Category: World

CHINA has unveiled new “dirt cheap” missiles, already in mass production after successful combat trials, as fears grow that President Xi Jingping is about to invade Taiwan.

The hypersonic glide missiles, produced by a private aerospace firm, are 40 times cheaper than US equivalent weapons.

Bejing aerospace firm Lingkong Tianxing’s new war toy, the YKJ-1000, reportedly costs $99,000 per unit and are capable of flying at Mach 7 with an 800 mile range.

The “dirt cheap” missiles are made from civilian-grade materials like foamed cement and mass-produced commercial components, enabling the unusually low manufacturing costs.

It is believed to be the first instance of a commercial firm offering a strategic-level weapon to the Chinese military.

In a promotional video, the new missiles’ capabilities are illustrated by a doctored airstrike on Japan.

The missile maintains powered flight for 360 seconds, according to the company.

A company spokesperson said the missile was able to be launched from a shipping container, and was: “designed for rapid, precision strikes against high-value targets deep in enemy territory”.

An version of the weapon incorporating artificial intelligence-enabled decision-making and swarm collaboration capabilities is under development, according to local media reports.

State media and military analysts say the affordability of the new missiles could upend global defence markets due to the imbalance between low-cost offence and high-cost defence.

Experts say the “cement-coated” YKJ-1000 could prove “formidably competitive” internationally.

A single SM-6 naval interceptor costs about US$4.1 million, over 40 times the price of one YKJ-1000.

Meanwhile, the THAAD system costs US$12-15 million for each interceptor, while the Patriot PAC-3 that Taiwan hopes to buy would cost US$3.7-4.2 million each.

It comes as China has been bullying its tiny neighbour Taiwan – with all the signs of gearing up for an invasion.

As tensions between historic foes China and Japan explode over Taiwan, Beijing has warned the world that it is ready for war.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15581239/china-unveils-concrete-missile-xi-eyes-taiwan/

MILLIONS of Americans will get to see an extra $250 in the Trump Accounts coming in 2026, thanks to a $6.25 billion donation.

The donation comes from Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies.

Dell and his wife, Susan, announced the donation Tuesday in a video shared on X. The donation will be spread across 25 million accounts, coming out to $250 each, the pair said.

The Trump Accounts, which are meant to “give the next generation a jump start on saving,” per the White House, were part of President Donald Trump‘s One Big Beautiful Bill that passed during the summer.

The accounts will become available to those eligible on July 4, 2026, Trump announced Tuesday.

Trump said the Dells are giving funds to “children that won’t be born particularly rich.”

“They’re gonna hopefully be very rich some day,” Trump said.

“This will give millions of children, middle-class families a stake in American prosperity, a benefit from the rising stock market and a better shot at the American dream.”

Officials confirmed that an official outline for the accounts will be available on July 5 for families to begin signing up for accounts.

In the meantime, Americans can visit TrumpAccounts.gov to sign up for email updates about the accounts until more information is released on December 17.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

The savings accounts are designed for American children under the age of 18 who were born after December 31, 2024, and before January 1, 2029.

The Trump Account would be established on the child’s behalf and would come with a $1,000 deposit from the government.

Now, with Dell’s investment, some accounts will come with a $250 deposit.

The $250 credit will “reach the accounts of most children age 10 and under who were born prior to the qualifying date for the federal newborn contribution,” Dell said.

“Children older than 10 may benefit, too, if funds remain available after initial sign-ups. ”

The $250 will go toward children who live within zip codes where the median household income is $150,000 or less, Dell confirmed Tuesday.

WHY THE INVESTMENT?

“Susan and I believe the smartest investment we can make is in children,” Dell said on X.

“That’s why we’re so excited to contribute $6.25 billion from our charitable funds to help 25 million children start building a strong financial foundation through Invest America.”

“We see what happens when a child gets even a small financial head start, their world expands,” he added.

The investment further comes as Dell has had a successful fiscal year, reporting a revenue of $27 billion in the third quarter, up 11% year over year.

Dell, with a net worth of around $151 billion, is considered one of the richest people in the world, previously appeared alongside the CEO of Uber and the Goldman Sachs boss in June to announce a willingness to contribute to the accounts, per The Independent.

Trump said Tuesday that he expects others to follow Dell’s lead in donating money toward the Trump Accounts.

HOW THE ACCOUNTS WORK

With the Trump Accounts, parents are able to contribute up to $5,000 a year. Susan Dell noted that relatives and friends can also contribute to the account.

Employers are also able to make an annual contribution of up to $2,500. Officials noted this contribution would not impact an employee’s taxable income.

Parents’ employers can also make a contribution up to $2,500 a year, which would also not have an impact on their taxable income.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/money/15578497/michael-dell-trump-bank-accounts-donation-checks/

RUSSIA and the United States failed to reach a peace deal over Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine following highly anticipated crunch talks in Moscow.

Donald Trump’s top diplomatic duo Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met the Russian tyrant and his cronies for a five-hour meeting – but failed to clinch a breakthrough plan to end the bloodshed.

Kremlin mouthpiece Yuri Ushakov, who was present alongside Vlad at the summit, said the group’s discussion was “useful, constructive and meaningful”.

He added that Witkoff was asked by Putin to “convey a number of important political signals to Trump”.

Noting that peace was “no closer but also no further away”, Ushakov explained the two sides had failed to reach an agreement on one of the most difficult issues – territorial disputes.

Witkoff has headed to the US embassy in Moscow, seemingly to update the Don on the group’s progress.

Top Putin aide Kirill Dmitriev who posted a picture of himself alongside Witkoff said on X after the talks: “Productive.”

Trump’s peace squad’s visit came after war-hungry Putin raged that Russia is “ready right now” to fight with Europe.

Mad Vlad hinted Russia was ready for World War Three earlier on Tuesday, saying: “We’re not going to fight Europe, but if Europe wants to fight us, we’re ready right now.”

The despot also said that European powers were making demands on a possible peace settlement for Ukraine that Moscow considers absolutely unacceptable.

Putin’s fighting talk came before he greeted the US delegation to the Russian capital for the latest round of Ukraine peace talks which lasted nearly five hours.

The key discussions came after weeks of behind-the-scenes diplomacy with global leaders – signalling a possible breakthrough in efforts to bring an end to the war.

Kushner, 44, and Witkoff, 68, were entrusted by Trump to help bring about an end to the almost four-year war and finally stop the Kremlin tyrant.

At the start of the talks, the American pair were asked about their stay in the Russian capital so far.

Witkoff praised Moscow as a “magnificent city” and hailed Putin’s leadership in an unconcealed effort to butter up the Russian dictator.

The US is determined to get both sides on the same page over how the conflict can end with certain peace terms already being hashed out.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X following a visit to Ireland today: “We must end this war in a way that prevents Russia from coming back a year later with a third invasion.”

He said: “The Russians started the war, and there is no other way to put it.

“The whole world is a witness. They came with aggression to destroy us.”

The Zel added: “They will return, and Russia will continue building up its military strength, preparing for yet another invasion.

“This is why we want clarity. This is what Ukrainians need.”

The wartime leader also hailed Ireland for “doing the right thing” as premier Micheal Martin pledged to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.

The US delegation is expected to travel to meet Zelensky after they leave the Kremlin to update him on the latest negotiations.

Washington and Moscow are currently focusing today’s crunch talks on two possible peace plans put forward in recent weeks.

The first is a 28-point plan based on many of Putin’s demands which he told Trump about during their Alaskan summit.

It was reportedly devised by Witkoff and Kremlin official Dmitriev.

The plan was seen as highly favourable towards Russia and included Ukraine halving their armed forces and giving up swathes of territory.

Ukraine and their European allies said it would be impossible to ever agree to such terms.

They instead joined forces to redraft a tighter 19-point plan in Geneva which “refines” what the US had proposed.

Both plans were discussed in Moscow now with Kushner and Witkoff looking to leave Russia with an ironclad deal to take back to President Trump.

This will then be shared with Kyiv where further talks can take place.

Across the past two days, officials from Ukraine and the US – including Witkoff and Kushner – have been holding separate talks in Florida.

Zelensky described the talks as “constructive”, but made it clear some “tough issues still need to be worked through”.

He met with France’s President Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer for marathon meetings on Monday.

During a Parisian press conference, Zelensky said the 19-point peace deal was a big improvement on the original US-Russia plan.

Despite Zelensky’s insistence that a complete deal is still far off based on the current negotiations, the White House say they are “very optimistic” about reaching a deal soon.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt added: “The president and his team have been working so hard on this effort and they all really want to see this war come to an end.”

One notable name missing from the US delegation is Marco Rubio – Trump’s secretary of state.

Rubio is widely seen as more sympathetic towards Ukraine’s fight for a fair deal to end the war.

Kushner, a savvy businessman and dad-of-three, and Witkoff, now a seasoned peace broker under Trump, are both seen as much firmer voices.

Kushner, the husband of Ivanka Trump, has grown into an increasingly active role in US diplomacy under Trump in recent months.

This is despite him having no formal role in the White House.

The Harvard graduate served as Senior Adviser to President Trump between 2017 and 2021.

Witkoff also has a positive past in Moscow and has met with Putin on several occasions.

One of the main issues yet to be ironed out in the negotiations is how the land seized by Russia during the war will be divided up.

Putin has been adamant that he must be handed over some key regions in Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15577634/putin-meets-trump-men-jared-kushner-ukraine-peace-talks/

THE White House has said it won’t apologize after receiving backlash from pop star Sabrina Carpenter, who slammed the Trump administration.

Pop icon Carpenter, 26, called out the White House for using one of her songs in a video she described as part of an effort to push their “inhumane agenda.”

A video posted online on Tuesday by the White House played the singer’s song Juno in the background of a video of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents making arrests.

Carpenter called out the unapproved use of her music in a post on X.

“This video is evil and disgusting,” she wrote.

“Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”

The White House doubled down on its decision to post the video and called out the singer for supporting “illegal murderers.”

“Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Newsweek.

Jackson used Carpenter’s lyrics from her song “Man Child,” in which Carpenter sings, “Is it stupid, or is it slow?”

“Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?” Jackson added.

SOUND SCRUTINY

This isn’t the first time the White House has faced criticism for using a song in a social media post.

In July, pop star Jess Glynne scrutinized the White House for using her song Hold My Hand.

Glynne’s song went viral over the summer, playing in the background of a Jet2 promotional ad.

The ad says: “Nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday.”

Social media users would put the sound behind a video of them on a cheap vacation or something going wrong.

The White House’s social media accounts hopped on the trend and released a 20-second clip showing several people in handcuffs being escorted onto flights by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

“When ICE books you a one-way Jet2 holiday to deportation,” the account captioned the video.

“Nothing beats it!”

The video quickly amassed over 12 million views.

Glynne fired back at the account and said the post made her “sick.”

“This post honestly makes me sick,” she posted on Instagram.

“My music is about love, unity, and spreading positivity – never about division or hate.”

Even the woman who voices the Jet2 Holiday deal spoke out against the sound being used for the video.

“What can be done about @whitehouse using @jet2pics sound and my voiceover to promote their nasty agenda?” voiceover actress Zoe Lister posted.

Apart from Glynne, fellow stars and bands alike including ABBA, Bruce Springsteen, Olivia Rodrigo, Neil Young, Guns N’ Roses, Celine Dion, Rihanna, Phil Collins, Beyoncé and Adele have all spoken up against the White House using their music.

The backlash from celebrities comes after President Trump pushed through with his vow to crack down on illegal immigration.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15580176/white-house-sabrina-carpenter-song-use-backlash/

A revised version of a peace proposal was discussed in Moscow, after the Ukrainian leader said the current proposal “looks better” than the initial plan that had 28 points. DW has the latest.

Of the platforms named by the government as being covered by the ban, only X and Reddit have not publicly committed to abide by the law.

Google’s YouTube shared a “disappointing update” to millions of Australian users and content creators on Wednesday (Dec 3), saying it will comply with a world-first teen social media ban by locking out users aged under 16 from their accounts within days.

The decision ends a stand-off between the internet giant and the Australian government, which initially exempted YouTube from the age restriction, citing its use for educational purposes. Google had said it was getting legal advice about how to respond to being included.

“Viewers must now be 16 or older to sign into YouTube,” the company said in a statement.

“This is a disappointing update to share. This law will not fulfil its promise to make kids safer online and will, in fact, make Australian kids less safe on YouTube.”

The Australian ban is being closely watched by other jurisdictions considering similar age-based measures, setting up a potential global precedent for how the mostly US tech giants behind the biggest platforms balance child safety with access to digital services.

The Australian government says the measure responds to mounting evidence that platforms are failing to do enough to protect children from harmful content.

SIGNED OUT

YouTube said any user aged under 16 would be automatically signed out of their account from Dec 10, meaning they could no longer subscribe, like or comment on posts, although they could still view content logged out.

That meant underage content creators also could not log in or post. YouTube did not say how it would verify someone’s age.

The company also reiterated its position that the ban would not make the internet safer, and said in an email to caregivers of underage users that “parental controls only work when your pre-teen or teen is signed in, so the settings you’ve chosen will no longer apply”.

Communications Minister Anika Wells, speaking to reporters in Canberra, said it was “weird that YouTube is always at pains to remind us all how unsafe their platform is in a logged-out state”.

