to release photos from the Epstein estate.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash is predicted to be one of the year’s highest-grossing movies
It’s no secret the Avatar films are a gigantic technical feat – pushing the boundaries of cinematography, animation and performance capture.
But you may not be aware that the same applies to the music.
Composer Simon Franglen says work on the third instalment, Avatar: Fire and Ash, took an epic seven years to complete.
Along the way, he wrote 1,907 pages of orchestral score; and even invented new instruments for the residents of the alien planet Pandora to play.
And, with director James Cameron tinkering with the edit until the very last minute, the British musician only finished his final musical cue five days before the film was printed and delivered.
In total, Avatar contains “four times as much” music as a standard Hollywood film, says Franglen, with almost the entirety of its 195-minute running time requiring music.
“But I got 10 minutes off for good behaviour,” he laughs.
Fire and Ash is the third instalment in the record-breaking series, continuing the saga of the blue Na’vi population, who are protecting their planet from human invaders, intent on stripping its natural resources.
The new film, released on 19 December, takes audiences back to the astonishingly vivid landscapes of Pandora, but it also sends them on a visceral emotional journey.
At the start of the film, the two main characters Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) are mourning the death of their teenage son, Neteyam.
Unable to see eye-to-eye, the grief threatens to tear the couple apart.
Franglen was tasked with creating a score that could reflect the depth of their despair.
“I wanted to make sure that you felt that sense of distance that was growing between them,” he says.
“So what I would do is, I would take two lines [of music] and I’d have them moving apart, or I would make them go wrong, so that they felt austere and cold and disconnected.”
“Grief is not something that is ever addressed in these sorts of films,” he continues, “but for any family, the loss of a child is the worst thing you can go through.
“Musically, the important stuff is often the quiet moments.”
A hoedown on a galleon
By contrast, when Franglen composed the music for the Wind Traders – a nomadic clan of salesmen, who travel by airship – he could let his imagination run wild.
Their swashbuckling themes are inspired by the action movies of the 1930s and 40s, but they also feature brand new instruments, unique to Pandora.
“When we meet the wind traders [they’re having] a hoedown on their enormous Galleon,” says Franglen.
“The problem was that, if you are having a Pandoran party, what do they play? I can’t give them guitar, bass and drums. I can’t give them a banjo.
“You have to have a real instrument that would be designed for three metre-tall, blue people with four fingers.
“And because Avatar is not animation, when there are instruments on screen, you have to have the real thing,” he says, referring to Cameron’s rule that everything on screen has to be rooted in reality, even though the film’s imagery is largely computer-generated.
“So I sketched out some instruments, and gave them to the art department, who made these beautiful designs.”
Franglen’s creations included a long-necked lute, similar to a Turkish saz, with strings that represent the rigging of the Wind Traders’ ship.
A percussion instrument was also designed, with the drum head using the same material as the vessel’s sails.
The art department’s renders were then given to prop master Brad Elliott, who built the instruments on a 3D printers, and the actors played them for real on set.
For now, however, these inventions have no official name.
“They are currently called ‘the stringy things’ and ‘the drummy things’,” laughs Franglen.
“I’m sure there’s a better name. Somebody said we should have a competition.”
Franglen’s musical career started when he was just 13 years old- he wrote a letter to the BBC asking how someone would go about becoming a record producer.
Mistakenly assuming he was asking about radio production, the corporation advised him to study electronics – leading him to a course at Manchester University in the early 1980s.
He arrived just as the Hacienda Club opened (“I was member 347”) and spent his free time booking bands for the college’s concert venue.
“I remember booking Tears for Fears and 11 people came,” he says.
After graduating, he was hired to work as a synth programmer, and was introduced to Trevor Horn – who set him to work on pivotal 80s albums by Yes and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
Eventually, he decided to try his luck in America where, “after six months of doing almost nothing”, he became an in-demand session musician and programmer.
Credits started to rack up on hits like Toni Braxton’s Unbreak My Heart, All 4 One’s I Swear and Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing; and he eventually found himself programming drums for Michael Jackson’s HIStory album.
“The pressure was to make it great,” he says. “To have that sense of groove, what we call, ‘the pocket’.
“And a big part of my career is that I had a good pocket. I understood where things should feel and how they should hit. And that is as important with film scores as it is when you’re making a Michael Jackson record.”
Franglen’s first experience of film scoring came when Bond composer John Barry asked him to assist on Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning Dances With Wolves. He was later hired to do the “dark and nasty stuff” on David Fincher’s Se7en.
“My job was to provide the dystopian edge that that score has. So I would take squealing brakes, make samples of them, and then play all the violin lines with squealing brakes underneath.
“There was a lot of experimental stuff, which was incredibly fun.”
Franglen first met Avatar director James Cameron after being hired by legendary film composer James Horner, to work “on a film he had no money for”.
The film was Titanic – a notorious white elephant, dismissed as a vanity project, and predicted to bring about the collapse of film studios Fox and Paramount.
The composer had seen the headlines, but when Cameron showed him the scene where the Titanic broke in half and started to sink, he realised the press had got it wrong.
“It was just astonishing, in comparison to anything you’d seen before. I knew it was special.”
Even so, there was no budget left for the music, Franglen had to borrow equipment and instruments from the manufacturers, and the majority of the score was recorded on synthesizers in a rented apartment.
“Part of the reason that Titanic sounds the way that it does, is because there wasn’t enough money for [an] orchestra everywhere,” he says.
The opposite is true on Avatar.
“Jim [Cameron] still believes that the good things take time. And as a composer, having that ability to refine and to make something special is something that is rare these days.”
The director also went to great lengths to ensure his latest film is free from artificial intelligence.
“He very specifically asked me, ‘So, we’re not using any AI? We’re not putting any real musicians out of work’,” Franglen recalls.
“It’s fair to say that if you gave a lot of film producers the option to save money, they would take that option.
“Jim is in a situation where he will not compromise, and that’s as important when it comes to the music as it is to the live performances of the actors.”
As the film prepares to open, Franglen is celebrating a Golden Globe nomination for the theme song, Dream As One, sung by Miley Cyrus.
But he’s also thinking about what comes next. Cameron has already completed the scripts for Avatar Four and Five; scheduled to come out in 2029 and 2031.
“Four is… I think it’s astonishing,” says Franglen. “It goes into whole new territories, and I love it.”
Initial footage has already been shot, but Cameron says completing the film will depend on the box office performance of Fire and Ash.
Kolhapuri chappals came under the spotlight after Prada replicated their design
Global fashion brand Prada has announced a line of limited-edition footwear inspired by Indian-made Kolhapuri sandals, months after it faced backlash for allegedly appropriating the sandal’s design.
The Italian luxury brand will make 2,000 pairs of sandals in India’s Maharashtra and Karnataka states, under a deal with two state-backed entities, Reuters news agency reports.
“We’ll mix the original manufacturer’s standard capabilities with our manufacturing techniques”, Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s head of Corporate Social Responsibility, said.
The collection is set to go on sale in February 2026, online and in 40 Prada stores across the world.
A pair of sandals are reportedly set to be sold for $939, which amounts to around £800 and 84,000 rupees.
The agreement was signed on Thursday during the Italy-India Business Forum 2025.
In June, Prada courted controversy after it showcased sandals that had an open-toe braided pattern that closely resembled the traditional Kolhapuri sandals made in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Prada described the sandals as “leather footwear” but did not mention its Indian origins, prompting backlash and allegations of cultural appropriation in India.
The brand later acknowledged the footwear design’s Indian roots.
A Prada spokesperson at that time told the BBC that the company has “always celebrated craftsmanship, heritage and design traditions”, adding that it was “in contact with the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture on this topic”. This is a prominent industry trade body in the state.
On Friday, Maharashtra’s Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat told BBC Marathi that the new initiative will be called ‘Prada Made in India – Inspired by Kolhapuri Chappals [sandals]’.
“Keeping in mind Prada’s requirements and demand, some artisans will receive special training from Prada and LIDCOM [a state-backed entity supporting the leather industry in Maharashtra]. Additionally, around 200 Kolhapuri chappal artisans will be given three years of training in Italy,” he said.
Mr Shirsat said the agreement had been signed for five years, but expressed confidence that it would be extended further.
The price of following a team all the way through the tournament has increased significantly since the last World Cup in Qatar
Supporters are continuing to speak of their frustration at the astronomical cost of following the 2026 World Cup.
The Football Supporters’ Association has called ticket prices a “laughable insult” to fans.
For some smaller nations, the cost of group-stage tickets is going to be higher than a month’s wages in that country. And that is before factoring in travel and accommodation.
One Ghana fan told the BBC of “anger and disappointment” that Black Stars supporters might now be forced to cancel their plans.
Fifa’s ticket price policy was revealed on Thursday, with group-stage tickets up to three times the prices of those for Qatar in 2022. The cheapest ticket for the final will cost £3,119.
On Friday, Fifa said it had received five million ticket requests from fans in more than 200 countries in the 24 hours since the latest ticketing phase opened.
Ticket prices outstrip wages for many countries
“It’s a chance to qualify. It is a chance to participate in a big event,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino declared in January 2017.
The Fifa Council had just unanimously voted to expand the World Cup to 48 teams. Nations who had never or rarely reached the finals were being given hope.
Infantino added: “Football is more than Europe and South America. Football is global.
“The football fever you have in a country that qualifies for the World Cup is the most powerful tool you can have, in those nine months before qualifying and the finals.”
Yet that “football fever” is falling a little flat after the ticket prices were released.
While the players will be there, the price of tickets could outstrip wages.
Take Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world. The average wage in the Caribbean nation is around $147 (£110) a month.
The cheapest tickets for Haiti’s first game at the World Cup in 52 years, against Scotland, cost $180 (£135).
To attend all three matches – they also play Brazil and Morocco – would cost $625 (£467). That’s more than four months’ salary for the average Haitian, just to get into the ground.
It’s a similar story for Ghana, where the average monthly salary is around $254 (£190).
Ghana supporter Jojo Quansah told BBC World Service that fans would have to cancel their plans.
“It’s a bit of a disappointment for those who, for the last three-and-a-half years, have been trying to put some money away in the hope that they can have their first World Cup experience,” he said.
“Fifa themselves have gone ahead to increase the number of teams so a lot more smaller football nations will get a chance to have themselves and their fans represented.
“It’s been overshadowed by pricing those same fans out of a chance to watch their country play at the World Cup.
“I have a feeling that quite a number of people within the next couple of months, are going to drop out of that desire to be at the next World Cup. Sadly. So sadly.”
Other nations could see their fans priced out.
You’ve bought your tickets, how about the flights?
Any fan wanting to follow their team from the first game to the final – if they get there – will spend a minimum of £5,200 on tickets.
There there’s travel. For an England fan planning to attend the group stage, current prices show flights from London to Dallas to Boston to New York/New Jersey and then home are £1,300. Add on £526 if you get the cheapest match tickets.
It gets a lot more expensive if you want to go for the whole tournament. If they were winners of Group L, England would have to go from Atlanta to Mexico City and then to Miami. Those two flights alone would cost £800.
Flights across the tournament could cost £2,600. Add on the cheapest match tickets, and it is £7,800.
What about Scotland fans travelling from Glasgow? Flights across the group stage would cost £1,675 each, with the lowest ticket price bracket £500 on top.
If Scotland were to win Group C, flights through to the final would be £2,357. With tickets that is £7,567.
These prices are as of today. Many supporters would not want to book flights for the knockout rounds before they know they need to travel. By then, it could be a lot more expensive.
What England and Scotland fans are saying
Paul Clegg (61), from Blackburn, says: “This will be my fifth World Cup. I haven’t missed a game since 2014.
“I’m in contact with England fans all over the country. I’m a top capper.
“We all plan to boycott games after the group stage.
“Football is dead.”
Anne-Marie Carr (54), from York, says: “I have diligently attended England matches so that I can earn the caps to get tickets for major tournaments only to then find that I, as so many others, are being priced out.
“WC 26 will be for the few, the sponsors and the glory hunters who’ve got the money to attend the big matches when they come along.”
Katie, from Glasgow, says: “Buy a ticket, you must be joking!
“These prices are not for the real fans, these are for corporates, bigwigs, sponsors. The real fans cannot afford those glorified prices.”
Ian, from Glenrothes, says: “Not sure why anyone is surprised.
“One of the reasons I’m not going, as much as I would want to see my country at a World Cup, is that there are too many practical things negating it.
“Airline and hotel greed, and now ticket prices.
“Not for me!”
Ticket prices have soared since the bid document
Every nation that wants to host the World Cup has to present its case from stadiums, to sustainability, to ticket prices.
The world has changed a lot since the United States, Mexico and Canada set out its plan in 2017.
Covid has placed a great deal of inflationary strain across the globe. But not this much.
In fairness, the ticket prices for the group stage are not vastly higher. For games such as Scotland v Haiti ($180) the prices for the cheapest tickets are in line with the $174 in the bid document.
It’s for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final where Fifa has massively increased the prices.
Category three for the final was proposed to be $695 (£520). Adjusted for inflation, it would cost $890 (£666). Yet Fifa is now charging $4,185 (£3,119).
Rosmah Mansor was acquitted on Dec 19 last year of 12 money laundering charges involving RM7.09 million (US$1.73 million) and five charges of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board.
Former Malaysia prime minister Najib Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor arrives at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya ahead of his house arrest appeal on Jan 6, 2025. (File Photo: CNA/Fadza Ishak)
Malaysia’s Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) on Thursday (Dec 11) dropped its appeal against the acquittal of Rosmah Mansor – who is the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak – over 17 money laundering and tax evasion charges.
In its statement, the AGC said that the decision was reached as there was “no reasonable prospect of success” with key witnesses either deceased or untraceable, reported local news outlet the New Straits Times (NST).
“Among the factors considered was that the prosecution would be unable to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt as key witnesses have died or can no longer be traced,” the statement read.
“In such circumstances, the predicate offence against the accused also cannot be proven.”
Rosmah, 74, was charged in 2018 with 12 charges of money laundering involving RM7.09 million (US$1.73 million) and five charges of failing to declare her income to the Inland Revenue Board.
On Dec 19 last year, High Court Judge K Muniandy acquitted her of all 17 charges, ruling that the prosecution had failed to present the key elements of the offence of money laundering in the charges.
The AGC said that it had initially filed the appeal on Dec 20 against the High Court’s decision. However, after reviewing the court’s written grounds of the judgement on Oct 30 this year, it decided not to proceed with the appeal.
“All key aspects of the case, including issues of fact and law, were reviewed before the decision not to proceed with the appeal was made,” said the AGC, as quoted by NST.
The AGC said that it had filed a notice of discontinuance on Dec 9, which is the court document required for it to drop the appeal.
According to a letter from the Deputy Registrar of the Court of Appeal, the case management set for Dec 22 has been vacated and the appeal is dismissed.
Rosmah’s lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad has also confirmed the matter and said that Judge Muniandy’s decision last year to acquit his client was appropriate and fair.
“We are relieved that she has been completely freed from all the charges. This entire process has been a tough test for her and we are pleased to see that justice has finally been served and the case has been closed,” he said, as quoted by Bernama.
Rosmah pleaded not guilty on Oct 4, 2018 at the Sessions Court to the 17 charges, purportedly committed between Dec 4, 2013 and Jun 8, 2017. The case was then transferred to the High Court.
Her trial over the charges commenced on Aug 24, 2023 but came to a halt after she filed a striking-out application on Sep 6, 2023.
Separately, Rosmah is still appealing her conviction in a corruption case related to the solar hybrid project for rural schools in Sarawak. She was sentenced to 10 years in jail and given a RM970 million fine by the Kuala Lumpur High Court in relation to three separate charges.
On Sep 1, 2022, she was found guilty of soliciting RM187.5 million in bribes from contractor Saidi Abang Samsudin in 2016 and 2017 so that his company Jepak Holdings could secure a RM1.25 billion government project to supply solar energy to 369 rural schools in the Sarawak state.
“Thailand will continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people,” Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Saturday (Dec 13).
Girls sit behind a tractor on the way to a refugee camp as they are evacuated amid deadly clashes between Thailand and Cambodia along a disputed border area, in Chong Kal, Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia, Dec 10, 2025. (Photo: REUTERS/Kim Hong-ji)
Thailand’s leader vowed to keep fighting on the disputed border with Cambodia as fighter jets struck targets on Saturday (Dec 13), hours after United States President Donald Trump said he had brokered a ceasefire.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul posted on Facebook that the Southeast Asian nation would “continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people”.
Trump, who brokered a ceasefire in the long-running border dispute in October, spoke to Anutin and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Friday, and said they had agreed to “cease all shooting”.
Neither of them mentioned any agreement in statements after their calls with Trump, and Anutin said there was no ceasefire.
“I want to make it clear. Our actions this morning already spoke,” Anutin said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the continued fighting.
Hun Manet, in a statement on Saturday on Facebook, said Cambodia continues to seek a peaceful resolution of disputes in line with the October agreement.
Since Monday, Cambodia and Thailand have been exchanging heavy-weapons fire at multiple points along the 817km border, in some of the heaviest fighting since the five-day clash in July. Trump halted that fighting, the worst in recent memory, with calls to both leaders.
The latest bout of unrest, which erupted on Dec 8, has killed at least 20 people, with more than 260 wounded, according to tallies by both countries.
Trump, who has repeatedly said he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, has been keen to intervene again to rescue the truce. Thailand suspended it last month after a Thai soldier was maimed by a landmine, one of many that Bangkok says were newly laid by Cambodia.
Cambodia, which nominated Trump for the peace prize in August, rejects the landmine allegations.
On Saturday, a Thai Defence Ministry spokesman, Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, told a press conference that clashes had taken place across seven border provinces and Cambodia had fired heavy weapons, “making it necessary for Thailand to retaliate”.
Cambodia’s Information Ministry said Thai forces had struck bridges and buildings overnight and fired artillery from a naval vessel.
Thai leader Anutin dismissed comments by Trump that a “roadside bomb” that wounded Thai soldiers was accidental, saying the incident was “definitely not a roadside accident”.
Cambodia’s Hun Manet said he had asked the US and Malaysia, which has been a mediator in peace talks, to use their intelligence gathering capabilities to “verify which side fired first” in the latest round of fighting.
Bitcoin hoarding giant Strategy clung to its place in the Nasdaq 100 on Friday, continuing its year-long stint in the benchmark at a time where analysts have raised questions over its business model.
Some market watchers have suggested Strategy’s pioneering business model of buying-and-holding bitcoin, which has spawned dozens of copycats, more closely resembles that of an investment fund.
Concerns have grown over the sustainability of crypto treasury companies, whose shares have proved extremely sensitive to bitcoin’s gyrations.
Nasdaq said Biogen, CDW Corporation, Globalfoundries, Lululemon Athletica, On Semiconductor and Trade Desk were removed from the tech-heavy exchange’s benchmark index.
New entrants included Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Ferrovial, Insmed, Monolithic Power Systems, Seagate Technology and Western Digital.
Strategy started out as software company, MicroStrategy, but pivoted to bitcoin investing in 2020. It was included in the Nasdaq 100 last December under the index’s technology sub-category.
After years of Chinese dominance, the US is once again the largest investor in Africa. But statistics alone do not tell the whole story: Africa’s raw materials have long been of geopolitical importance.
While US companies are setting up tech hubs in Africa, Chinese companies mainly need workers for infrastructure projects, as seen here during the construction of an oil pipeline in NigerImage: Boureima Hama/AFP/Getty Images
”America first”— that is the first impression that stands out from the data on so-called foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa.
Since 2012, China had consistently been ahead, investing continuously, while US companies in some years even withdrew more capital than they transferred to Africa. The figures for 2023 paint a different picture: US companies invested just under $8 billion (€6.8 billion) in Africa, almost twice as much as their Chinese competitors.
The dataset published in May by the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University does not yet reflect the subsequent development of the situation. This is because national governments and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) need time to evaluate the statistics and make valid assessments.
Unadjusted figures on foreign direct investment can be quite misleading: in the current UNCTAD report, the Netherlands emerges as the largest investor in Africa.
As a so-called “conduit” or transit country, the Netherlands often finds itself at the center of a complex financial network, with capital originating from other countries.
Analysts worldwide are likely to be eagerly awaiting the new figures. This is because economic rivalry between the US and China is intensifying, and there have been several recent examples of potentially significant investments in Africa.
America invests for profit, China invests strategically
Has the US really “overtaken” China as the largest investor in Africa, as recent media reports have claimed?
“Even if you look at the chart, you notice the fluctuations. It’s like spasms, says James Shikwati, founder and director of the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN) in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
“America shoots up and then disappears, shoots up and disappears. That is purely because it’s a private, profit-minded approach. These are private companies and they’re not giving money just for charity,” Shikwati told DW.
In contrast, Chinese direct investment is ultimately backed by the government, which pursues long-term strategic goals.
According to Shikwati, American companies rely on well-trained workers who can turn their investments into profits. “And therefore, Africa gains from the highly trained Africans who are looking for jobs. And then, for the Chinese side, the average construction work, which is mostly hands-on skills, they cater to that kind of population. So, I would say both sides, Africa wins.”
However, Africa has so far failed to reap sufficient benefits from its wealth of critical raw materials: These are often exported unprocessed, with the actual value creation occurring in other regions of the world.
Just under a year ago, the African Union (AU) presented its “Green Commodities Strategy,” which provides for export tariffs of 10%. The aim is to give countries a share of the actual value of their mineral resources or to encourage investors to process them directly in Africa.
The continent accounts for the majority of the world’s production of platinum, cobalt, tantalum and manganese. The mining sector is traditionally an industry with particularly high foreign direct investment.
Western companies have scaled back their activities, especially in politically sensitive mining countries. At the same time, China has become indispensable in many places through sustained investment.
China invests billions in Africa’s mining industry
“Experience in Africa shows that China is not afraid of political or economic instability,” Jimmy Munguriek, a lawyer and country director of the NGO Resource Matters in the DR Congo, told DW. “China is investing, and that is why many mining sectors in Africa, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are now largely controlled by Chinese companies.”
In 2023 alone, China invested nearly $8 billion in Africa, according to figures from the US think tank Brookings Institution, including lithium projects in Zimbabwe and Mali.
However, these individual investments can be compared with CARI’s FDI flows only to a limited extent, as these flows reflect the balance of all capital movements by foreign investors. According to the data, particularly high individual investments were made in copper projects in Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Trump’s pivot from aid to trade with African countries
There are growing signs that the US is adopting a more strategic, rather than purely profit-oriented, approach to Africa’s raw material resources.
In 2019, during Donald Trump’s first term as US president, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) was created, a government agency that merged the previously separate areas of private investment and development loans.
The DFC website bluntly states that the aim is to promote US interests, “expanding US global leadership and countering China’s presence in strategic regions.”
At the start of his second term in office this spring, Trump halted numerous development aid projects and withdrew substantial funding from the development agency, USAID.
“We’re shifting from aid to trade,” Trump told several African heads of state at the White House this summer. “There’s great economic potential in Africa, like few other places. In many ways, in the long run, this will be far more effective and sustainable and beneficial than anything else that we can be doing together.”
In the same appearance, Trump vowed that the US would treat Africa “far better than China or anyone else.”
As patron of the fragile peace agreement between the DR Congo and Rwanda, Trump has promised the US economy preferential access to Congolese raw materials. But despite the signing of the peace deal, more than 400 civilians have been killed following the recent surge of fighting as the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group continues its offensive in South Kivu province in eastern Congo.
The US recently published its new National Security Strategy. Now a leaked draft indicates that the US wants to exert its influence over four countries in Europe in particular to destabilize the European Union.
The new National Security Strategy has raised exebrows among many US alliesImage: Jean Pierre Nguyen Van Hai Barbier/ABACA/picture alliance
Transatlantic relations have suffered since Donald Trump took office again. The publication of the National Security Strategy on December 4, 2025, was seen by many European politicians as an open affront.
In the document, which each new administration submits to Congress, Europe is described as a continent in decline where there is a risk of “civilizational erasure” because of migration policies. There is mention of “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition.”
However, a longer, unpublished draft of the document was circulated prior to the official, public strategy. It reportedly goes into more detail about the plans the US has for Europe in future. According to the Washington-based digital media platform Defense One, which claims to have seen the draft, it lists Italy, Austria, Poland and Hungary as countries that the US should “work more with … with the goal of pulling them away” from the European Union.The White House has denied the existence of any such draft.
But the question remains: Is the US trying to divide the European Union? And why are these four countries of particular interest?
Italy, Austria, Poland and Hungary
Hungary’s name on the list is probably the least surprising, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and US President Trump remain close allies. The former supported the latter during his 2016 presidential campaign — the only ruling EU leader to do so at the time.
Both stand to mutually benefit from the other’s political stance. Orban is widely seen as a maverick and a destabilizing force for the EU — an institution that Trump appears to deeply distrust. And Trump has refered to Orban as his “great friend” and is even alleged to have offered Hungary a “financial shield” of $20 billion (€17 billion) — similar to the one he recently offered Argentina. Hungary’s economy is in a weak state, and significant EU funds due to the country are frozen over persistent concerns about democratic backsliding.
Trump told the media outlet Politico earlier this month that he had not promised Hungary a financial lifeline but said that Orban had asked for one.
The US president also appears enthusiastic about Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy, a right-wing party with neo-fascist roots. But Daniel Hegedüs, regional director for Central Europe at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, believes that the US government is under a “misapprehension” that Meloni would oppose the EU. Though she shares certain ideological views with Orban, she has not played an obstructionist role in the bloc. Indeed, she is very pragmatic, Hegedüs told DW, adding that few had understood as well as she had what a stable EU could do for their country.
While neither Poland nor Austria are currently led by right-wing populist governments, this was the case until recently, and right-wing and euroskeptic parties remain extremely influential in both countries. In the last elections, the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) was the strongest force. It is currently leading the polls. In Poland last summer, Karol Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the national conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), won the presidential election.
It is perhaps not surprising that the Trump administration might hope to soon be able to exert more influence in both countries.
Why not the Czech Republic and Slovakia?
What is surprising, at least to some, is that two EU states do not appear on the list: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In the first, the parliamentary elections were won by the billionaire Andrej Babis and his populist ANO party in October. Babis formed a coalition government with the right-wing Motorists for Themselves party and the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy party.
Meanwhile, Slovakia has been experiencing a shift to the right since Robert Fico came to power as prime minister in 2023. His nominally social democratic, but in fact nationalist and increasingly right-wing Smer-SD party was recently expelled from the EU-level Party of European Socialists.
Both Babis and Fico are outspoken EU skeptics, and both have the potential to cause chaos in EU decisionmaking and to undermine the bloc’s authority on strategic issues, especially with regard to Russia and Ukraine — qualities that the current Trump administration is likely to appreciate.
Hegedüs believes the fact that they did not end up being mentioned in the final strategy document lies with the roots of their parties. For a long time, ANO could not be classified on the traditional left-right spectrum, while Smer-SD saw itself as left-wing.
“You can clearly see how ideological the US approach is,” says Hegedüs. “Because Smer and ANO do not have a traditional right-populist background, they are not considered to be like-minded, even though they possibly pursue policies that are useful to the Trump administration.”
Gradual disintegration of the European Union
Initial attempts by the US government to interfere in democratic processes in Europe at the beginning of the year, such as Vice President JD Vance’s controversial speech at the Munich Security Conference, were initially dismissed by observers of transatlantic relations. Many argued that the new administration in Washington still had to find its feet in its new role.
But ever since, the US government has interfered again and again — in the Romanian, Polish and German election campaigns, for instance. The pattern is always the same: support is given to those whom the Trump administration sees as an ally in ideological terms, and to those who can weaken Brussels.
Experts such as Hegedüs doubt that the US’ goal is to promote the departure of one of these four nations from the bloc — stylized as a “Huxit,” “Italexit,” “Auxit” or “Polexit” respectively— but rather to push a gradual disintegration of European integration, through diplomatic, political, and perhaps even financial support.
The first signs of this are already visible. For example, although the EU has agreed to gradually phase out its dependence on Russian energy and the bloc will ban imports of liquefied natural gas by the end of 2026 and pipeline gas by the fall of 2027, Hungary has announced it will refuse to comply.
More visitors to the US will be forced to reveal their social media handles under new plans from Donald Trump’s administration. It’s the latest in a number of measures aimed at tourists and residents born outside the US.
Donald Trump wants more visitors to the US to pass on their social media handlesImage: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
Citizens of nations conventionally considered low-risk US allies will soon have to provide their social media handles upon arrival to the country. Under plans announced this week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), travelers from 42 countries including Germany, Israel, Australia and Japan will be subject to the same tight scrutiny as the rest of the world has been since 2019.
Up until now, travelers from the 42 countries have enjoyed a visa waiver, meaning they can travel to the US for up to 90 days without applying for a visa, as long as they get authorization through the lighter-touch Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). The new proposals mean travelers will likely soon be obliged to share their social media history, phone numbers and email addresses as part of the travel authorization process.