“If YouTube is reminding us all that it is not safe and there’s content not appropriate for age-restricted users on their website, that’s a problem that YouTube needs to fix.”

The law prohibits platforms from allowing under-16s to hold accounts, with penalties of up to A$49.5 million (US$32.5 million) for breaches. Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, TikTok and Snap’s Snapchat previously said they would comply.

Of the platforms named by the government as being covered by the ban, only Elon Musk’s X and message board Reddit have not publicly committed to abide by the law.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/australia-youtube-comply-teen-social-media-ban-5529326

Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery’s studios and streaming unit is expected to reduce streaming costs for consumers by bundling Netflix and HBO Max, according to two people familiar with the proposal.

In recent talks with Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix said the potential combination of its streaming service with HBO Max would benefit consumers by lowering the cost of a bundled offering, the sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters. They requested anonymity to discuss confidential negotiations.

Netflix’s argument seeks to address potential regulatory concerns that combining one of the nation’s leading subscription video streaming services with a top rival would reduce consumer choice and raise prices, the sources said. The services are not currently offered as a bundle by either company.

Warner Bros Discovery has been exploring a sale of all or part of its business, which includes film and television studios, cable networks such as HBO and CNN, and the HBO Max streaming service.

Reuters reported in October that Netflix was actively exploring a bid for Warner Bros Discovery’s studio and streaming business, a tie-up that was seen as potentially reshaping the streaming landscape. Now, by framing the acquisition as pro-consumer, Netflix aims to build a case that the deal should withstand a potential regulatory challenge, according to the sources.

Reuters previously reported that Netflix had submitted a mostly cash offer for the studio and streaming unit.

Other bidders for Warner Bros Discovery – Paramount Skydance and Comcast – also would use HBO Max, together with the Warner Bros film and television library, to bolster their streaming services.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Warner Bros Discovery declined to comment.

If Netflix’s bid is successful, the deal is expected to expand Netflix’s movie and television library.

But the sources familiar with the matter said the potential combination of the two services is unlikely to radically expand its market share because the vast majority of HBO Max customers also subscribe to Netflix.

The combination of HBO Max and Paramount Skydance’s Paramount+ would create a top-tier streaming service in the U.S., capable of challenging Netflix and Walt Disney’s Disney+ in terms of volume and breadth of content, wrote Bank of America media analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich in a recent report.

HBO Max would similarly lift NBCUniversal’s Peacock service, which has yet to turn a profit. NBCUniversal is owned by Comcast.

“Comcast risks being left behind as PSKY or NFLX scale (their streaming services), limiting Peacock’s reach and weakening NBC’s ability to compete in the global media market over time,” Ehrlich wrote.

A successful acquisition would give Netflix control over Warner Bros’ vast library of content, including the entire HBO catalog, the Warner Bros film archive, and DC Comics properties.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/netflix-warner-bros-discovery-combo-seen-lowering-costs-consumers-sources-say-5529391

A 13-year-old boy executed a man convicted of murdering 13 members of his family in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost. Around 80,000 people watched the execution, which was ordered by the Afghan Supreme Court and sanctioned by the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The public execution has been condemned by the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan.

A chilling video of a public execution has emerged on social media that reports say is from eastern Afghanistan’s Khost. A man convicted of murdering 13 members of a family, including nine children, was executed on Tuesday at a stadium in Khost, reported several news outlets, including the Associated Press. The execution carried out in a stadium, witnessed by an estimated 80,000 people, was carried out by a 13-year-old boy whose family was among the victims.

The executed man, identified by Taliban officials as Mangal, had been convicted by Afghanistan’s Supreme Court and approved for execution by the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

The public execution drew international condemnation, with the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, calling it “inhuman, cruel and contrary to international law”.

The execution marks the 11th judicial killing carried out by the Taliban since their return to power in 2021, according to Afghanistan’s Supreme Court.

“In Khost Province, the divine order of Qisas (retaliation) was carried out on a murderer,” said Afghan Supreme Court, adding, “At the conclusion of the gathering, prayers were made for the strengthening of national security, for the people’s better access to their legitimate rights, and for the proper implementation of lslamic Sharia throughout the country.”

PUBLIC EXECUTION IN AFGHANISTAN STADIUM. 13-YR-OLD BOY KILLS CONVICT

Tens of thousands, including relatives of the victims, gathered at the sports stadium in Khost to witness the execution. Mostaghfar Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, confirmed that Mangal had been found guilty of killing a Khost resident, Abdul Rahman, and other family members in Ali Shir and Terezio districts approximately 10 months ago.

In the video, tens of thousands can be seen packed inside and outside the stadium. As five gunshots rang out, people chanted religious slogans.

“The murderer, Mangal, son of Tala Khan, grandson of Rahmat Khan, was originally from the Sajank area of Said Karam district of Paktia province, and a current resident of the Kuzi Abukhani area of Alishero and Terezio district of Khost province. He had deliberately killed Abdul Rahman, son of Zabit, grandson of Ali Khan, an original and current resident of the Kuzi Abukhana area of Alishero and Terezio district of Khost,” said a press release by Afghanistan’s Supreme Court.

According to Taliban authorities, the man was convicted after proceedings in courts of first instance, appeal, and the Supreme Court. Victims’ families were reportedly offered the option of forgiveness and reconciliation, which could have spared Mangal’s life. But they requested the death penalty instead.

Citing local sources, Afghanistan’s Amu News reported that the execution was carried out by the 13-year-old boy, after he was asked if he wished to pardon the convicted man. Upon his refusal, the boy fired the fatal shot.

Khost police spokesman Mustaghfir Gorbaz confirmed the identity of the executed man and reiterated that the case involved the killing of an extended family, including nine children and their mother, Amu News reported.

“This is what an Islamic system means, a system that fears no one and implements the commands of Allah on earth,” Kabul-based journalist WA Mubariz posted on X.

THE TALIBAN AND ITS METHODS OF “JUSTICE” IN AFGHANISTAN

The Taliban have reinstated a strict interpretation of Sharia law, including public executions, floggings, and other corporal punishments. This echoes the practices from their previous rule in the late 1990s.

Human rights organisations have repeatedly criticised the Taliban’s justice system for lack of transparency, due process, and fairness.

Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, took to X to condemn the execution. “Public executions are inhumane, a cruel and unusual punishment, and contrary to international law,” he said, urging the Taliban to halt public executions and retribution killings immediately.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/afghanistan-khost-public-execution-80000-watch-13-year-old-public-stadium-executes-man-convicted-murdering-family-2829665-2025-12-02

Airbus (AIR.PA), confirmed on Monday it faced an industrial quality issue with metal panels on some A320-family jets, in its latest challenge after a recall to fix a computer glitch.
Reuters exclusively reported earlier that Airbus had found quality problems affecting the fuselage panels of several dozen A320-family aircraft, delaying some deliveries.

There were no indications that any had reached aircraft in service, but shares in the world’s largest planemaker fell as much as 11% as the glitch eclipsed the grounding of thousands of A320 jets for a software update. Shares closed down 5.9%.

“Airbus confirms it has identified a quality issue affecting a limited number of A320 metal panels,” it said, adding: “The source of the issue has been identified, contained and all newly produced panels conform to all requirements”.
A spokesperson said the problem stemmed from a supplier, who they declined to name.
Airbus has internal and external suppliers for its aerostructures, with the front of the A320 fuselage broadly made in France and the rear in Germany. Upper panels tend to be produced in-house with the rest involving multiple suppliers.
The problem is the latest for the best-selling model after a weekend recall of over half the A320-family fleet for repairs triggered by a software vulnerability to solar flares.

Operations were returning to normal on Monday after a change of software version was implemented faster than expected, with fewer than 100 still needing a possibly deeper hardware repair.
The A320, which recently ousted the Boeing 737 as the most-delivered jetliner, is also wrestling with repair bottlenecks that have grounded hundreds of jets for logistical reasons. On Friday Airbus introduced limits on some cold weather take-offs.

LOWER-THAN-EXPECTED DELIVERIES IN NOVEMBER

The quality problems emerged as Airbus is beefing up efforts to meet challenging delivery targets for the year and followed lower-than-expected indications for deliveries in November.
Shares in airline customers Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), and easyJet (EZJ.L), were also dragged lower, traders said.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter said some deliveries were already being impacted, but there was no immediate confirmation of how many nor for how long. One source told Reuters the total number of jets affected was around 50.

How badly the flaw affects deliveries and whether the impact will fall in the current year or in 2026 depends where on the aircraft the problem is located, and on how serious it is.
Airbus said “only a portion” would need further action.
Industry sources told Reuters that Airbus delivered 72 aircraft in November, fewer than many analysts had previously expected and bringing the total for the year so far to 657.
Airbus, which declined comment, is targeting “around 820” deliveries for the year, meaning it would have to reach what analyst Rob Stallard called an “astronomical” performance of more than 160 jets in December.
“It was already a big ask for Airbus to hit that 2025 delivery number, and so these fuselage issues could not have come at a worse time,” the Vertical Research Partners aerospace expert said in a note. Demand for the jets is strong, he added.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/airbus-faces-new-quality-problem-dozens-a320-jets-sources-say-2025-12-01/

The White House on Monday defended a U.S. admiral’s decision to conduct multiple strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessel in September, saying he had Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s authorization, even as critics questioned the legality of a strike on survivors.
The Washington Post had reported that a second strike was ordered to kill two survivors from the initial strike and to comply with an order by Hegseth that everyone be killed.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would not have wanted a second strike on the boat and said Hegseth denied giving such an order.
But White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Hegseth had authorized Admiral Frank Bradley to conduct the strikes on September 2.
“Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt said the strike was conducted in “self defense” to protect U.S. interests, took place in international waters and was in line with the law of armed conflict.

“This administration has designated these narco terrorists as foreign terrorist organizations,” Leavitt said.
Starting in September, the U.S. military has carried out at least 19 strikes against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and off the Pacific coasts of Latin America, killing at least 76 people.
Critics have questioned the legality of the strikes, and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have pledged to look into them.
International humanitarian law prohibits attacks on incapacitated combatants. The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual states that shipwrecked persons cannot be knowingly attacked and must receive medical care unless they act with hostility or attempt escape.

George Washington University law professor Laura Dickinson said most legal experts do not believe the boat strikes qualify as armed conflict, so lethal force would only be allowed as a last resort.

“It would be murder outside of armed conflict,” she said. Even in war, the killing of survivors “would likely be a war crime.”
A group of former military lawyers, the JAGs Working Group, called the order “patently illegal,” saying service members have a duty to disobey it and that anyone who complies should be prosecuted for war crimes.
On X, Hegseth defended Bradley, calling him “an American hero” and saying he has his “100% support.” Hegseth said he stands by Bradley’s combat decisions “on the September 2 mission and all others since.”
Trump on Monday discussed with top advisers the
pressure campaign against Venezuela, among other topics, a senior U.S. official said.

US OPTIONS INCLUDE EFFORT TO OUST MADURO

Trump has flagged the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. On Saturday, he said the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety,” but gave no further details, stirring anxiety and confusion in Caracas.
Trump confirmed on Sunday that he had spoken to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. considers an illegitimate leader, but Trump declined to provide details of the conversation.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/white-house-admiral-approved-second-strike-boat-venezuela-was-well-within-legal-2025-12-01/

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s inexperienced army is prepared to wage a prolonged guerrilla war and spread anarchy throughout the country if the US attempts a ground invasion to depose him, according to a new report.

As the US continues to build up its threats against Maduro’s regime, the Venezuelan dictator appears to be fully aware that his nation’s military is dwarfed by the might of the American army.

Rather than face an invading force head on, Venezuela plans to mount a guerrilla-style resistance and sow chaos to make it impossible for the US to quickly boot Maduro and replace him with a new leader, according to sources and documents obtained by Reuters.

The preparations come as the US has more than 10 US warships — including the country’s largest carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford — in the Caribbean amid escalating tensions between Trump and Maduro.

A Marine Expeditionary Unit capable of an amphibious land invasion has also been deployed as part of Trump’s plan to stem the flow of drugs into the US from the socialist country.

Venezuela’s army is small, inexperienced, and ill-equipped

While the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela (FANB) boasts about 123,000 active personnel, the army’s primary combat experience has been confronting unarmed civilians during street protests.

Venezuela’s armed force is also regularly mired by lack of training, low wages, desertions, and deteriorating equipment, six sources familiar with Caracas’ military told Reuters.

Should Maduro activate the supposed 8-million strong civilian militia training in Venezuela, analysts expect only thousands of people loyal to his ruling party to show up for war.

The FANB’s aging army equipment is a big problem for the nation as it relies heavily on Soviet-era weapons and military tech that were acquired by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

While Caracas has some 20 Sukhoi fighter jets that were acquired in the 2000s, they would do little against American B-2 jets.

Venezuela preparing for ‘prolonged resistance’

In the event of a US ground or air attack, Venezuela will mount guerrilla warfare referred to by high-ranking officials in Carcass as “prolonged resistance,” sources told Reuters.

The military units have been ordered to split into more than 280 locations across the country to employ guerrilla tactics and acts of sabotage against invaders.

Maduro has also recently deployed 5,000 of the nation’s Russian-made Igla missiles, which will be used for surprise attacks, one source said.

Venezuela’s military has also reinforced the routes leading to the capital, creating a fortified road filled with anti-vehicle barriers and heavy machinery to stymie any form of ground invasion of Caracas.

Maduro’s forces are also set to launch a so-called “anarchization” strategy, which would use intelligence services and tap loyalists to create disorder in the capital and make Venezuela ungovernable for anyone tapped by the US to lead.

Will third party actors get involved?

It remains unknown if any allies or third party actors could get involved if war breaks out between the US and Venezuela.

The country’s western border sees heavy use by Colombian guerrilla forces like the National Liberation Army, which cultivates the main ingredient for cocaine in the area.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/12/01/world-news/maduros-forces-prepared-for-guerrilla-war-if-the-us-invades-venezuela-report/

A Ground Zero FDNY hero who died from a 9/11 illness was memorialized as an “inspiration” to his colleagues at his emotional funeral in Brooklyn on Monday.

Former Deputy Chief James “Jim” Riches Sr., who died on Thanksgiving at 74, set an example for his colleagues as he sifted through the wreckage to find his firefighter son’s remains after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, grieving colleagues said at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bay Ridge.

Hundreds of mourners saluted Riches’ casket at the church – a scene reminiscent of when the Riches family buried their son, Jimmy Jr., about 24 years ago.

Riches, the 30-year FDNY veteran, ultimately spent months at Ground Zero as he and others never wavered on recovery efforts, grieving colleagues said.

“I can remember vividly the same kind of service, and now here we are, 24 years later, for Jimmy Sr. A lot of this is attributed to him being there every day looking for his son with a bunch of other firefighters that were looking for their sons,” said former FDNY commissioner Sal Cassano.

“I can remember the inspiration that those people gave us, knowing that if they were looking for their sons – some of them were retired – we could look harder than we’d ever worked before.”

Cassano, who was commissioner between 2010 and 2014 said Riches was steadfast in finding his eldest boy’s remains, which he eventually did on March 5, 2002.

“He kept us going. We knew that he was on a mission, and we were on the same mission to bring everybody home,” said Cassano, who knew Riches for about 50 years. “And unfortunately, Jimmy paid a dear price for it.”

Another three of Riches’ sons have served in the fire department, including two who are retired and one still active.

Riches, a Brooklyn resident, served in the FDNY between 1977 and 2007, and was an advocate for Big Apple first responders dealing with post-9/11 issues well into his retirement.

“September 11th didn’t stop on September 11th. We’re doing this almost every day,” Cassano said.

“Jimmy was one of our advocates. Jimmy went to Washington many times for us, he fought for benefits for the families of the people that were killed and for us that are still living.”

The former fire commissioner noted the number of active and former FDNY members who lined the street for Riches was as if he just was working the other day, including some members who did not know him personally, but knew what he stood for.

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/12/01/us-news/ground-zero-fdny-hero-jim-riches-remembered-as-inspiration-at-funeral-from-9-11-related-illness/

From corporate executives to Wall Street analysts to Federal Reserve officials, references to the “K-shaped economy” are rapidly proliferating.

So what does it mean? Simply put, the upper part of the K refers to higher-income Americans seeing their incomes and wealth rise while the bottom part points to lower-income households struggling with weaker income gains and steep prices.

A big reason the term is popping up so often is that it helps explain an unusually muddy and convoluted period for the U.S. economy. Growth appears solid, yet hiring is sluggish and the unemployment rate has ticked up. Overall consumer spending is still rising, but Americans are less confident. AI-related data center construction is soaring while factories are laying off workers and home sales are weak. And the stock market still hovers near record highs even as wage growth is slowing.

It also captures ongoing concerns around affordability, which is much more of a concern for middle and lower-income households. Persistent inflation has received renewed political attention after voter anger over costly rents, groceries, and imported goods helped Democrats win several high-profile elections last month.

“Those at the bottom are living with the cumulative impacts of price inflation,” said Peter Atwater, an economics professor at William & Mary in Virginia. “At the same time, those at the top are benefiting from the cumulative impact of asset inflation.”

Here are some things to know about the K-shaped economy:

Not an L, U or V

Atwater actually popularized the label “K-shaped economy” during the pandemic after seeing it crop up on social media. Other economists were discussing different letters to describe how the COVID recession in 2020 could play out: Would it be a V-shaped recovery, meaning a sharp decline and then rapid bounce-back? Or would it be U-shaped, meaning a more gradual rebound? Or, worse, L-shaped: A recession followed by extended stagnation.

“There was sort of this land-grab for letters,” Atwater said. “To me the letter that made the most sense was K.”

Back then, it captured the differing fortunes between white-collar professionals still employed and working at home while stock prices rose, even as massive layoffs at factories, restaurants, and entertainment venues pushed unemployment to nearly 15%.

Inequality persists

Inequality was somewhat reversed in the aftermath of the pandemic, when businesses offered large raises for blue collar workers as the economy reopened and demand surged. Many companies — restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues — were caught short-staffed and sought to rapidly increase hiring. Lower-income workers saw larger pay gains than higher-paid ones.

In 2023 and 2024, inflation-adjusted wages for the bottom quarter of workers rose at a yearly rate of 3.9%, outpacing the 3.1% gains for the top quarter, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

“We had that kind of two-year period where the bottom was catching up and that talk of the K-shape went away,” Dario Perkins, an economist at TSLombard, said. “And since then, the economy’s cooled down again,” he added, bringing back K-shape references.

This year, however, inflation-adjusted wage growth has weakened as hiring has fallen, with the drop more pronounced for lower-income Americans. Their wage growth has plunged to an annual rate of just 1.5%, the Minneapolis Fed found, below that of the highest earning quarter of workers at 2.4%.

Slower income growth has left many lower-income workers less able to spend. Based on data from its credit card and debit card customers, the Bank of America Institute found that spending among higher-income households rose 2.7% in October compared with a year ago, while lower-income groups lagged at just 0.7%.

And a Federal Reserve Bank of Boston study in August found that consumer spending in recent years has been driven by richer households, while lower- and middle-income Americans have piled up more credit card debt even as they’ve spent less.

Businesses take note

Corporate executives are paying attention and in some cases explicitly adjusting their businesses to account for it. They are seeking ways to sell more high-priced items to the wealthy while also reducing package sizes and taking other steps to target struggling consumers.

Henrique Braun, chief operating officer at Coca-Cola, for example, said in late October that the company is pursuing both “affordability” and “premiumization.” It is generating more of its earnings from higher-end products such as its Smartwater and Fairlife filtered milk brands, while at the same time introducing mini cans for those looking to spend less.

“We continue to see divergency in spending between the income groups,” Braun said in a conference call with analysts last month. “The pressure on middle and low-end income consumers is still there.”

Sales of first- and business-class tickets have been fueling revenue and profit for Delta Air Lines, its CEO Ed Bastian said in October, while lower-end consumers have been “clearly struggling.”

And Best Buy CEO Corie Barry on Tuesday said that the top 40% of all U.S. consumers are driving two-thirds of all consumption.

The remaining 60% are focused on getting the best deals and are more dependent on a healthy job market, she said.

“One of the things we’re watching closely is how does employment continue to evolve for particularly that cohort of people who are living more paycheck to paycheck,” she added.

AI plays a role

The massive investment in data centers and computing power has also contributed to the K-shaped economy, by lifting share prices for the so-called “Magnificent 7” companies competing to build out AI Infrastructure. Yet so far it’s not creating many jobs or lifting incomes for those who don’t own stocks.

“What we see at the very top is an economy that is sort of self-contained … between AI, the stock market, the experiences of the wealthy,” Atwater said. “And it’s largely contained. It doesn’t flow through to the bottom.”

Driven by big gains for companies like Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and Microsoft, the stock market has risen nearly 15% this year. But the wealthiest 10% of Americans own roughly 87% of the stock market, according to Federal Reserve data. The poorest 50% own just 1.1%.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/kshaped-economy-spending-income-inequality-dfa59144ecb2e1b674242666e28ff556

Elon Musk recently shared a touching personal connection to India during a podcast with Nikhil Kamath.

In a moment that’s melting hearts across India, global tech titan Elon Musk revealed a deep personal connection to the country during his riveting chat with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath on the “People by WTF” podcast. The Tesla and SpaceX visionary shared that his partner, Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, is half-Indian, and that one of their sons bears the middle name “Sekhar” – a loving tribute to the legendary Indian-American Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, said a Fortune India report.

Musk’s exact words on the podcast:

“I’m not sure if you know this, but my partner Shivon is half Indian.”

When Kamath expressed surprise (“I did not know that”), Musk beamed: “Yes, and one of my sons with her… his middle name is Sekhar after Chandrasekhar.” Diving deeper into Zilis’s roots, Musk explained her unique story: “She was given up for adoption when she was a baby. I think her father was an exchange student at a university or something like that. I’m not sure of the exact details, but she grew up in Canada.”

This ancestral tie to India – through her father’s exchange student days – adds a poetic layer to the power couple’s bond, blending Canadian upbringing with desi heritage.

The BNP expressed sincere gratitude to PM Narendra Modi for his message wishing Khaleda Zia’s speedy recovery. She has been placed on ventilation and remains under the supervision of a medical team that includes specialists from abroad.

Bangladesh’s main opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), on Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he sent a message wishing a speedy recovery to BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, who remains critically ill.

On X, PM Modi expressed concerns over the condition of the 80-year-old former Bangladesh prime minister, who has been in Evercare Hospital since November 23. “Deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladesh’s public life for many years,” he wrote.

“Our sincere prayers and best wishes for her speedy recovery. India stands ready to extend all possible support in whatever way we can,” he added.

The BNP responded through its official account, saying it expresses sincere gratitude to PM Modi for the goodwill gesture at a time when its leader’s condition has deteriorated sharply. “BNP deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness to extend support,” the party said on X.

ZIA REMAINS IN CRITICAL CONDITION

Zia, the first woman to serve as Bangladesh’s prime minister, was admitted with a lung infection that later worsened, forcing doctors to transfer her to the hospital’s Coronary Care Unit. BNP officials say she has been placed on ventilation and remains under the supervision of a medical team that includes specialists from abroad. She was admitted on November 23 after complications affecting her heart and lungs worsened sharply.

BNP leaders said that Khaleda Zia’s condition has not improved. Vice-Chairman Ahmed Aazam Khan said doctors have exhausted most medical options, adding, “She is in a very critical condition. There is nothing more to do except seek prayers from the whole nation.”

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/khaleda-zia-critical-condition-bnp-thanks-pm-modi-glbs-2829096-2025-12-02

DISGRACED Sean “Diddy” Combs has been captured uttering a now-telling warning in newly leaked footage taken just days before his arrest.

Behind-the-scenes clips of the 56-year-old rapper are set to air in a four-part Netflix documentary produced by the music mogul’s bitter rival.

Combs hired a videographer to capture what would be his final days of freedom before he was cuffed, Good Morning America reported.

Now, that footage has dubiously ended up in the hands of a documentary team run by 50 Cent, who’s been embroiled in a years-long feud with Combs.

In a raw moment revealed in a teaser trailer, Combs was seen anxiously awaiting his indictment as he stayed at the Park Hyatt hotel in New York City.

He appears to be chatting with someone about legal strategy as he says, “We have to find somebody that’ll work with us, that has dealt in the dirtiest or dirty business.”

The visibly upset rapper then makes an ominous admission, saying, “Listen to me, I’m [gonna] get off the phone right now, and I am gonna let you professionals look at the situation and come back to me with a solution.

“No matter what nobody said. Here and there, y’all are not working together the right way.

“We’re losing,” he said.

The mega producer would go on to be arrested on September 16 and be convicted nearly a year later on two counts of transportation of prostitution.

He’s now serving out a 50-month sentence in a low-security prison in New Jersey.

Diddy’s fall from grace is set to be examined in the upcoming Netflix series Sean Combs: The Reckoning, directed by Alexandria Stapleton and produced by 50 Cent.

In an interview with Good Morning America, 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson III, said he was shocked that Combs actually filmed the raw moments.

At one point during the documentary, Combs returned to Harlem, where he was born and raised, to meet with fans.

After shaking hands and hugging the locals, he got back into his car and asked for hand sanitizer.

“It shows you his character,” said 50 Cent.

Combs pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied ever sexually assaulting anyone as he battled a mountain of civil cases.

In a statement released Monday, Combs’ spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said the rapper’s legal team was “deeply concerned” about Netflix using the footage.

They described the videos as “private moments, pre-indictment material from an unfinished project, and conversations involving legal strategy.”

“None of this was obtained from Sean Combs or his team, and its inclusion raises very serious questions about how this material was accessed and why Netflix chose to use it,” read the statement provided to The U.S. Sun.

“As Netflix and CEO Ted Sarandos know, Mr. Combs has been amassing footage since he was 19 to tell his own story, in his own way.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15573706/diddy-netflix-documentary-video-leaked-50-cent/

THIS is the moment an off-duty paramedic heroically saved a seven-year-old girl from a roaring house fire.

Richard Recinos was driving home from his family‘s Thanksgiving celebration when he came upon the burning East Hollywood home, just minutes before firefighters arrived.

Dramatic footage shows the moment the veteran paramedic realised a little girl was standing on the porch alone and surrounded by the blaze.