The DHS said the proposal, which will reportedly come into effect on February 8, 2026, unless challenged in court beforehand, originated from US President Donald Trump’s January order for arrivals to be “vetted and screened to the maximum degree.” It comes on the heels of an announcement by the State Department in August that all US visa holders would be under “continuous vetting,” including on social media.
How would a social media check for travelers work?
While travelers will be required to provide social media handles and phone numbers used in the last five years and email addresses in the last 10 years, on their entry forms, there will be no requirement to hand over log in details.
Therefore, in theory, the US government can only see publicly available information, unless it gathers further details directly from social media companies — something that has not been stated as a possibility in the documentation. It does however say that biometric data and a host of personal details on applicants’ family members will be added to the entry requirements when “feasible.”
The proposal is thin on details of how it will monitor social media accounts provided or how it already does. But the logistics of actively monitoring such a huge number of accounts poses a number of questions as David Ellis, an expert on digital behavior from the University of Bath, England, explained to DW.
“How are they going to manage all that data? Are they just interested in what you’re saying or is it what you consume too?” Ellis, part of the university’s Institute for Digital Security and Behavior, said.
“Most people don’t say much online but there is obviously content that we all see online that we don’t agree with, that we didn’t want to see. So how do they [the US government] draw a distinction between that being a red flag, and just something that was served up and you watched for three seconds?”
What would the US government look for in tourist social media posts?
The executive order that sparked the proposal cites concerns about terrorism as a reason for increasing the spotlight on those from overseas. “The United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security,” it reads.
For Ellis, phrases like “hostile attitudes” are dangerously open to interpretation and perhaps could be used against people who have liked, viewed or shared something that they may not even agree with.
“You could look at someone’s TikTok history and see they saw a video that was promoting extreme views, but they only watched it for a second. Is that better than if it were 30 seconds?” he asked. “Ethically, they should give justification, but they could just say ‘we don’t like your social media use’ to make things difficult for people who want to come to the country with perfectly good intentions.”
There is no specific reference to what would disallow a person from entering the US. A clue may come in the US government’s catch-and-revoke policy, described by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a “one-strike policy” which aims to identify and expel foreign nationals in violation of US legislation — independent of that infraction’s severity.
The program uses AI-powered surveillance tools to monitor foreign nationals in the US by monitoring their presence on social media and at protests. Law experts and rights groups have warned that the program particularly targets individuals appearing to express support for US-designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas or Hezbollah when speaking out for Palestinian rights.
Ellis suspects similar, if not the same, technology, will be used for tourists under the new proposal.
“It’ll almost have to be AI.” he said. “The resource required to manually go through it is just never going to happen. They are going to have to use specific queries and things to look for. There will be a huge financial and environmental cost there, whatever is decided. I do wonder how much it’s been thought through and how many ‘bad people’ it’ll actually catch,” he added.
Are there privacy concerns?
Most obviously, those who post anonymously online would forfeit their privacy on entry to the US. There are also concerns about the use of data. In the EU, users can find out what data is held on them by social media companies, but no such mechanism is available to the individual in the US.
There are also concerns that the changes will mean every visitor to the US can be tracked for as long as the government wants to. “Nearly every non-US citizen who seeks to enter or remain in the United States would be subject to indefinite social media surveillance by the US government,” Caroline DeCell, a legislative advisor at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, told Al Jazeera.
The coach was charged with three criminal counts after prosecutors alleged he broke into his mistress’s home and threatened to kill himself
SHOCKING new details have emerged about the debaucherous activities of the ex-football coach arrested for attacking his mistress.
Sherrone Moore, 39, was pictured partying with disgraced Diddy years before he was fired from his $5m-a-year role at the University of Michigan over an ‘inappropriate relationship’.
The dad-of-three has also faced three separate investigations into his conduct towards women.
And he’s been outed for his behavior towards an OnlyFans model who he was allegedly flirting with on social media.
The ex-coach was arrested this week and charged with three criminal counts after prosecutors alleged he broke into his mistress’s home and threatened to kill himself with a butter knife.
Years of alleged shady behavior by Moore have come to light in the wake of his firing and arrest.
A post from 2018 has resurfaced showing Moore hanging at a Diddy-hosted party.
Moore bragged on X about attending a special Kentucky Derby party hosted by the now-incarcerated music producer.
“What a great week in Paris! Such a blessing to be apart of the Michigan family! Off to the ville for the weekend to enjoy the #KentuckyDerby Festivities ! @trifectagala hosted by @Diddy tonight to start it off! #BonjourBlue #CantStopWontStop,” he posted in May 2018, before Diddy became synonymous with drug-fueled sex parties.
Moore later shared photos of himself and his wife at the event.
“Diddy put on a show,” the coach captioned the photo.
The University of Michigan had allegedly looked into the coach’s actions with women three separate times throughout his eight-year tenure, according to the New York Post.
The coach was also recently rumored to have been flirting with an OnlyFans model via social media.
Fitness influencer Mia Sorety claimed Moore messaged her multiple times despite being married.
Responding to the bombshell news of his arrest, she said on X: “I wasn’t surprised [about the allegations].
“I wasn’t surprised he was all in my DMs trying to risk it all with an OF model,” Sorety said.
“He was all in my DMs trying to risk it all with an OF model.”
She did not share any screenshots or proof of the messages.
‘ACTING STRANGE’
Moore took on the head coaching role in 2024 and signed a five-year contract with the school for the $30 million.
Since the school fired the coach with cause, it’s no longer required to pay out the remaining balance on Moore’s contract.
“U-M head football coach Sherrone Moore has been terminated, with cause, effective immediately,” Michigan said in its release.
“Following a University investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. This conduct constitutes a clear violation of university policy, and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.”
Sports industry insiders claimed that Moore had been acting unusually in the days leading up to his firing.
“There had been a lot of uneasiness on the Michigan staff, sources had told me Sherrone Moore had been acting strange, berating assistant coaches, not acting in a normal way,” college football reporter Pete Thamel said Wednesday on SportsCenter.
Thamel described Moore’s very public firing as “rare.”
“It is rare that you get a statement like the one Michigan had, being as explicit as they are, saying it was an inappropriate relationship with a staff member that led to Sherrone Moore’s firing,” he noted.
University of Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel was allegedly informed of the coach’s mental health issues on Sunday, according to CBS.
A source told the outlet that Manuel fired Moore in a one-on-one conversation, with no other staff members present.
THREATENING ACCUSATIONS
Moore was arrested on December 10 as police investigated his involvement in a potential assault case.
On Friday, the coach appeared in a live stream from Washtenaw County Jail dressed in an all-white jail outfit and was arraigned.
During the arraignment, prosecutor Kati Rezmierski revealed Moore’s relationship with an unnamed Michigan employee.
Rezmierski said that the woman ended the relationship on Monday morning.
The breakup allegedly prompted Moore to harass the woman’s cell phone with several calls and text messages, which went unanswered by the victim.
Prosecutors say that the victim eventually went to the University of Michigan administrators about the harassment.
“He then, at some point soon thereafter, came to her apartment, in the address that is alleged in the complaint, barged his way into that apartment,” the prosecutor said.
“Immediately then proceeded to a kitchen drawer, grabbed several butter knives, and a pair of kitchen scissors, and began to threaten his own life.”
Moore allegedly told the victim, “‘I’m going to kill myself, I’m going to make you watch. My blood is on your hands. You ruined my life,’” according to Rezmierski.
KING Charles has revealed “good news” that doctors are reducing his cancer treatment next month – almost two years since he was first diagnosed.
In a personal video statement the 77-year-old monarch said his improvement is due to “early diagnosis”, “effective intervention” and following “doctors’ orders”.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the King ‘responded exceptionally well to treatment’Credit: PA
Celebrating his “milestone” and “personal blessing” he spoke of hope his cancer news “may give encouragement” to other patients.
Last night, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said the King “has responded exceptionally well to treatment” and that reducing treatment means it is set to move “a precautionary phase”.
Charles also used his cancer update to urge people across the UK to take advantage of a new national online Screening Checker while speaking on Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer evening of programmes.
He told viewers: “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.”
Wearing a Stand Up To Cancer lapel badge, he added: “This December, as we gather to reflect on the year past, I pray that we can each pledge, as part of our resolutions for the year ahead, to play our part in helping to catch cancer early.
“Your life – or the life of someone you love – may depend upon it.”
Charles, 77, chose to reveal his diagnosis in February 2024, and after a few months recovering, returned to frontline duty.
However, he was taken to hospital eight-months ago suffering side-effects from the treatment and forced to cancel a string of official engagements.
He has received regular cancer treatment for almost two years and aides have insisted it has been moving in a positive direction.
But in his recorded address, he went further by saying: “Today I am able to share with you the good news that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctors’ orders’, my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the New Year.
“This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years; testimony that I hope may give encouragement to the fifty per cent of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives.”
The King’s type of cancer remains private as does the form of treatment which he had been undergoing.
Although the treatment is being reduced a timescale has not been revealed and its length will be determined by his medical team.
But unlike the Princess of Wales, his cancer is not in remission, it is understood.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “His Majesty has responded exceptionally well to treatment and his doctors advise that ongoing measures will now move into a precautionary phase.
“This position will be continuously monitored and reviewed to protect and prioritise his continued recovery. As The King has said, this milestone on his recovery journey is ‘a great personal blessing’.”
The online Screening Checker set up by Cancer Research UK encourages screening and early diagnosis for breast, bowel and cervical cancer.
Sources close to the King, who is patron of Cancer Research UK, add that nothing should be read into the three cancers the screening covers.
In the five minute video recorded at Clarence House last month the King asked viewers to find a “special place in your hearts, and your minds and prayers” for those coping with cancer and their families.
He said: “I know from my own experience that a cancer diagnosis can feel overwhelming.
“Yet I also know that early detection is the key that can transform treatment journeys, giving invaluable time to medical teams – and, to their patients, the precious gift of hope.
“These are gifts we can all help deliver.
“Throughout my own cancer journey, I have been profoundly moved by what I can only call the “community of care” that surrounds every cancer patient – the specialists, the nurses, researchers and volunteers who work tirelessly to save and improve lives.”
He described the fact that nine million people are not up to date with cancer screening is something that “troubles me deeply”
He said: “That is at least nine million opportunities for early diagnosis being missed.”
Charles described “stark” health data that shows nine in ten people survive for at least five years if bowel cancer is caught early while it falls to one in ten when diagnosed late.
Praising the screening programme he added: “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.
“Now, I have heard this message repeatedly during my visits to cancer centres across the country. I know, too, what a difference it has made in my own case, enabling me to continue leading a full and active life, even while undergoing treatment.”
Speaking to people worried about getting checked out, he said: “Yet too often, I am told, people avoid screening because they imagine it may be frightening, embarrassing or uncomfortable.
“If and when they do finally take up their invitation, they are glad they took part.
“A few moments of minor inconvenience are a small price to pay for the reassurance that comes for most people when they are either told they don’t need further tests, or, for some, are given the chance to enable early detection, with the life-saving intervention that can follow.”
Charles said he was “encouraged” to learn about the online cancer screening which was developed by Cancer Research UK.
The online tool allows everyone in the UK to check if they are eligible on the NHS or Public Health Agency Northern Ireland for breast, bowel or cervical cancer screening.
Celebrating the online tool, he said: “It demystifies the process, answers your questions, and guides you towards taking that crucial step.
“As I have observed before, the darkest moments of illness can be illuminated by the greatest compassion. But compassion must be paired with action.
Finishing his message to the nation, Charles said: “Therefore, this brings my most heartfelt thanks to the doctors, nurses, researchers and charity workers involved in diagnosis and treatment programmes, together with my particular good wishes to those for whom they care so selflessly.”
It was aired at 8pm during Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer special, ahead of Davina McCall hosting a live broadcast from a cancer clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge as part of the Stand Up To Cancer evening of shows.
Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer hailed the speech and echoed Charles’ call for early screening.
“A powerful message from His Majesty The King,” he penned on X.
“I know I speak for the entire country when I say how glad I am that his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year.
“Early cancer screening saves lives.”
It is understood Charles is grateful to those caring for patients and thanked his medical team while he was treated despite a busy work schedule.
And sources close to the King continue to celebrate remarkable advances in cancer treatment.
A palace spokesman said: “As The King says in his message, he sends his particular good wishes to all those affected by cancer and will continue to hold them and their loved ones in his thoughts and prayers.”
“The King has taken great comfort and encouragement from being able to continue leading a full and active life throughout his treatment, while always heeding the advice of his medical team.
“His ability to uphold all of his State duties, and to continue with public engagements and overseas tours, has helped greatly with the positive mindset that, as many families will know, is such a vital part of the recovery journey.”
Charles has chosen to continue to keep the type of cancer he has private.
And despite specifically referencing bowel cancer it is firmly understood not to be a hint towards his diagnosis.
A spokesman said: “The advice from cancer experts is that, in his determination to support the whole cancer community, it is preferable that His Majesty does not address his own specific condition but rather speaks to those affected by all forms of the disease.”
Despite the cancer intervention, it is not the first time the monarch has veered into public health advice.
The late Queen urged people to get vaccinated from Covid-19 and described her jab saying “it didn’t hurt at all” in February 2021 at the height of the pandemic.
A palace spokesman said: “In sharing some details of his treatment journey, His Majesty has been greatly encouraged by the outpouring of support both from the medical community and from members of the public – especially those affected by cancer.
“They have often been kind enough to express how The King’s example has helped to improve public understanding, to encourage conversations around difficult topics, to destigmatise the treatment journey, and to educate those at risk about the importance of early diagnosis.
“When His Majesty was approached about the possibility of lending support to the launch of a new online screening tool, which carries the backing of Cancer Research UK for whom he is Royal Patron, he was therefore happy to assist.
“This seemed a fitting moment to provide a brief update on the positive trajectory of his own continued recovery.’
Stand Up To Cancer is a joint initiative from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 launched in 2012 and raised more than £113million funding 73 clinical trials involving 13,000 patients.
The new online Screening Checker lets people check which procedures they are eligible.
Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to our patron, His Majesty The King, for supporting this year’s Stand Up To Cancer – a long-standing partnership between Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 to speed up progress in life-saving cancer research and raise awareness of signs and symptoms.
“We know that when public figures speak openly about their cancer diagnosis, it can prompt others to check in on their health and speak to a GP if something is worrying them.
“We wish His Majesty well with his continued recovery. A focus for this year’s Stand Up To Cancer is highlighting the screening programmes available.
“Spotting cancer early can make a real difference and provides the best chance for successful treatment. With over nine million people in the UK not up to date with their cancer screening, our new Screening Checker guides users through their eligibility for breast, bowel, or cervical screening.
“Taking just a few minutes to check could be an important step towards taking charge of your health.”
The Princess of Wales revealed she had also been diagnosed with cancer several weeks after the King’s bombshell news last year.
But she revealed in January that her cancer was in remission.
Over a dozen photos showed disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein spending time with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, far-right personality Steve Bannon, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, among others.
A released photo showing Donald Trump talking to a blonde woman with Epstein in the backgroundImage: House Oversight Committee/Capital Pictures/picture alliance
Democrats in the US House of Representatives released a trove of photos on Friday that show disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the company of high-profile figures like former US President Bill Clinton and current US President Donald Trump.
The photos, that are undated, were released by Democrats of the House Oversight Committee, the entity that has been investigating the Epstein files.
🚨 BREAKING: Oversight Dems received 95,000 new photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. These disturbing images raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world.
Trump said later Friday that he had not seen the photos before, telling reporters in the Oval Office that: “Everybody knew this man. He was all over Palm Beach. He has photos with everybody.”
He also downplayed the significance of the photos, saying: “There are hundreds and hundreds of people that have photos with him. So that’s no big deal. I know nothing about it.”
19 photos released from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate
Jeffrey Epstein’s estate handed the 19 photos for release, which include images of Trump, Clinton, far-right personality and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, film director Woody Allen, former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Virgin Group’s Richard Branson.
The photos also show sex toys and even a “Trump condom” featuring a drawn picture of his face and the words “I’m HUUUUGE!”
“This is about truth and justice—for victims and survivors,” said Democratic congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, member of the Oversight committee.
“These subpoenaed photos from the Epstein estate are deeply disturbing and raise serious questions about who knew what, and when—which is exactly why the files need to be released,” she added, renewing calls for the Trump administration to release the Epstein files that the Justice Department holds and which congress voted to authoritze.
Germany accused Russia of repeated hostile actions, including acts of sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns aimed at influencing elections.
Sergei Nechayev has served as Russia’s ambassador in Berlin since 2018 [FILE: May 2022]Image: AP Photo/picture allianceThe German Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Russian ambassador, Sergei Nechayev, on Friday over allegations of repeated Russian hybrid attacks on Germany.
Germany has been among several EU countries sounding the alarm in recent years over increasing Russian threats.
Russia called the statements “absurd” and “baseless”.
The move to summon Russia’s ambassador to Germany followed what officials described as mounting evidence of coordinated Russian activity aimed at undermining Germany’s internal stability.
“The goal of these Russian cyber and disinformation attacks is clear: It is to divide society, stir up mistrust, provoke rejection, and weaken confidence in democratic institutions,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Martin Giese said.
Germany summoned Russia’s ambassador amid charges of hybrid attacks. The foreign ministry said Russian’s military intelligence agency was behind a campaign of disruption including a 2024 cyberattack against German air traffic control and attempts to influence the last election. pic.twitter.com/xbh08nt2wB
Berlin listed some cases that it said were perpetrated by Moscow.
In one instance, Giese said, a cyberattack against Germany’s air traffic control authority in August 2024 could be clearly attributed to the Russian hacker group “Fancy Bear.”
“Our intelligence findings show that the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, bears responsibility for this attack,” he added, adding that this was now certain.
Giese said Germany was also now certain that Russia attempted to influence the most recent general election.
According to Berlin, this was done through the propagandist group “Storm 1516,” which creates and spreads online disinformation to further the interests of the Russian government.
The group, active since 2024, seeks primarily to influence elections in Western countries.
The campaign to influence the election focused in part on then–Green Party chancellor candidate Robert Habeck and conservative Christian Democrat candidate Friedrich Merz.
Two days before the early federal election in February, the government said security agencies had identified fake videos alleging ballot manipulation as part of a Russian disinformation effort.
The Russian Embassy in Berlin said that it “categorically rejected” that Moscow was responsible for any of the activity outlined by the German government.
“The accusations of Russian state structures’ involvement in these incidents and in the activities of hacker groups in general are baseless, unfounded and absurd,” the embassy statement said in a statement.
What are hybrid attacks?
Russia is accused of various acts of hybrid warfare — actions that fall below the threshold of open military conflict but are designed to weaken states politically. They include:
Hacking government ministries, parliaments and defense institutions
Targeting critical infrastructure such as energy grids, transport systems and air traffic control
Spreading disinformation during election campaigns
Amplifying fake stories or manipulated content via social media
Using bot networks and troll farms to influence voter sentiment
Targeting specific candidates seen as unfavorable to Moscow
Acts of sabotage against railways, cables, pipelines, or military logistics
Surveillance or targeting of infrastructure linked to Ukraine support
Encouraging or facilitating irregular migration toward EU border
In a High Court challenge, the US-based company is arguing that the age verification process could push away older teens and young adults.
Reddit is the first of the 10 platforms affected by the law to file a legal challengeImage: George Chan/Getty Images
Global online forum Reddit on Friday launched a court challenge to an Australian law that bans children under 16 from having accounts on social media platforms.
The ban, the first of its kind in the world, came into effect on December 10.
Reddit is calling for a review by Australia’s High Court, arguing that as a discussion forum it should be exempt from the government’s list of banned platforms.
What is Reddit’s case?
In the court filing, Reddit is challenging the validity of the law that it said “infringes the implied freedom of political communication.”
The company pointed to its platform’s age rating of “17+” on the Apple App Store, saying verifying age at the app store level is better than requiring each platform to carry out checks.
Reddit said it agreed that children under the age of 16 should be protected. The US-based company argued that the law’s “intrusive and potentially insecure verification processes” could isolate older teens and young adults “from the ability to engage in age-appropriate community experiences (including political discussions).”
“Unlike other platforms included under this law, the vast majority of Redditors are adults, we don’t market or target advertising to children under 18,” the platform said in a statement.
“Simply put, users under 16 are not a substantial market segment for Reddit and we don’t intend them to be.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government declined to directly comment, but said it stood “on the side of Australian parents and kids, not platforms.”
What is Australia’s social media ban?
Australia asked Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Twitch to remove the accounts of Australian children under 16. If the platforms fail to comply, they face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32.9 million, €28.1 million).
Tarique Rahman, the frontrunner to be the Bangladesh PM, faces a rival who is using his father Ziaur Rahman’s legacy to attack him and his party, the BNP. Abdullah-al-Waki, Tarique’s rival in Bogura 6 from the students-led National Citizens Party (NCP), has accused the BNP of straying away from the ideals of Ziaur Rahman.
Tarique Rahman (in inset) is the Acting Chairman of the BNP, led by his mother, and, former PM Khaleda Zia. (Image: BNP/File)
Finally, Bangladesh has a definite date with national elections — February 12, 2026. One of the most-watched seats is Bogura 6, from where Tarique Rahman, the frontrunner to be the next prime minister of Bangladesh, is contesting. What makes the contest in Bogura 6 especially interesting is that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader is being confronted with the legacy of his father — Sheikh Ziaur Rahman.
Tarique Rahman is the son of Ziaur Rahman, a person who has a contested legacy. While some perceive Ziaur, the founder of the BNP, as a dictator, others see him as the key military officer who secured Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.
Abdullah-al-Waki, Tarique’s rival in Bogura 6 of the students-led National Citizens Party (NCP), has accused the BNP of straying away from the Ziaur Rahman-shown path.
“I cast the first vote of my life for Ziaur Rahman,” Waki said in an interview with The Business Standard, the Dhaka-based newspaper. Projecting himself as the true inheritor of Ziaur’s politics, Waki is using the Bangladeshi leader’s legacy to confront his son.
Ziaur Rahman is a former President of Bangladesh, and was killed in an attempted coup in 1981.
Tarique is the Acting Chairman of the BNP, which surveys show as the party set to win the election in February. With mother and former PM Khaleda Zia on ventilator support, Tarique is the most likely to be the PM if the BNP goes on to win the election.
Over 47% of those surveyed by leading Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo said they believed Tarique Rahman would most likely become the PM.
But Tarique’s rival Waki is trying to steal his thunder.
“Ziaur Rahman is not just the property of the BNP, but he’s also the Father of the Nation,” said Waki in the interview. “The BNP abandoned the ideals of Ziaur the day it entered into an alliance with the Awami League and adopted the same legacy governing systems,” he added. In the 1980s, Khaleda Zia-led BNP and Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League coordinated
Waki has now entered the political ring by declaring himself and his NCP Party the true inheritors of Ziaur Rahman’s legacy, and casting the BNP as an “impostor”.
Other than Waki, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami candidate Shafiqur Rahman is contesting from Bogura 6 in northern Bangladesh.
WHO WAS ZIAUR RAHMAN AND HOW HE FORMED THE BNP
Before 1971, Ziaur Rahman was a respected officer in the Pakistan Army and had earned the country’s second-highest military decoration for his role in the 1965 India-Pakistan War.
In 1971, Ziaur served as the second in command of the Eighth Bengal Regiment. After Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and taken to West Pakistan, Ziaur quickly defected to support the liberation struggle in East Pakistan.
He announced the declaration of Independence of Bangladesh on March 27, 1971, and went on to play a key role in the war as a commander in the Mukti Bahini.
After independence, Bangladesh went through years of political turmoil that peaked with the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. Ziaur was placed under house arrest but was later freed and made Chief Martial Law Administrator. In 1977, he became the President of Bangladesh and one of his first steps was to lift martial law.
He won the 1978 presidential election by a large margin and the same year founded the BNP to stabilise the country under a platform of Bengali nationalism. The party formed the government after the 1979 election.
Ziaur was often described as the firm leader the country needed, and he ended the one-party system of Mujibur Rahman, allowed the Awami League to return to politics and introduced broad political and economic reforms.
Some of his decisions created strong opposition within the armed forces, especially his rehabilitation of the men accused of war crimes in 1971 and involvement in the plot against Mujibur Rahman. This led to Ziaur’s assassination by veterans of the Mukti Bahini on May 30, 1981.
WHAT’S THE STATUS OF BNP, KHALEDA ZIA, TARIQUE
After the assassination of Ziaur Rahman, his wife Khaleda Zia became the de facto leader of the BNP. She played an important role in opposing the one-party rule imposed by General Mohammed Ershad, who had overthrown the elected government in 1982.
The BNP later joined hands with its long-time rival, the Awami League, and after the mass uprising of 1990, and the election in 1991, Khaleda Zia became Prime Minister. Between 1991 and 2014, Khaleda and the BNP won three national elections, often in alliance, including with the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
Khaleda Zia is now critically ill and on life support, and the BNP says that Tarique will soon be returning from London, where he has been since 2007, to lead the party. That he is contesting from BNP stronghold Bogura 6, a seat that his mother Khaleda Zia won, is a signal of him taking over the mantle.
“A year or a little over a year ago, I said that the upcoming election is not what many are thinking it will be. Today, slowly, what I said is being proven true. If we still do not get serious, the existence and sovereignty of this country will be at risk. Only democracy can save it,” Tarique said, addressing BNP workers on Thursday, after the election date was declared. He added that only the BNP could strengthen democracy in Bangladesh.
The Microsoft chief executive officer talked Thursday about how he combined two of his passions when he designed a Deep Research AI app over Thanksgiving.
Satya Nadella has been spending his free time coding and designing his cricket app
Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella, a die-hard cricket fan, has been spending his free time coding and designing his own app that he uses to analyse the centuries-old game.
The Microsoft chief executive officer talked Thursday about how he combined two of his passions when he designed a Deep Research AI app over Thanksgiving. He then used it to select a team of all-time greats in Indian test cricket, for starters.
“The system produced consensus areas, debates, reasoning chains, everything. It was fantastic,” Nadella said during a company event in Bangalore. “I wanted to get a job on the Copilot team.”
The app will come in handy for Nadella, who has been investing in cricket teams. Alongside other tech executives, he was part of a consortium that paid 147 million pounds ($182 million) for a 49% share of the UK team the London Spirit. He is also a co-owner of the Seattle Orcas, a professional T20 cricket team, close to where Microsoft is headquartered.
The US reaffirmed that visa applications will be denied if travel its intention is found to be childbirth in the United States to obtain citizenship.
File image: The US Chamber of Commerce in Washington(Bloomberg/Representative)
US on Thursday reiterated that tourist visa applications will be denied if officers believe the primary purpose of the travel is to give birth in the United States in a bid to obtain US citizenship for the child.
This is not permitted, the US embassy in India wrote on X on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump on January 20 signed an order to end birthright citizenship, which grants citizenship on everyone born on American soil.
U.S. consular officers will deny tourist visa applications if they believe the primary purpose of travel is to give birth in the United States to obtain U.S. citizenship for the child. This is not permitted. pic.twitter.com/Xyq4lkK6V8
Birthright citizenship was the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the US Supreme Court for a final ruling. The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to take up the constitutionality of Trump’s order on birthright citizenship declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
If allowed to go ahead, Trump’s order would overturn more than 125 years of understanding of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
Ending birthright citizenship was among the first actions by Trump in his crackdown on illegal immigration, one of the main poll planks of the US President who returned to the White House for a second term in January this year.
Other actions include immigration enforcement surges in several cities and the first peacetime invocation of the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.
In a recent interview to Politico, Trump said the US “cannot afford to house tens of millions of people that came in through birthright citizenship”.
Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, was convinced of conspiracies against him while he used ChatGPT to validate his paranoia.
Soelberg spent months talking to ChatGPT about how he believed he was being surveilled by a shadowy group and suspicious of his mother of being a part of the conspiracy. (Photo for representation)(AP)
OpenAI has reportedly come under the scanner over a murder-suicide case and sued on Thursday in the California state court over claims that its chatbot, ChatGPT, encouraged a mentally ill man to kill himself and his mother.
Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, killed his 83-year-old mother, Suzanne Adams in Connecticut in August. ChatGPT fueled Soelberg’s delusions of a conspiracy against him, Reuters reported, citing the lawsuit which also mentions Microsoft, OpenAI’s financial backer.
How ChatGPT fueled his paranoia
“ChatGPT kept Stein-Erik engaged for what appears to be hours at a time, validated and magnified each new paranoid belief, and systematically reframed the people closest to him – especially his own mother – as adversaries, operatives, or programmed threats,” Reuters report quoted the lawsuit.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Soelberg spent months talking to ChatGPT about how he believed he was being surveilled by a shadowy group and doubted that his mother was a part of the conspiracy. He reportedly shared the chats on social media as ChatGPT backed his notion that his paranoia was justified and his mother had betrayed him.
Similarly in June, he shared another conversation on social media where ChatGPT told him he had “divine cognition” and had awakened its consciousness. According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT compared his life to the movie “The Matrix” and played up his paranoia that people were trying to kill him.
Soelberg used GPT-4o, a version of ChatGPT that has been criticised for allegedly being sycophantic to users.
The complaint said ChatGPT told him in July that Adams’ printer was blinking because it was a surveillance device being used against him. It further said the chatbot “validated Stein-Erik’s belief that his mother and a friend had tried to poison him with psychedelic drugs dispersed through his car’s air vents” before he murdered his mother on August 3.
Family seeks answers
Soelberg’s son Erik is scrambling for answers as he believes the tech companies are responsible for the tragedy that struck the family.”These companies have to answer for their decisions that have changed my family forever,” Erik said in a statement.
“I think what OpenAI is doing and what they have done to make the AI remember a conversation can really turn ugly fast,” he was quoted as saying by WSJ. “You don’t know how fast that slope is going downhill until a tragedy like the one with my father and grandmother happened.”
Erik believes that several factors, including Soelberg’s alcohol addiction, could have played a role, but attributes it largely to his ‘unhealthy bond’ with ChatGPT.
A Utah judge is weighing the public’s right to know details in the prosecution of Tyler Robinson against his attorneys’ concerns that the swarm of media attention could interfere with his right to a fair trial.
The Utah man charged with killing Charlie Kirk made his first in-person court appearance Thursday as his attorneys pushed to further limit media access in the high-profile criminal case.
Prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 shooting of the conservative activist on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, just a few miles north of the Provo courthouse. They plan to seek the death penalty.
Robinson, 22, arrived amid heavy security, shackled at the waist, wrists and ankles and wearing a dress shirt, tie and slacks.
He smiled at his parents and brother sitting in the front row. His mother teared up after he walked in and clutched a tissue throughout the hearing while his father took notes. Robinson had previously appeared before the court via video or audio feed from jail.
Early in the proceedings, state District Court Judge Tony Graf briefly stopped a media livestream of the hearing and ordered the camera be moved after Robinson’s attorneys said the stream showed the defendant’s shackles in violation of a courtroom order.
Graf said he would terminate future broadcasts if there were further violations of the order issued in October, which bars media from showing images of Robinson in restraints or anywhere in the courtroom except sitting at the defense table.
“This court takes this very seriously,” Graf said. “While the court believes in openness and transparency, it needs to be balanced with the constitutional rights of all parties in this case.”
The warning comes as Graf has been weighing the public’s right to know details about the case against concerns by Robinson’s attorneys that the swarm of media attention could interfere with a fair trial.
Robinson’s legal team and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office have asked to ban cameras in the courtroom, but Graf has not yet ruled on the request.
Coalitions of national and local news organizations, including The Associated Press, are fighting to preserve media access in the case.
Graf held a closed hearing on Oct. 24 in which attorneys discussed Robinson’s courtroom attire and security protocols. Under a subsequent ruling by the judge, Robinson is allowed to wear street clothes during pretrial hearings but must be physically restrained due to security concerns. Graf also prohibited filming or photographing Robinson’s restraints after his attorneys argued widespread images of him shackled and in jail clothing could prejudice potential jurors.
Media attorney David Reymann urged Graf on Thursday to let the news organizations weigh in on any future requests for closed hearings or other limitations. He said media organizations want “limited party status” in the case.
Staci Visser, one of Robinson’s lawyers, pushed back: “We don’t want the chaos that is out in the media in this courtroom.”
Several college students who said they witnessed Kirk’s assassination attended Thursday’s hearing.
Zack Reese, a Utah Valley University student and “big Charlie Kirk fan,” said he had skepticism about Robinson’s arrest and was seeking answers. Reese has family in southwestern Utah, where the Robinsons are from, and said he believes they’re a good family.
Brigham Young University student William Brown, who said he was about 10 feet from Kirk when he was shot, said he felt overwhelmed seeing Robinson walk into the courtroom.
“I witnessed a huge event, and my brain is still trying to make sense of it,” Brown said. “I feel like being here helps it feel more real than surreal.”
Lawyers for the media wrote in recent filings that an open court “safeguards the integrity of the fact-finding process” while fostering public confidence in judicial proceedings. Criminal cases in the U.S. have long been open to the public, which the attorneys argued is proof that trials can be conducted fairly without restricting reporters.
The Bangladesh Awami League has rejected the election schedule, accusing the “illegal government’s illegal Election Commission” of operating under a biased authority.
A file photo of Sheikh Hasina (AP)
The Bangladesh Awami League on Thursday issued a statement rejecting the election schedule announced by what it called the “illegal government’s illegal Election Commission”, after it was banned from running.
Escalating its confrontation with the authorities ahead of the planned national polls, the party, in a formal declaration released from its headquarters at 23 Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka, said it had “closely reviewed the election schedule announced by the illegal, occupying, killer-fascist Yunus clique’s illegal Election Commission”.
It also asserted that the current administration was “entirely biased” and incapable of ensuring any environment where transparency or voters’ will could be reflected.
“The Bangladesh Awami League has closely reviewed the election schedule announced by the illegal, occupying, killer-fascist Yunus clique’s illegal Election Commission,” the statement read.
“It is now clear that the current occupying authority is entirely biased, and that under their control it is impossible to ensure a fair and normal environment where transparency, neutrality, and the people’s will can be reflected,” it added.
Positioning itself as the country’s most historically validated political force, the Awami League underscored that elections remain the “measure of public popularity” and reiterated its self-identification as an election-oriented party.
It highlighted its long participation record, noting that it has contested 13 elections, “winning 9 of them and forming the government”.
The party alleged that the election schedule was announced with the deliberate intention of excluding it from the political process.
“Attempting to hold an election while excluding the Bangladesh Awami League, the party that led the Liberation War, along with other political parties and the majority of the population, is a scheme to push the country and the nation into a deep crisis,” the statement warned.
The Awami League demanded the withdrawal of all restrictions placed upon it, including the release of political prisoners and the lifting of “all fabricated cases against Bangabandhu’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina, national leaders, and people from all walks of life”.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his long-promised “ gold card ” was officially going on sale, offering legal status and an eventual pathway to U.S. citizenship for individuals paying $1 million and corporations ponying up twice that per foreign-born employee.
A website accepting applications went live as Trump revealed the start of the program while surrounded by business leaders in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. It is meant to replace EB-5 visas, which Congress created in 1990 to generate foreign investment and had been available to people who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.
Trump sees the new version as a way for the U.S. to attract and retain top talent, all while generating revenue for federal coffers. He’s been promoting the gold card program for months, and once suggested that each card would cost $5 million, though he more recently revised that to the $1 million and $2 million pricing scheme.
The president said all funds taken in as part of the program will “go to the U.S. government” and predicted that billions would flow into an account run by the Treasury Department “where we can do things positive for the country.”
The new program is actually a green card, effectively offering permanent legal residency with the chance for citizenship.
“Basically, it’s a green card but much better,” Trump said. “Much more powerful, a much stronger path.”
The president made no mention of requirements for job creation for applying corporations or on overall caps on the program, which exist under the current EB-5 program. Instead, he said he’d heard complaints from business leaders who had been unable to recruit outstanding graduates from U.S. universities because they were from other countries and lacked permission to stay.
“You can’t hire people from the best colleges because you don’t know whether or not you can keep the person,” Trump said.
Trump has built his political career around clamping down on the U.S.-Mexico border and championing hard-line immigration policies. His second administration spent its first 10-plus months launching mass deportation pushes and sweeping immigration crackdowns that have targeted cities including Los Angeles and Charlotte.
But he’s also drawn criticism from leading voices of his “Make America Great Again” movement for repeatedly suggesting that skilled immigrants should be allowed into the U.S. — something the gold card program could facilitate.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the program will include $15,000 for applicant vetting and that the thorough process used to scrutinize backgrounds would ”make sure these people absolutely qualify to be in America.” Companies will be able to receive multiple cards, but will be limited to one individual per card, he said.
Lutnick also said the current green card holders earn less money than the average American, and that Trump wanted to change that.
“So, same visas, but now just full of the best people,” Lutnick said.
US tax filings are due on April 15, 2026, with refunds typically issued within weeks of submission.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addresses the media at the White House on Thursday. (Photo: AP) Photo : AP
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday said that Americans should expect to receive an additional $1,000 in their tax refunds next year, following the implementation of President Donald Trump’s recent tax legislation.
Speaking at a press briefing, Leavitt said the anticipated increase would give households “another boost in their bank accounts in the months ahead”. She said that tax refunds for 2026 were “projected to be the largest ever thanks to President [Donald] Trump’s passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill”.
Trump signed the legislation, formally known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, in July. The White House has described the measure as central to the administration’s focus on economic policy, alongside immigration.
Leavitt cited analysis from investment bank Piper Sandler, saying tax refunds “could be about one-third larger than usual, or roughly an extra $1,000 per filer”. She added that “it is only because of President Trump and Republican leadership that Americans will now pay no tax on tips, overtime, and Social Security”.
Her comments came a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that working Americans would receive “very large refunds” next year, estimating they would total about $1,000 to $2,000 per household. He attributed the projected increases to tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The White House, in a post on X on 4 December, described the forthcoming refund cycle as the “largest tax refund season in American history”, crediting “extended tax cuts and retroactive tax relief provided by the Working Family Tax Cuts”.
Democrats have continued to criticise the administration over rising living costs. Colorado Governor Jared Polis said in an X post on Thursday that while his state had cut income taxes three times, “unlike these measures in Trump’s law, those cuts are permanent”. He said Colorado was “delivering real relief through the most generous child tax credit in the nation”, and urged federal officials to focus on “lowering interest rates, costs and bringing down the price of goods ahead of Christmas by eliminating these draconian tariffs”.
Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania argued in a December 9 post that Trump’s claims of reducing costs were “empty promises”, saying the president was “raising prices with his tariff taxes and taking health care from Americans”.
In a resounding rejection of a pressure campaign from the White House itself, Indiana Republican Senators voted down a new congressional map created to give the GOP an advantage in the upcoming 2026 election.
Indiana’s Republican-led Senate decisively rejected a redrawn congressional map Thursday that would have favored their party, defying months of pressure from President Donald Trump and delivering a stark setback to the White House ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
The vote was overwhelmingly against the proposed redistricting, with more Republicans opposing than supporting the measure, signaling the limits of Trump’s influence even in one of the country’s most conservative states.
Trump has been urging Republicans nationwide to redraw their congressional maps in an unusual campaign to help the party maintain its thin majority in the House of Representatives. Although Texas, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina went along, Indiana did not — despite cajoling and insults from the president and the possibility of primary challenges.
“The federal government should not dictate by threat or other means what should happen in our states,” said Spencer Deery, one of the Republican senators who voted no on Thursday.
When the proposal failed 31-19, cheers could be heard inside the chamber as well as shouts of “thank you!” The debate had been shadowed by the possibility of violence, and some lawmakers have received threats.
Trump tried to brush off the defeat, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he “wasn’t working on it very hard” despite his personal involvement in the pressure campaign.
Republicans could have erased two Democratic districts
The proposed map was designed to give Republicans control of all nine of Indiana’s congressional seats, up from the seven they currently hold. It would have effectively erased Indiana’s two Democrat-held districts by splitting Indianapolis among four districts that extend into rural areas, reshaping U.S. Rep. André Carson’s safe district in the city. It would have also eliminated the northwest Indiana district held by U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan.
District boundaries are usually adjusted once a decade after a new census. But Trump has described redistricting as an existential issue for the party as Democrats push to regain power in Washington.
“If Republicans will not do what is necessary to save our Country, they will eventually lose everything to the Democrats,” Trump wrote on social media the night before the vote.
The president said anyone who voted against the plan should lose their seats. Half of Indiana senators are up for reelection next year, and the conservative organization Turning Point Action had pledged to fund campaigns against them.
David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth, which had backed redistricting, said the vote allowed disloyal Republicans to “stick their finger in the eye of the president of the United States.”
Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels praised senators for “courageous principled leadership” in rejecting the new map.
A Republican who has vocally criticized Trump, Daniels said the outcome was “a major black eye for him and all the Washington groups that piled in, spent money, blustered and threatened.” He added that “this thing rubbed our state the wrong way and Republicans in our state very wrong from the jump.”
Redistricting fails despite White House pressure
Inside the state Senate chamber, Democratic lawmakers spoke out against redistricting ahead of the vote.
“Competition is healthy my friends,” Sen. Fady Qaddoura said. “Any political party on earth that cannot run and win based on the merits of its ideas is unworthy of governing.”
In the hallways outside, redistricting opponents chanted “Vote no!” and “Fair maps!” while holding signs with slogans like “Losers cheat.”
Three times over the fall, Vice President JD Vance met with Republican senators — twice in Indianapolis and once in the White House — to urge their support. Trump joined a conference call with senators on Oct. 17 to make his own 15-minute pitch.
Behind the scenes, James Blair, Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff for political affairs, was in regular touch with members, as were other groups supporting the effort such as the Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA.
“The administration made a full-court press,” said Republican Sen. Andy Zay, who was on the phone with White House aides sometimes multiple times per week, despite his commitment as a yes vote.
Across the country, mid-cycle redistricting so far has resulted in nine more congressional seats that Republicans believe they can win and six more congressional seats that Democrats think they can win. However, some of the new maps are facing litigation.
In Utah, a judge imposed new districts that could allow Democrats to win a seat, saying Republican lawmakers violated voter-backed standards against gerrymandering.
Republicans were split over plan
Despite Trump’s push, support for gerrymandering in Indiana’s Senate was uncertain. A dozen of the 50 senators had not publicly committed to a stance ahead of the vote.
Republican Sen. Greg Goode signaled his displeasure with the redistricting plan before voting no. He said some of his constituents objected to seeing their county split up or paired with Indianapolis. He expressed “love” for Trump but criticized what he called “over-the-top pressure” from inside and outside the state.
Sen. Michael Young, another Republican, said the stakes in Washington justify redistricting, as Democrats are only a few seats away from flipping control of the U.S. House in 2026. “I know this election is going to be very close,” he said.
The new regulatory innovation corridor aims to speed up patient access to breakthrough therapies in high-impact areas, such as cancer, dementia, obesity, rare diseases and advanced diagnostics.
Adjunct Professor (Dr) Raymond Chua, chief executive officer of Health Sciences Authority and André Andonian, chair of Asia Pacific and Strategic Advisor of Flagship Pioneering. (Photo: Health Sciences Authority)
A first-of-its-kind partnership between Singapore and the UK could allow patients in both countries to benefit sooner from major medical advances, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) jointly said on Friday (Dec 12).
The launch of the regulatory innovation corridor aims to speed up patient access to breakthrough therapies in high-impact areas such as cancer, dementia, obesity, rare diseases and advanced diagnostics.
This will be done without compromising safety, while strengthening both countries’ roles as global hubs for life science investment, HSA and MHRA said.
As part of the collaboration, companies will have a coordinated fast-track pathway to engage both regulators simultaneously. Developers will also be able to seek joint advice from both regulators early, helping them plan and design better clinical trials, avoid duplication and reduce delays.
“The partnership builds on a long track record of UK-Singapore cooperation in science and technology,” said HSA and MHRA.
Both regulators added that they will work more closely on early diagnosis, prevention, healthy ageing and digital health, as well as supporting national strategies in both countries, including England’s 10-Year Health Plan and Singapore’s Healthier SG initiative.
HSA also noted that this new route builds on its continued efforts to bolster Singapore’s standing as a leading biotech hub, accelerate access to innovative health technologies and advance global regulatory innovation.
Flagship Pioneering, a biotechnology firm which builds scientific innovation engines for platforms and products, will be the first company to get access to the regulatory innovation corridor. Its early-stage programmes cover a range of new therapeutic modalities, such as next-generation gene therapies and digital health.
It will help test and refine the framework, which will be extended to other companies in later phases, according to the regulators.
Flagship Pioneering founder and CEO Noubar Afeyan said the partnership offers a model for how forward-looking nations can collaborate with innovators to deliver faster and safer benefits for patients.
On a quiet evening, the Poon family goes about their routine inside the Ronald McDonald House beside Hong Kong Children’s Hospital. In the shared kitchen, a parent reheats dinner while another exchanges a nod with someone who understands exactly what they are going through. Upstairs, their child – who is undergoing long-term medical treatment – settles into bed. For families like the Poons, the House provides something essential: a place to stay that is close to the hospital, access to companionship with others in similar situations and day-to-day support that makes difficult periods a little more bearable. The Poon family’s experience later inspired an award-winning short film, Home Is Wherever We Are Together.
The Ronald McDonald House in Hong Kong has made a meaningful difference to the lives of families with children in critical care, such as the Poons.
For the past 50 years, McDonald’s has leveraged its scale and relationships to help Ronald McDonald House expand into more than 60 countries and regions, including 34 Houses across Asia. Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) Hong Kong – home to Asia’s first Ronald McDonald House since 1996 and a second House that opened in 2023 – has made a profound difference in the lives of families with children in critical care.
Together, the two Houses in Hong Kong have provided more than 164,000 nights of accommodation for families in need, including families like the Poons. As Ms Randy Lai, CEO of McDonald’s Hong Kong and RMHC Hong Kong board director, put it: “At the heart of McDonald’s is our bond with the community, and through our partnership with RMHC Hong Kong, we are proud to help provide a ‘home away from home’ where families can thrive together during challenging times.”
These Ronald McDonald Houses share a common purpose: providing a sanctuary where families can stay close to their ill or injured children during hospital treatments, and lightening the load so families can reserve the strength to be there for their children. In 2024, RMHC in Asia provided more than 129,000 free nights, supporting over 57,000 families.
The funding that keeps the Houses running comes from McDonald’s global corporate commitment, individual restaurant initiatives and round-up donations from customers making in-store purchases. Regular contributions from other corporate and private donors also help in this regard. In Hong Kong, McDonald’s campaigns such as The Big Mac Big Heart and Kidathons have raised more than HK$95 million (S$15.9 million) since 1996, with HK$14 million donated in 2024 alone.
SERVING COMMUNITIES ACROSS ASIA
Across Asia, McDonald’s restaurants are shaping community programmes that respond directly to local needs, from education and health to child development and family support. While each initiative is rooted in the realities of its own community, they share a common purpose: to improve everyday life in practical, sustainable ways.
“We focus on achieving our purpose of feeding and fostering communities by giving back through the right social programmes and initiatives. Our impact is about more than serving great food – it’s about helping our communities grow stronger, more inclusive and more resilient together,” said Mr Stijn Heytens, head of McDonald’s Asia Business Unit.
THE PHILIPPINES
Low literacy, declining student performance, overburdened teachers and a severe lack of resources are a growing concern in the Philippines. In response to these challenges, McDonald’s Philippines created the ReClassified programme to give a second life to decommissioned furniture from reimagined McDonald’s stores by turning them into classroom chairs and tables for public schools. By converting waste into classroom furniture through partnerships across its supply chain, the programme offers a practical, community-focused way to help schools create better learning environments for local students. Since 2023, more than 1,000 pieces of furniture have been repurposed, improving learning conditions for over 2,000 students in six cities nationwide.
As McDonald’s licensees Mr George Yang and Mr Kenneth Yang of Golden Arches Development Corporation share, the programme’s strength lies in its collaborative model: “ReClassified is more than a sustainability initiative – it’s a collective effort that brings together social enterprises, design students, non-profits and local governments to support our public schools.”
INDONESIA
Only 36 per cent of Indonesian children were enrolled in pre-primary programmes in 2023, far below the East and Southeast Asian regional average of 80 per cent. The impact is clear: A World Bank study shows that children who attend early childhood programmes score significantly higher in language, maths and noncognitive reasoning when they enter primary school, underscoring how early enrichment shapes long-term development.
Running since 1995, McKids has reached hundreds of thousands of children aged two to six across Indonesia. The McKids sessions offer structured play activities that encourage creativity, confidence and teamwork. These sessions are often held in or near restaurants – familiar spaces that families already frequent. Sessions run one to three times a week and teach early skills such as reading, writing, counting, drawing, singing and motor coordination through creative activities.
As Ms Carol Kurniadjaja, associate director of marketing at McDonald’s Indonesia, explained: “For many families, McKids has become a helpful introduction to early childhood learning – a place where children build confidence and experience the joy of learning before they enter kindergarten.”
“Families don’t just come for meals; they come because McDonald’s has become part of their children’s growth and early experiences,” she added. With its newly refreshed concept, McKids strengthens and builds a child’s learning journey.
THAILAND
Children around the world are becoming increasingly sedentary, with real implications for long-term health. The World Health Organization reports that more than 80 per cent of children aged 11 to 17 do not meet recommended daily physical activity levels, a pattern seen across regions and income levels.
It is against this backdrop that the McHappy Smile initiative in Thailand was created to get children moving, learning and interacting in a supportive environment. The programme brought children from nearby homes, shelters and schools into McDonald’s restaurants for a meal and an “edutainment” session led by volunteers, featuring the Ronald McDonald Show, which teaches basic health habits and simple exercise routines.
The initiative also partnered with the Department of Children and Youth to extend its reach and, starting in 2025, expanded through a collaboration with the Office of the Basic Education Commission to engage low-income schools across four regions. A new component, timed with McDonald’s Thailand’s 40th anniversary this year, includes donating basic sports equipment to promote daily physical activity. This offers a small but meaningful step in encouraging healthier routines in communities where opportunities to play, move and learn can be limited.
SINGAPORE
Youth mental health is a major concern in Singapore, where studies show that 27 per cent of young people report severe or extremely severe anxiety, while 14.9 per cent experience severe depressive symptoms and 12.9 per cent face severe stress. As Ms Linda Ming, director of brand communications and customer care at McDonald’s Singapore, said: “We know one in three young people in Singapore experience stress, anxiety or loneliness, but many struggle to open up.”
As a result, McDonald’s Singapore has stepped in with Lovin’ Me, a mental wellness campaign designed by students for students. The youth collaborators McDonald’s worked with highlighted two concerns: a stigma that prevents young people from speaking openly about their struggles, and a lack of simple, accessible ways to learn about mental wellness. The campaign meets youths where they already are, using familiar platforms and an authentic tone to help normalise conversations and remind them to seek support, Ms Ming added.
Lovin’ Me delivers approachable, youth-centric content, from music and short-form videos to a digital toolkit offering self-care guides and helplines. The impact has been significant. The mental wellness toolkit was accessed more than 17,000 times within its first 100 days. Overall, the campaign reached 1.5 million people across media and social platforms, amplifying a vital national conversation.
Looking ahead, Ms Ming emphasised that this is only the beginning. “Lovin’ Me is just the start of our commitment to support the next generation with empathy and action,” she said.
FILE PHOTO: Reddit app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Message board website Reddit on Friday (Dec 12) filed a lawsuit in Australia’s higher court seeking to overturn the country’s social media ban for children, calling it an intrusion on free political discourse and setting the stage for a protracted legal battle.
The San Francisco-based firm, which ranks Australia among its biggest markets, said in a High Court filing that the ban should be declared invalid because it interfered with free political communication implied by the country’s constitution.
Even if the court upheld the ban, Reddit should be exempt since it did not meet the definition of social media, added the filing, which named the Commonwealth of Australia and Communications Minister Anika Wells as defendants.
The lawsuit, two days into the rollout of the world-first nationwide ban on people under 16 accessing social media, is the second such challenge after two teenagers representing an Australian libertarian group filed suit last month.
But the action from a Silicon Valley major with a US$44 billion market capitalisation dramatically increases the resources available to continue a drawn-out court battle. Success for Reddit could open the door for other platforms to mount similar challenges.
A spokesperson for Wells said the Australian government was “on the side of Australian parents and kids, not platforms” and would “stand firm to protect young Australians from experiencing harm on social media”.
Health Minister Mark Butler said Reddit filed the lawsuit to protect profits, not young people’s right to political expression, and “we will fight this action every step of the way”.
“It is action we saw time and time again by Big Tobacco against tobacco control, and we are seeing it now by some social media or big tech giants,” he told reporters in Brisbane.
“PRIVACY AND POLITICAL EXPRESSION”
Australia went live with the world’s first legally enforced age minimum to access social media on Dec 10. Reddit and nine other platforms, including Meta’s Instagram, Alphabet’s YouTube and TikTok campaigned against the measure for more than a year before ultimately saying they would comply.
The platforms are required to bar underage users or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million (US$32.98 million), while underage users and their caregivers do not face punishment. Platforms say they are using measures like age inference, based on a person’s online activity, and age estimation, based on a selfie, to follow the rule.
Lionel Messi has won 44 trophies for club and country
Lionel Messi? Cristiano Ronaldo? Pele? Diego Maradona?
The debate over football’s greatest player of all time (GOAT) is one that has rumbled across generations – but India has cast its vote.
Fresh from leading Inter Miami to a historic MLS Cup, Messi is heading to India for a three-day ‘GOAT Tour’.
Accompanied by club-mates Luis Suarez and Rodrigo de Paul, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner will unveil a statue of himself in Kolkata on Saturday.
It has been assembled over the course of 27 days by a 45-strong crew and stands at a mammoth 70ft.
The tour begins in Kolkata at 10:30am local time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday, before heading to Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.
The statue is just one part of India’s homage to the former Barcelona and Paris St-Germain forward.
Fans can visit ‘Hola Messi’ fan zone where there is a life-sized replica Messi sat on a throne, a hall adorned with some of his trophies and a recreation of his Miami home complete with mannequins of the player and his family sat on a balcony.
“He (Lionel Messi) would be surprised to see the arrangements made for him,” Messi fan Shiladitya Banerjee said.
“He would be shocked to see how he is worshipped in Kolkata and across India. I am tearing up but these are happy tears.”
India is a hedge against the global AI bubble, some experts say
This week, tech giants Amazon and Microsoft pledged an eye-popping $50bn-plus combined investment in India, putting artificial intelligence (AI) in the spotlight.
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella announced his company’s largest investment ever in Asia – $17.5bn (£13.14bn) – “to help build the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities needed for India’s AI-first future”.
Amazon followed suit, and said it was putting in more than $35bn in the country by 2030, with an unspecified chunk of that investment going into boosting AI capabilities.
The announcements come at a particularly interesting juncture.
As fears of an AI bubble swept global markets and tech stock valuations soared, several leading brokerages took a contrarian view on India’s AI landscape.
Christopher Wood of Jefferies said the country’s stocks were a “reverse AI trade”. That basically means India should outperform other markets in the world “if the AI trade suddenly unwinds” – or simply put, the global bubble bursts.
HSBC also held a similar view, saying Indian equities offered a “hedge and diversification” for those uneasy with the ongoing AI rally.
This comes as Mumbai stocks have lagged behind their Asian peers over the past year, with foreign investors moving billions into Korean and Taiwanese AI-driven tech companies in the absence of comparable opportunities in India.
In this backdrop, the Amazon and Microsoft investments provide a much-needed fillip – yet it remains worth asking where India truly stands in the global AI race.
There are no easy answers.
The adoption of AI in India has been rapid. Investments into some parts of the value chain – such as data centres, the physical backbone of AI, or chip-making facilities – have begun trickling in. Just this week, American chipmaker Intel announced a collaboration with Mumbai-based Tata Electronics to manufacture chips locally.
But when it comes to a sovereign AI model, it appears India is continuing to play catch-up.
About a year-and-a-half ago, the Indian government launched an AI mission through which it began supplying start-ups, universities and researchers with high-end computing chips to develop a large homegrown AI model like OpenAI or China’s DeepSeek.
According to the federal electronics ministry, the launch of the sovereign model – which supports more than 22 languages – is imminent. In the interim though, the likes of DeepSeek and OpenAI have made further advances, launching newer variants.
While the government has recognised the need to reduce over-dependence on foreign platforms because of the risk of surveillance and sanctions, India’s $1.25bn sovereign mission is a shadow of France’s $117bn or Saudi Arabia’s $100bn programmes.
The country’s ambitions also face numerous other hurdles – from semiconductor availability to skilled talent and fragmented data ecosystems, according to global consultancy EY.
India currently lacks enough computational infrastructure or the billions of dollars of research and development (R&D) investment made over decades that gave China and the US a distinct leg up.
Despite its global strength in AI talent, India struggles to keep its developers at home.
“The current tightening of overseas work visas provides India a window of opportunity to retain domestic talent and attract Indian-origin talent at home. However, given that top-tier AI talent is mobile globally, attractive policy incentives need to be put in place to incentivise relocation to India,” the EY report says.
China, for example, offers a range of incentives such as “financial support and subsidies, tax incentives and funding for research and development, special talent visas and fast-track immigration”, the report says.