In a split-second decision, Recinos zipped up his leather jacket to protect himself from the heat, and rushed towards the house, by now engulfed in flames.

He picked up seven-year-old Savannah, and slung her over his shoulder before running away from the inferno, taking her to safety.

Savannah spent the night in hospital being treated for minor burns to her feet.

Recinos said he would make the same decision again “in a heartbeat”.

“Considering the circumstances, I saw my opportunity for a quick grab and go, quick exit, and everything went well,” he later told KTLA.

Firefighters arrived moments later, helping Savannah’s remaining family members escape the home safely.

The Los Angeles Fire Department later posted a statement to social media, saying they had responded to reports of a tree fire that was threatening a two-storey duplex at 11.43pm.

When crews arrived they quickly got to work and upgraded the status of the blaze to a structure fire, as the flames had engulfed two large trees.

Thankfully, damage was largely focused on the outside of the house, however the family’s car was completely destroyed.

No additional injuries were reported.

Recinos said he had always dreamt of being a firefighter and Thursday’s act of heroism confirmed that goal.

Community members and fellow first responders praised Recinos for his quick thinking and bravery.

He said the moment was “pure instinct”.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

Thursday’s Thanksgiving saw more than one house fire, with one family losing two daughters to a blaze.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15574221/hero-paramedic-rescues-girl-house-fire-los-angeles/

Mohammed Badaru Abubakar’s resignation comes as Nigeria scrambles to respond to a wave of mass kidnappings.

Nigeria’s defense minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar has resigned, the presidency said on Monday, with immediate effect.

Presidential spokesperson Mayo Onanuga said in a statement that Abubakar was quitting on health grounds.

“His resignation comes amid President [Bola] Tinubu’s declaration of a national security emergency, with plans to elaborate on its scope in due course,” the spokesperson said.

Nigeria’s armed banditry is a security crisis

Nigeria has long been plagued by mass kidnappings, but the past weeks have seen a surge in attacks and abductions by armed bandits.

Most recently, gunmen attacked a church in Kogi state in central Nigeria, abducting the pastor along with nearly a dozen worshipers during a Sunday morning service.

On Saturday, some 30 women, including a bride and visiting wedding guests, were kidnapped in Sakoko in northwestern Nigeria.

In all, some 490 people have been abducted across multiple states in the past two weeks, according to Nigeria’s Punch newspaper.

A large number of these were from the St. Mary’s private Catholic boarding school in Papiri, Niger State, where 315 people, mostly children, were abducted in late November. Around 50 children managed to escape.

Armed bandits, often operating in Nigeria’s northwest and north-central regions, frequently carry out kidnappings for ransom.

As well as banditry, Nigeria is also battling a deadly Islamist insurgency in its northwestern regions.

But the Nigerian government has long been criticized for failing to stem the security crisis andprotect schools in particular.

Security forces stretched thin

In the wake of the kidnappings, President Tinubu declared a security emergency and ordered mass recruitment of police and military personnel.

But the military and police are already low paid, lacking in equipment and in need of training.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/nigerias-defense-minister-resigns-amid-security-crisis/a-74975544

The term “rage bait” has been chosen as Oxford’s Word of the Year for 2025, reflecting the rise of outrage-driven online content. It beat contenders “aura farming” and “biohack” in a public vote.

The publisher Oxford University Press on Monday announced it had chosen the term “rage bait” as its Word of the Year for 2025 after a three-day public vote involving more than 30,000 participants.

According to Oxford’s language data, rage bait has tripled in usage over the past 12 months, emerging as a defining expression of 2025’s digital climate.

What does ‘rage bait’ mean?

The term refers to “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.”

Experts at Oxford Language say the term captures how online culture has evolved from click-driven attention to emotion-driven manipulation. They noted that 2025’s news cycle, dominated by social unrest and debates on regulating online content, contributed to rage bait becoming a widely recognized linguistic marker of the moment.

Rage bait was first documented in 2002 on Usenet, where it described a driver’s deliberate provocation of another motorist. It later shifted into internet slang, particularly around viral posts on platforms such as Twitter, and has since become a standard reference in newsrooms and creator communities.

“The fact that the word rage bait exists and has seen such a dramatic surge in usage means we’re increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics we can be drawn into online,” said Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages.

“Before, the internet was focused on grabbing our attention by sparking curiosity in exchange for clicks, but now we’ve seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond.”

The Oxford Word of the Year need not be a single word. It can also be a longer expression that experts think of as a single unit of meaning.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/oxford-names-rage-bait-as-word-of-the-year-2025/a-74963784

Tulip Siddiq, ousted PM Hasina’s niece, was convicted in a case involving the illegal allocation of a plot of land. Hasina and her sister were also found guilty in absentia.

The case involves the alleged illegal allocation of a plot of land in the capital Dakka, which was supposed to be used toward a new township to ease housing pressure. A judge said Hasina misused her power as prime minister while Siddiq influenced her aunt to help her mother and two siblings get the land instead.

Siddiq was sentenced to two years in absentia. Hasina, who has been in India since she fled the uprising in Bangladesh in August last year, was given five years in jail, while her sister Rehana was sentenced to seven years, also in absentia.

Hasina was already sentenced to death last month over the crackdown on the uprising which eventually led to her ousting. Up to 1,400 people were killed in the crackdown, according to United Nations figures.

How have Siddiq and her Labour Party reacted to the court ruling?

Siddiq, who resigned from her role as Britain’s minister for financial services and anti corruption efforts in January, after scrutiny over her financial ties to her deposed aunt, condemned the Monday verdict, describing the trial process as “flawed and farcical.”

“The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified,” she said in a statement. “My focus has always been my constituents in Hampstead and Highgate and I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.”

A spokesperson for Siddiq’s Labour Party said she did not get access to a fair legal process and was not informed of the details of the charges against her.

“Anyone facing any charge should always be afforded the right to make legal representations when allegations are made against them. Given that has not happened in this case, we cannot recognize this judgment,” the spokesperson said.

Prosecutors said Bangladesh’s interim government would formally notify British authorities regarding the verdict. Britain does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/bangladesh-sentences-ex-uk-minister-siddiq-over-corruption/a-74972924

Authorities say bird flu poses a low risk to people right now, but in animals — both wild and domestic — it’s causing global devastation. If left uncontrolled, it could also mutate into something far worse for humans.

Despite the bird flu-related death of a man in the US, the risk of another human pandemic remains low — currently — according to public health agencies and experts.

The man who died in November 2025 was the first human case in the US since January. He did not appear to have passed the disease to anyone else, which experts say keeps the risk of a new and major human disease outbreak minimal. The same is true for other human bird flu cases in 2025.

But for animals, the disease has been devastating.

“It’s not, any longer, only an impact on the poultry sector or wild birds,” Gregorio Torres, head of science at the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), told DW.

Data obtained by DW shows almost nine million poultry birds have been culled worldwide since October, mainly in the US, Canada and in Germany, as both North America and Europe grapple with outbreaks on farms and in the wild.

And the effect has spread beyond birds. The current wave, largely of the H5N1 subtype, has seen cattle, pigs, cats and dogs, and wild mammals infected as well.

Bird flu: Disease and death

Highly pathogenic avian influenza — HPAI — refers to those bird flu viruses that cause severe infection in poultry.

Though the designation of these viruses is based on how they affect chickens, ducks, turkeys and other poultry, the effect of infection is usually the same as for wild birds — disease and then death.

WOAH, which is an intergovernmental organization responsible for coordinating and monitoring animal health across the globe, views the virus — specifically the 2.3.4.4b clade of H5N1 bird flu that is driving most infections in animal species — as a major threat to biodiversity.

Management of disease outbreaks is an intensive task. Collaboration between animal monitors, such as WOAH, veterinary and wildlife scientists and human public health agencies, is considered critical for controlling the spread.

Low risk to humans for now, high impact on animals

HPAI has been detected on every continent in 2025, both on land and at sea.

The scale was highlighted on November 25 when Australian authorities confirmed bird flu had reached its remote, sub-Antarctic, Indian Ocean territory of Heard Island — around 4,300 kilometers (2,600 miles) southwest of the mainland — where it has infected elephant seals.

Bird flu has previously caused widespread death in similar populations along South America’s coastlines. Researchers have also detected infections in dolphins.

But bird flu continues to trouble the agricultural sector most of all.

In fall 2025, German poultry farmers were confronted with an unwelcome early start to the bird flu season, with the disease being spread by migrating cranes from Sweden for the first time. This has led to more than a million poultry being culled in Germany.

Migrating birds are the chief reason bird flu spreads across continents.

As they flee the northern hemisphere when winter approaches, these birds make stopovers near wetlands to rest and recover. These stopovers can bring them into contact with local bird populations.

Mutations make bird flu spread easier

If infected with HPAI, there is a high chance migratory birds will transmit the pathogen to other wild or farm birds, setting off chain reactions of transmission. Recent research shows mutations in the 2.3.4.4b clade of H5N1 have made infection with all wild birds easier.

That means an airdrop of the disease among local duck, swan or geese populations can effectively bring it to a region, where it may then continue to spread even without the help of migratory birds.

Part of the solution lies in “strong biosecurity” measures, experts told DW, meaning governments should have strict protocols in place to ensure agricultural spaces minimize bird flu risks at their local level.

Strong biosecurity is essential for containing outbreaks, preventing transmission and reducing the risk of future episodes, said Justin Bahl, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Georgia, US.

“As long as we have biosecurity and we are being vigilant, then I think we’re in a good place right now,” Bahl told DW. “Lax biosecurity is probably the bigger risk.”

Controlling the spread of the virus among animals reduces the risk of a worse-case scenario — a mutation that makes transmission to, and potentially among humans, easier.

It’s a view echoed by Amira Roess, a global health epidemiologist at George Mason University, US. Roess told DW that active surveillance and disease testing helps to prevent bird flu spread among bird flocks, but that it also reduces the risk of mutations that could make transmission to humans easier.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/virus-has-killed-almost-9-million-birds-and-counting/a-74972319

United States President Donald Trump has “excellent” cardiovascular health, his doctor said on Monday (Dec 1), citing an MRI taken during an unannounced hospital visit that ignited fresh scrutiny over his medical condition.

The Republican billionaire, who turns 80 in June, has long faced criticism for limited transparency around his health. His sudden Oct 10 trip to Walter Reed medical centre – outside the usual annual exam – spurred speculation about what prompted the check-up.

But in a memo released by the White House, physician Sean Barbabella said the advanced imaging was purely preventive, intended “to identify issues early, confirm overall health, and ensure he maintains long-term vitality”.

“Overall, his cardiovascular system shows excellent health. His abdominal imaging is also perfectly normal. All major organs appear very healthy and well-perfused,” Barbabella said.

MRI scans, or magnetic resonance imaging, are commonly used to detect serious conditions such as tumours, strokes and multiple sclerosis, as well as more minor issues like muscle tears and inflammation.

Pressed by reporters in recent weeks, Trump – the oldest person ever sworn in as US president – had sidestepped questions about the purpose of the visit, directing inquiries to his medical team.

During his second term, he has often appeared with bruising on his right hand, occasionally covered with makeup. The White House has attributed the marks to the aspirin he takes as part of a “standard” cardiovascular health regimen.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-trump-mri-cardiovascular-health-5521421

The Trump administration has agreed to take a stake in xLight – a startup seeking to develop free-electron lasers viewed as key to making faster computing chips.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said on Monday the government will inject up to $150 million into the company but did not disclose the size of the stake.

The department’s CHIPS Research and Development Office said that it has signed a non-binding preliminary letter of intent to provide U.S. government incentives. This marks the office’s first investment after the Trump administration took over a $7.4 billion Biden-era semiconductor research institute.

In the world of advanced chip manufacturing, the most critical tool is an extreme ultra-violet lithography machine that prints the pattern of chips onto silicon wafers. The Netherlands’ ASML is currently the only company in the world that makes such a machine, though startups such as Substrate are trying to develop rivals.

Within the lithography machine, the most difficult part to make is the laser.

XLight has proposed using technology derived from particle accelerators to create one that would use far less electricity than current lasers, and is working with U.S. national labs to develop a prototype that could be connected to machines made by ASML or others.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/trump-administration-inject-up-150-million-chip-laser-startup-xlight-5521526

Waves of rain have caused deadly flooding in southern Thailand.

More than 800 Singaporeans have safely returned from flood-stricken Hat Yai in Thailand to Singapore.

In a Facebook post on Monday (Dec 1), Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that a total of 822 Singaporeans who had e-registered with or reached out to the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) have safely returned.

He praised the dedication of MFA’s consular response teams that “worked tirelessly on the ground to reach Singaporeans and help bring them home”.

Dr Balakrishnan also thanked the Thai government, the Royal Thai Armed Forces, as well as non-governmental organisations and volunteers whose swift support enabled MFA to assist Singaporeans effectively.

He also expressed his gratitude to the Malaysian government, which helped receive Singaporeans where possible and provided timely support during the evacuation efforts.

“As Thailand moves into the recovery phase, I hope families and communities affected by the floods will soon be able to rebuild and find stability again,” Dr Balakrishnan said.

MFA previously said on Nov 28 that 608 out of 893 Singaporeans in Hat Yai who e-registered with or reached out to MFA were either at the city’s airport or had already departed for Singapore.

At the time, MFA said the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok was coordinating assistance on the ground and remained in close contact with the Thai authorities.

In that update, MFA also said that it had located and transported 34 Singaporeans from flood-affected areas directly to Hat Yai International Airport since Nov 27.

In the Nov 28 Facebook post, MFA added it would continue to deploy vehicles to support ongoing evacuation efforts.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singaporeans-more-return-safely-thailand-hat-yai-floods-5516361

The death toll mounted to over 600 from floods and landslides caused by torrential rains across three countries in Southeast Asia, officials said on Sunday, as relief efforts for tens of thousands of displaced people continued over the weekend.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand faced large-scale devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait fuelling heavy rains and wind gusts for a week. There were 435 dead in Indonesia, 170 in Thailand, and three deaths reported in Malaysia.

Rescue and relief officials in the Southeast Asian countries were still trying to get access to many flood-hit areas on Sunday even as flood waters receded and tens of thousands of people were evacuated across the three countries. Over 4 million people have been affected – nearly 3 million in southern Thailand and 1.1 million in western Indonesia, according to official statistics.
Separately, across the Bay of Bengal, another 153 people were killed by a cyclone in the island nation of Sri Lanka, authorities said, with 191 others missing and more than half a million affected nationwide.

INDONESIA

The death toll surged in Indonesia to 435 on Sunday, up from 303 on Saturday, official data uploaded on a government website showed, as officials compiled reports of casualties and damage pouring in from the western island of Sumatra, where three provinces had been devastated by landslides and floods after the rains.

Many areas were cut off due to blocked roads, while damage to telecommunications infrastructure has hampered communication. Relief and rescue teams used helicopters to deliver aid to people in areas that could not be reached by road.
From a navy chopper flying over the isolated town of Palembayan in West Sumatra, a Reuters photographer saw large tracts of land and homes swept away by floodwaters. As the helicopter landed in a soccer field, dozens of people were already standing close by waiting for food.
There have been reports of people looting supply lines as they grow desperate for relief in other areas, officials said on Saturday.
“The water just rose up into the house and we were afraid, so we fled. Then we came back on Friday, and the house was gone, destroyed,” Afrianti, 41, who only goes by one name, told Reuters in West Sumatra’s Padang city.

She and her family of nine have made their own tent shelter beside the single wall that remains of their home.
“My home and business are gone, the shop is gone. Nothing remains. I can only live near this one remaining wall,” she said.
According to official figures, 406 people were still reported missing and 213,000 displaced.

THAILAND AND MALAYSIA

Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health reported the death toll from flooding in southern Thailand at 170, an increase of eight from Saturday, and 102 injuries. Songkhla Province had the highest number of fatalities at 131.
Hat Yai, the largest city in Songkhla, received 335 mm (13 inches) of rain last Friday, its highest single-day tally in 300 years, amid days of heavy downpours.
In neighbouring Malaysia, there are still about 18,700 people in evacuation centres, according to the country’s national disaster management agency. Meteorological authorities lifted tropical storm and continuous rain warnings on Saturday, forecasting clear skies for most of the country.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/tropical-storm-deaths-cross-500-southeast-asia-over-4-million-affected-2025-11-30/

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed on Sunday U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to exclude Pretoria from next year’s G20 summit, reaffirming South Africa’s status as a founding member of the group.
Washington boycotted the Group of 20 leaders’ summit held under South Africa’s presidency in Johannesburg on November 22-23, with Trump repeating allegations, widely discredited, that the host country’s Black-majority government persecutes its white minority.

Trump said last Wednesday that South Africa would not be invited to the summit to be held in Florida next year because it had refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a senior representative of its embassy who was at the closing ceremony. Pretoria says it handed over the rotating presidency to a U.S. embassy official.

“South Africa is and will remain a full, active and constructive member of the G20,” Ramaphosa said in a state of the nation address on Sunday.
He also described as “blatant misinformation” Trump’s repeated claims that South Africa was committing “genocide against Afrikaners” – descendants of Dutch settlers – and confiscating land from white citizens.

Ramaphosa noted that despite the diplomatic rift, U.S. businesses and civil society groups engaged actively in G20-related events in Johannesburg in November.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ramaphosa-dismisses-trumps-threat-bar-south-africa-2026-g20-summit-2025-11-30/

Kazakhstan told Ukraine on Sunday to stop attacking the Black Sea terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which handles more than 1% of global oil, after a major drone attack halted exports and seriously damaged loading infrastructure.
The CPC, which includes Russian, Kazakh and U.S. shareholders, said it had halted operations after a mooring at its Russian terminal on the Black Sea was significantly damaged by a Ukrainian naval drone attack.

Ukraine this year mounted wave after wave of attacks on Russia’s oil refineries and crude oil terminals in an attempt to undermine one of the most important sources of income for the Russian war economy.
Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said the drone attacks were the third such series of attacks on what it called “an exclusively civilian facility whose operation is safeguarded by norms of international law.”

ATTACK ON CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Kazakhstan “expresses its protest over yet another deliberate attack on the critical infrastructure of the international Caspian Pipeline Consortium in the waters of the Port of Novorossiysk,” the ministry said.

“We view what has occurred as an action harming the bilateral relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and we expect the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
Ukraine said its actions were not directed against Kazakhstan or third parties and were only aimed at repelling what it called “full-scale Russian aggression”.
“Ukraine hits back at the aggressor,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.
CPC accounts for about 80% of oil exports from OPEC+ member Kazakhstan, which exported about 68.6 million tons of oil last year.
It brings crude from the Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kashagan fields of Kazakhstan to the Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal at Novorossiysk. CPC’s main suppliers are fields in Kazakhstan but it also collects crude from Russian producers.

TANKERS WITHDRAWN FROM CPC WATER AREA

The CPC’s 1,500 km (930 mile) pipeline includes Russian, Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazMunayGas, and units of Chevron (CVX.N), Russia’s Lukoil (LKOH.MM), and ExxonMobil as shareholders.
CPC said on Saturday that a November 29 naval drone attack on its terminal had “significantly damaged” Single-Point Mooring (SPM) 2 – essentially a floating buoy which connects to tankers to load oil.
“Further operation of Single Point Mooring 2 is not possible,” CPC said. “Loading operations and other operations were stopped (and) tankers were withdrawn from the CPC water area.”
“We believe that the attack on the CPC is an attack on the interests of the CPC member countries,” CPC said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/kazakhstan-criticises-ukraine-over-drone-attack-cpc-oil-terminal-2025-11-30/

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says talks with Ukraine over a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war were productive, but there’s “more work to be done”.

The talks, held in Florida, were attended by a Ukrainian delegation led by national security council secretary Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s new chief negotiator.

Also at the meeting were President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Witkoff is due to visit Moscow for talks next week.

Umerov was brought in to replace the Ukrainian president’s top negotiator, Andriy Yermak, after he quit following an anti-corruption raid on his home.

Sunday’s meeting is the latest step in two weeks of intense diplomatic activity.

It was sparked by the leaking of a 28-point US peace plan which shocked Ukraine and its European allies for appearing to favour Russia, which invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago.

“It’s not just about the terms that ends fighting,” Rubio said at the meeting in Hallandale Beach, north of Miami.

“It’s about also the terms that set up Ukraine for long-term prosperity… I think we built on that today, but there’s more work to be done.”

He also told the Ukrainian delegation that the aim of peace talks with Russia is to leave Ukraine “sovereign, independent and prosperous”.

As Sunday’s talks began, Umerov said: “We are discussing about the future of Ukraine, about the security of Ukraine, about no repetition of aggression of Ukraine, about prosperity of Ukraine, about how to rebuild Ukraine”.

“US is hearing us,” he said, speaking in English. “US is supporting us. US is working beside us.”

He later described the talks as “productive and successful” while Rubio said they had been “very productive and useful”.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said the talks were “going along well”, and there was a good chance of a deal being made to end the conflict.

Trump said earlier he would send Witkoff and possibly also Kushner to Moscow this week to meet President Vladimir Putin to discuss the peace plan which has been much revised.

In a post on social media, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “It is important that the talks have a constructive dynamic and that all issues were discussed openly and with a clear focus on ensuring Ukraine’s sovereignty and national interests.”

He added he was grateful to the US and Trump for their efforts to try and end the war.

One crucial unresolved issue is the fate of Ukrainian territory that Russia has either annexed or controls.

The talks in Florida were “not easy”, a source who is said to be close to the Ukrainian delegation told AFP news agency.

“But everyone is trying to be constructive and find a solution,” the source added.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9z2e3exk9o

For Aditya-L1, India’s first solar observation mission in space, the year 2026 is expected to be like no other.

It’s the first time the observatory – which was placed in orbit last year – will be able to watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

According to Nasa, it comes roughly every 11 years when the Sun’s magnetic poles flip – the Earth equivalent would be the North and South poles swapping positions.

It’s a time of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from calm to stormy and is marked by a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – massive bubbles of fire that blow out of the Sun’s outermost layer called corona.

Made up of charged particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km (1,864 miles) per second. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth. At top speed, it would take a CME 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.

“In the normal or low-activity times, the Sun launches two to three CMEs a day,” says Prof R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA). “Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily.”

Prof Ramesh is the principal investigator on Visible Emission Line Coronagraph, or Velc – the most important of the seven scientific instruments on Aditya-L1 – and closely monitors and decodes the data it gathers.

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India’s maiden solar mission, he says. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to learn about the star at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the Sun threaten infrastructure on Earth and in space.

CMEs rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they do affect life on Earth by causing geomagnetic storms that impact the weather in near space, where nearly 11,000 satellites, including 136 from India, are stationed.

“The most beautiful manifestations of a CME are auroras, which are a clear example that charged particles from Sun are travelling to Earth,” Prof Ramesh explains.

“But they can also make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction, knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites.”

The most powerful solar storm ever recorded was the Carrington Event in 1859, which knocked out telegraph lines across the globe. More recent events were recorded in 1989, when a part of Quebec’s power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for nine hours. In November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, leading to chaos in Sweden and some other European airports.

In February 2022, Nasa reported that a CME had led to 38 commercial satellites being lost.

Prof Ramesh says that if we are able to see what happens on the Sun’s corona and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time, record its temperature at origin and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and move them out of harm’s way.

There are other solar missions watching the Sun, but Aditya-L1 has an advantage over others, including the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory sent jointly by Nasa and Esa (European Space Agency), when it comes to watching the corona.

“Aditya-L1’s coronagraph is the exact size that lets it nearly mimic the Moon, fully covering the Sun’s photosphere and allowing it an uninterrupted view of almost all of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations,” says Prof Ramesh.

In other words, the coronagraph acts like an artificial Moon, blocking the Sun’s bright surface to let scientists continuously observe its faint outer corona -something the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, this is the only mission that can study eruptions in visible light, letting it measure a CME’s temperature and heat energy – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed toward Earth, says Prof Ramesh.

To prepare for next year’s peak solar activity period, the IIA collaborated with Nasa to study the data it gathered from one of the largest CMEs that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT, Prof Ramesh says. Its mass was 270 million tonnes – the iceberg that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes, he says.

At origin, its temperature was 1.8 million degrees Celsius and the energy content was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of TNT – in comparison, the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15 kilotons and 21 kilotons respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, Prof Ramesh describes it as a “medium-sized” one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during the Sun’s maximum activity cycle, he says, we could see CMEs with energy content equal to even more than that.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8dy9qp71v2o

Elon Musk publicly revealed his partner, Shivon Zilis, is half Indian during a podcast with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. He stated one of their sons has the middle name ‘Sekhar,’ honouring Indian Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Musk also commented on US visa restrictions potentially affecting the flow of Indian talent to America, noting a shift.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared personal details about his partner, Shivon Zilis and their family background in a recent appearance on Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s podcast People by WTF. During the conversation, Musk mentioned for the first time publicly that Zilis is half Indian, noting that her heritage had influenced the naming of one of their children.

He explained that one of the sons he shares with Zilis has the middle name ‘Sekhar,’ chosen in tribute to renowned Indian-American astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Musk highlighted this as a nod to Chandrasekhar’s scientific legacy and as a subtle recognition of Zilis’s Indian roots.

When Kamath asked Musk about where Zilis grew up, Musk offered additional context about her early life. He said that Zilis was raised in Canada and had been adopted shortly after birth.

According to Musk, her biological father had been an exchange student at a university, though he admitted he was not fully certain about the complete details of her biological family circumstances. Nevertheless, he reiterated that she was adopted as a baby and spent her formative years in Canada.

Musk Met Zilis In 2017

A panel was tasked with re-examining the Bangladesh Rifles revolt that erupted in Dhaka and spread nationwide. The two-day mutiny in 2009 left 74 people dead, including top military officers, only weeks after Sheikh Hasina returned to power.

In fresh trouble for Sheikh Hasina, a commission set up to investigate a violent Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny that saw dozens of senior army officers massacred 16 years ago claimed that the ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister personally ordered the mutiny,

According to news agency AFP, the panel alleged India’s involvement in weakening the Bangladesh Army.

The findings, released on Sunday, add fresh pressure on the 78-year-old leader, who is already facing a death sentence in absentia for “crimes against humanity” linked to her government’s crackdown on last year’s protests.