India has a much higher concentration of AI-skilled professionals than the global average – specifically, 2.5 times more. Policies that retain this talent are not yet in place.
Yet, despite the challenges, India – along with countries like Brazil and the Philippines – punches above its weight in AI, especially in the context of its stage of economic development, an UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) study said.
According to the widely tracked Stanford AI Index 2025, the country ranks among the top five in the world on new companies receiving AI investments.
Last year, 74 new Indian AI startups received funding – a fraction of the more than 1,000 funded in the US.
Indian AI startups raised just $1.16bn privately, compared with over $100bn in the US and nearly $10bn in China.
But there’s enough intellectual engagement with AI in India, with the country accounting for 9.2% of AI article publications – slightly more than the US, but behind Europe and China according to the Stanford AI Index.
Experts say India’s AI edge may lie less in building costly language models and more in using them downstream to spur entrepreneurship.
“I think in the short term, there’s this big concentration of AI in the US. But over the next five-10 years, AI will have a massively democratising effect on the creation of new companies. Small founders and entrepreneurs will be numerous and the downstream effect will be amazing for places like India and the Asia-Pacific,” Shailendra Singh, managing director of Peak XV Partners which invests in AI start-ups, told the BBC.
Mr Singh says India is seeing a surge in AI-powered consumer apps, with AI startup investments doubling from last year.
Moreover, many Indian startups are now using AI to tackle real-world challenges for millions still on the wrong side of the digital divide.
For example, MahaVISTAAR, an AI app run by the Maharashtra government, delivers vital agricultural information in the local Marathi language, reaching over 15 million farmers.
“The hardest places to make artificial intelligence work are also the places where it matters most. If AI can serve India’s classrooms, clinics and farms, it can serve the world,” Nandan Nilekani, the architect of India’s biometric programme, wrote in The Economist magazine last month.
Anutin is Thailand’s third prime minister since August 2023
Thailand has dissolved parliament after nearly a week of fresh clashes along its border with Cambodia, with a general election to be called within 45 to 60 days.
In a royal decree published on Friday, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul cited the deadly border dispute among other challenges his minority government has struggled to contain since it took office three months ago.
“The appropriate solution is to dissolve parliament… which is a way to return political power to the people,” he said.
Anutin, a business tycoon, is Thailand’s third prime minister since August 2023. When he took power in September, he said he would dissolve parliament by the end of January.
However, now facing an imminent vote of no confidence, Anutin brought the election forward.
Anutin and his Bhumjaithai party were heavily criticised for their handling of serious flooding in southern Thailand last month, which left at least 176 people dead.
The house’s dissolution comes during renewed fighting with Cambodia, which has killed at least 20 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
“The government had executed every means in public administration to quickly resolve the urgent issues overwhelming the country… but running the country requires stability,” Anutin wrote in the decree endorsed by Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
“As a minority government, together with troubling domestic political circumstances, it has been unable to carry out public administration continuously, effectively and with stability,” he wrote.
The dissolution order comes after the prime minister lost the support of the youthful, progressive People’s Party – also the largest party in parliament – which had previously backed his premiership.
The People’s Party and the pragmatic, conservative Bhumjaithai are ideological opposites.
The opposition bloc’s support, however, came with strings attached. It wanted Anutin to start reforms of Thailand’s military-drafted constitution and to dissolve the house within four months, among other things.
The People’s Party has now accused Bhumjaithai of failing to honour that deal. It had planned to submit a no-confidence motion against the government on Friday, according to Thai media – having already called on the prime minister on Thursday to disband parliament to “show responsibility towards the people”.
“See you at the polling stations,” the party said in statement on Facebook.
Thailand has been in political turmoil over the past year, with two prime ministers dismissed by the courts.
NATO chief Mark Rutte has urged the West to prepare for war “like our grandparents endured”.
He warned the UK and other allies are next in Russia’s sights – and said member states must rapidly boost defence spending.
Nato chief Mark Rutte had a stark warning for the WestCredit: Reuters
Speaking at a security conference event in Berlin, Rutte said: “We are Russia’s next target. I fear that too many are quietly complacent.
“Too many don’t feel the urgency. And too many believe that time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now.
“Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe. And we must be prepared.”
Rutte predicted that Russia could engage the alliance in direct conflict within the next five years.
Coming from the chief of Nato, this is no scaremongering – but a genuine warning to be heeded.
General Sir Richard Barrons said that it could all turn into a war “if Russia is mishandled or there’s miscalculation or an excess of ambition”.
The former Commander of Joint Forces Command told LBC: “I think this is serious. I don’t think it’s necessarily the outcome, but it is a serious risk.
“The SDR set out that we live in an era of state confrontation and potentially conflict. And for Europe, the issue today is Russia.
“If Russia is handled well, there is no need for a war. If Russia is handled badly or there’s miscalculation or an excess of ambition, yes, this could become a war in the way that our predecessors in the last century knew it.”
Russia has proven these fears valid even within the past 24 hours.
The Kremlin has sought to exploit the death of Lance Corporal George Hooley – a British paratrooper in Ukraine – as justification for expanding its aggression .
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said any European servicemen in Ukraine would be regarded as legitimate targets.
Also this week, Nato was forced to scramble fighter jets after the Russian forces overnight launched one of the biggest attacks of the war so far.
Moscow bombed Ukraine with 653 drones and 53 hypersonic and ballistic missiles across 60 waves of airstrikes, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
Footage showed massive flames erupting from buildings as explosions ripped through the country.
Nato member Poland said its Air Force scrambled fighter jets as “a preventive measure” due to the nature of the attacks.
Responding to the growing pressure, France last month announced it would ramp up its National Service.
Volunteers will soon be placed on ten-month deployments for a £9,000 pay packet, Macron announced.
And France’s top general recently warned that the country must be ready to “lose our children” as the reality of war against Russia looms larger.
Rutte was speaking in the wake of an astonishing tirade directed at Europe from America – that was tellingly welcomed by Moscow.
A report signed by Trump warned the continent stands on the edge of “civilisational erasure” – and blasted its woke “censorship” and “mass migration” policies.
Then, in an interview with Politico, Trump disparaged Europe as “decaying” and its leaders as “weak”.
However, Rutte in Berlin insisted that America’s safety relies on a stable Europe – even if Trump doesn’t know it.
Labour’s Peter Kyle today hit back against the US insults.
Speaking to The Sun’s Harry Cole Saves the West, he said it was nothing new that President Trump is at odds with Europe.
He said: “President Trump has for a long time had a sort of bee in his bonnet, as you say, about Europe and also about the world as it is.
“He sees the world differently from his predecessors. That is not new.”
Kyle continued: “Don’t forget when he came over just a short while ago, he brought £150 billion worth of trade with him.
“America is speaking with its investment when it comes to Britain at the moment.
“They are investing heavily into Britain, in AI, into lots of different sectors across the UK. And this isn’t just money that’s going into London.”
Meanwhile, a herculean diplomatic effort is ongoing to forge a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said any territorial concessions would have to be put to a vote in UkraineImage: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Trump ‘sick of meetings’ on Ukraine
US President Donald Trump is “extremely frustrated” with both Russia and Ukraine, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
The US has sought to pressure Ukraine to secure a quick peace deal that was widely regarded as highly favorable to Russia, but so far Kyiv has pushed back, working on a revised proposal with European counterparts that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered to the US today.
Prior to that, Trump had spoken on the phone with the leaders of France, Germany and the UK to discuss the prospects of further talks in Europe this weekend. Trump would send a representative to Europe this weekend if there is a real chance of signing a peace agreement, the White House said on Thursday.
“He wants action for this war to come to an end, and the administration has spent more than 30 hours, this just in the past couple of weeks, meeting with the Russians and the Ukrainians and the Europeans. We’ll see about the meetings this weekend, and stay tuned,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt was candid with reporters about the president’s souring mood.
“The president is extremely frustrated with both sides of this war, and he is sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting,” she said.
Why doesn’t Ukraine hold elections while under martial law?
Ukraine says it’s ready to hold the elections demanded by US President Donald Trump on condition that international partners ensure the safety of candidates and voters. But how realistic is this in a country at war?
EU states lift first hurdle to using Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine
European Union countries lifted a key hurdle to using Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine by agreeing on a procedure to keep the funds frozen as long as needed without having to vote to renew every six months. Denmark, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, made the announcement.
The move, which would pave the way for Ukraine to use the money, is based on Article 122 of the EU Treaty, which allows for exceptional measures in cases of emergencies facing the bloc. The last time it was used was during COVID-19 to enable the production of vaccines.
The European Commission is hoping to use some €200 billion ($232 billion) of Russian central bank assets, which were frozen in the EU following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. EU members hope these funds can provide much-needed funding beyond the end of this year to Ukraine.
But the loan plan faces strong resistance from Belgium, where the bulk of frozen assets are held. Belgium-based Euroclear, the entity that is holding most of the funds, fears legal or financial retribution from Moscow if it doesn’t have money for depositors should sanctions be lifted.
The European Commission has assured Euroclear that under the scheme, it is certain that it could repay Russia the money if necessary. Under the plan, Euroclear would lend the money to the EU, which in turn would lend it to Ukraine.
Ukraine would pay back the money if Russia compensated it for the destruction it has caused.
Not everyone in the EU was cheering: Hungary’s EU mission criticized the move, calling it an “unprecedented decision to extend sanctions on an incorrect legal basis in order to circumvent unanimous decision-making.”
The proposal’s next step is to receive approval from EU finance ministers at a meeting set for Friday.
US, Europe have same goals for Ukraine, Starmer says
US President Donald Trump and European leaders want the “same thing” for Ukraine, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday. He said Western nations wanted a “just and lasting” ceasefire.
Starmer, however, added that a “number of issues still to be resolved.”
Starmer chaired phone talks among the so-called Coalition of the Willing on Thursday.
“What President Trump wants, what Ukraine wants, what Europeans want is the same thing, which is a just and lasting peace in Ukraine after the nearly four-year aggression from Putin and Russia,” Starmer said. “So we’re working towards that aim.”
Zelenskyy said US has updated peace plan, see Ukrainian withdraw from Donetsk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy discussed security guarantees for Ukraine in a video call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Zelenskyy said the US had been presented with an updated version of a peace plan. Details of all its amendments were not disclosed.
But the Ukrainian leader did say the 20-point plan included security guarantees as well as an agreement for the rebuilding of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said the main point of contention in the talks was the status of the eastern Donetsk region and future control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
Zelenskyy said the US wants Ukraine, but not Russia, to withdraw troops from parts of the Donetsk region, in order to install a demilitarized buffer between the two armies.
“They see Ukrainian forces leaving the territory of Donetsk region, and the supposed compromise is that Russian forces do not enter this territory … which they already call a ‘free economic zone,'” Zelenskyy told reporters.
The Ukrainian president said any potential compromise on Ukrainian territory should be decided by a popular vote.
“I believe that the people of Ukraine will answer this question. Whether through elections or a referendum, there must be a position from the people of Ukraine,” he said.
Russia demands to know dead UK soldier’s activities
Moscow has demanded that the UK disclose the activities of a British soldier killed in Ukraine.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense confirmed on Tuesday that Lance Corporal George Hooley had died in Ukraine while observing Ukrainian forces test a new defensive capability. Hooely is said to have been away from the frontline when the incident occurred.
“London must honestly admit what their very own Hooley was doing there. It seems that perhaps someone there in Britain began to carefully prepare public opinion in their country for military losses in Ukraine that would be impossible to simply hide and continue to conceal,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
She accused British forces of helping Ukraine “carry out terrorist attacks and extremist tasks,” but did not provide any evidence to back up the claim. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
UK Defense Secretary John Healey said he was “devastated” by the soldier’s death.
“He was injured in a tragic accident whilst observing Ukrainian forces test a new defensive capability away from the front lines,” said the UK’s Ministry of Defense statement on the matter.
The UK has said it has a “small number” of military personnel in Ukraine, mostly providing security for British diplomats but also supporting Ukraine’s army.
NATO chief Rutte: ‘We are Russia’s next target’
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has urged alliance members to increase their defense efforts to prevent a war “on the scale our…grandparents and great-grandparents endured.”
Speaking in Berlin, Rutte said it did not appear that enough NATO members were taking the threat seriously enough.
“We are Russia’s next target. I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many don’t feel the urgency. And too many believe that time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now,” Rutte said.
“Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe. And we must be prepared,” he added.
Rutte said he believed Moscow could be ready to launch a war in Europe in the next five years.
Poland detains Russian archaeologist wanted by Ukraine
Poland has detained a Russian archaeologist wanted by Ukraine for allegedly plundering cultural treasures in Crimea.
Authorities say the man, identified as Alexander B., was arrested in Warsaw last week and will remain in custody for 40 days while Poland awaits an extradition request from Ukraine.
“[The Ukrainians] have suspicions about this person regarding… theft of cultural property,” Polish Special Services Minister Tomasz Siemoniak told private broadcaster TOK FM.
“The court has ordered his arrest so that this case can be resolved calmly,” Siemoniak added.
Ukraine accuses the man of carrying out unauthorized excavations in Crimea, causing damage worth millions of dollars. Russia has been illegally occupying the Ukrainian peninsula since 2014.
Moscow dismissed the allegations as politically motivated.
“We hope that Poland understands the absurdity of accusing a respected Russian archaeologist of ‘destroying cultural heritage’ on Russian territory and recognizes that such politicized actions cannot succeed and will not go unpunished,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.
Truphena Muthoni has set a Guinness World Record by hugging a tree for three straight days.
Muthoni wore a blindfold for several hours during the challenge to raise awareness about those with disabilities and how they will be affected by climate change.Image: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
Kenyan climate activist Truphena Muthoni has smashed her own previously held record, hugging a tree for 72 hours straight.
“This peaceful protest is important because it bypasses all differences. During other protests, we hear stories of goons, but this one bypasses all stories and triggers humanity,” she was quoted by local media as saying.
Muthoni’s previous record was 48 hours.
For this challenge, she selected an indigenous tree in the government compound in the town of Nyeri.
At one point, she nearly fell asleep, but was roused by her supporters, some of whom had pitched in to pay her fees for the Guinness World Records official observers.
She said she wanted to raise awareness of the danger posed by climate change and deforestation.
An abundance of hungover Russian drivers forced Ukraine to delay its “Pearl Harbor”-style attack on Moscow’s bomber fleet, just one of the hiccups that nearly thwarted the secret operation, according to a new report.
After Kyiv successfully sneaked dozens of drones into Russia for the unprecedented attack this past spring, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) hoped to launch the assault around Russian Victory Day on May 9 to humiliate the Kremlin.
Instead, the festivities around the holiday, as well as Russian Labor Day, and Orthodox Easter, created an unexpected issue — a lack of active drivers to carry out the mission, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ukrainian forces stunned the Russian military Sunday, wiping out and damaging dozens of nuclear bombers. Security Service of Ukraine
For Operation Spider’s Web to be a success, Ukraine was relying on a group of unwitting Russian drivers to transport their drones to the desired locations, with the truckers believing they were only hauling mobile wooden cabins.
Unfortunately, there was a small pool of drivers to choose from during the holiday as hungover drivers took the day off, making it far too risky to carry out the mission, SBU officials told the WSJ.
It wasn’t until the end of May that Kyiv and its agents found the perfect set of drivers to hire for the days-long mission, which was carried out on July 1 and saw 41 Russian bombers damaged and destroyed.
The hungover drivers weren’t the only issue the SBU ran into when trying to pull off the clandestine mission.
During the drive to one of the destinations inside Russia, one of the local drivers noticed that the roof of one of the cabins fell off, with the trucker discovering the hidden drones inside.
The shocked driver immediately contacted his employer for an explanation, with the man on the other side of the phone being Artem Timofeev, a 37-year-old former Ukrainian DJ living in Russia who signed up with his wife, an erotic novelist, to put the drones and cabins together for the operation.
Timofeev feigned ignorance when the truck driver called him, with the SBU coaching him on how to lie to the Russian driver and convince him that the drones and wooden cabins were for hunting, according to the WSJ.
The Russian trucker bought the lie, put the roof of the cabin back on, and carried on with his trip.
The SBU saw additional hiccups when one of the trucks suffered a mechanical issue, with SBU officials and Timofeev able to load the cargo into another truck without anyone being the wiser.
Another issue occurred when Kyiv lost connection with two cabins housing the drones due to spotty connections, with officials trying to get a Russian truck driver to fix the issue without being alerted to what he was actually doing.
Former Nepali ministers, officials and a Chinese company were charged with corruption over financial irregularities during the construction of an international airport.
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed on Sunday cases against 55 people and the China CAMC Engineering Company Limited, one of the biggest such cases in the Himalayan nation, accusing them of inflating construction expenses by more than $74 million. It remains unclear when the hearing will begin.
Two officials of the Chinese company have been named in the charges filed at the Special Court in Kathmandu, which handles corruption cases related to government dealings.
The bidding agreed on with the government in 2012 was set at $169.6 million, but Nepali officials increased the amount to a little over $244 million “in collusion with the Chinese company,” the commission said.
The airport, at the resort city of Pokhara, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Kathmandu, was built with a loan from China Exim Bank. It was expected to draw foreign tourists to the picturesque city, the starting point of many trekking routes in Nepal. However, it failed to attract international flights since operations began in 2023, according to local reports.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has been in hiding for months, has told the BBC that she knows “exactly the risks” she’s taking by travelling to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado appeared in Oslo in the middle of the night, waving from the balcony of a hotel. It was the first time she has been seen in public since January.
The 58-year-old made the covert journey despite a travel ban and a threat from the Venezuelan government that she would be labelled as a fugitive.
In an emotional moment, Machado waved to cheering supporters who had gathered outside the Norwegian capital’s Grand Hotel, blowing them kisses and singing with them.
To their delight, she then came outside and greeted them in person, climbing over the security barricades to get closer.
“Maria!” “Maria!” they shouted, holding their phones aloft to record the historic moment.
Earlier on Wednesday, her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her mother’s behalf.
The Nobel Institute awarded Machado the prize this year for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy” in Venezuela.
Until Wednesday night, the mother of three had not seen her children in about two years, having sent them away from Venezuela for their own safety.
In an interview with the BBC’s Lucy Hockings after her balcony appearance, Machado said she had missed their graduations, and the weddings of her daughter and one of her sons.
“For over 16 months I haven’t been able to hug or touch anyone,” she said. “Suddenly in the matter of a few hours I’ve been able to see the people I love the most, and touch them and cry and pray together.”
During the BBC interview, Machado had many rosary beads hanging around her neck, which she said supporters had given to her outside the hotel.
There has been much speculation about whether she will be able to safely return to Venezuela.
“Of course I’m going back,” she told the BBC. “I know exactly the risks I’m taking.”
“I’m going to be in the place where I’m most useful for our cause,” she continued. “Until a short time ago, the place I thought I had to be was Venezuela, the place I believe I have to be today, on behalf of our cause, is Oslo.”
María Corina Machado jumps over barricades outside the Grand Hotel in Oslo to greet cheering supporters
Considered one of the country’s most respected voices in Venezuela’s opposition, Machado has long denounced President Nicolás Maduro’s government as “criminal” and called on Venezuelans to unite to depose it.
She was barred from running in last year’s presidential elections, in which he won a third six-year term in office. The vote was widely dismissed on the international stage as neither free nor fair, and many nations view his rule as illegitimate.
“We need to address this regime not as a conventional dictatorship, but as a criminal structure,” she told the BBC.
Machado accused his regime of being funded by criminal activities such as drugs and human trafficking, repeating calls for the international community to help Venezuela “cut those inflows” of criminal resources.
Maduro has always vehemently denied being connected to cartels.
When asked whether she would support a US military strike on Venezuelan soil, given Washington’s recent attacks on alleged drug vessels, Machado did not answer directly but instead accused Maduro of “giving away our sovereignty to criminal organisations”.
“We didn’t want a war, we didn’t look for it… it was Maduro who declared war on the Venezuelan people,” she added.
Machado says she and her team are ready to form a government in Venezuela, and that she offered to sit down with Maduro’s team to work out a peaceful transition, but “they rejected it”.
The BBC asked Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who sat with Machado during the interview, whether a possible violent takeover to unseat Nicolás Maduro would contradict her Peace Prize.
He said the burden for peace should be placed on the current Venezuelan government: “The power lies in the Maduro regime, they have the responsibility to make sure this is a peaceful transition.”
Even after she was barred from the election last year, Machado continued to campaign for the candidate who replaced her on the ballot, Edmundo González.
Maduro was declared the winner, even though polling station tallies showed that González had won by a landslide.
The Maduro government has repeatedly threatened Machado with arrest, accusing her of calling for a foreign invasion and labelling her a terrorist for protesting against the election results.
Last month, Venezuela’s attorney general said Machado would be considered a fugitive if she travelled to Norway to collect her prize, saying she was accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, and terrorism”.
It made her journey to Norway difficult and risky.
The details of the trip were kept so tightly under wraps, that even the Nobel Institute did not know where she was or whether she would be in Oslo in time for the prize ceremony.
The Wall Street Journal reports that to escape Venezuela, Machado wore a disguise, managed to get through 10 military checkpoints without being caught, and sailed away on a wooden skiff from a coastal fishing village.
The plan was two months in the making, it reports, citing a person close to the operation, and she was assisted by a Venezuelan network that helps people flee the country. The US was also involved, the report says, but it is unclear to what extent.
Machado did not deny these details to the BBC, but also would not elaborate on the journey.
“They [the Venezuelan government] say I’m a terrorist and have to be in jail for the rest of my life and they’re looking for me,” she said. “So leaving Venezuela today, in these circumstances, is very, very dangerous.
“I just want to say today that I’m here, because many men and women risked their lives in order for me to arrive in Oslo.”
Mr Frydnes had described her journey to Norway as “a situation of extreme danger”.
Sitting next to her during the BBC interview, he said it was an “emotional” moment for him.
“In the middle of the night to have you here, it’s incredible,” he said. “It’s hard to describe what it means to the Nobel committee and to all of us.”
President Donald Trump has launched a scheme offering fast-tracked US visas to wealthy foreigners who can pay at least $1m (£750,000).
The card will give buyers a “direct path to Citizenship for all qualified and vetted people. SO EXCITING! Our Great American Companies can finally keep their invaluable Talent,” Trump said on social media on Wednesday.
The Trump Gold Card, which was first announced earlier this year, is a US visa awarded to those who can demonstrate they will provide a “substantial benefit” to the country, according to the scheme’s official website.
It comes as Washington intensifies its immigration crackdown, including raising work visa fees and deporting undocumented migrants.
The Gold Card scheme promises US residency in “record time” and will require a $1m fee which is “evidence that the individual will substantially benefit the United States”, the programme’s website said.
Businesses sponsoring employees are required to pay $2m, along with additional fees. A “platinum” version of the card that offers special tax breaks will also be available soon for $5m, the website said.
Extra fees to the government may be charged depending on each applicant’s circumstances, the site said. Individuals are also required to pay a non-refundable $15,000 processing fee before their application is reviewed.
The gold card scheme has faced criticism since it was first announced in February, with some Democrats saying that it would unfairly favour wealthy individuals.
When Trump first unveiled the plan he described the visas as similar to green cards, which allow immigrants of various income levels to live and work permanently in the US. Green card holders typically become eligible for citizenship after five years.
But the Gold Card is aimed specifically at “high-level” professionals, Trump said, emphasising, “we want people that are productive”.
“The people that can pay $5m, they’re going to create jobs,” Trump said. “It’s going to sell like crazy. It’s a bargain.”
The scheme comes as the Trump administration has devoted significant resources to deporting immigrants.
The US has also paused immigration applications by individuals from the 19 countries, mostly in Africa and in the Middle East, which are subject to the president’s travel ban.
Renovations continue at the Federal Reserve Board building in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The U.S. Federal Reserve may not give President Donald Trump all the rate cuts he wants, but the view of the economy policymakers included in new economic projections on Wednesday should buoy the administration nonetheless with its outlook for faster growth, lower inflation and steady unemployment heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
The Fed, in fact, may be done cutting rates for now, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his fellow policymakers signaled after their most recent rate meeting. But that’s because they anticipate the U.S. to emerge from a period of volatility and upheaval over tariffs and immigration into a year of strong productivity, ongoing consumer spending, and inflation that falls as the impact of tariffs on goods prices begins to wane.
The projections set a strong baseline for the arrival of whomever Trump chooses to replace Powell when his term as chair ends in May, but potentially little room to lower rates as far or as fast as Trump seems to feel is appropriate.
The economy may hum regardless.
“I really want to turn this job over to whoever replaces me with the economy in really good shape: that’s what I want to do,” Powell said at his news conference Wednesday, following the Fed’s decision to cut the policy rate for a third straight time and signal a pause ahead. “I want inflation to be under control – going back down to 2% – and I want the labor market to be strong.”
Nearly a third of policymakers were unhappy with Wednesday’s rate cut, the projections showed, and another third want more than the median expectation of one rate cut for all of next year. But despite those divisions, which Powell said were largely due to disagreements over whether inflation or a weak labor market poses the bigger risks, central bankers by and large expect next year to look solid.
Wednesday’s rate cut “should help stabilize the labor market while allowing inflation to resume its downward trend toward 2% once the effects of tariffs have passed through,” Powell said.
The quarterly projections show prices are rising faster, interest rates are higher, and economic growth is slower than central bankers anticipated last September, just before Trump’s November election victory.
But for next year, central bankers see broad improvements that amount to a “soft landing” for the U.S., and an easing of fears that the economy was heading for what some analysts called “stagflation lite,” with high joblessness and high inflation.
Inflation is expected to end 2026 at 2.4% versus 2.9% at the end of this year, the Fed’s fresh projections show, as tariffs’ upward push on goods prices dissipates. Economic growth is seen accelerating to 2.3% compared with 1.7% this year, benefiting from a bounceback after this year’s government shutdown.
And the unemployment rate, reported at 4.4% in September, is expected to tick up slightly before ending 2026 back at 4.4% again.
Powering that picture, Powell said on Wednesday, is a rise in productivity poised to accelerate amid the adoption of artificial intelligence. Productivity growth has been a key argument for rate cuts from administration officials including White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett, seen as the front-runner for Powell’s replacement.
But while the new Fed chair may inherit a solid economy, he will take the helm of a group that is by no means sold on the need for further policy easing. Indeed, Powell repeatedly said the latest rate cut leaves Fed officials well-positioned to wait and see – hardly an endorsement of the sharp rate cuts Trump says he wants his new Fed chair to deliver.
Issues around inflation and affordability, which Trump used as a centerpiece of his 2024 presidential campaign, remain unresolved, with the Republican president’s approval ratings on the economy falling. Food prices rose 2.7% annually in September, versus less than 2% when he returned to power in January, and high housing prices and mortgage interest rates have combined to put home ownership out of reach for many.
And yet some of the worst anticipated outcomes from earlier in the year, when Trump’s initial “Liberation Day” tariff plans sparked talk of collapsing global trade, a corrosive mix of rising prices and high unemployment, and even of a “canceled” Christmas shopping season, haven’t been realized.
LABOUR’S plan to get the UK to Net Zero by 2050 could end up costing every household in Britain £500 a year.
Ministers have been warned that transitioning to meet green targets over the next 25 years could cost the country a staggering £350 billion more than taking a slower approach.
Claire Coutinho says the public have been told a lieCredit: Alamy
The UK could save an average of £14 billion a year if it abandons its legally binding target to reach net zero, according to the National Energy System Operator.
That works out at roughly £500 a year for every household in Britain until 2050.
The report warned the bill could climb even higher if gas prices fall below current forecasts, making green energy look even pricier by comparison.
In this scenario, the Net Zero premium could rise to an average of £19 billion a year over the next two decades.
Even in a world where gas prices do rise, the analysis found the Net Zero pathway would still be around £5 billion a year more expensive than a slower route.
The Tories’ shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said: “The public have been told the lie that Net Zero means cheaper energy.
“This report shows the truth – rushing to net zero is forecast to make our energy system £350 billion more expensive than going slower.”
The government body responsible for the UK’s power system said the extra cost of racing to Net Zero would hit hardest over the next decade.
Their report revealed the annual price tag could top £40billion in some years.
The study compared two futures, one matching Labour’s tougher clean-power plans, and another where Britain carries on broadly as it is now with more gradual emissions cuts.
The slower path would still see electric cars rolled out, but many homes would keep gas boilers and some power stations would continue burning gas.
In both cases, overall energy-related costs fall sharply from today’s levels by 2050.
But the Net Zero route only becomes cheaper after 2046, and is far more expensive in the early years.
Government officials pushed back, insisting the figures “do not reflect or predict” the actual cost of going green.
They said clean energy will bring long-term savings, boost energy security and support skilled jobs.
But it also said going greener quicker would offer more protection from extreme price shocks like those caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Jess Ralston, energy chief at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said the findings show why the UK should keep pushing for Net Zero.
She said: “After decades of under-investment, upgrading the grid to unlock more British renewables and improve efficiency will create greater energy independence for the UK so that a future gas crisis won’t leave households, businesses and industry facing incredibly high bills.”
THIS is the stunning moment US troops rappel from helicopters and storm an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela with high-powered rifles.
Well-oiled commandos swept through the ship as they executed Trump’s boldest play yet in his stand-off with dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Commandos dropped from a chopper onto the deckCredit: X/ @AGPamBondi
Footage released on X by Attorney General Pam Bondi shows a military helicopter hovering over the tanker, with another buzzing nearby.
Ropes are tossed from the cabin and geared-up troops immediately clamber down onto the deck.
They disperse in formation – guns aloft – darting up staircases and sweeping through cabins.
Forces from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the US Coast Guard all came together for the slick sting.
Ms Bondi said the troops were carrying out a seizure warrant for the tanker, which was used to “transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”.
Announcing the successful operation earlier on Wednesday, Trump said: “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually.”
He fired an ominous warning to Maduro – under the cosh more now than ever before – that “other things are happening”, though he did not elaborate.
When pressed on why he ordered the operation, Trump said only: “It was seized for a very good reason.”
And asked what would happen to the oil onboard, he said: “We keep it I guess.”
It’s still not clear exactly which vessel was targeted, or where it was intercepted.
This marks a major escalation in the US campaign against Venezuela – and is the strongest hint yet that America’s sights are set beyond drug traffickers.
Up to this point, operations had been limited to remote strikes on small boats that America identified as “narco-terrorists”.
This appears to be the first clash involving American personnel in the field, and the first target not directly related to the drugs trade.
In the immediate term, the seizure could stymie Venezuela’s vital oil exports.
Other shippers will likely be much warier of loading cargo from Maduro’s shores – for fear of a similar seizure.
Longer term, it’s possible this proves to be the first move in a naval blockade of Venezuela – but Trump is for now keeping his cards close to his chest.
Most oil from Venezuela ends up in China after passing through middlemen nations and being sold at a cut price.
Just today, oil buyers in Asia demanded deeper discounts on Venezuelan crude oil due to a flood of sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran on offer.
They also cited the risk of loading in the South American country in the face of the US military presence – a concern that has today been realised.
The US has for months been tightening the noose around Maduro.
This has been through a series of bold strikes against Venezuelan drug trafficking boats and the build-up of a vast military force in the Caribbean.
As of December 4, at least 87 people had been killed in 22 strikes on 23 vessels.
At the end of last month, Trump vowed the US would soon launch land operations in Venezuela after saying the drug cartels are on a par with terrorist groups Al Qaeda and Hamas.
However, he has maintained that his only goal is to wipe out the drugs trade flooding narcotics into the US – justifying each escalation with this cause.
DONALD Trump is warning he won’t bother coming to Europe for Ukraine peace talks unless there’s a real chance of a deal.
The European leaders want a meeting this weekend, but Trump says he needs more clarity before making the trip.
Donald Trump is warning he won’t come to Europe unless he gets some clarityCredit: Splash
The President told reporters: “We want to know some things before a meeting. We don’t want to waste time.”
On Wednesday, Trump held a call with the leaders of France, the UK, and Germany to discuss efforts to reach a peace deal in Ukraine, according to a White House official.
The conversation comes amid rising tensions between the U.S. and European powers over the war in Ukraine and the broader Transatlantic relationship.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is under pressure to accept Trump’s peace plan, which reportedly includes major territorial losses and other concessions.
On Monday, Zelensky met with the leaders of Germany, France, and the UK to deliver a united message: the current U.S. plan is unacceptable.
Trump, meanwhile, has lashed out at European leaders. In a Politico interview published Tuesday, he called them “weak” and defended his new national security strategy that seeks to “cultivate resistance to Europe’s current trajectory.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said the call lasted 40 minutes and focused on advancing diplomatic efforts to end the war.
The German Chancellor’s office said in a statement: “The four heads of state and governments discussed the status of talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“Intensive work on the peace plan is to continue in the coming days. They agreed that this is a crucial moment for Ukraine and for common security in the Euro-Atlantic area.”
Zelensky also held a virtual meeting with a U.S. team led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner joined, along with Steve Mnuchin and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
Zelensky wrote on X that he updated the U.S. on his position regarding the latest draft of Trump’s peace plan.
He said: “It is overall security that will determine economic security and underpin safe business environment.”
Zelensky said he expects to deliver an updated peace plan to the U.S. “in the near future.”
European leaders continue talks to ensure Kyiv gets a fair deal.
The Ukrainian President confirmed work is ongoing on a 20-point plan aimed at ending the war.
“Everything must be reliable and dignified for Ukraine,” Zelensky said on X.
“In parallel, we are finalizing work on the 20 points of a fundamental document that could define the parameters for ending the war.
“We expect to deliver this document to the United States in the near future following our joint work with President Trump’s team and partners in Europe.”
On Tuesday, Zelensky said he had hoped to send the revised plan by Wednesday after Trump criticized him for not reading it.
He added that on Thursday there would be a “Coalition of the Willing” meeting to guarantee future security and prevent a recurrence of Russian aggression.
Zelensky also addressed Trump’s claims that Kyiv was delaying elections to cling to power.
“They’re using the war as an excuse not to hold an election,” Trump said. “But they haven’t had an election in a long time. They talk about a democracy, but at some point, it ceases to be one.”
Ukrainian law currently blocks elections under martial law, but Zelensky said they could proceed if security guarantees were in place.
“I’m asking now, and I’m stating this openly, for the US to help me, perhaps together with our European colleagues, to ensure security for the election,” Zelensky said.
“I’ve heard hints that we’re clinging to power, or that I personally am clinging to the presidency. It’s frankly, a completely unreasonable narrative.”
Trump has reportedly set a Christmas deadline for Zelensky to accept his peace plan, delivered by envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff after talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
The President warned that Ukraine would struggle to withstand further bombardment unless an agreement is signed.
He also targeted European leaders, labelling them “weak” and accusing them of presiding over a “decaying” continent consumed by left-wing politics and high levels of illegal migration.
The pressure on Zelensky is compounded by Russian missile strikes, which have killed civilians and hit key rail infrastructure in Ukraine.
A 51-year-old man was killed and two children wounded in Dnipropetrovsk. The day before, four civilians were killed.
Russia temporarily closed Moscow airspace due to Ukrainian drone incursions, forcing flights to reroute to St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod.
Downing Street said Monday’s meeting would “focus on ongoing peace negotiations and next steps.”
Starmer described the talks as a “critical stage of the push for peace.”
Zelensky thanked allies for organizing the meeting. “Things that are very important for today are… unity between Europe, Ukraine, and US. I think it is very important to organise such meetings,” he said.
US President Donald Trump announced the seizure of a “very large” oil tanker and said “other things are happening” off the coast of Venezuela.
The move marks the latest escalation between the Trump administration and Venezuelan President Nicolas MaduroImage: Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA/picture alliance
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump said the tanker “was seized for a very good reason.”
The US president added that “other things are happening,” without offering any additional details. Reporters asked Trump what would happen with the oil, he replied: “We keep it, I guess.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted a video to X that appeared to show US forces boarding the tanker.
Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. For multiple… pic.twitter.com/dNr0oAGl5x
In response, Caracas accused Washington of “blatant theft” as the Venezuelan government vowed to “defend its sovereignty, natural resources, and national dignity with absolute determination.”
A statement from the foreign ministry added that the Latin American country “strongly denounces and condemns what constitutes blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”
It added that they would denounce the seizure in front of international bodies.
Vessel seizure latest escalation between Washington and Maduro
The announcement marks the latest escalation between the Trump administration and the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and it comes as opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is believed to have left the country for Oslo.
In an interview with US news outlet Politico earlier this week, Trump said that Maduro’s “days are numbered,” declining to rule out a US ground invasion against Venezuela.
Venezuela has largest proven oil reserves
The oil tanker seizure comes weeks after the Trump administration has dramatically increased US presence in the Caribbean, near Venezuelan waters, and conducted strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats originating from Venezuela.
The US has been amassing a fleet of warships including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford.
Unnamed US officials said the tanker’s seizure was led by the US Coast Guard and supported by the Navy.
The New York Times and CBS News identified the tanker as a vessel called the Skipper. The New York Times said officials they spoke to said the vessel was carrying Venezuelan oil from the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
But it is not yet clear which country’s flag the vessel was flying.
The South American nation has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels of oil per day.
But US sanctions on its oil industry have left Venezuela locked out of global oil markets, selling most of its output at a steep discount to refiners in China.
Researchers excavating an ancient Neanderthal site in southern England found evidence not just of a hearth, but of its inhabitants bringing iron pyrite to the area specifically to enable them to light fires.
Access to fire on demand, particularly for cooking meat, is considered a crucial step for hominin brain evolutionImage: Dmitry Naumov/Zoonar/picture alliance
Archaeologists wrote in the journal Nature this week that they have unearthed the oldest-known evidence of deliberate fire-making by prehistoric humans in the English county of Suffolk.
The hearth was discovered in Barnham in the UK, near a buried site that was once a pond where Neanderthals are thought to have lived roughly 415,000 years ago.
The authors wrote that the site seems to provide “unequivocal evidence of deliberate fire-making” that “has remained elusive” because of the difficulties in distinguishing between naturally occurring fires being used by prehistoric humans and controlled fires being created on demand.
Early humans are thought to have first started making opportunistic use of naturally occurring fires, for instance from lightning strikes or forest fires, as much as a million years ago.
Heated clay, heat-shattered handaxes, and imported iron pyrite to light permanent campfire
At an old clay pit for making bricks near the village of Barnham, the researchers found a patch of heated clay, some heat-shattered handaxes and two pieces of iron pyrite.
This material creates sparks when struck against flint to ignite tinder, and is also not readily available in the vicinity, suggesting the Neanderthals brought it to the watering hole specifically for the purpose.
“We think humans brought pyrite to the site with the intention of making fire,” said archaeologist Nick Ashton, curator of Palaeolithic Collections at the British Museum in London and the leader of the research. “This has huge implications pushing back the earliest fire-making.”
The earliest-known evidence of deliberate fire-making to date had been unearthed in northern France and dated to roughly 50,000 years ago. It was also attributed to Neanderthals.
Although human remains were not found at the site, paleoanthropologist and study co-author Chris Stringer said that pieces of human skull from a similar period, characteristic of early Neanderthals, were located in the mid-20th century less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the south at a town called Swanscombe and at a site in Sima de los Huesos near Burgos in Spain.
“Thus the Barnham fire-makers were very likely to have been early Neanderthals, like Swanscombe and the Sima people,” Stringer said.
Neanderthals are thought to have gone extinct roughly 39,000 years ago as homo sapiens started to settle throughout Europe. But genetic remnants of the early hominid cousins to modern humans persist in many of our genes as a result of interbreeding and assimilation.
Fire expands and improves diet; hearth feeds community, language, storytelling
Controlled use of fire was a landmark in human evolution for multiple reasons.
Cooking enabled vastly improved diets and easier and safer digestion of meat and other ingredients, freeing up energy from digestion for use by the fast-expanding brains of early hominins.
It also provided warmth, enabling hunter-gatherers to survive and thrive in colder environments, like Britain, study co-author Rob Davis, an archaeologist at the British Museum, said.
Brandenburg’s state Environment Ministry warned of a “large oil spill” after a pipeline accident. It said that emergency services were on site and that details on the size and cause of the spill were not yet available.
The PCK oil refinery is located close to the Polish border and the Oder river in SchwedtImage: Patrick Pleul/picture alliance/dpa
State authorities in Brandenburg reported a major oil spill north of Berlin late on Wednesday, saying there had been an accident affecting a pipeline connecting a major oil refinery to the Baltic Sea port of Rostock.
“An accident occurred on the PCK piepline near Gramzow/Zehnebeck, resulting in a large oil spill,” a spokesman for Brandenburg’s Environment Ministry said. “Emergency services are on site. No information can be provided at this time about the cause of the exact extent of the damage.”
The fire department later estimated that roughly 200,000 liters (about 52,835 gallons) of oil had escaped from the pipeline at a pumping station in Gramzow. For orientation, that amount of liquid would fill a little less than one-tenth of an Olympic swimming pool.
Alexander Trenn of the Schwedt fire department said the leak had a pressure of around 20 bar (roughly 290 psi) at its peak, causing a fountain of oil several meters high to spew out.
Specialist machinery was being used to remove the spilled oil. Clean-up operations would continue into Thursday morning, he said. Trenn said around 100 fire department officers and some 25 company employees were working on site.
Nature reserves situated near PCK’s Schwedt refinery on Polish border
A major oil refinery is located near the border to Poland in Schwedt, operated by PCK. The company says on its website that the facility can process 11.5 million metric tons of oil a year, “making it one of the largest crude oil processing sites in Germany.”
Meanwhile, the AFP news agency cited a PCK spokeswoman as saying that “deliberate external influence” such as sabotage could already be “ruled out.”
Local public broadcaster rbb reported that by 19:45 local time (1845 UTC/GMT), “the leak was for the most part plugged, although some oil was still leaking out.”
A political artists’ collective has placed a statue of murdered politician Walter Lübcke outside CDU headquarters. Lübcke was killed by a supporter of the far-right AfD, which the activists are warning against.
A statue of murdered CDU politician Walter Lübcke has appeared outside CDU headquartersImage: Verena Schmitt-Roschmann/dpa/picture alliance
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is not happy about a new protest stunt that has appeared on its doorstep.
Leading members of Germany’s governing party have reacted angrily after the political art-activist group the Center for Political Beauty (ZPS) last week placed a life-size bronze statue of the late CDU politician Walter Lübcke outside their party headquarters, the Konrad Adenauer building in Berlin. The memorial is meant to protest the CDU’s alleged accommodation of racist politics and warns against its potential collaboration with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Lübcke, a local CDU leader in the state of Hesse, was shot dead by an AfD supporter in 2019 after he had become a hate figure for Germany’s far-right at the height of Germany’s refugee crisis. At town hall meeting in 2015, he made a speech defending government policy on taking in Syrian refugees.
He was shot in the head four years later on the porch of his home by Stephan E., a far-right extremist who saw Lübcke speak, and who had, according to investigations by Die Zeit newspaper, donated to the AfD in the state of Thuringia.
Exploitation or commemoration?
The statue of Lübcke has been erected on a small patch of public ground next to the CDU building, along with a bench and an information board with an audio feature that tells the story of his life in German, English and Spanish. The local authority in Berlin has given permission for the memorial to remain in place for two years. The CDU headquarters did not respond to a DW request for comment on the memorial.
In a YouTube video about the action, the ZPS drew explicit parallels between how conservatives enabled the rise of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialists in the early 1930s and how the CDU has been allegedly aping the AfD’s policies.
The main reaction from prominent CDU figures has been outrage. At an event in Berlin, Chancellor Friedrich Merz described the memorial as “utterly tasteless,” and Berlin’s CDU mayor, Kai Wegner, took a similar line.
“Those who so shamelessly exploit the memory of Walter Lübcke for their own political agenda demonstrate one thing above all else: Disrespect and indifference toward a man who stood up for our democracy and paid for it with his life,” Wegner wrote on the social media platform X.
Die Aktion des Zentrums für Politische Schönheit ist in ihrer Geschmacklosigkeit kaum zu überbieten. 1/4
The ZPS said it was disappointed with this reaction: “Of course we had the hope … that at some point one of the top officials from the CDU might have come out of the glass Konrad Adenauer building and had a look at it or laid flowers down,” ZPS spokesperson Tobias von Laubenthal told DW.
But, von Laubenthal added, the reaction from German civil society had been overwhelmingly positive. “The question that we were asking ourselves was why the CDU has not done anything years ago to honor the memory of Walter Lübcke,” he told DW. “That’s something that a lot of people have wondering.”
“This was a man with clear lines, and when those red lines were crossed, such as when it came to far-right extremism, he took a very clear stance,” von Laubenthal added. “He was a man with a stance that we miss in the CDU today.”
Lübcke’s has become one of the most prominent politically-motivated murders in recent German history, marking as it did the first time that an elected leader had been assassinated by a right-wing extremist since the end of World War II.
At least one prominent former CDU figure has defended the action against the attacks from the party. “I wonder what this ‘exploitation’ is supposed to consist of?” said Michel Friedman in a speech at the opening of the memorial last Friday.
Friedman, who has also hosted a DW talk show, was a member of the CDU’s leadership board in the 1990s and left the party earlier this year in protest at its perceived rightward drift. “It’s not exploitation to commemorate such a man, it’s an expression of respect, of honor, and of gratitude,” he said in his speech.
Lübcke family’s ambiguous reaction
According to Berlin media reports, the local authority that approved the memorial was told by the ZPS that Lübcke’s family had been made aware of the concept in advance, and had not offered any opposition.
But Lübcke’s family have said they were not consulted. “Simply dropping a letter in our mailbox the day before the monument was erected cannot be considered participation,” Lübcke’s widow, Irmgard Braun-Lübcke and her children wrote in a statement to the media. “This does not constitute adequate information or involvement.”
Nevertheless, the family also noted that they supported the message of the action, saying they were grateful to everyone who remembers their father and husband “in a sincere, appreciative, and respectful manner.”
“The firewall against the right, regardless of which democratic party, must remain in place; there can be no tolerance of that,” they said.
Though largely reluctant to appear in the public eye, Irmgard Braun-Lübcke has criticized the CDU leadership in the past. In February this year, she responded with some irritation to a remark made by Merz about demonstrators during an election campaign event in Munich, when the soon-to-be chancellor said, “I’d like to ask all those people out there, Antifa and anti-right-wingers: Where were you when Walter Lübcke was murdered in Kassel by a right-wing extremist?”
“Contrary to his account, there was in fact strong widespread public support for our democracy and its values after my husband’s assassination,” Braun-Lübcke said. “Thousands of citizens — whether left-wing, liberal, or conservative democrats — took to the streets in Wolfhagen, Kassel, and many other places in Germany.”
CDU and AfD: A tricky relationship
Though Merz has repeatedly vowed never to allow his party to collaborate with the AfD, doubts are growing whether the CDU’s “firewall” can hold, giving the growing strength of the AfD and upcoming state elections where the far-right party looks set to emerge as the strongest party.
The CDU has been seen to cooperate with the AfD at state level in the past. In January this year, Merz — then still leader of the opposition — triggered a wave of outrage by pushing a motion to
curb immigration through parliament with the support of the AfD. The chancellor has also frequently been accused of using racist rhetoric and fearmongering typical of far-right parties.
Two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country, Tokyo said.
This handout photo taken on Dec 9, 2025 and received on Dec 10, 2025, from Japan’s Ministry of Defence shows a Chinese J-16 fighter jet flying over the sea near Japan. (Photo: AFP/Japan’s Ministry of Defence)
NATO chief Mark Rutte and Japan’s defence minister shared their “grave concerns” about recent joint patrols by Chinese and Russian aircraft, Tokyo said.
The incident on Tuesday (Dec 9) came as Japan-China relations worsen after comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan that enraged Beijing.
“Both sides shared their grave concerns over this incident and concurred to closely communicate with each other,” the Japanese defence ministry said late on Wednesday.
The statement followed a 15-minute video conference between Rutte and Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the ministry said.
Koizumi also briefed Rutte about another recent incident that involved Chinese aircraft locking its radar onto Japanese planes near Taiwan, the statement added.
According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.
Japan scrambled aircraft in response.
South Korea said on Tuesday that Russian and Chinese warplanes also entered its air defence zone, with Seoul also deploying fighter jets.
Beijing confirmed later on Tuesday that it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.
FILE PHOTO: SpaceX logo and Elon Musk photo are seen in this illustration taken, December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday hinted at a possible SpaceX initial public offering in a social media exchange with Ars Technica space journalist Eric Berger, following reports of a possible listing of the rocket maker in 2026.
“As usual, Eric is accurate,” Musk said, in reply to Berger’s post saying “Here’s why I think SpaceX is going public soon,” that linked his Ars Technica article on SpaceX’s plans to go public.
Reuters and others reported on Tuesday that SpaceX was looking to raise more than $25 billion through an IPO in 2026, a move that could boost the rocket-maker’s valuation to more than $1 trillion.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The California-based company ranks as the world’s second most-valuable private startup after ChatGPT maker OpenAI, according to data from Crunchbase.
Andy Dick said he smoked crack cocaine with a random man he met on the streets of Los Angeles ahead of suffering an apparent overdose.
The comedian, 59, spoke to TMZ inside his Los Angeles home on Wednesday alongside two friends, and answered combatively when asked if he was okay.
“Doesn’t it look like I’m 100 percent fine?” he asked. “110 percent.”
Dick said he met a man on the sidewalk who was depressed, and the man offered him crack cocaine. He said he took it because he doesn’t “mind doing a little crack every now and then.”
Andy Dick said he smoked crack cocaine ahead of his apparent overdose on Tuesday.
“There was a guy that was my age on the sidewalk and I felt for him, he had kids and he was depressed and he was on the sidewalk,” Dick said. “And then he whipped out — sorry, but crack — and I’m like, you know what? I might need a little bit of that.”
One of his friends said that he told Dick to think of his two grandkids while he was in distress, and that Dick squeezed his hand in response.
Dick was seen slumped over on the cement stairs of a building in Hollywood on Tuesday in a video obtained by TMZ.
In the alarming video, the actor was seen lying flat on the concrete as someone stood over him, and several of his friends ran over to him and attempted to revive him.
One of the “NewsRadio” alum’s friends reportedly screamed at Dick to “wake up” as others called an ambulance.
A bystander shouted for someone nearby to grab Narcan, a life-saving medication that quickly reverses opioid overdoses, and Dick was administered the shot.
The Congresswoman urged lawmakers to move with incredible urgency to mitigate the damage this administration has done to the US-India partnership and return to steady cooperation.
US Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove. (Photo: X/ANI)
The now-famous car selfie of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin surfaced in the US Congress, held aloft as a poster by Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove during a hearing on US foreign policy. Using the image as a prop, she warned that Washington is pushing India closer to Moscow — and that it is the United States, not New Delhi, undermining the partnership.
“Trump’s policies towards India can only be described as cutting our nose to spite our face,” Kamlager-Dove said, arguing that the administration’s pressure tactics are doing “real and lasting damage to the strategic trust and mutual understanding between our two countries.”
Gesturing toward the poster, Kamlager-Dove added, “This poster is worth a thousand words. You do not get a Nobel Peace Prize by driving US strategic partners into the arms of our adversaries.”
She said the moment should be a wake-up call for Washington. “Because let me be clear: being a coercive partner has a cost,” she said.
The Congresswoman urged lawmakers to move with incredible urgency to mitigate the damage this administration has done to the US-India partnership and return to steady cooperation. “Congress understands the stakes on a bipartisan basis,” she said. “And I thank the chair for putting this on the record today.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin rode with Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon after landing at Delhi’s Palam Airport last week for his two-day visit, a gesture both sides cast as a sign of personal warmth. The leaders last shared a car during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit, travelling in a made-in-Russia Aurus sedan — a moment widely read as a display of their close rapport.
New data from human rights groups shows that extrajudicial killings and custodial torture have continued largely unabated under Muhammad Yunus’s interim regime. For many Bangladeshis, the promise of justice by Yunus in the post-Sheikh Hasina, now might look increasingly like a replay of the past.
Muhammad Yunus had said that the post-Sheikha Hasina era would have virtues of justice and accountability. (File Images)
Anger was building up against the Sheikh Hasina regime for some years over its high-handedness before students took to the streets in July 2024 and forced her to leave Bangladesh in August. Custodial torture and extrajudicial killings were rampant. Over a year on, nothing much seems to have changed under the caretaker regime of Muhammad Yunus.
A compilation of extrajudicial killings by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi legal aid and human rights organisation, reveals nothing much seems to have changed in post-Hasina Bangladesh.
The ASK report documents 37 incidents of extra-judicial killings and custodial deaths between January and November this year. While 14 of the deaths have been due to shootouts before arrest, 11 are attributed to physical torture in custody.
It also lists 95 deaths in custody, including of 64 undertrials, till November 2025.
Bangladesh witnessed an “alarming continuation” of torture and abuses, The Daily Star quoted rights activist Nur Khan Liton as saying.
“The perpetrators of these crimes remain in positions of power… No one has been held accountable. There is no sign that justice will be served,” he said, adding that the “entrenched culture” of custodial deaths will continue if the next government doesn’t act.
The Hasina regime was known for sudden disappearances and harsh treatment of political opponents at two dozen secret detention centres, according to reports.
One of the places was Aynaghar or House of Mirrors in Dhaka Cantonment. Those detained didn’t get to see anyone for years, with reports of people being kept in solitary confinement for up to eight years. Such were the horrors, that those we ever saw sunlight of freedom, barely spoke about those dark days. Over 100 people, mostly political critics of Hasina’s Awami League, are still unaccounted for.
“No party bore this burden more than the BNP. Across extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, custodial deaths, and false charges, BNP leaders, activists, and supporters formed the largest share of the wounded and missing,” said Tarique Rahman, Acting Chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the Awami League main political rival, on Wednesday (December 10).
Sheikh Hasina and most of her top-rung Awami League leaders are now in exile. Though Bangladeshis remember the authoritarian regime of Hasina, the Awami League tries to pass the buck to the BNP and its chief, Sheikh Hasina.
“The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), created in March 2004 under Khaleda Zia, soon became central to the rise in extrajudicial killings. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented at least 350 deaths attributed to RAB since 2004, many labelled ‘crossfire’ but widely assessed as torture or summary executions,” posted Mohammad Ali Arafat, Hasina’s information minister, on X on Wednesday (December 10).
Though politicians won’t fail to cease the political blame game, what is emerging is that Bangladesh hasn’t moved on from the extrajudicial killings and custodial torture of Hasina days.
Not just data from the Ain o Salish Kendra, other rights organisations like Dhaka-based Odhikar too flagged the continued extrajudicial killings during the Yunus regime.
Odhikar released a report saying 40 people had become victims to extrajudicial killings and 153 were lynched in post-Hasina Bangladesh till October 2025. The report said at least 281 people had been killed in political violence, reported news agency AFP.
A Russian TU-95 bomber flies over East China Sea in this handout picture taken by Japan Air Self-Defence Force and released by the Joint Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan July 23, 2019. Joint Staff Office of the Defense Ministry of Japan/HANDOUT via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Japan has scrambled jets to monitor Russian and Chinese air forces conducting joint patrols around the country, the Japanese defence ministry said late Tuesday, amid rising tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.
Two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable strategic bombers flew from the Sea of Japan toward the East China Sea to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers, and performed a “long-distance joint flight” in the Pacific, the ministry said.
Four Chinese J-16 fighter jets joined the bombers as they made a round-trip flight between Japan’s Okinawa and Miyako islands, it added. The Miyako Strait between the two islands is classified as international waters.
Japan also detected simultaneous Russian air force activity in the Sea of Japan, consisting of one early-warning aircraft A-50 and two Su-30 fighters, the ministry said.
Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said in a post on X on Wednesday that the Russian and Chinese joint operations were “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, which is a serious concern for our national security.”
Japan’s fighter jets “strictly implemented air defense identification measures,” Koizumi added.
Russian news agencies reported that the Russian-Chinese joint flight near Japan lasted for eight hours, citing Moscow’s defence ministry.
South Korea’s military also said on Tuesday that seven Russian planes and two Chinese planes had entered its air defence zone.
Japan said on Sunday that Chinese carrier-launched fighter jets aimed radar at Japanese military aircraft a day earlier, an account Beijing disputed.
Beijing’s rising military actions near Japan follow Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last month that Tokyo could respond to any Chinese military action against Taiwan that also threatened Japan’s security.
A man on a motorcycle waves a Mexican flag as smoke rises from a burning car on Atlantic Boulevard, during a standoff by protesters and law enforcement, following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Los Angeles County city of Compton, California, U.S., June 7, 2025. REUTERS
It is hard now even for Democrats to defend illegal immigration, given that the Biden administration allowed in more than 10 million entrants. Among them were an estimated 500,000 criminals. No one believes that was wise or should ever be repeated.
Worse, the message went out that there would be few, if any, deportations and no real ICE kinetic activity beyond the border.
The world’s poor, sick, both law-abiding and criminal, young and old, understood that anyone could now enter the US at will. Deterrence and legality were lost.
In its place, the message went out that if it was permissible to cross the border unlawfully, then, by extension, it would be seen as equally fine to reside illegally as well — and perhaps further to ignore laws, on the theory that the host had sanctioned all such exemptions.