The commission, formed by the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration after Hasina’s ouster last year, was tasked with re-examining the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) revolt that erupted in Dhaka and spread nationwide. The two-day mutiny in 2009 left 74 people dead, including top military officers, only weeks after Hasina returned to power.

Commission chief ALM Fazlur Rahman alleged the then-Awami League government was directly involved in the revolt. He named former MP Fazle Noor Taposh as the “principal coordinator” and claimed Taposh acted “at the behest” of Hasina, who provided the “green signal” to carry out the killings.

INDIA ACCUSED OF DESTABILISATION PLOT

Rahman’s summary of the report, released by the government’s press office, also alleged the involvement of an unnamed foreign power. “The involvement of a foreign force was strongly evident in the investigation,” it said.

“The conspiracy aimed to weaken this force and destabilise Bangladesh. At that time, India sought to create instability while the then government sought to extend its rule,” Rahman said as quoted by local media bdnews24.

“After the BDR carnage took place, the government wanted to prolong its power, and the neighbouring country (India) wanted to destabilise Bangladesh,” he said in a press conference.

When pressed to identify the neighbouring country he was referring to, Rahman said it was India, where Hasina and several party leaders had taken refuge.

“Around 921 Indians came to the country during that time. The whereabouts of 67 of those Indians are unknown,” Rahman said, pointing to what he described as evidence of Indian involvement in the incident.

India has not issued a response to the allegation. Ties between Dhaka and New Delhi have already been strained since Hasina fled to India following massive anti-government protests in July-August 2024.

Meanwhile, Yunus welcomed the commission’s findings. “Through the commission report, the truth has finally been revealed,” he said.

A previous investigation, conducted under Hasina’s government, had blamed soldiers’ long-standing resentment over pay and treatment. Her political rivals, however, long insisted she used the mutiny to tighten control over the military.

DHAKA PUSHES FOR HASINA’S EXTRADITION

DONALD Trump confirmed he spoke to dictator Nicolás Maduro over a call before announcing the closure of Venezuela’s airspace.

While Trump revealed no details of the chat, he is said to have offered Maduro a chance to escape with his family amid fears of all-out war between Washington and Caracas.

During the call, Trump offered Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores and son a safe passage out of the country, the Miami Herald Reports.

In return, Washington demanded that Maduro resign right away and leave Venezuela immediately, along with his aides, to allow the restoration of democratic rule.

A source said that the call, first reported by the New York Times, was viewed as a last-ditch effort to avoid a confrontation.

But it is understood that both leaders failed to reach a detente after Caracas refused Washington’s ultimatum.

When asked if he had spoken with Maduro, Trump said: “I don’t want to comment on it. The answer is yes.”

Trump and “I wouldn’t say it went well or badly, it was a phone call,” Trump said regarding the conversation.

On Saturday, Trump said the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety,” but gave no further details.

The move – widely interpreted in Venezuela as a prelude to an imminent attack – stirred anxiety and sowed chaos in Caracas.

Soon reports emerged that a presidential jet flew from Caracas to the border with Brazil after the announcement.

According to the ADSB Exchange website, which monitors flight tracking data, the aircraft departed from Caracas and flew to the border with the Brazilian state of Roraima before returning to the Venezuelan capital.

The aircraft was an Airbus A-319 operated by Conviasa, a Venezuelan state-owned airline, CNN Brazil reported.

The plane landed at Santa Elena de Uairén Airport, about 250km from the border with Brazil, before returning to Caracas.

The plane is described by the website as a “VIP government aircraft” and has been used by dictator Nicolás Maduro on official trips.

It is not clear if Maduro was on that plane.

When asked whether his airspace comments meant strikes against Venezuela were imminent, Trump said: “Don’t read anything into it.”

The Trump administration has been weighing Venezuela-related options to combat what it has portrayed as Maduro’s role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans.

The socialist Venezuelan president has denied having any links to the illegal drug trade.

Plans are reportedly being drawn up that could see bombings on military installations, cocaine labs – and even dictator Nicholás Maduro’s palace in Caracas – after the Department of War launched Operation Southern Spear.

Trump told military service members last week the US would “very soon” begin land operations to stop suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers.

It is the clearest signal yet that the US forces are now openly preparing for a military confrontation against Venezuela.

Carnage in Caracas

And the strikes could target everything from army bases to drug labs, drug trafficking installations, and Maduro’s fierce guerrilla camps.

Top of the list would be strategic military installations to ensure minimal resistance of force from Caracas.

This includes the La Orchila air and naval base – a strategic island used for large-scale naval and air drills.

The second key military installation could be the El Libertador Air Base, which serves as Venezuela’s main air base and logistics hub.

Fort Tiuna Main military complex in Caracas, which hosts the Defence Ministry headquarters, could also be bombed to wipe out the country’s top military leadership.

Apart from these, the US forces will seek to destroy every major narcotics hub across the country.

This includes cocaine production labs, logistical centres and transport facilities.

Trump’s options

Military experts argue that the easiest way for Trump to wipe out his targets inside Venezuela would be long-range bombings using US fighter jets and missile strikes.

Some 10,000 troops have gathered in the region, backed up by dozens of warships, submarines and fighter jets, armed with hundreds of long-range missiles.

The US military has sent the world’s biggest warship to join Trump’s drug-busting naval force in the Caribbean.

State-of-the-art Gerald R Ford Carrier Strike Group has joined the American ring of steel stationed near Venezuelan waters.

The deadly aircraft permanently assigned to the ship include the 18E Super Hornet, the 18G Growler, the 2D Advanced Hawkeye, and the 2A Greyhound, alongside Seahawks.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15571186/trump-gave-maduro-ultimatum-flee-venezuela-save-family/

THE son of fugitive Travis Turner has broken his silence during the first public outing since the ex-football coach was charged with child sex crimes.

Bailey Turner, 23, attended the football game of his dad’s former team against the Ridgeview High School Wolfpack on Saturday.

The Virginia-based team, the Union High School Bears, continued their unbeaten season with a 21-14 win which began under the helm of his dad.

Bailey, who watched on from the sidelines, appeared visibly upset and was tearful as he called the win “bittersweet” amid the search for his father, the Daily Mail reported.

Turner, 46, vanished from his Appalachia home where he lived with his wife and three children on November 20.

That same day, Virginia State Police arrived at the house to question the high school coach, but he had already gone.

His family has said that he was last seen disappearing into the nearby woodland with a firearm and they have not heard from him since.

The family’s attorney clarified that at the time he fled the home, there were no warrants out for Turner’s arrest.

But, on Tuesday, cops confirmed that 10 warrants have been issued and he has been charged with five counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor.

“The investigation remains ongoing,” Police spokesperson Robin Lawson said.

“Additional charges are pending.”

Cops have scoured the mountain wilderness for the wanted man but have not yet found anything.

Bailey Turner, who was a former quarterback with the Bears, told the Mail that his family “appreciated the support” they have received from the community in the wake of the bombshell allegations.

He was seen on the sidelines celebrating with the team after Saturday’s win and taking photos with fans.

According to the outlet, he was fighting back tears as the final whistle blew and his father’s colleagues, the other coaches, rushed onto the field to begin celebrations.

“Everyone is here to support the team, and wants them to do well. It’s a tight knit community and this really hit everyone hard,” a fan anonymously told The Mail.

“A lot of people have known the family for years, since Travis’ father coached the team and that makes it harder. It’s not something anyone wants to talk about, especially today.

“Today is about the boys and the team doing their best.”

After charges were filed against Turner, Wise County Public Schools, which oversees Union High, issued a brief statement clarifying that Turner is on administrative leave.

“The individual remains on leave and is not permitted on school property or to have contact with students,” they said.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15569515/travis-turner-son-breaks-silence-football-coach-charges/

TAYLOR Swift has some lavish bachelorette celebrations planned and they include three big trips, The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal.

The pop star is knee-deep in wedding preparations for her and Kansas City Chiefs‘ tight end Travis Kelce‘s special day.

Fans have been eagerly awaiting details about what’s expected to be the event of the year since the couple announced their engagement in August.

However, chatter has also been swirling about what the multi-Grammy Award winner and her bridal party, which includes BFFs Selena Gomez and Gigi Hadid, have planned before she says, “I do,” aka her bachelorette party.

A source close to Taylor exclusively revealed to The U.S. Sun that the singer’s bridesmaids have been hard at work organizing the festivities, which will involve “at least three or four girls’ trips or bachelorette-style getaways” to some of Taylor’s favorite spots, including New York, Nashville, the Bahamas, and Italy.

“The goal is to have fun, spend weekends together, and enjoy the process while also working on the planning in beautiful locations where they can relax, celebrate, and bond,” the insider shared.

HERE COMES THE BRIDE

Additionally, the ladies, including Taylor’s mother, Andrea, and her soon-to-be mother-in-law, Donna, have been hands-on in the wedding planning process.

“The bridesmaids have been talking for the past two weeks, several times a week, whether on the phone, through texts, FaceTime, or Zoom,” the source revealed.

“Their commitment is incredibly solid, and the excitement is massive. It’s a truly fun experience for everyone already involved.”

They also added that the group has continuously exchanged ideas in person and virtually, and Selena is especially excited to share her marriage experience after tying the knot with record producer Benny Blanco in September.

“[Selena] constantly brings ideas and suggestions to make it the best experience possible for her best friend, Taylor,” said the source.

“They’re all having such a great time; they love the process, and it feels like a dream experience for them — all so excited to support their very close friend, their ‘sister,’ Taylor.”

While an exact date for the wedding hasn’t been disclosed, the bridal party is buckling down on getting the details just right and will “meet all together in person in the coming months in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville, where Taylor will host them” and ensure that “the plan unfolds perfectly.”

Taylor has been open about wanting an extravagant wedding and about not being tight on the guest list, and it appears she’ll get just that as the group plans a multi-day event.

“The plan is to organize an entire wedding weekend — from Friday to Sunday — not just a single ceremony.

“Taylor and the girls are working on a multi-day celebration, wanting to make it a unique, unforgettable memory they’ll cherish for the rest of their lives,” the insider revealed.

The source also added that the songwriter, who regularly displays her close bond with her girlfriends, is soaking up time with her gal pals and enjoying every minute of it.

“Taylor absolutely loves seeing the love, unity, and dedication from her friends as they help her create the best wedding weekend of her life.”

BEACH WEDDING?

The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed earlier this month that Taylor, 35, and Travis, 36, were eyeing a $32million Rhode Island mansion to exchange vows in a fairytale ceremony.

According to The U.S. Sun’s source, the Cruel Summer singer is planning to create a new garden on-site, to include her favorite red roses, hydrangeas, orchids, and peonies.

The three-story pad, which the billionaire singer purchased over a decade ago, has been the site of a number of Taylor’s star-studded events, including her famed Fourth of July parties and birthday get-togethers.

It also appeared in the entertainer’s music video for her track The Last Great American Dynasty, off her 2020 album Folklore.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15554202/taylor-swift-bachelorette-parties-wedding-travis-kelce/

European and, above all, German arms manufacturers sold significantly more military equipment in 2024. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has found that the war in Ukraine is the main reason.

Arms manufacturers have never earned as much as they did in 2024. This is according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on the 100 most important arms manufacturers worldwide. Their revenues from the sale of weapons and military services amounted to $679 billion (€582 billion) last year.

This represents an inflation-adjusted increase of 5.9% compared to 2023. Even then, increasing geopolitical tensions and, above all, the war in Ukraine had led to increased demand for arms. In 2024, this trend accelerated even further.

So is Russia’s war in Ukraine good for business elsewhere? “For the defense sector, for sure,” Nan Tian of SIPRI, one of the authors of the report, told DW. “In the last two years, the revenues have gone up substantially in these arms companies,” Tian said. This means developing new military equipment, restocking supplies and replacing equipment that has been destroyed.

German companies with particularly high growth rates

Of the 100 companies listed, 39 are based in the US, by far the leading country. These 39 companies account for just under half of global arms sales revenue. However, their growth rate of 3.8% is still relatively modest. The situation is different for the 26 European companies (excluding Russia). Taken together, they have seen a 13% increase in revenue.

German companies have been particularly successful, growing by as much as 36%. “It’s almost all linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Nan Tian. “There has been an increase in demand from the German armed forces. Whether it’s Rheinmetall or Diehl, building tanks, armored personnel carriers, ammunition, of course, for the German armed forces to replenish what they’ve sent to Ukraine as military aid, but also to expand their number of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, etc.”

Russia’s war economy thrives despite sanctions

Russia is listed separately in the SIPRI ranking. And it is not surprising that Russian arms manufacturers have seen significant growth. While Russia’s export revenues fell due to international sanctions, the sharp increase in domestic demand more than offset the losses.

But Russia is a special case, said Nan Tian of SIPRI. “The country has completely changed its priorities. The production has now, for the last three years, been geared to a war economy.” All resources have been channeled into the war, said Tian. According to the SIPRI report, Russia increased its production of 152mm artillery shells by 420% between 2022 and 2024: from 250,000 to 1.3 million.

Due to international sanctions, the Russian arms industry lacks parts from abroad, especially electronics for aircraft. However, the belief that the Russian economy would collapse as a result has proven to be false, said Nan Tian. “The country is far worse off now than it would have been if it hadn’t invaded (Ukraine), because of course there wouldn’t be sanctions, but the country has proven to be quite resilient to these various sanctions and economic issues.”