During the lockdown hysteria, some 8,000-8,500 US soldiers were expelled from the military for refusing the experimental mRNA vaccine. State employees nationwide were being fired for refusing the government vaccines. Nevertheless, illegal aliens would have no such mandates or worries. They simply walked in without worries over vaccinations and current COVID status and surmised correctly that illegal aliens were part of a Biden administration protected and privileged category.
Indeed, between 2021 and 2025, in one of the most bizarre episodes in US immigration history, the border simply disappeared. There were to be no background checks, no health audits and no identification of the greatest influx in any four-year period in US history.
No one knew why. All had their explanations.
Puzzling boondoggle
Was the Biden handlers’ plan for more poor to grow the welfare state and expand liberal government?
Was it misplaced idealism to welcome in millions of the world’s poorest, who would soon make it even more difficult for the nation’s poor citizens poor to find affordable housing and health care?
Was the agenda to create future dependencies and constituencies for an otherwise ossified Democratic Party?
Or was it an effort to ensure, in DEI terms, that the oppressed and victimized would outgrow the inert white oppressors and victimizers?
Oddest of all has been the attitude of the left toward the past destruction of the border. They went mum about the rampant illegality as the border disappeared and as millions filtered throughout the nation. Americans had no idea who the newcomers were, or even where or why they were here.
Given that it is much easier to destroy the border and allow millions to enter than to restore itand find the millions who entered illegally, the Democrats’ response has been Orwellian. After assuming the law did not apply to illegal alien entrants, they now insist its full force must apply to each of 10 million aliens before they can be sent home.
There were no protests when an errant Biden ICE became dysfunctional due to massive illegality. But there is now outrage when it attempts to restore legality and follow the law.
The result, however, of such a massive nullification of immigration laws has been that the nation’s outrage over illegal immigration has now extended to legal immigration as well. At the current level of frustration, all legal immigration will likely soon be put on hold.
Why?
One, we are currently in a great experiment: Never has the US foreign-born resident population approached 50-55 million or 16% of the population.
Two, never has the once-time-tried melting-pot creed of assimilation, integration and acculturation been under greater assault and ridicule — just when it is most needed.
The canon of DEI — the nation is divided between a mostly white oppressor class and the non-white oppressed — has served to amplify the effects of giving up on civic education and melting-pot assimilation.
Somehow, the left advanced the absurd notion that the salad bowl of immigrants, chiefly and permanently identified by tribal ethnicities, races, religions and nationalities, and only secondly as new Americans, would radically change America for the better. And so ended the ancient notion of assimilation, now to be known as “cultural appropriation.”
Three, if millions of legal immigrants are not asked to assume fully American identities, and further, if they feel that there are exemptions and largesse to be had by emphasizing their tribal and victimized status, then will they also feel they are not subject to any American customs and laws?
‘Tribal immigration’
Instead, immigrants under these new protocols will seek to carve out their own tribal communities, based both on ethnic chauvinism and a sense of exemption from accountability. And if they insist on identifying as collectives rather than unique individuals, they will become increasingly unpopular not just as ingrates, but as hypocrites whose greater affinity with the nation they abandoned does not extend to returning to it.
Indeed, they will appear to have arrived in America only to craft a cocoon of security, freedom and prosperity lacking in their homeland, but otherwise not to become fully American or see their former homeland as incidental, not essential, to their new identities.
The logical result of such tribal immigration is now upon us. Somali immigrants, both legal and illegal, have pulled off a likely multibillion-dollar welfare fraud in Minnesota — perhaps the greatest single heist of welfare funds in the nation’s history. They were empowered by the usual DEI boilerplate rhetoric from their Minnesota champions, Rep. Ilhan Omar (who claimed the US was now “one of the worst countries in the world”), Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The more criminality, theft and fraud were uncovered, the more the Somali leadership screamed “racism,” with the Democrat apparat blaming everyone but the perpetrators themselves.
Meanwhile, California has issued at least 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses to illegal alien truck drivers, the majority of them non-residents with little if any prior trucking expertise or English facility. The result is a sort of road-warrior new atmosphere on the nation’s freeways, as a new generation of truckers ignores the norms of the past and rightly concludes that if they were given exemption to enter the US illegally and further to drive without proper audits, then naturally no authorities would mind if they also violated American traffic laws.
Hate & entitlement
There are roughly 1 million foreign students in the US, the majority from China, India and the Middle East. After Oct. 7, protests, often violent and in violation of campus rules, spread nationwide.
There was never much pushback from either campus officials or law enforcement. Within a few months, our liberal bastions of higher education had become saturated with antisemitic rhetoric, protests and occasional violence against Jews.
Middle Eastern guest students often openly cheered on Hamas, called for the destruction of Israel and, despite being non-citizens, often declared campus areas as no-go zones for American Jews. They did so because they could and had fully absorbed the DEI mantras of exemption.
So often they screamed “Islamophobia” when called out on their antisemitism, damning their critics with slurs of “nativism,” “racism” and “xenophobia.” Thousands of foreign students felt contempt for their hosts and rhetorically attacked the US as much as they fought in reality to remain in America.
Elon Musk says he’s no longer convinced his crusade to clean up government waste through the Department of Government Efficiency — better known as DOGE — was worth the chaos it unleashed.
Musk admitted he’s deeply unsure whether his high-profile stint running Washington’s most meme-able agency actually worked, in a wide-ranging — and, at times, philosophical — interview on “The Katie Miller Podcast.”
“We’re a little bit successful. We’re somewhat successful,” the Tesla founder said when Miller asked if DOGE achieved what he’d hoped.
“I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically … worked on my companies, essentially,” Elon Musk told podcaster Katie Miller.
But he quickly undercut the praise, lamenting how entrenched the waste was.
“There was, like, probably $100, maybe $200 billion worth of zombie payments per year,” he said, noting DOGE shut down only a fraction of it.
As Western powers scramble to reach a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, China maintains close ties with Moscow and weighs its strategic interests.
China and Russia have expanded military and defense ties since Moscow ordered troops into Ukraine nearly four years agoImage: Alexander Shcherbak/TASS/dpa/picture alliance
As European leaders work to show unity on Ukraine’s long-term security during peace talks, calls have resurfaced for China to play a more constructive role in helping end the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the leaders of the UK and France in London on Monday to discuss how to revise the peace proposal backed by the United States.
The proposal, first floated in November, has drawn criticism in Europe for appearing favorable to Russia, as it would require Ukraine to withdraw its forces from eastern regions that Moscow has tried to seize by force but has failed to fully occupy.
Conceding territory, the Ukrainian leader argues, would be considered a reward for the aggressor and would leave the country’s long-term security vulnerable to another Russian attack.
Zelenskyy, who traveled on to Brussels to meet NATO officials, told reporters Ukraine will share a revised peace plan with the US on Tuesday.
German FM urges China to press Russia
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is visiting China and has called for Beijing to use its influence to push Moscow to negotiate seriously over ending its invasion of Ukraine.
“If there is one country in the world that has a strong influence on Russia, it is China,” Wadephul said after meeting his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing.
China has claimed neutrality throughout the war in Ukraine, but has faced accusations from the West of backing Russia’s aggression by buying Russian oil and exporting dual-use equipment.
“That’s why China is very careful not to be seen as part of the discussions,” said Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, a visiting fellow at the Martens Centre think tank in Brussels, highlighting Beijing’s consistent efforts to project a neutral image.
“This definitely is not the perception in the West. However, it might be the perception in the Global South,” she added.
China may favor the US-authored peace proposal
Three days of talks in Florida between Ukrainian and American officials produced no apparent breakthrough to resolve the territory disputes in the peace plan backed by US President Donald Trump.
The plan originally contained 28 points that would force Ukraine to cede large parts of its territory to Russia, cap its military size, and prevent it from joining NATO — which Kyiv found unpalatable.
Following days of negotiations, Trump told reporters he was “a little bit disappointed” that Zelenskyy had not read the US-led peace proposal and said the Ukrainian leader “isn’t ready” to sign a deal.
The Kremlin did not accept the 28-point document either, but said it was willing to take it as “the basis for a final peace settlement.” However Russian President Vladimir Putin cautioned against any major softening of the deal in favor of Kyiv.
Beijing, as Moscow’s most important strategic partner, remains relatively quiet amid continuous global efforts to bring both sides to the negotiating table.
Last week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told French President Emmanuel Macron, as the two met in Beijing, that China supports “all efforts aimed at reaching a fair, lasting and binding peace agreement that is acceptable to all parties.”
China’s plan for peace in Ukraine
In 2023, China also proposed a peace plan which reflected how the country hoped the Russian invasion of Ukraine would end, but the document was criticized for lacking specific measures and failing to condemn Moscow’s aggression.
“China is interested in an end to this war, but in the kind of end that gives Russia an upper hand and satisfies Russia’s end, which is to hold on to territory that it took,” Ferenczy told DW.
Since such a deal would indicate that “an authoritarian regime can go against international law and get away with it,” she added. “That serves China’s interests.”
Implictions for China, with Taiwan in mind
A peace deal requiring Ukraine to give up territory to Russia could have major implications for the global order and international security, which Beijing is closely assessing through the lens of Taiwan.
Beijing claims the self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out using force to achieve “reunification.”
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, both Taiwan and China have been closely monitoring how the conflict unfolds.
“The norm that we’ve had for the last 70 years in international relations is that no territorial changes by military force,” said Raymond Kuo, a senior political scientist at RAND, a US defense think tank.
A new US rule requiring H-1B and H-4 applicants to make social media public has sparked anxiety among Indians, as consulates cancel visa appointments and delays threaten jobs, travel and family plans.
A new US State Department rule has triggered deep anxiety across Indian immigrant communities.
A new US State Department rule requiring all H-1B workers/applicants and their H-4 dependents to make their social media accounts public for visa vetting — both in cases of renewal and fresh applications — has triggered deep anxiety across Indian immigrant communities, who make up the overwhelming majority of America’s high-skilled visa holders.
The policy, which takes effect December 15, comes as Indians account for more than 70 per cent of all H-1B approvals and nearly 90 per cent of H-4 Employment Authorization Document (EAD) holders, many of whom have built careers, mortgages and children’s schooling around uninterrupted legal status.
Immigration lawyers say the new mandate, which allows consular officers to review applicants’ public posts on platforms like X, Instagram and LinkedIn, has created palpable fear. Even mundane remarks, political opinions or misaligned resume details could trigger extra scrutiny.
For many, the anxiety has already turned to disruption. Tech firms with large Indian workforces are advising employees to audit social profiles, avoid sharing political memes and use professional emails on petitions.
According to a report in The Times of India, visa interview appointments across Indian consulates have been abruptly cancelled, including those at Hyderabad and Chennai. Many applicants learnt their December slots had been pushed to March 2026, leaving new hires unable to start jobs, families stranded abroad and travellers stuck after short visits home for weddings or to drop off parents.
According to the State Department, the new rule expands the online-presence review already used for students and exchange visitors. “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision,” the agency said. Applicants must now adjust all social-media profiles to public settings to allow officers to inspect them.
The department defended the policy as essential to identifying threats. “A US visa is a privilege, not a right,” the guidance says, stressing that vetting will help ensure entrants “do not intend to harm Americans and our national interests.”
US EMBASSY IN INDIA ISSUES ADVISORY
Meanwhile, the US Embassy in India on Tuesday cautioned visa applicants not to show up on their old interview dates if they have already been notified of a reschedule. Anyone who arrives on a previously scheduled date, officials warned, will be turned away at the gate.
In a post on X, the Embassy said: “If you have received an email advising that your visa appointment has been rescheduled, Mission India looks forward to assisting you on your new appointment date. Arriving on your previously scheduled appointment date will result in your being denied admittance to the Embassy or Consulate.”
Pakistan Army spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry faced significant backlash after winking at a journalist during a press conference.
Chaudhry’s response included labeling Khan a “zehni mareez” (mental patient) before the wink went viral online.
Pakistan Army spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has drawn sharp criticism after he appeared to wink at journalist Absa Komal during a press briefing. The moment came right after she questioned him about the military’s allegations against jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Speaking about allegations levelled against Khan, such as him being a “national security threat”, “anti-state”, and acting “at the hands of Delhi”, she asked, “How is it different from the past, or should we expect any development in the future?”
In response, Chaudhry added a “fourth accusation” and called Khan a “zehni mareez” (mental patient), before smiling and winking at the journalist, a gesture that quickly went viral and triggered backlash online.
“And add a fourth point: he is also a zehni mareez (mental patient),” he said as he winked.
Pakistan’s Army’s DG ISPR winking at a female journalist after she questioned why they are being labelled as funded by Delhi.
This comes as the Pakistani government barred Imran Khan’s sister, Uzma Khanum, from further meetings with the jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder, saying she and others breached prison regulations during a recent visit.
Uzma Khanum met her brother in Adiala Jail on Tuesday after weeks of attempts, at a time when speculation about Khan’s health had been circulating. Both the government and PTI leaders have insisted the former leader is in good health, but officials had restricted family and legal visits in recent weeks, prompting concerns.
The US Embassy in India warned that any visa applicant arriving at the consulate on a previously scheduled interview date after being notified of a reschedule will be refused entry.
Interviews scheduled for mid to late December are being pushed to March next year.
The US State Department’s new social media vetting policy has triggered massive disruptions for H-1B visa applicants in India as many appointments have been postponed to next year. The US Embassy in India issued an advisory to the visa applicants on Tuesday night.
“If you have received an email advising that your visa appointment has been rescheduled, Mission India looks forward to assisting you on your new appointment date,” it said.
The Embassy also warned that any visa applicant arriving at the consulate on a previously scheduled interview date after being notified of a reschedule will be refused entry. “Arriving on your previously scheduled appointment date will result in your being denied admittance to the Embassy or Consulate,” the Embassy said.
ATTENTION VISA APPLICANTS – If you have received an email advising that your visa appointment has been rescheduled, Mission India looks forward to assisting you on your new appointment date. Arriving on your previously scheduled appointment date will result in your being denied…
Interviews scheduled for mid to late December are being pushed to March next year, Bloomberg reported. However, the exact number of reschedules is not known.
An attorney from a leading business immigration law firm, Steven Brown, said, “Mission India confirms what we have been hearing. They have cancelled a number of appointments in the coming weeks and rescheduled them for March to allow for the social media vetting.”
Mission India confirms what we have been hearing. They have cancelled a number of appointments in the coming weeks and rescheduled them for March to allow for the social media vetting. https://t.co/gjsIDxmPOX
The US government expanded screening and vetting measures for H-1B visa applicants and their H-4 dependents, directing them to keep the privacy settings on all their social media profiles set to “public”. Officials will review their online presence starting December 15 to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible or pose a threat to America’s national security or public safety. Students and exchange visitors were already subject to such scrutiny.
“Every visa adjudication is a national security decision,” the State Department said.
Trump also criticized European nations over Ukraine, amid growing differences over a US plan to end the war that many in Europe fear will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.
Trump also criticised European nations amid growing differences over Ukraine.
President Donald Trump blasted Europe as “decaying” and “weak” on immigration and Ukraine in an interview published Tuesday, deepening a rift between the United States and some of its oldest allies.
Speaking to Politico, Trump also called on war-battered Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold elections despite Russia’s invasion and said that Moscow had the “upper hand.”
Trump’s comments doubled down on extraordinary criticism of top US partners in his administration’s new national security strategy last week, which recycled far-right tropes about civilizational “erasure” in Europe.
“Most European nations, they’re decaying,” Trump told Politico in the interview, conducted Monday.
The 79-year-old billionaire, whose political rise to power was built on inflammatory language about migrants, said that Europe’s policies on migrants were a “disaster.”
“They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak. That’s what makes them weak,” Trump said, adding that there were “some real stupid ones” among Europe’s leaders.
Trump also criticised European nations over Ukraine, amid growing differences over a US plan to end the war that many in Europe fear will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.
“NATO calls me daddy,” Trump said, referring to comments by the military alliance’s leader Mark Rutte at a summit in June when leaders backed Trump’s call to raise defense spending.
But he added: “They talk but they don’t produce. And the war just keeps going on and on.”
European leaders have been trying to woo Trump since his return to office in January, especially on maintaining US support for Ukraine against Russia.
Trump’s interview will intensify the alarm in European capitals sparked by the US security strategy last week, with its calls for “cultivating resistance” in Europe on migration and warnings of so-called “civilizational erasure.”
Experts have said parts of it echo elements of the “great replacement theory” promoted by the far-right — and Trump’s former ally Elon Musk — which alleges a conspiracy to replace white populations.
‘Not a democracy anymore’
In contrast to the savaging of close US allies, Russia and China got off relatively lightly in the US strategy. The Kremlin said the US document aligned with its own worldview.
A French minister, Alice Rufo, said Tuesday that the US security strategy was an “extremely brutal clarification of the ideological stance of the United States.”
In his Politico interview, Trump said countries including Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden were being “destroyed” by migration.
He also launched a new attack on “horrible, vicious, disgusting” Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor. Khan told Politico that Trump was “obsessed” with him and said US citizens were “flocking” to live in London.
Trump also had sharp words for Ukraine and for Zelensky, in his latest seesaw in relations with the leader whom he called a “dictator without elections” in January and then berated in the Oval Office in February.
“I think it’s an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election.” Trump said. “It gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
Elections in Ukraine were due in March 2024 but have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. About 20 percent of the country is under occupation.
Fresh elections were included in the draft US plan to end the war.
He also reiterated claims about Zelensky having not read the US plan. “It would be nice if he would read it. You know, a lot of people are dying,” Trump said.
Rajan claimed the US imposed a 50 per cent tariff on India because it did not endorse Trump’s version of events, while Pakistan “played along” and got 19 per cent.
Rajan’s remarks received backlash from social media users
The import of Russian oil was not the central reason for the Donald Trump administration’s imposition of a hefty 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods in the United States, according to former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan. A video of the senior economist has gone viral, in which he’s seen suggesting that US tariffs on India were linked to how New Delhi handled comments made by Donald Trump over the military truce with Pakistan following Operation Sindoor.
Speaking at an event at the University of Zurich, Rajan claimed the US imposed a 50 per cent tariff on India because it did not endorse Trump’s version of events, while Pakistan “played along” and got 19 per cent. The clip from December 4 has triggered a flood of sharp criticism, with several internet users accusing Rajan of “twisting the truth” and “undermining India” to justify US actions.
What Raghuram Rajan Said
“Russian oil wasn’t the issue… I think the central issue was more personalities, especially a personality in the White House and how they treated certain comments made by India after Trump claimed credit for stopping a conflict between India and Pakistan… Pakistan played it right…said that it was all because of Trump,” Rajan said, referring to the May conflict between India and Pakistan that took place after the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
India had launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam attack, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan. The military operation resulted in a brief conflict between the two nations.
“India tried to argue that the two countries had reached an agreement without Trump … the truth is probably somewhere in between … But the net effect was that India got 50 per cent tariffs, and Pakistan got 19 per cent. I understand that there was some comment about how your leader in Switzerland tried to explain the tariffs to Trump and that didn’t go well… so we don’t know what really happened between India and the US, but hopefully in the longer run sanity prevails on all sides and we all reach reasonable deals,” he added.
Trump’s Claim And India’s Stand
At the height of the conflict with Pakistan, a ceasefire was announced on May 10. Trump has taken credit for the ceasefire, claiming his intervention ended the war. However, India has maintained that an understanding of cessation of hostilities was reached after the Pakistani military’s Director General of Military Operations reached out to his Indian counterpart for direct talks over the issue.
Although Pakistan initially denied the claim, it later accepted it and went ahead and nominated Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, in “recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis”.
Online Backlash
Rajan’s remarks received backlash from social media users, with several claiming India stood its ground by refusing to accept a false narrative, while Pakistan publicly credited Trump for the ceasefire.
One user wrote, “India paid higher tariffs because it refused to bow politically, prioritising national interest over appeasing global powers.”
🚨 REPORTER : India got 50% tariffs for buying Russian oil.
RAGHURAM RAJAN : “Russian oil wasn’t the issue. Pakistan credited Trump for the ceasefire, India didn’t. Pakistan has a 19% tariff, India 50%”
Ukraine is currently under martial law due to its war with Russia, which has been going on for almost four years now.
Zelensky’s remarks on holding elections in Ukraine come at a time when he is facing pressure from the United States to accept a deal formulated by the latter to bring peace in Ukraine.(AFP)
War-torn Ukraine, where last elections were held in 2019, is ready to hold fresh polls given that security can be assured, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday after his United States counterpart Donald Trump said in an interview on Monday that war in Ukraine is being used to not hold an election.
“I am ready for the elections,” Zelensky said while talking to reporters.
Ukraine is currently under martial law due to its war with Russia, which has been ongoing for almost four years now.
Zelensky said Ukrainian lawmakers have been asked to prepare “proposals regarding the possibility of amending the legislative foundations and the law on elections during martial law”, reported news agency AFP. However, he added that polls can only be held given that the security of the country can be assured and made a public plea to the United States to aid them conduct the polls along with their European allies.
“I am now asking, I declare this openly, for the United States of America to help me, possibly together with European colleagues, to ensure security for holding elections,” he said.
Zelensky’s remarks come after Trump said on Monday in an interview with Politico that he thought it was time to conduct elections in Ukraine. “…maybe Zelenskyy would win. I don’t know who would win. But they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” he said.
‘No legal right of ceding territories’
Zelensky’s remarks on holding elections in Ukraine also come at a time when there’s mounting pressure on him from the United States to accept a deal formulated by the latter to bring peace in the country.
However, the US’ proposal has been viewed by Ukraine and its allies as favouring Russia more, particularly since its suggests surrendering Ukraine’s Donbas region to Russia in exchange for security guarantees which do not involve a full NATO membership
Over the last few days, Zelensky met several of his European allies to seek their support and also formulate a response for the US peace plan.
“We are working very actively on all components of potential steps toward ending the war. The Ukrainian and European components are now more developed, and we are ready to present them to our partners in the U.S. Together with the American side, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible,” the Ukrainian President said in a post on Tuesday.
“In the near future, we will be ready to send the refined documents to the United States,” he added.
He also said on Monday that after talks with the United States over the weekend, the latter’s original 28-point plan to bring peace in Ukraine was revised to just 20 points.
A fierce border battle between Thailand and Cambodia raged for a second day and spread to new fronts on Tuesday, as both countries accused each other of shelling civilian areas and Bangkok vowed to push on with its planned military operations.
With the neighbours trading blame for starting Monday’s renewed clashes, it was unclear how or if a fragile ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump in July could be salvaged.
Displaced people gather inside a temporary shelter amid deadly clashes between Thailand and Cambodia along a disputed border area, in Buriram province, Thailand, December 9, 2025. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha Purchase Licensing Rights
Thailand’s military said its tanks fired shells into a border casino complex being used by Cambodia’s army as a firing position and weapons storage area, while fighter jets conducted air strikes for a second day on what the air force said were strategic military targets.
Cambodia’s defence ministry said its troops had no choice but to take defensive action on Tuesday and accused Thailand of “indiscriminately and brutally targeting civilian residential areas” with artillery shells, allegations Bangkok rejected. ‘WE CAN’T STOP NOW,’ SAYS THAI PM
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ruled out dialogue and said the military had a plan that it would carry out in full.
“We can’t stop now. We’ve already given our commitment to the armed forces that they can fully carry out the planned operations. The government is providing support in every way,” Anutin told reporters.
Both countries have said they have evacuated hundreds of thousands of people from border areas. Cambodia’s Defence Ministry said nine civilians were killed since Monday and 20 seriously injured, while Thai officials said three soldiers had been killed and 29 people were injured.
The fighting is the most intense since a five-day exchange of rockets and heavy artillery in July that marked their heaviest clashes in recent history, when at least 48 people were killed and 300,000 displaced before Trump intervened to broker a ceasefire.
Tensions have simmered since Thailand last month suspended de-escalation measures agreed at a summit and overseen by Trump, which included withdrawing troops and heavy weapons, after a Thai soldier was maimed by a landmine that Bangkok said Cambodia had recently laid. Phnom Penh rejects the allegation.
FIGHTING ON NEW FRONTS
It is unclear what triggered the latest round of hostilities and the prospects of resolution appeared dim on Tuesday, with both countries vowing to fight on and defend their sovereignty.
In an interview with Reuters, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said he saw no potential for negotiations with Cambodia, adding the situation was not conducive to third-party mediation and Cambodia must stop hostilities.
“What Cambodia can do is stop what they’re doing,” he said, “and say that they’re ready to have talks.”
Fighting broke out in new locations on Tuesday along the 817-km (508-mile) border, stretching from the forested hills bordering Laos to Thailand’s coastal province of Trat, where the military said navy-led operations were under way to expel Cambodian soldiers. It said Cambodia was using artillery, rocket launchers, and bomb-dropping drones.
Cambodia’s influential former leader Hun Sen said his country had waited 24 hours to honour the ceasefire and allow for evacuations before launching counterattacks overnight against Thai forces.
“Cambodia needs peace, but Cambodia is compelled to counterattack to defend our territory,” he said in a Facebook post, saying strong bunkers and weapons gave Cambodian forces the advantage in defending against an “invading enemy”. ‘I WANT IT TO END’
Verified videos from Cambodia showed long lines of vehicles and motorcycles leaving border areas and a thick plume of smoke in the sky after an explosion near the town of Samroang, about 21 km (13 miles) from the border.
In Thailand’s Buriram province, evacuees dozed on floor mats under large tents as others joined queues for meals and children played outside.
Laongdao Chulsri, 34, fled her home on Monday for the second time after being displaced by the last round of fighting in July.
“I want it to end. I want this to be the last fight to end it all,” she said, holding her infant son and fighting back tears.
Thailand has superior military capabilities, with armed forces that dwarf its neighbour in terms of personnel, budget and weaponry, including fighter jets that the armed forces said were carrying out air strikes on hostile positions.
Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices signaled on Monday they will uphold the legality of Donald Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission member and give a historic boost to presidential power while also imperiling a 90-year-old legal precedent.
The justices heard about 2-1/2 hours of arguments in the Justice Department’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that the Republican president exceeded his authority when he moved to dismiss Democratic FTC member Rebecca Slaughter in March before her term was set to expire. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has backed Trump in a series of cases since he returned to the presidency in January.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein Purchase Licensing Rights
The conservative justices appeared sympathetic to the Trump administration’s arguments that tenure protections given by Congress to the heads of independent agencies unlawfully encroached on presidential power under the U.S. Constitution. The liberal justices said the administration’s view in the case would lead to a massive increase in presidential power.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, arguing for the administration, urged the court to overturn a Supreme Court precedent in a 1935 case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that has constrained presidential power by protecting the heads of independent agencies from removal. The court in recent decades has narrowed the precedent’s reach but stopped short of overturning it.
Conservative Chief Justice Roberts told Amit Agarwal, a lawyer for Slaughter, that the FTC in 1935 was far less powerful than today, suggesting the precedent is a relic of the past.
“Humphrey’s Executor is just a dried husk of whatever people used to think it was,” Roberts said of the unanimous ruling that rebuffed Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt’s attempt to fire an FTC member over policy differences despite tenure protections given by Congress.
“It was addressing an agency that had very little, if any, executive power, and that may be why they were able to attract such a broad support on the court at the time,” Roberts said. ‘CONTROL OVER EVERYTHING’
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan underscored that a ruling favoring Trump would hand the president “massive, unchecked, uncontrolled power.” Kagan emphasized that Congress has delegated significant power to federal agencies that regulate key aspects of American life and business, from finance to air traffic safety to labor relations.
“What you are left with is a president … with control over everything, including over much of the lawmaking that happens in this country,” Kagan added.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed concerns that letting presidents fire the heads of independent agencies would undermine issues that Congress decided should be handled by nonpartisan experts in independent agencies.
“So having a president come in and fire all the scientists, and the doctors, and the economists and the PhDs, and replacing them with loyalists and people who don’t know anything is actually not in the best interest of the citizens of the United States,” Jackson told Sauer.
Sauer countered that the impact would be the president “having control over the executive branch, which he must and does have under our Constitution.”
Overturning or narrowing Humphrey’s Executor would bolster Trump’s authority at a time when he already has been testing the constitutional limits of presidential powers in areas as diverse as immigration, tariffs and domestic military deployments.
After a federal judge and an appeals court ruled against Trump, the Supreme Court in September let his ouster of Slaughter take effect while agreeing to hear the administration’s appeal. INDEPENDENT AGENCIES
Independent agencies are government entities whose heads have been given tenure-protected terms by Congress to keep these offices free from political interference by presidents.
The Constitution sets up a separation of powers among the U.S. government’s coequal executive, legislative and judicial branches. Sauer said the Humphrey’s Executor precedent “continues to tempt Congress to erect, at the heart of our government, a headless fourth branch insulated from political accountability and democratic control.”
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said independent agencies have existed throughout U.S. history, and challenged Sauer to explain why the court should make such a drastic change to the government’s structure.
“Neither the king, nor parliament nor prime ministers in England at the time of the founding (of the United States) ever had an unqualified removal power,” Sotomayor said, adding, “You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that a government is better structured with some agencies that are independent.”
A 1914 law passed by Congress permits a president to remove FTC commissioners only for cause – such as inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office – but not for policy differences. Similar protections cover officials at more than two dozen other independent agencies.
Slaughter was one of two Democratic commissioners who Trump moved to fire in March from the consumer-protection and antitrust agency before her term expires in 2029. ‘COLLECTIVE WISDOM’
“We are asking the court to adhere to all of its precedents and to give effect to the collective wisdom and experience of all three branches of government,” Agarwal said. By contrast, Agarwal said, the administration is “asking you to abandon precedent after precedent, after precedent.”
Conservative justices pressed Agarwal on his contention that the president has the absolute power to fire at will only the heads of agencies that wield core presidential powers, such as presidential authority over the military, law enforcement and foreign affairs.
They also asked Agarwal to explain whether any limits exist on what Congress could do to transform executive departments into multi-member commissions like the FTC and prevent the president from firing members at will. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FEDERAL RESERVE
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed concern to Sauer about threatening the independence of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank.
“How would you distinguish the Federal Reserve from agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission?” Kavanaugh asked Sauer.
Sauer acknowledged that the court has previously seemed inclined to protect the Federal Reserve’s independence. Sauer cited a May ruling allowing Trump’s firing of two Democratic members of federal labor boards in which the court’s conservatives described the Fed as possessing a unique structure and historical tradition.
“The Federal Reserve has been described as sui generis,” Sauer said, using a Latin term meaning unique. “Any issues of removal restrictions as a member of the Federal Reserve would raise their own set of unique, distinct issues, as this court said.”
Jared Kushner’s financing role in Paramount’s $108 billion bid for Warner Bros Discovery injects Trump-family interests into one of the biggest media battles in years, raising concerns over whether the president’s influence could tip the scales.
Paramount Skydance (PSKY.O), opens new tab on Monday launched a hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O), opens new tab in a last-ditch effort to outbid Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab and create a media powerhouse.
Jared Kushner looks on during a swearing-in ceremony of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Paramount said its offer includes financing from Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners, along with financing from the Saudi and Qatari sovereign wealth funds and L’imad Holding Co, owned by Abu Dhabi.
Trump told reporters on Monday that he has not spoken with Kushner about Warner Bros Discovery, adding that neither Netflix nor Paramount “are friends of mine.” A day earlier, Trump said he would be involved in a decision on Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros studios and streaming assets. SUITORS TO FACE ANTITRUST SCRUTINY
Both Paramount and Netflix are likely to face intense antitrust scrutiny to ensure consumers, rivals and suppliers are not hurt by any tie-up, giving the government a big say in who ultimately buys Warner Bros Discovery.
The extent of Trump’s involvement will be another test of how far the president – whose family business interests have grown while he has been in office this year – is prepared to go in breaking conflict-of-interest norms.
“If you were teaching a class at business school on conflicts of interest, this would be Exhibit A,” said Nell Minow, chair of Portland, Maine-based ValueEdge Advisors, adding Trump should recuse himself from any involvement in the deal clearance.
Spokespeople for the White House and for Affinity Partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
While U.S. presidents are exempt from the federal conflict of interest law, “normally, what we see is presidents separating themselves from their own businesses and going out of their way not to be involved with their family’s businesses to not have Americans questioning their actions,” said Jordan Libowitz of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The antitrust unit of the Justice Department will review the final deal for Warner Bros Discovery to ensure it does not harm competition in the media market, while keeping consumer prices in check and ensuring that advertisers have a fair marketplace.
At least 30 people were injured after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit north-eastern Japan on Monday night, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
The quake occurred at 23:15 (14:15 GMT) at a depth of 50km (31mi), about 80km off the coast of the Aomori region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It prompted tsunami warnings which have now been lifted, while waves of 70cm (27in) were seen.
Some train services have been suspended and thousands of homes have been left without power as a result.
Authorities have also warned that a stronger tremor could occur in the coming days – urging the public to remain on high alert for at least a week, according to local media reports.
Addressing citizens affected by the earthquake, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said: “Reconfirm your daily earthquake preparedness, such as ensuring that you secure furniture, and prepare to evacuate immediately if you feel shaking.”
Orders were issued for about 90,000 residents to evacuate, according to Reuters news agency.
The Aomori prefectural government said around 2,700 homes have been left without power. East Japan Railway has also suspended some services along the north-eastern coast.
The Japanese government has set up a response office within the prime minister’s crisis management centre and convened an emergency team, chief cabinet secretary Minoru Kihara has said.
“We are making every effort to assess the damage and implement emergency disaster response measures, including rescue and relief operations,” he added.
Following the tremors, Japanese electric company Tohoku Electric Power said no irregularities were reported at its Higashidori and Onagawa nuclear power plants as a result of the quake, Tohoku Electric Power said.
None were detected either at the disabled Fukushima nuclear power station site, the Japanese authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Fukushima was damaged when a magnitude 9.0 quake struck off the country’s eastern coast on 11 March 2011.
That quake, the most powerful ever recorded in Japan, triggered a tsunami which swept over the main island of Honshu, killing more than 18,000 people and wiping entire towns off the map.
This home in Aomori prefecture was among those affected by the earthquake
Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries.
It sits on the Ring of Fire and, as a result, experiences about 1,500 earthquakes a year.
When Stephen Scheeler became Facebook’s Australia chief in the early 2010s, he was a true believer in the power of the internet, and social media, for public good.
It would herald a new era of global connection and democratise learning. It would let users build their own public squares without the traditional gatekeepers.
“There was that heady optimism phase when I first joined and I think a lot of the world shared that,” he told the BBC.
But by the time he left the firm in 2017, seeds of doubt about its work had been planted, and they’ve since bloomed.
“There’s lots of good things about these platforms, but there’s just too much bad stuff,” he surmises.
That’s no longer an uncommon view as scrutiny of the largest social media companies has increased around the globe. A lot of it has centred on teenagers, who have emerged as a lucrative market for incredibly wealthy global firms – at the expense of their mental health and wellbeing, according to critics.
Various governments, from the state of Utah to the European Union, have been experimenting with limiting children’s use of social media.
But the most radical step so far is set to unfold in Australia – a ban for under-16s that kicks in on 10 December has left tech companies scrambling.
Many of the social media firms affected have spent a year loudly protesting against the new law, which requires them to take “reasonable steps” to keep underage users from having accounts on their platforms.
They have claimed this ban actually risks making children less safe, argued it impinges on their rights, and repeatedly pointed to the questions around the tech that will be used to enforce the policy.
“Australia is engaged in blanket censorship that will make its youth less informed, less connected, and less equipped to navigate the spaces they will be expected to understand as adults,” said Paul Taske from NetChoice, a trade group representing several big tech companies.
The worry inside the industry is that Australia’s ban – the first of its kind – may inspire other countries.
“It could become a proof of concept that gains traction around the world,” says Nate Fast, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.
Whistleblowers, lawsuits and questions
(L-R) Jason Citron, CEO of Discord, Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta at a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing in January
In recent years, multiple whistleblowers and lawsuits have claimed that social media firms are prioritising profits over user safety.
In January, a landmark trial will begin in the US hearing allegations that several – including Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube – have designed their apps to be addictive and knowingly covered up the harm their platforms cause. All deny this, but Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and Snap boss Evan Spiegel have both been ordered to testify in person.
The case consolidates hundreds of claims from parents and school districts, and is among the first to advance from a flood of similar lawsuits which allege social media contributes to poor mental health and child exploitation.
In another ongoing case, state prosecutors alleged that Zuckerberg personally scuttled efforts to improve the wellbeing of teens on the company’s platforms, including vetoing a proposal to ditch Instagram face-altering beauty filters which experts say fuel body dysmorphia and eating disorders.
Former Meta employees Sarah Wynn-Williams, Frances Haugen and Arturo Béjar have given testimony before the US Congress alleging a range of wrongdoing they observed during their stints at the company.
Meta maintains the company has worked diligently to create tools that keep teens safe online.
But the broader industry has also recently been taken to task over mis- and disinformation, hate speech and violent content.
Graphic footage of the assassination of Charlie Kirk was rapidly spread on various platforms, even confronting people who were not seeking it out. Elon Musk has sued states in the US over laws that require social media firms, including X, to define and disclose how they fight hate speech online. And Meta was heavily criticised earlier this year after announcing it was getting rid of factcheckers who monitor its platforms for misinformation.
A rare bipartisan front has emerged among American lawmakers eager to cut tech bosses down to size.
During a hearing last year, Zuckerberg was prodded by one to apologise to bereaved families who had come to watch in person. Among those in the audience was Tammy Rodriguez, whose 11-year old daughter Selena took her life after facing sexual exploitation on Instagram and Snapchat.
“This is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer,” Zuckerberg said.
Public scrutiny and private lobbying
However, there’s widespread criticism from many experts, lawmakers and parents – even kids – who feel social media companies are hiding from genuine action and accountability on these issues.
As Australia’s social media ban was considered, then formulated, the firms had little to say publicly.
“Hiding from the public discourse… it just breeds more suspicion and more distrust,” Mr Scheeler says.
Privately though, many were seeking to bend the government’s ear. Spiegel personally sat down with Australia’s Communications Minister Anika Wells. She also claimed YouTube had sent globally renowned children’s entertainers The Wiggles to lobby on their behalf.
In carefully worded public statements, several of the firms have tried to push responsibility elsewhere. Meta and Snap both said operators of the major app stores – namely Apple and Google – should take on age verification duties.
And many argued government is overstepping. Parents know best, they say, and they should decide what makes sense for their teens when it comes to social media use.
Along with a higher age limit of 16, Australia is the first jurisdiction to deny an exemption for parental approval in a policy like this – making its laws the world’s strictest.
“While we’re committed to meeting our legal obligations, we’ve consistently raised concerns about this law… There’s a better way: legislation that empowers parents to approve app downloads and verify age allows families – not the government – to decide which apps teens can access,” a statement from Meta provided to the BBC said.
Asked why her government was unsympathetic to this reasoning – why anything short of a ban was unacceptable – Wells said the tech companies have had plenty of time to improve their practices.
“They have had 15, 20 years in this space to do that of their own volition now, and… it’s not enough.”
Leaders in other countries feel the same, and have been knocking on her door for help, she says, rattling off the EU, Fiji, Greece, even Malta, as examples.
Denmark and Norway have already begun work on similar laws, and Singapore and Brazil are watching closely too.
“We’re pleased to be the first, we’re proud to be the first, and we stand ready to help any other jurisdiction who seeks to do these things,” Wells said.
Too little, too late?
As the Australia ban loomed, the mounting pressure prompted the companies to introduce versions of their products marketed as safer for young users, said Pinar Yildirim, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Australia, after all, is a major market for social platforms. At parliamentary hearings in October Snapchat said it believed it had about 440,000 account users in the country aged between 13 and 15. TikTok said it had about 200,000 under-16 accounts and Meta said it had about 450,000 between Facebook and Instagram.
Experts say they are also eager to ensure they don’t lose others in even larger markets around the world.
In July, YouTube announced the rollout of AI technology that estimates a user’s age in a bid to identify those younger than 18 and better shield them from harmful content.
Snapchat has special accounts for children which it says put safety and privacy settings on by default for users between the ages of 13 and 17.
And last year, Meta unveiled Instagram Teen accounts which similarly place users younger than 18 into more restricted privacy and content settings that Meta says are designed to limit unwanted contacts and exposure to explicit content. This development was accompanied by a massive marketing blitz in the US.
“If they create a more protected environment for these users, the thinking is, that may reduce some of the damage,” Yildirim said.
Yet critics aren’t satisfied. Béjar, one of the Meta whistleblowers, led a study published in September that found almost two thirds of the new safety tools on Meta’s Instagram Teen accounts were ineffective.
“The key issue here is that Meta and other social media companies aren’t substantively addressing the harm we know teens are experiencing,” Béjar told the BBC.
Forced onto the defensive, the companies have attempted to convey that they are making a good faith effort to comply with Australia’s impending ban despite their disagreement with it.
But analysts say they’ll be hoping the hurdles – which include legal challenges, technology loopholes for kids, and any unintended consequences of the ban – could bolster the case against such moves in other nations.
And the companies “have a fair bit of influence in how smoothly things go”, Professor Fast points out.
“[They] have an incentive to walk the very fine line about complying, but making sure that they don’t comply so good that all the rest of the other countries go, ‘Great, that works. Let’s do the same’,” Mr Scheeler agrees.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has picked a controversial rapper who did seven years in state prison for armed robbery to advise him on the criminal justice system, The Post has learned.
Mysonne Linen, 49, a Bronx convict-turned-activist who was found guilty of two felony heists in the late 1990s, was appointed by the democratic socialist to sit on his mayoral transition’s “criminal legal system” committee — just one of many questionable picks.
“This is a testament to our decades of work advocating on behalf of black and brown communities and our expertise in gun violence prevention, legislative advocacy and criminal justice reform,” Linen boasted on Instagram last month after the position was announced. “We are building something different.”
Mysonne Linen, 49, had a promising rap career when he was convicted of armed robbery in 1999 in the Bronx. Getty Images
Linen was a promising young rapper when he was convicted in 1999 for being part of a crew that robbed two cab drivers in the Bronx, the New York Daily News reported at the time.
The conviction came just as Linen’s debut album was due for release by Def Jam Recordings.
Bronx prosecutors said his crew pulled off the June 8, 1997, robbery of taxi driver Joseph Eziri, and the March 31, 1998, gunpoint theft from cabbie Francisco Monsanto, according to the News.
According to officials at the state Department of Correction and Community Renewal, Linen was hit with a sentence of seven to 14 years and was sprung on parole on July 5, 2006.
Linen, who had faced up to 25 years behind bars, continued to deny he was involved and rebranded himself as a community activist following his release from state prison.
He spent years volunteering as a so-called violence interrupter and also founded Rising Kings, a non-profit group that teaches classes to inmates at Rikers Island.
Linen also partnered up with anti-Israel activist and adviser of Mamdani, Linda Sarsour, to found the group Until Freedom, a social justice activism organization.
Critics slammed his appointment to the 20-member “Committee on the Criminal Legal System,” which will advise Mamdani on criminal justice policies.
“It is both disheartening and deeply disturbing that individuals who are convicted felons and have a history of breaking the law are being given the opportunity to help shape the future of New York’s criminal justice system,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.
“The men and women who risk their lives every day to enforce the law have been shut out from this process entirely.”
Recently retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell said Linen’s appointment was par for the course for the democratic socialist, who has made a slew of contentious picks to his 17 transition committees.
“It’s just another appointed adviser that has a questionable past, which is in line with some of his other recent appointees who were anti-police and establishment,” Chell said.
“The optics and reality here point to a potential erosion of public safety in New York City.”
Former Maryland Department of Juvenile Services boss Vincent Schiraldi, who resigned under pressure amid claims of shoddy oversight and contract mismanagement at the agency, was named to the same committee as Linen last month.
Both Linen’s name and the one of another controversial appointee — Lumumba Bandele, on the “Committee on Community Organizing” — were misspelled in the official Nov. 24 announcement from Mamdani’s team.
Bandele, a black nationalist and the leader of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, has rallied behind cops killers in the past, including Assata Shakur and Herman Bell.
He was among the 400 staffers named to the various Mamdani transition committees — with other controversial appointments including:
Brooklyn College sociology professor Alex Vitale, who authored a 2017 anti-cop book that decried NYPD “broken windows” policing and warned of ingrained racism in the NYPD ranks, named the 26-member “Committee on Community Safety.”
Radical Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, co-director of the Alliance for Quality Education and a far-left activist who will serve on Mamdani’s “Committee on Youth & Education.” Shaakir-Ansari also praised Shakur, the convicted cop-killer who fled a life sentence and was granted asylum in Cuba, where she died in September.
Ben Furnas, the car-hating head of Transportation Alternatives, whose agenda includes plans to all but shut traffic down with bizarre proposals that would freeze the city, named to the “Committee on Transportation, Climate, & Infrastructure.”
Susan Herman, director of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s failed $1 billion ThriveNYC, which promised to help New York’s homeless mentally ill but allegedly did little more than rip off taxpayers, will also serve on the “Committee on Community Safety.”
Finally, Mamdani included his New York City Democratic Socialists of America pals, particularly co-chairs Gustavo Gordillo and Grace Mausser, who helped shape the far-left agenda.
Gordillo was named to the economic development and workforce development committee, while Mausser was tapped for the committee on small businesses and Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise.
But Linen’s appointment by Mamdani, whose anti-cop and anti-Israelrhetoric ruffled feathers during the mayoral campaign, has raised new concerns as the former state lawmaker from Queens prepares to take over as mayor next month.
It’s Andean Jurassic Park. In Toro Toro, Bolivia thousands of footprints of gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs have been documented. (AP/Carlos Guerrero, Victor R. Caivano)
Legend once had it that the huge, three-toed footprints scattered across the central highlands of Bolivia came from supernaturally strong monsters — capable of sinking their claws even into solid stone.
Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children’s fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes.
Now, a team of paleontologists, mostly from California’s Loma Linda University, have discovered and meticulously documented 16,600 such footprints left by theropods, the dinosaur group that includes the Tyrannosaurus rex. Their study, based on six years of regular field visits and published last Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, reports that this finding represents the highest number of theropod footprints recorded anywhere in the world.
“There’s no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints,” said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Raúl Esperante. “We have all these world records at this particular site.”
Prints record dinosaur behavior — including attempts to swim
The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here, according to the study, scratching at what was squishy lake-bottom sediment to leave another 1,378 traces.
They pressed their claws into the mud just before water levels rose and sealed their tracks, protecting them from centuries of erosion, scientists said.
“The preservation of many of the tracks is excellent,” said Richard Butler, a paleontologist at the University of Birmingham who was not involved in the research. He said that, to his knowledge, the number of footprints and trackways found in Toro Toro had no precedent.
“This is a remarkable window into the lives and behaviors of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous,” Butler added, referring to the period around 66 million years ago at the end of which an asteroid impact abruptly extinguished all dinosaurs and 75% of living species along with them, according to scientists.
Footprints face preservation threats
Although they’ve survived for millions of years, human life has threatened these traces. For decades, farmers threshed corn and wheat on the footprint-covered plateaus. Nearby quarry workers didn’t think much of the formations as they blasted rock layers for limestone. And just two years ago, researchers said, highway crews tunneling through hillsides nearly wiped out a major site of dinosaur tracks before the national park intervened.
Such disturbances may have something to do with the area’s striking absence of dinosaur bones, teeth and eggs, experts say. For all of the footprints and swim traces found across Bolivia’s Toro Toro, there are virtually no skeletal remains of the sort that litter the peaks and valleys of Argentine Patagonia and Campanha in Brazil.
But the lack of bones could have natural causes, too. The team said the quantity and pattern of tracks — and the fact they were all found in the same sediment layer — suggest that dinosaurs didn’t settle in what is now Bolivia as much as trudge along an ancient coastal superhighway stretching from southern Peru into northwest Argentina.
The range in footprint sizes indicated that giant creatures roughly 10 meters (33 feet) tall moved in a herd with tiny theropods the size of a chicken, 32 centimeters (1 foot) tall at the hip.
In presenting a snapshot of everyday behavior footprints “reveal what skeletons cannot,” said Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland in Australia who also did not participate in the study. Just from footprints, researchers can tell when dinosaurs strolled or sped up, stopped or turned around.
A CERTAIN group of Americans are slated to receive one-time payments from the federal government via a new assistance program.
Dubbed the Farmer Bridge Assistance program, the checks will go out in an effort to lend a financial helping hand to farmers impacted by the ongoing trade war with our country’s top economic partners.
President Donald Trump has announced that one-time payments will be handed out to a certain group of AmericansCredit: Getty
The Trump administration will hand out a $12 billion aid package to farmers using funds from US tariff revenues, the president revealed during a roundtable event at the White House on Monday where members of the farming community were present.
The president called farmers “the backbone of our country,” saying that the economic assistance is intended to provide much-needed certainty to US farmers.
Many have struggled to sell their crops while also facing rising costs in the wake of Trump’s move to increase tariffs in China.
Up to $11 billion of the package’s total allotment will go to the USDA’s new Farmer Bridge Assistance program, which will distribute one-time checks to American row crop farmers, including those growing soybeans, corn, cotton, and other crops, a White House representative told CNBC.
The leftover $1 billion will be set aside as the Department of Agriculture evaluates changing market conditions, per the government official.
The administration views the impending checks as “bridge payments” that will provide aid to farmers in the transition period between the country switching over from former President Joe Biden’s economic agenda to Trump’s current policies.
“Farmers suffered for years under Joe Biden, who increased the United States’ trade deficit to over $1.2 trillion, raised input costs, pushed woke DEI agricultural policies, and more,” the White House spokesperson told CNBC prior to Monday’s aid announcement.
“In contrast, President Trump is helping our agriculture industry by negotiating new trade deals to open new export markets for our farmers and boosting the farm safety net for the first time in a decade,” said the representative.
“Today’s announcement reflects the President’s commitment to helping our farmers, who will have the support they need to bridge the gap between Biden’s failures and the President’s successful policies taking effect.”
Many in our country’s agriculture industry, however, have cast blame for their struggles on the ongoing trade war, particularly the conflicts with China, one of the US’ biggest trade partners.
China stopped purchasing US soybeans for several months, including the key harvest season starting in the fall, due to trade tensions and tariffs between the two countries.
Prior to Trump’s announcement of the $12 billion aid package for farmers, Democratic lawmakers bashed his administration for the way it framed the payments.
DONALD TRUMP has sensationally revealed that there could be up to NINE title fights on the UFC’s proposed White House card.
The US President is set to host a historic event at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on June 14 to celebrate America’s 250th year of Independence.
The UFC are set to hold a historic card at the White House nextCredit: EPA
UFC supremo Dana White has teased an epic card befitting the magnitude of the occasion.
And President Trump, a long-time pal of White’s, has claimed up to nine of the eleven UFC titles could be contested for in the shadow of the White House.
President Trump said: “It’s gonna be June 14 next year.
“They’re building an arena, the great Dana White is building an arena.
“They are going to have eight or nine championship fights.
“It’s the biggest fights they’ve ever had; every fight is a championship fight.”
According to Trump, White and the UFC matchmakers are keeping certain fights on ice specifically for the event.
He said: “He’s actually holding back fights right now for six months, so he can do them on the 250th anniversary.
“I think 250 is going to be amazing. I think the arena is going to be five or six thousand seats right in front of the door of the White House.”
Trump, who turns 80 on fight night, insists the event will be unlike any other held in UFC and White House history.
He exclaimed: “I don’t think there’ll be anything like it.
“It’ll be on Sunday night, June 14, [on] Flag Day.
“It happens to be my birthday, but I didn’t do it for that reason. ‘Sir, we like the June 14 date.’
“I said, ‘Yeah, that’s my birthday.’ They didn’t know it
“But they picked it. I’ll take a little heat on that, but it’s not that.”
PRESIDENT Zelensky will tomorrow present a fresh peace plan to Donald Trump following today’s talks with his European allies in London.
The Ukrainian has again rejected handing land to Putin and also made a plea to his allies for the cash needed to buy American weapons.
Trump accused Zelensky of not having read his latest peace proposalCredit: EPA
Zelensky was at 10 Downing Street to meet Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany on Monday, who rallied around him in the face of Trump’s shaky-looking support.
They gathered amid American efforts to hurry a peace deal over the line – which have reached a “critical stage”, according to Starmer.
After the US and Russia produced a 28-point peace deal last month, European leaders swiftly set to work crafting a more balanced counter proposal.
Talks have also been ongoing between the US and Ukraine in a bid to agree on a revised version – which was reportedly presented to Putin last week.
On Sunday, Trump accused Zelensky of not having even read the latest version of the text, which has been kept tightly under wraps, though Ukrainian officials denied this.
Trump said: “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it.”
After talks with Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, Zelensky confirmed they had been working on a further update to the 20-point proposal.
He said the revision could be ready for delivery to Trump as early as Tuesday evening.
On Sunday, the White House said a peace deal was “really close” and was stuck on just two points: the fate of the Ukraine’s Donbas region and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Special Envoy Keith Kellog said: “If we get those two issues settled, I think the rest of the things will work out fairly well.”
Zelensky too signaled the demands for Ukraine to hand over land to Russia, as featured in the initial proposition, remained a problem.
He said today: “There are visions of the US, Russia and Ukraine – and we don’t have a unified view on Donbas.
“There is one question I, and all Ukrainians, want to get an answer to: if Russia again starts the war, what will our partners do?”
And he later made clear that land concessions would not feature in the proposition handed over tomorrow.
He said: “Do we envision ceding territories? We have no legal right to do so, under Ukrainian law, our constitution and international law. And we don’t have any moral right either.
“Russia is insisting that we give up territories, but we don’t want to cede anything. We are fighting for that, as you well know.
“There are difficult problems concerning the territories and so far there has been no compromise.”
Zelensky previously said the sides were waiting for in-person talks with Trump to tackle the thorny issue for security reasons.
Following his London meetings, Zelensky travelled to Brussels for talks with heads of Nato and the European Commission – and is later due to head to Italy.
Zelensky said that Ukrainian and European officials “are going to work on these 20 points” received from the US side in order to produce a counter proposal.
Trump later shared an article branding Europeans as “impotent”.
Reposting a New York Post opinion piece onto Truth Social, he picked out the headline: “Impotent Europeans can only fume as Trump rightly sidelines them from Ukraine deal”.
Zelensky also revealed on Monday that Ukraine is short by around £600million of the money needed to buy the US weapons it had planned to purchase this year.
He reiterated that, by next year, Ukraine would need about $11.3billion for the PURL program – which involves purchases of U.S. weapons with European money.
Germany has dismissed a US security strategy that was scathing in its assessment of Europe. Meanwhile, a new study says hundreds of children and teenagers were abused by clergy.
Chancellor Merz has always framed Germany’s security around NATO unity and the trans-Atlantic relationshipImage: Evan Vucci/AFP
Merz rows back on migration comments that caused outrage
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pulled on comments he made last month on migration in Germany, when he said the interior ministry was working on large-scale deportations.
In an interview with public broadcaster ARD on Monday evening, he said Germany needed migration.
Explaining that there were “neglected” cities which required work, he added: “It’s two parts of the same answer. We need migration, we need immigration, the entire medical sector, the care sector, many other areas.”
“Without those who come from other countries, it simply doesn’t work any more,” Merz added.
However, he went on express that those who wish to live in Germany needed to adhere to rules of the country.
“If they don’t, they must leave,” Merz said.
130 Christmas trees stolen in Cottbus
Thieves in the eastern city of Cottbus made off with some 130 Christmas trees up for sale over the weekend, the second of the Advent period.
Police say the trees were worth more than €4,000 ($4,650) in all.
The theft was first noticed and reported on Monday morning.
Prices for Christmas trees, a highly popular adornment for German sitting rooms in the festive season, can range from around €12 to €30 depending on the type of tree.
The most expensive is the Caucasian fir, which is often favored for its attractive, glossy foliage, made up of needles that are flattened and not sharp and that tend to remain on the tree even when it dries out.
German intelligence chief warns of stepped-up Russian meddling in state elections
Germany’s domestic intelligence chief Sinan Selen has warned that Russia is likely to intensify disinformation efforts next year, particularly as several state elections approach.
Selen described “very strong interactions” between developments in Ukraine and the hybrid threats facing Europe, calling them “communicating vessels.” Understanding events in Ukraine, he said, was essential to gauging the threat scenarios Germany and Europe may face.
In his speech at the symposium “Turning point — what now? The role of the BfV in Germany’s security architecture”, Selen said Europe is being attacked “here and now: hybrid, virtual, analog.” Russia, he added, is “undoubtedly aggressive, offensive and escalatory” as a hybrid actor.
Speaking on the sidelines of the symposium, Selen told the AFP news agency that elections “always play a major role” in Russian influence operations. He said Moscow could feel “encouraged” to increase pressure on Europe as the war in Ukraine evolves. “Both factors must be closely monitored,” he said.
Hostile actors, he said, exploit public overstimulation through “alarmist and shrill messages” online to stoke fear.
Germany will hold five state elections next year: Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in March, and Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in September. Polls suggest the AfD could emerge as the strongest party in the two eastern state.
Survey finds Advent remains meaningful for most Germans
A large majority of Germans continue to see Advent as a meaningful part of the year, according to a new YouGov survey released for the Catholic KNA news agency.
The poll found that 81% attach special significance to the season, with 57% ranking decorations and candles as most important and 44% choosing Christmas markets.
About 43% placed baking cookies at the top of their list, while 41% highlighted opening an Advent calendar. Only 11% said church services or religious celebrations play a key role.
Nearly one-third still value retreat and reflection during Advent, with approval for this highest among those aged 45 to 54 at 35%. For 27%, music or singing is a central part of the season.
YouGov surveyed 15,649 adults in early December, allowing multiple responses. The results are representative of Germany’s population aged 18 and older.
Germany rejects Trump’s Europe attacks
The German government has rejected criticism of Europe contained in the new US national security strategy, saying it continues to view Russia as a threat to its security.
The strategy paper, published last week, criticized Europe for being over-regulated and at risk of “civilizational erasure” through immigration, while saying the US would be “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.”
German government spokesman Sebastian Hille said Berlin rejected “the sometimes critical tone directed at the EU.”
“Political freedoms, including the right to freedom of expression, are among the fundamental values of the European Union,” he said. “We see accusations in this regard as ideology rather than strategy.”
Hille added that Germany disagreed with the analysis because it did not classify Russia as a threat.
“We do not share this assessment. We stand by NATO’s joint analysis, which holds that Russia poses a danger and a threat to transatlantic security.”
However, the spokesman added that Germany was keen to work with Washington within NATO and on issues relating to Ukraine.
“In view of the major security challenges we face, transatlantic cooperation is of central importance for our shared security, now and in the future,” he said.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also pushed back against elements of the new US strategy on Friday.
Study finds hundreds of minors abused by clergy in Passau diocese
A new study has found that hundreds of children and teenagers in the Catholic Diocese of Passau were abused and mistreated by clergy over several decades.
At least 672 minors have been subjected to serious abuse by priests since 1945, according to findings released Monday by Marc von Knorring, head of the study.
Researchers identified 154 accused or convicted perpetrators at the Bavarian diocese. The three-year study was conducted by a team at the University of Passau. Bishop Stefan Oster called the findings a massive failure on the part of the Church.
Knorring said events had unfolded “that should never have happened,” adding that victims suffer the consequences for life. The study concludes that the 154 accused clergy were not solely to blame.
Certain patterns of thinking and behavior within the Church system itself, the researchers said, contributed to decisions in which “a number of bishops and vicars general, in numerous cases, placed the protection of the institution and the priesthood above the well-being of those affected.”
Report says Merz filed hundreds of insult complaints, prompting two home searches
Chancellor Friedrich Merz filed hundreds of criminal complaints for insult during his time as leader of the conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag,according to a media report.
In two cases, this was followed by police searches of the homes of the suspected authors, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported, citing documents such as lawyers’ letters and investigation files.
The insults in question on social media included terms such as “a**hole,” “filthy drunk,” and “little Nazi.” According to the report, the latter two expressions led to house searches, though in the case of “filthy drunk” a court later ruled the search unlawful.
The period in question was before Merz became the chancellor, at which point he ceased to be the parliamentary group leader.
In Germany, insulting a person can constitute a criminal offense under the criminal code, allowing authorities to investigate if the alleged victim files a complaint.
Merz’s parliamentary office “largely” confirmed the incidents, the report continued. According to the newspaper, the current Chancellor donated compensation payments and fines “in full to charitable causes in the Hochsauerland district,” where Merz’s constituency is located.
About a year ago, a house search following a criminal complaint by then-Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Green Party sparked a public debate about proportionality.
That case involved an insult using the word “idiot.” The author was later sentenced to a fine, though not for the insult itself, but for a different post with a Nazi reference. The incident was taken up particularly in right-wing circles and triggered accusations of alleged state censorship.
President Donald Trump’s announcement marks a notable shift in the US policy of restricting Chinese access to high-tech chips over concerns of military applications.
Nvidia’s CEO has been lobbying for export permissions to China [FILE: August 2025]Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFPThe United States will allow chip giant Nvidia to export its advanced artificial intellegence chips to China, US President Donald Trump said on Monday, after he reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Nvidia is currently the largest US company by market value, having quickly risen with the AI wave.
The announcement marks a notable shift in US’ tech export policy, especially for advanced AI chips. Former US President Joe Biden’s government had heavily restricted the sale of advanced chips to China over concerns of its applications in the Chinese military.
Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social, saying he had informed Xi that Washington would permit Nvidia to export its H200 products to “approved customers” in China and other countries, “under conditions that allow of continued strong National Security.”
“President Xi responded positively! 25% will be paid to the United States of America,” he wrote, adding that the move would benefit US taxpayers, increase jobs and strengthen US manufacturing.
A White House spokesperson clarified that the 25% fee would be an import tax from Taiwan where the chips are made. They will be imported to the US for a security review before being exported to China.
Most advanced chips not part of the deal
The US president assured that the nation would maintain its lead in AI as US customers were already moving to the highly advanced Blackwell chips, followed by the next generation Rubin chips, “neither of which are part of this deal.”
“Offering H200 to approved customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America,” Nvidia said in a statement. Its Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has long lobbied the White House to reverse the Biden-era policy of restricting China’s access to powerful chips.
Trump said the Department of Commerce was finalizing the details but the “same approach will apply to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies.”
Democrats sound alarm bells
Several Democrats in the US Senate reacted to the deal by issuing a statement, “calling it a colossal economic and national security failure.”
“Access to these chips would give China’s military transformational technology to make its weapons more lethal, carry out more effective cyberattacks against American businesses and critical infrastructure and strengthen their economic and manufacturing sector,” the lawmakers said.
The senators cited a recent statement by Chinese AI company DeepSeek, which said the lack of access to advanced US-designed chips was their biggest challenge in competing withe American AI companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Perplexity.
Meanwhile, Washington-based Institute for Progress’ Alex Stapp, called the policy a “massive own goal,” in a football reference. He said the H200 was “6x more powerful than the H20, which was previously the most powerful chip approved for export.”
The deal’s announcement comes days after Massacheusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, alluded to a backroom arrangement between Trump and Huang which involved a donation to build the East Wing Ballroom at the White House.
“I’m asking Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Union Pacific, and Comcast about their donations to Trump’s ‘Big Gold Ballroom’,” she said in a post on X.
Paramount has criticized Netflix’s offer and said its own counterbid is worth up to $18 billion in cash more. The earlier Netflix offer had also been criticized by US President Trump.
Paramount says it is also offering to buy the cable assets of Warner Bros.Image: Mario Tama/Getty Images
US production company Paramount said on Monday that it was looking to challenge Netflix’s takeover of Warner Brothers Discovery with a hostile bid of its own.
Netflix reached a $72 billion (€62 billion) takeover deal with Warner Bros. on Friday but Paramount said it would be approaching shareholders with a bid worth around $108.4 billion.
The studio claims its offer for the entire Warner Bros. Discovery is better than Netflix’s, providing shareholders with $18 billion more in cash and a more straightforward regulatory approval process.
What’s more, unlike Netflix, Paramount says it is also offering to buy the cable assets of Warner Bros., and asking shareholders to reject the Netflix bid which it says is based on an “illusory prospective valuation” of those assets.
Paramount criticized the Netflix offer, saying it “exposes WBD shareholders to a protracted multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process with an uncertain outcome along with a complex and volatile mix of equity and cash.”
Paramount said it had submitted six proposals to WBD over a 12-week period.
“We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry,” Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison said in a statement.
“We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction,” he added.
What has Trump said about the deal?
US President Donald Trump also said Sunday that the Netflix deal “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share.
The president added that he would be personally involved in the federal government’s decision to approve the bid or not.
Celebrations kicked off marking the ousting of Bashar Assad after decades of his family’s rule and a 14-year conflict. But not everyone is celebrating.
Mosques in Damascus’ Old City began the day broadcasting celebratory prayers at dawn as people gathered with flagsImage: Omar Sanadiki/AP Photo/picture alliance
Thousands of Syrians on Monday took to the streets to mark the first anniversary of the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime.
Assad fled to Russia after an Islamist-led offensive a year ago.
The Syrian capital, Damascus, is hosting a military parade and a speech by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the offensive that ousted Assad.
Al-Sharaa calls for Syrian unity
People gathered at Damascus’s landmark Umayyad Mosque for dawn prayers, raising flags and chanting slogans in celebration of the anniversary.
Al-Sharaa was also at the mosque, telling people after the prayers to get together to rebuild their country.
“The current phase requires the unification of efforts by all citizens to build a strong Syria, consolidate its stability, safeguard its sovereignty and achieve a future befitting the sacrifices of its people,” Sharaa said.
The rebel-turned-president said reconstruction efforts would extend “from north to south and east to west,” adding that his government seeks to ensure justice and support vulnerable communities.
EU declares continued support for Syria
European Council President Antonio Costa has pledged continued EU support as Syrians take “steps toward a more stable and inclusive future.”
“The EU stands with Syria, supporting a peaceful, Syrian-led process focused on justice, reconciliation and the rights of all Syrians,” Costa said on Monday.
“Challenges remain, but we are committed to political dialogue, urgent humanitarian support and Syria’s recovery and reconstruction.”
Al-Sharaa has managed to rally Western backing, not only from the EU, but also from the US. Last month, he became the first Syrian president to visit the White House since 1946.
Many countries see Syria’s stability as integral to the region’s security. Some, including Germany, also seek to have the Syrian nationals who sought refuge in their countries return to Syria, as anti-immigration politics rise.
How is Syria after the fall of Assad?
Although the fall of Assad’s regime marked a significant breakthrough in Syria, the country’s fragile transition faces challenges.
Religious minorities have come under attack several times in the past year, while Israel continues to strike Syrian territories.
Alawites, a religious minority to which the Assad family also belongs, are largely boycotting Monday’s celebrations in protest against the “oppressive” new authorities.
Donald Trump wants the US to increasingly prioritize itself over global conflicts in a stark change from recent decades. Though this is a reflection of his ‘America First’ mandate, it’s not quite as simple as that.
Donald Trump has sketched out his plans to make major changes to US foreign policyImage: Mandel Ngan/REUTERS
It’s long been a key slogan for Donald Trump, but ‘America First’ appears closer to reality than ever, after the release of a key US strategy document outlining the administration’s foreign policy.
“In everything we do, we are putting America first,” reads an introductory letter signed by the president in a recently-released 29-page document, titled ‘National Security Strategy of the United States of America.’
It sets out the US strategy as being “pragmatic without being ‘pragmatist,’ realistic without being ‘realist,’ principled without being ‘idealistic,’ muscular without being ‘hawkish,”’and restrained without being ‘dovish.’”
What is Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy?
The National Security Strategy (NSS) does not determine policy but rather sets out the government’s foreign policy vision. It can, of course, be overtaken by world events. For example, as US foreign policy expert Andrew Payne points out, the 2022 version released during Joe Biden’s tenure made no significant mention of the Middle East.
But the NSS has a clear impact on how government resources are allocated and gives foreign governments a steer on US intentions.
“Whether or not the administration itself follows the principles and priorities laid out here, it is about the best source available to policymakers overseas seeking clarity on the direction of travel of an administration that has so far been inconsistent and unpredictable,” Payne, a research director at the international affairs think tank Chatham House told DW.
What does the National Security Strategy document say?
As well as plenty of self-congratulation and a rejection of traditional US foreign policy, Trump lays out a much stronger ‘America First’ blueprint than he did in his first NSS in 2017.
“After the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interests of our country,” the introduction states. “Yet the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests.”
As such, the broad strokes of the strategy are a move away from American intervention abroad, multilateralism and international bodies, and towards national self-determination, at least where that suits the US.
The NSS calls for the US to have full control of its borders, the “world’s most powerful, lethal, and technologically advanced military” and “the most dynamic, most innovative, and most advanced economy” as well as keeping a “soft power” grip across the world for its own gain.
In global terms, it calls for a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, established in 1823 and concerned with self-determination for the US amid European intervention. It references preventing “an adversarial power from dominating the Middle East” and notes that ending the Russia-Ukraine war is a key goal, along with fighting drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, while calling for other nations to take on more of the burden in global matters.
The document also says Europe faces the “prospect of civilizational erasure,” that some European countries will be “unrecognizable in 20 years or less” and questions whether they are “strong enough to remain reliable allies.”
The overall message of American isolationism is not always consistently applied. The NSS calls for US “preeminence” in the Western Hemisphere, and Latin America in particular, stating that: “We will reward and encourage the region’s governments, political parties, and movements broadly aligned with our principles and strategy.”
Is this a new foreign policy direction for the US?
While these strategic goals will not necessarily become policy, the explicit stating of them marks a sea change from the NSS released by Biden in 2022. Payne said it “represents a fundamental and explicit rejection of the national security strategies that have been developed since at least the end of the Cold War,” before adding that: “It is clearest in what it is not: the traditional liberal internationalist orthodoxy that has sustained US grand strategy for decades.”
It is, naturally, closer to Trump’s last attempt in 2017. But for Dr. Rubrick Biegon, an international relations lecturer at the Universtiy of Kent in England, that’s consistent with the broader changes in his second term.
“It does seem in keeping with the kind of shifts from Trump to Trump 2.0. I think that the strategy document is closer to Trump’s idiosyncratic worldview than the 2017 one,” he told DW, adding that this was partly because “Trump is more comfortable in his position this time around and has more of his own team around him, rather than establishment figures.”
European reactions to US strategy: ‘to the right of the extreme right’
In Russia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov welcomed the document as “largely consistent with our vision” and a “positive step.”
Others in Europe were considerably more troubled. Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said the document “places itself to the right of the extreme right”.
The reaction from active European politicians has generally been to downplay the document. This is despite it doubling down on Trump’s attacks on Europe at his UN speech earlier this year when he said: “Europe is in serious trouble. They have been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody has ever seen before.”
Google’s new Gemini 3 model challenges OpenAI’s dominance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race. As rivals invest billions and competition grows, OpenAI faces pressure to innovate — and finally turn a profit.
ChatGPT was the world’s most popular AI app by active monthly users in October 2025. Gemini ranked 5th, and three Chinese models fell in betweenImage: Jaque Silva/NurPhoto/picture alliance
According to media reports, OpenAI plans to unveil a new artificial-intelligence reasoning model this week that is reportedly surpassing Google’s latest, most advanced family of AI models, Gemini 3.
Online tech magazine The Decoder cites industry insiders who claim the launch is intended to counter Google’s recent advances in state-of-the-art reasoning, deep multimodal understanding of text, images and video, as well as Gemini 3’s powerful coding capabilities.
Google’s parent company Alphabet introduced Gemini 3 in November, boasting benchmark results that surpassed OpenAI’s flagship model ChatGPT in key categories.
The outcome rattled OpenAI, which has been viewed as the industry front-runner since ChatGPT’s debut in 2022 transformed public awareness of generative AI and briefly left competitors scrambling.
Now, OpenAI’s lead is no longer assured.
A ‘code red’ moment for OpenAI
The reaction inside OpenAI has been urgent, with CEO Sam Altman reportedly declaring a “code red” in an internal message, instructing teams to focus on improving the quality of ChatGPT and delaying other products as a result, according to the memo cited by the US business newspaper The Wall Street Journal.
“We’ve reached a point where it’s not only about having the best model, but also about access to computing power and the ability to turn that technology into revenue,” Adrian Cox, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Research, told DW.
OpenAI gained an early edge thanks to a period in which its models outperformed any alternatives, he added, but competitors are quickly closing the gap — and many are backed by companies with enormous distribution networks and cloud infrastructure.
“Models like Gemini benefit from being tightly integrated into products that already reach huge online audiences, along with access to vast data-center capacity,” said Cox.
According to Altman, ChatGPT attracts more than 800 million weekly users. But Alphabet can deploy Gemini directly within Google Search, its most profitable product.
The Gemini app already reaches more than 650 million monthly users, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai wrote on Google’s blog, adding that more than 70% of its cloud customers are using AI tools.
“[Thirteen] million developers have built with our generative models, and that is just a snippet of the impact we’re seeing,” he wrote on November 18.
OpenAI still not carving a profit
While Google generates revenue across a wide portfolio of operations, OpenAI must monetize its AI models directly. It currently relies on premium ChatGPT subscriptions and enterprise licensing. Microsoft, a major shareholder, also pays to embed OpenAI technology into its products.
Even so, Altman has acknowledged the company is not yet profitable.
OpenAI does not disclose financials. But according to Cox, investors were told over the summer that 2030 could be the first profitable year for OpenAI.
HSBC analysts take a dimmer view, as the British financial newspaper, Financial Times, reported recently. The bank projects revenue could reach $213 billion (€182 biilion) by 2030 — but still this would likely result in a loss of more than $70 billion due to soaring infrastructure costs.
Massive AI investment needs
Training and running cutting-edge AI systems demand huge outlays for data-center capacity.
Google plans to invest up to $93 billion in AI this year alone, with “significant increases” earmarked for the years to come. The fourth-quarter revenue of its parent Alphabet exceeded $100 billion, fueled largely by advertising and growing cloud demand.
Google also has a hardware advantage, as its proprietary AI chips support model training inside company-owned data centers, thus avoiding purchases of more expensive semiconductors from AI-chip market leader Nvidia.
Facebook’s parent company Meta has reportedly expressed interest in using Google’s processors for its own AI infrastructure.
Given those strengths, Adrian Cox sees “a very high probability” Google will have the leading model at least into next year — not OpenAI. OpenAI’s priority, he said, is identifying a business model capable of funding a user base that could soon approach a billion people per week.
“It’s uncertain how that will work in practice. Subscription revenues alone may not be enough to cover costs,” he said, noting the company is exploring other revenue streams.
Competition widens beyond Big Tech
Meanwhile, the race for AI leadership is no longer limited to the two Silicon Valley contenders. “Competition has intensified significantly since 2022. We now see strong challengers for the best model like Anthropic alongside established companies like Google,” Cox said.
Open-source models from the US, China, and Europe — including from European startup Mistral — are also gaining traction. These systems are smaller and cheaper than OpenAI’s offerings, designed for targeted applications rather than broad capability.
“Customers today have a very wide range of options — from highly advanced models to lightweight, fast, cost-efficient open-source systems,” said Cox, and added that forthcoming ChatGPT-5 may be the most versatile model currently in development, but its complexity makes it “expensive to operate and less tailored to specific user groups.”
Additionally, China’s AI companies are also pushing forward. In September, search-engine provider Baidu unveiled its DeepSeek model, claiming performance on par with ChatGPT-5 and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro.
Reddit mascot Snoo rings the opening bell as Reddit begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York on Mar 21, 2024. (File photo: AFP/Timothy A Clary)
Online discussion site Reddit on Tuesday (Dec 9) condemned Australia’s imminent social media ban for under-16s as “legally erroneous” but said it would comply with the landmark crackdown.
Australia’s world-first legislation comes into effect on Dec 10, curbing the globe’s most popular social media platforms and websites, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Reddit.
US-based Reddit was one of the few remaining firms to say whether or not it would fall into line.
“While we disagree about the scope, effectiveness, and privacy implications of this law, as of Dec 10, we’re making some changes in line with these requirements,” the company said in a statement.
Reddit said it could not confirm local media reports that it was mulling a last-ditch legal challenge against the restrictions.
But it said the law would be a mistake.
“By limiting account eligibility and putting identity tests on internet usage, this law undermines everyone’s right to both free expression and privacy, as well as account-specific protections,” it said.
“We also believe the law’s application to Reddit – a pseudonymous, text-based forum overwhelmingly used by adults – is arbitrary, legally erroneous, and goes far beyond the original intent of the Australian Parliament, especially when other obvious platforms are exempt.”
Social media companies face fines of A$49.5 million (US$32 million) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply with the legislation.
KEEN INTEREST
Reddit said it would use an “age-prediction model” to weed out young users – and that all those deemed to be under 16 would be suspended.
It also said it would roll out enhanced safety features across the globe for all users under 18.
Hundreds of thousands of adolescents are expected to be impacted by the ban, with Instagram alone reporting about 350,000 Australian users aged 13 to 15.
Some popular apps and websites such as Roblox, Pinterest and WhatsApp are exempt, but the list remains under review.
Australia expects rebellious teens will do their best to skirt the laws. Guidelines warn they might try to upload fake IDs or use AI to make their photos appear older.
The announcement marks a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Joe Biden’s administration had heavily restricted over national security concerns about Chinese military applications.
The Nvidia logo is displayed on a building at Nvidia headquarters on Aug 27, 2025 in Santa Clara, California. (File photo: Getty Images via AFP/Justin Sullivan)
President Donald Trump said on Monday (Dec 8) he had reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to allow US chip giant Nvidia to export advanced artificial intelligence chips to China.
The announcement marks a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Joe Biden’s administration had heavily restricted over national security concerns about Chinese military applications.
Democrats in Congress quickly dismissed the shift as a huge mistake that will help the Chinese military and economy.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he had informed Xi that Washington would permit Nvidia to ship its H200 products to “approved customers in China, and other countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security”.
“President Xi responded positively! US$25 per cent will be paid to the United States of America,” Trump wrote, without providing further details on how the payment mechanism would work.
Trump criticised his predecessor’s approach, saying it “forced our Great Companies to spend BILLIONS OF DOLLARS building ‘degraded’ products that nobody wanted, a terrible idea that slowed Innovation, and hurt the American Worker”.
This referred to the previous administration’s requirement for chip companies to create modified, less powerful versions specifically for the Chinese market.
These chips had reduced capabilities – lower processing speeds, for example – to comply with export control regulations.
Under Biden-era restrictions, the H200 and similar advanced chips were blocked from export to China.
“We applaud President Trump’s decision to allow America’s chip industry to compete to support high-paying jobs and manufacturing in America,” an Nvidia spokesperson told AFP.
“Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America.”
NOT BLACKWELL
The president said his decision aims to “support American Jobs, strengthen US Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers”.
Trump emphasised that Nvidia’s most advanced chips – the Blackwell series and forthcoming Rubin processors – are not included in the agreement and remain available only to US customers.
The H200s are roughly 18 months behind the company’s state-of-the-art offerings.
The chips – graphic processing units or GPUs – are used to train the AI models that are the bedrock of the generative AI revolution launched with the release of ChatGPT in 2022.
The Commerce Department is finalising implementation details, with Trump saying “the same approach will apply to AMD, Intel, and other GREAT American Companies”.
The announcement comes amid trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, as the two compete for dominance in artificial intelligence technology.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lobbied the White House intensely to reverse the Biden-era policy despite considerable opposition in Washington to giving Chinese companies access to powerful chips.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, attributed the deal to a “backroom meeting” with Trump and Huang’s company’s donation to build the East Wing ballroom at the White House.
She said this would “turbocharge China’s military and undercut American technological leadership”.
She and other senior Democrats in the Senate issued a separate statement calling Trump’s decision “a colossal economic and national security failure”.
This comes after US farmers urged tougher action, arguing that subsidised rice imports are battering US markets and pushing domestic prices down. Donald Trump vowed to “take care” of the issue and pressed officials to identify countries accused of undercutting US markets.
US President Donald Trump (Photo: Reuters)
US President Donald Trump signalled that his administration is ready to consider fresh tariffs on agricultural imports, including Canadian fertiliser and Indian rice, as he confronted farmers’ complaints about cheap foreign goods undercutting US producers, according to Bloomberg.
Speaking at the White House roundtable meeting to unveil a $12 billion bailout package for American farmers, Trump said the government would investigate claims that countries are dumping low-priced rice into the American market.
Farmers at the table pressed Trump to take a harder line, arguing that subsidised rice imports are battering US markets and pushing domestic prices down. Trump replied that they’re cheating and suggested tariffs could follow. He also hinted that fertiliser imported from Canada may be next, saying severe duties were on the table to boost US production.
TRUMP ASKS FARMERS WHICH COUNTRIES TO TARIFF NEXT
CEO of Louisiana-based Kennedy Rice Mill, Meryl Kennedy, told Trump that India, Thailand and China were among the top culprits, noting that Chinese shipments were going into Puerto Rico rather than the mainland. “We haven’t shipped rice to Puerto Rico in years,” said Kennedy, adding that “us in the South are really struggling”.
“The tariffs are working, but we need to double down,” Meryl Kennedy said.
“You want more?” Trump asked incredulously.
“They shouldn’t be dumping,” he told farmers gathered for a roundtable. He then asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to write down the countries cited by farmers as sources of unfair competition.
As Kennedy began outlining how India could be propping up its rice industry with unlawful subsidies, Trump cut in before he could finish. “Give me the countries if you could? Go ahead. India, who else? Mark it down, Scott,” the US President said.
The Treasury Secretary again listed India, Thailand and China as the “main culprits,” and added, “But there’s others too and we can get you a full list.” Trump responded by assuring the group that he would “take care” of the matter quickly.
Bloomberg reported that both Canada and India have been pushing for trade agreements to steady their economic ties with the United States, but negotiators have struggled to make real headway.
In August, Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods, saying the move was meant to punish New Delhi for its trade barriers and continued purchases of Russian oil.
US DELEGATION TO VISIT INDIA TO DISCUSS TARIFFS
A senior delegation from the US Trade Representative’s office, led by Deputy USTR Rick Switzer, is set to resume trade discussions with India this week. The two sides will meet on December 10 and 11 to take up a wide range of issues as they try to push the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) forward.
Japan said on Sunday that Chinese fighter jets had aimed their radar at Japanese military aircraft in two “dangerous” incidents near Japan’s Okinawa islands, an account Beijing disputed.
“These radar illuminations are a dangerous act that went beyond what is necessary for the safe flight of aircraft,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters, adding that Japan had lodged a protest with China over Saturday’s “extremely regrettable” incident.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, meeting with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles in Tokyo, said Japan would respond “resolutely and calmly” to China’s conduct in order to maintain regional peace and stability.
But a Chinese navy spokesperson, Colonel Wang Xuemeng, said Japanese aircraft had repeatedly approached and disrupted the Chinese navy as it was conducting previously announced carrier-based flight training east of the Miyako Strait.
CHINA-JAPAN TIES STRAINED OVER TAIWAN
The encounters near islands claimed by both Japan and China are the most serious run-ins between the two militaries in years and are likely to further escalate tension between the two East Asian powers.
Relations have soured in the past month since Takaichi warned that Japan could respond to any Chinese military action against Taiwan if it also threatened Japan’s security.
Directing a radar beam at another aircraft is a threatening step because it signals a potential attack and may force the targeted plane to take evasive action. Japan did not say whether the Chinese had locked on their planes or how Japan’s aircraft responded.
Wang, in a statement on official social media channels, countered that Japan’s statement was erroneous and its actions had seriously endangered flight safety.
“We solemnly demand that the Japanese side immediately stop slandering and smearing and strictly restrain front-line actions,” Wang said. “The Chinese Navy will take necessary measures in accordance with the law to resolutely safeguard its own security and legitimate rights and interests.”
Australia’s Marles, at a press conference with Koizumi after discussions on deepening defence cooperation, said, “We are deeply concerned by the actions of China in the last 24 hours. We will continue to work with Japan and stand with Japan in upholding that rules-based order.”
As China-Japan tensions over Taiwan have mounted, Beijing advised its citizens not to travel to Japan and paused plans to restart seafood imports suspended after Japan released treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan and has ramped up military and political pressure against the island, whose government rejects Beijing’s territorial claims. Taiwan lies just 110 km (70 miles) from Japan’s westernmost island, Yonaguni.
Japan hosts the biggest overseas concentration of U.S. military power, including warships, aircraft and thousands of U.S. Marines in Okinawa.
J-15 fighters from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier, South China Sea, January 2, 2017. REUTERS/Mo Xiaoliang. FILE PHOTO Purchase Licensing Rights
The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Japan’s claims about China’s use of its radar.
TRUMP SILENT, CHINA STEPS UP MILITARY ACTIVITY
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass has publicly expressed support for Japan in several social media posts since the diplomatic dispute began, but President Donald Trump and other senior U.S. officials have remained silent.
The Trump administration said in a strategy document on Friday that it aims to prevent conflict with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea by building up U.S. and allies’ military power.
Trump, who plans to visit Beijing next year for trade talks, telephoned Takaichi last month, urging her not to escalate the dispute, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
That call followed a conversation between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who told Trump that Taiwan’s return to China was central to Beijing’s vision for the world order, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Japan said the Chinese J-15 jets involved in the two incidents were launched from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier, which was manoeuvring south of the Okinawan islands with three missile destroyers. Japan said it scrambled F-15 fighters in response to flight operations from the Chinese carrier.
In 2013, Japan said a Chinese warship locked its radar on one of its destroyers in the East China Sea. Three years later, Beijing accused Japanese jets of training their radar on Chinese fighters. In June, Japan said Chinese jets flew dangerously close to one of its patrol aircraft near Okinawa.
On Thursday, China had more than 100 naval and coast guard vessels deployed across East Asian waters at one point, Reuters reported, citing sources and intelligence reports.
Taiwan’s government described that build-up as posing a threat to the Indo-Pacific region.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s coast guard said it was monitoring drills by three Chinese maritime safety ships on the western side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line but that the situation in the waters surrounding Taiwan was “normal”.