Nan Tian thinks that the transformation of the Russian economy has now gone so far that, if a lasting peace is achieved in Ukraine, it will be difficult for Russia to return to a non-war economy.

Declining Chinese arms revenues due to corruption

Asia ranks third after the US and Europe, with 23 listed arms companies. But Asia is the only region where companies had lower revenues than in 2023. It was mainly Chinese companies whose revenues declined significantly — by 10%. No other country recorded such a decline according to the SIPRI report.

“This almost has nothing to do with the peacefulness of regions,” said Nan Tian. “Specifically, Asia and China, the reason for the decrease has been, there have been a lot of corruption allegations against Chinese arms companies,” he said, explaining that this had led to the cancellation or postponement of larger arms orders.

By contrast, companies from the Middle East recorded larger increases of 14%. Never before has this region been represented in the annual SIPRI statistics by so many companies: nine in total. Three are based in Israel, which has a particular demand for drones and air defense systems.

This region also includes Turkey, which once again has seen increased revenue. However, Baykar, the manufacturer of the Bayraktar combat and reconnaissance drone, failed to match its export figures to Ukraine from 2024.

Top companies are based in the US

According to SIPRI, the five largest arms companies in the world are Lockheed Martin (which makes F35 fighter jets), RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies, which makes aircraft engines and drones), Northrop Grumman (which produces long-range missiles), BAE Systems and General Dynamics (which makes nuclear submarines and guided missiles). With the exception of the British company BAE Systems, all are based in the US.

This is the first time since 2017 that a company not based in the US has appeared among the five largest arms manufacturers. By way of comparison, the military division of the European Airbus consortium ranks 13th among the 100 most important companies, while the German company Rheinmetall ranks 20th.

In 2024, four of these 100 companies were based in Germany: Rheinmetall, Thyssenkrupp, Hensoldt and Diehl. Together, they generated revenues of $14.9 billion. The war in Ukraine led to a large number of orders, especially from the manufacturer Diehl for their land-based defense systems.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/sipri-war-in-ukraine-boosts-arms-manufacturers-profits/a-74941558

As the US pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine, Kyiv’s diplomats held meetings with Steve Witkoff and Marco Rubio in Florida. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to France on Monday.

Trump expresses hope and says ‘good chance’ there will be a deal to end Ukraine war

President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that there was a “good chance” of a Russia-Ukraine deal, following the latest US-Ukraine talks in Florida.

Trump also said “Ukraine’s got some difficult problems,” after a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy resigned after anti-corruption police raided his home on Friday.

Andriy Yermak, who was Zelenskyy’s trusted right-hand man, was Kyiv’s top peace negotiator. He was a fixture in talks to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

When pressed for clarity on “difficult problems,” Trump said the allegations of corruption among senior political and business figures in Ukraine were “not helpful.”

Police in California have said four people were killed in a possible targeted shooting Saturday evening. The incident took place during a children’s birthday party.

Police in the California city of Stockton have said that four people were killed Saturday evening and another 10 injured during a shooting at a family gathering.

What do we know so far?

The shooting occurred at a children’s birthday party according to Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee, who said that he was in contact with authorities and would be “pushing for answers.”

Police say dispatchers received reports of a shooting in Stockton, which is located about an hour and a half east of San Francisco, around 6:00 p.m. local time (0200 GMT).

Authorities say they have little information at the moment and have released no details about the shooter.

On Saturday, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office posted to X: “We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck by gunfire, and four victims have been confirmed deceased.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-4-killed-10-injured-in-birthday-party-shooting/a-74955605

President Petr Pavel has rejected a controversial candidate for the post of environment minister. Filip Turek of the Motorists party faces numerous allegations over racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook posts.

Election-winner Andrej Babis went to Prague Castle on Wednesday to present President Petr Pavel with his list of cabinet nominees.

They included Filip Turek, the candidate for the post of Czech environment minister put forward by the conservative, euroskeptic Motorists for Themselves party, one of Babis’ two coalition allies.

Turek, an ex-racing driver, has faced intense media scrutiny over allegedly racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook posts, several Hitler salutes, and an incident involving a Saudi diplomat and a spent ammunition cartridge.

The Motorists originally put him forward for the post of foreign minister, and party leader Petr Macinka as environment minister. However, a last-minute change on Wednesday morning saw the names reversed.

Pavel rejects Turek for cabinet post

But even this was not enough to satisfy the president. “The president’s position is that he doesn’t think Mr. Turek should be in the cabinet,” Andrej Babis told reporters after his latest meeting with Pavel.

“I’ll now go back to speak to the Motorists party and we’ll decide how to proceed,” said Babis, adding that President Pavel would speak to all ministerial candidates over the next two weeks.

A flurry of snowflakes fell on the bank of microphones in the courtyard of Prague Castle as Babis explained what would happen in the month leading up to Christmas — by which time he hopes to be named prime minister — but festive cheer is in short supply.

Allegations of racism, sexism and homophobia

Turek’s difficulties began when the Czech daily newspaper Denik N published a series of screenshots it said were deleted posts and comments harvested from his Facebook account.

In 2010, when a group of neo-Nazi sympathizers were given long prison sentences for an arson attack on a house inhabited by a Roma family — that resulted in a two-year-old girl being seriously burned — Turek allegedly wrote there should have been “extenuating circumstances” for the sentence, as the family was Roma.

In 2015, claimed Denik N, Turek appears to have used a racist slur when referring to US President Barack Obama and later allegedly referred to a majority-African American area of Los Angeles as “Planet of the Apes.”

A few years later, when the Munich City Council requested permission to illuminate the Allianz Arena football stadium in rainbow colors during the Euro 2020 championship in show of LGBTQ+ support, Turek allegedly shared a post on the story with the comment “it seems the last proud German died in 1945.”

The list went on.

Turek denies he is Nazi sympathizer

Denik N claimed there were numerous posts by Turek in which he referred to himself as “Vudce” (Czech for “Führer”) as well as “Duce,” and his Prague apartment as the “Eagle’s Nest” — a reference to Hitler’s mountain retreat in Bavaria.

Turek categorically denies accusations he is a racist or a Nazi sympathizer.

Originally describing the Denik N story as a hit job by hostile media, he later denied writing some of the deleted comments outright and demanded proof. Other posts he described as simply his brand of “black humor.” Some, he said, were the result of lending someone his phone in a bar.

Turek similarly dismissed several photos of him performing the Nazi salute as a joke, and not meant seriously.

Will Turek reconsider his nomination?

Most, however, agree that Turek, who boasts a collection of luxury cars and has a seemingly visceral aversion to the European Green Deal, is hardly a good fit for environment minister.

“Above all, Filip Turek himself would not enjoy being at the environment ministry,” said Jindrich Sidlo, a Czech journalist and political commentator.

“It’s not what he dreamed of — travelling the world, feeling that he belongs to high society and taking part in shaping history,” Sidlo told DW. “I wouldn’t be surprised if ultimately he reconsiders his nomination.”

Turek’s links to scandals mount up

President Pavel has previously made it known that Filip Turek’s comments were the main stumbling block to his appointment.

However, Turek has also admitted placing a spent rifle cartridge and a drawing of a gallows on the roof of a car belonging to an employee of the Saudi embassy following an altercation. He claimed the man had been harassing his girlfriend.

Some journalists, meanwhile, spotted that the notes Babis was carrying on Wednesday suggested the president also had problems with Turek admitting to speeding on a Czech motorway at 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour), allegedly failing to declare €3 million ($3.47 million) in property, and claims he had built a garage without the proper planning permission.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/czech-president-rejects-hitler-salute-nominee-for-minister/a-74923743

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday (Nov 30) his administration intends to maintain a pause on asylum decisions for “a long time” after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members near the White House, killing one of them.

When asked to specify how long it would last, Trump said he had “no time limit” in mind for the measure, which the Department of Homeland Security says is linked to a list of 19 countries already facing US travel restrictions.

“We don’t want those people,” Trump continued. “You know why we don’t want them? Because many have been no good, and they shouldn’t be in our country.”

The Trump administration issued the pause in the aftermath of the shooting in Washington on Nov 26, which left 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom dead and another guardsman critically wounded.

A 29-year-old Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the incident.

Lakanwal had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Lakanwal had been granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, but officials have blamed what they called lax vetting by the government of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden for his admission to US soil during the Afghan airlift.

Trump wrote after the shooting he planned to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover”.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-freeze-asylum-decisions-long-time-trump-5498911

Oil prices rose as much as 1.5 per cent on Monday after OPEC+ members reaffirmed a plan to pause production increases in the first quarter of next year and the prospect of U.S. action against oil producer Venezuela unsettled the market.

Brent crude futures later pared gains to sit up 0.98 per cent, or $62.99, a barrel by 0052 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $59.12, up 57 cents, or 0.99 per cent.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies initially agreed on the pause in early November, slowing a push to regain market share amid fear of a supply glut.

After a meeting on Sunday, OPEC+ said it “reaffirmed the importance of adopting a cautious approach and retaining full flexibility to continue pausing or reverse the additional voluntary production adjustments”.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Vivek Dhar said the Sunday outcome widely expected considering the earlier decision.

“Market worries of a growing glut in global oil markets has likely played a role in the OPEC+ decision,” Dhar wrote in client note.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to close Venezuelan airspace created fresh uncertainty in the oil market given the South American nation is a major oil producer.

In a client note, ING analysts wrote that “adding support to the market is increasing supply risks for Venezuelan crude oil after President Trump said he’s considering closing the airspace over the nation”.

Trump on Sunday said he had spoken with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro but did not give details, nor did he expand on his airspace comments or whether they signalled military strikes against the nation.

“Don’t read anything into it,” Trump said.

In Europe, increasing uncertainty around a Russia-Ukraine peace deal reversed bearish sentiment of the past two weeks, when a peace deal looked closer and raised the prospect of large volumes of currently sanctioned Russian oil flooding the market.

Ukraine’s military via social media on Saturday said it had hit a Russian oil refinery, as well as the Beriev military aviation plant in Rostov region.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/oil-rises-opec-output-plan-venezuela-worries-5498701

Japanese real estate developers are wading further into a tricky Indian market and more of their peers are expected to get their feet wet, drawn by rising rents in a rapidly growing economy as well as low construction costs.

First case in point is Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s biggest property developer, which forayed into India in 2020, partnering with local developer RMZ Real Estate to build an office complex in Bengaluru.

Mitsui Fudosan could embark on fresh investment of 30-35 billion yen ($190-$225 million) or more in projects with either RMZ or other developers, said two sources with knowledge of the plans.

Last month, members of Mitsui Fudosan’s management team were in Mumbai and the region around the capital New Delhi looking at opportunities, they added, declining to be identified as the information was private.

Mitsui Fudosan declined to comment. RMZ declined to comment on the potential new investment.

RMZ Real Estate CEO Avnish Singh did say, however, that Japanese developers are kicking into higher gear now that trust with local partners has been established.

“The floodgates can open and have opened,” he said.

Sumitomo Realty and Development, Japan’s No.3 developer which describes Mumbai as its second engine of growth after Tokyo, has committed $6.5 billion across five projects in the city, including two sites added this year.

It is also scouting for land around a soon-to-be operational Navi Mumbai city airport for new investment, said a senior industry source familiar with its strategy. The source declined to be named because the information was confidential.

Sumitomo Realty did not respond to a request for comment.

SLEEVES ROLLED UP

Japanese companies are far from the only overseas investors keen on Indian property. U.S. investment firm Blackstone, for example, is India’s biggest commercial landlord, and roughly half of its $50 billion in Indian assets are in real estate.

Like Blackstone, most foreign players purchase existing assets given India’s notorious reputation for construction delays that can leave prospective tenants and buyers high and dry. Although reforms in recent years have improved construction timelines and created a new framework to resolve disputes, acquiring land can be very slow, involving much red tape.

“Japanese investors are one of the few willing to take development risk. They like to roll up their sleeves,” said Singh.

Despite red-tape headaches, the returns can be worthwhile.

“Expected returns in the Japanese market are maybe around 2-4 per cent. In India, you can easily expect 6-7 per cent,” said Seiji Ota, a partner at Deloitte India who focuses on Japanese investments in the country.

Ota and Singh said a number of other Japanese developers want to make their first foray into India and are assessing opportunities to develop office, retail and hotel projects.

Japanese companies and funds have boosted investment in overseas real estate by a fifth this year, according to a survey by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Research Institute conducted in September.

While the U.S. and Australia remain long-favoured markets, interest in India notably spiked, with 41 per cent of those surveyed intending to invest, up 6 per centage points from a year earlier.

LOW COSTS AND CLIMBING RENTS

One key draw for Japanese developers is India’s low labour costs. Hiring an electrician or a plumber, for example, costs just $2 an hour.

Constructing premium office buildings of up to 20 floors costs more than $8,000 per square metre in New York, around $5,300 in London and $4,000 in Tokyo, but is just $656 in Mumbai, data from real estate consultancy Turner & Townsend shows.

Just as importantly, rents for premium office space have surged in India on the back of economic growth that has averaged 8 per cent over the past three fiscal years.

Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex – its central business district – led growth in commercial rents for the Asia Pacific region in the third quarter with a jump of 14.2 per cent, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm.

That was followed by Tokyo’s central five wards which rose 10.2 per cent, while India’s national capital region and Seoul’s central business district both climbed over 9 per cent.

Japanese firms’ preference for designing a building from scratch allows them to bring in technology not used in India.

Sumitomo Realty’s first project in Bandra Kurla Complex is using a steel structure that enables very wide floor plates and thus pillar-less offices – something that Indian developers cannot do yet, said the source familiar with its strategy.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/japanese-property-giants-deepen-their-push-booming-indian-market-5498671

In a village outside Botswana ’s capital, Keorapetse Koko sat on an aging couch in her sparsely furnished home, stunned that a career — and an entire nation’s economy — built on diamonds had fallen so far, so fast.

For 17 years, she had earned a living cutting and polishing the gems that helped transform Botswana from one of the world’s poorest nations into one of Africa’s success stories. Diamonds were discovered in 1967, a year after independence, an abrupt change of fortune for the landlocked country.

Botswana became the world’s top diamond producer by value, and second-largest by volume after Russia. Diamonds are woven into the national identity, with local Olympic champion runner Letsile Tebogo heading a De Beers campaign celebrating how the industry funds schools and stadiums.

The stones that Koko and thousands of others dug and polished over the decades have funded Botswana’s health, education, infrastructure and more. The country risked the “resource curse” of building its economy on a single natural asset — and unlike many African nations, it was a success.

But Koko lost her job a year ago, joining many others left adrift as Africa’s trade in natural diamonds buckles under growing pressure from cheaper lab-grown diamonds mass-produced mainly in China and India.

“I have debts and I don’t know how I am going to pay them,” said the mother of two, who had survived on about $300 a month and relied on her employer for medical insurance. It had been a decent situation for a semi-skilled worker in a country where the average monthly salary is about $500. “Every month they call me asking for money. But where do I get it?”

‘Diamonds built our country’

Botswana, which has unearthed some of the world’s biggest stones, has prided itself on prudently managing its natural wealth, avoiding the corruption and fighting that have plagued many African peers. Its marketing message has been simple: Its stones are conflict-free and help fund development.

“Diamonds built our country,” said Joseph Tsimako, president of the Botswana Mine Workers Union, which represents about 10,000 workers in the nation of 2.5 million people. “Now, as the world changes, we must find a way to make sure they don’t destroy the lives of the people who helped build it.”

He warned that new U.S. tariffs under the Trump administration could worsen Botswana’s downturn, triggering staffing freezes, unpaid leave and more layoffs. The U.S. has imposed a 15% tariff on diamonds that are mined, cut and polished there.

Diamond exports, roughly 80% of Botswana’s foreign earnings and a third of government revenue, have tumbled.

Debswana, the largest local diamond producer and a joint venture between the government and mining giant De Beers, saw revenues halve last year. It has paused operations at some mines as Botswana and Angola enter talks to take over controlling stakes in De Beers’ diamond mining unit.

In September, Botswana’s national statistics agency reported a 43% drop in diamond output in the second quarter, the steepest fall in the country’s modern mining history. The World Bank expects the economy to shrink 3% this year, the second consecutive contraction.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/diamonds-botswana-africa-economy-mining-3f2f2e50d21d1a84f0ce86fa0b78d1fe

Hong Kong on Saturday mourned the 128 people known to have died in a huge fire at a high-rise apartment complex, a toll that is likely to rise with 150 still missing days after the disaster.

Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.

Rescue operations at the site in the district of Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.

Police revised down the number of people unaccounted for to 150 from 200, after some relatives managed to reconnect with loved ones they initially reported as missing.

Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.

The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.

Mainland China on Saturday ordered a nationwide investigation of fire risks at high-rise buildings, especially residential blocks undergoing renovation.

Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body, the ICAC, said it had arrested three more people. Aged between 52 and 68, they were in charge of the contractor of the renovation project at the complex.

SEARCH FOR BODIES CONTINUES

Authorities have said the fire alarms at the Wang Fuk Court estate, home to over 4,600 people, had not been working properly.

Hong Kong leader John Lee, other officials and civil servants, all dressed in black, stood in silence for three minutes early on Saturday outside the central government offices, where flags were lowered to half-staff.

Condolence books have been set up at 18 points around the former British colony for the public to pay their respects.

“Our most heartfelt thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones and with those that are now living with shock and uncertainty,” Britain’s King Charles said in a statement about the “appalling tragedy”.

At Wang Fuk Court, police officers wearing white overalls, helmets and oxygen masks clambered into the buildings over mounds of fallen bamboo scaffolding and around large puddles created after firefighters doused the buildings for days to try to reduce the temperatures inside.

Search operations could take three to four weeks to complete, said Hong Kong’s Home Secretary, Alice Mak. The two blocks searched on Saturday were the least damaged, police said.

Families and mourners gathered nearby and left hundreds of bouquets of flowers. Some faced the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.

Christy Tang, 67, was searching for her friend, a retiree who enjoyed singing and sports. “We checked the photos of dead bodies trying to identify her but to no avail,” she said.

Domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines were also caught up in the tragedy. Hong Kong has around 368,000 such workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers, often in cramped spaces.

An injured worker from the Philippines, Rhodora Alcaraz, 28, cradled her employers’ three-month-old baby in a wet blanket while trapped in a smoke-filled room for several hours before being rescued by firefighters, her sister Raychelle Loreto said.

“I’m feeling very weak. I can’t breathe,” she mumbled through sobs in a panicked audio message sent to her sister via Facebook as the situation escalated.

DEADLIEST BLAZE SINCE 1948

The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze. It has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.

Residents of Wang Fuk Court were told by authorities last year they faced “relatively low fire risks” after complaining about fire hazards posed by the renovation, the city’s Labour Department said.

The residents raised concerns in September 2024, including about the potential flammability of the protective green mesh contractors used to cover the bamboo scaffolding, a department spokesperson said.

Hong Kong’s anti-graft body said it had arrested 11 people in connection with the investigation, including three previously questioned by police.

The trio were two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for over a year. They were suspected of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows, police said previously.

Prestige did not answer calls for comment.

Hong Kong’s Buildings Department suspended all work on 28 projects managed by Prestige in the city on Saturday because of safety concerns, and ordered contractors to halt work at two other sites.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hong-kong-mourns-victims-apartment-blaze-that-killed-128-counting-2025-11-29

The measures, approved at a wildlife trade conference in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.

Governments at a wildlife trade conference have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays amid concerns that overfishing is driving some to the brink of extinction.

The measures, approved Friday (Nov 28) at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.

It would strengthen regulations for gulper sharks, smoothhound sharks and the tope shark, which means they can be traded, but there must be proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.

Governments also agreed to enact zero-annual export quotas for several species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, meaning the legal international trade will mostly be halted.

“This is a landmark victory, and it belongs to the Parties who championed these protections,” Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement.

“Countries across Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia came together in a powerful show of leadership and solidarity, passing every shark and ray proposal.”

Conservationists argued the measures were necessary to address overfishing of many species for fins and meat as well as oil and gills. They argue the billion dollar trade is unsustainable, noting that more than 37 per cent of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.

“For too long, sharks that have roamed our oceans for millions of years have been slaughtered for their fins and meat,” Barbara Slee, senior programme manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement.

“People may fear sharks, but the truth is we pose a far greater threat to them—with more than 100 million killed every year. These new protections will help shift that balance and recognise and honour these sharks as more than just fishery commodities.”

Some of the treaty’s greatest successes of late have been around sharks.

At the last conference in Panama in 2022, governments increased protections more than 90 shark species, including 54 species of requiem sharks, the bonnethead shark, three species of hammerhead shark and 37 species of guitarfish. Many had never before had trade protection.

The international wildlife trade treaty, which was adopted in 1975 in Washington, D.C., has been praised for helping stem the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horns as well as in whales and sea turtles.

But it has come under fire for its limitations, including its reliance on cash-strapped developing countries to combat illegal trade that’s become a lucrative US$10 billion-a-year business.

This year, conservationists said that governments had rejected efforts to weaken trade regulations for elephants and rhinos, though they did agree to relax regulations in the trade of saiga horn from Kazakhstan.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/sharks-rays-trade-ban-greater-protection-cites-conference-uzbekistan-5497426

Gaza: Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.

A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

“I’m very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we’re eager to serve our country and fellow citizens,” said a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer.

He told AFP he hoped the security force would be “independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives”.

“We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance,” said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP.

The lieutenant, who left Gaza with his family last year, said the training focused on the fallout of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war and the damage done to the Palestinian cause.

Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

“PROTECTING THE DREAM”

The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of “protecting the dream of creating” a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state.

A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training.

During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, the Palestinian movements – including the two main ones, Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah – agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers.

Egypt would train half of them, while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since the militant group seized power there in 2007.

Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian movements.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/egypt-trains-hundreds-palestinians-future-gaza-police-force-5497766

HONG KONG: Anger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday (Nov 30) as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.

Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said.

University student Miles Kwan, 24, was arrested on suspicion of trying to incite sedition in relation to the blaze in the Wang Fuk Court complex in the northern Tai Po district, the South China Morning Post reported. Hong Kong police did not respond on Sunday to a request for comment.

The online petition promoted by the group reached over 10,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon before it was closed.

A second petition with the same demands has been launched by a Tai Po resident who is now living overseas.

“Hongkongers demand the truth and justice,” wrote KY in the comment section of the new online petition.

The blaze that ripped through seven high-rise residential blocks near the border with mainland China has stunned Hong Kong and authorities have launched criminal and corruption investigations as anger and dismay grow.

The cause of the blaze, which killed 128 people and left 150 still missing, is still to be determined.

Authorities are on tenterhooks to avoid any broader public backlash after pro-democracy protests roiled the city in 2019, leading to a Beijing-imposed national security law.

China’s national security authorities on Saturday warned individuals against using the disaster to disrupt the city.

“We sternly warn the anti-China disruptors who attempt to ‘disrupt Hong Kong through disaster’. No matter what methods you use, you will certainly be held accountable and strictly punished under the Hong Kong national security law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.”

FIRE ALARMS NOT WORKING PROPERLY

Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.

Rescue operations at the site concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.

Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.

The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.

Donations have poured in from large and small companies as well as other groups to assist the victims.

Authorities have said the fire alarms at the Wang Fuk Court estate, home to over 4,600 people, had not been working properly.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/anger-hong-kong-tai-po-fire-beijing-warns-against-disruption-5497761

SINGAPORE: A Malaysian woman has been arrested for allegedly being involved in at least three scam cases involving the impersonation of government officials, police said on Sunday (Nov 30).

An employee at BullionStar alerted police to a woman loitering suspiciously outside its retail outlet at New Bridge Road on Nov 24 and the 73-year-old was arrested over suspected money mule activities.

Gold bars worth about S$200,000 (US$154,213) was seized from the suspect, along with S$200 in cash.

Police said that they had received reports of scammers purportedly posing as officials from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) between Oct 8 and Nov 24.

The victims were told that their bank accounts were linked to money laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised.

“They were instructed to surrender their money and valuables for the purpose of investigations. The victims complied and met unknown individuals at various locations across Singapore to hand over cash and gold bars,” police added.

“The victims later realised they had been scammed when they failed to receive the promised refunds, or when the purported officials became uncontactable.”

Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman had allegedly been facilitating the operations of a scam syndicate by collecting cash and gold bars from victims of government official impersonation scams across Singapore.

The valuables were then handed over to unknown individuals believed to be members of the syndicate.

Investigations against the woman are ongoing

Police said earlier this month that there has been an increasing trend of Malaysians travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting cash, gold and valuables from scam victims.

They urged members of the public not to transfer or hand over money and valuables to unknown people whose identities have not been verified or leave them somewhere for collection.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/malaysian-woman-arrested-scam-syndicate-government-officials-impersonation-gold-mas-5497831

Despite Russia’s war of aggression and ongoing Ukrainization, Russian is still often spoken in school playgrounds. Why? DW spoke with students, parents, teachers and experts.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians deliberately decided to refrain from using Russian in daily life and to speak only Ukrainian.

Over time, this initial emotional impulse seems to have subsided, and some Russian-speaking Ukrainians have reverted to their old ways. A significant proportion of young people in schools, and sometimes even teachers, continue to speak Russian to each other.

Nevertheless, the use of Ukrainian in schools continues to increase, according to a study conducted by the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine (SSEQU) and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Ukrainian Language in April and May 2025. About 48% of the students surveyed in Ukraine, a bilingual country, said that they communicated exclusively in Ukrainian with each other, an increase of 7 percentage points over the previous school year.

But the finding does not apply equally to all regions. In Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, there is a negative trend: The proportion of students who use only Ukrainian has fallen by 10 points to 17%.

Oksana, who did not want to give her real name, is a teacher at a school in Kyiv. “The children speak Ukrainian in class, but when the bell rings, they start speaking Russian among themselves,” she told DW.

“We even have a boy who wants to speak Russian in class. His family is Russian-speaking, and he has difficulty understanding Ukrainian.”

Iryna, a student at another school in Kyiv, had a similar story to tell. “Most of the girls in our class speak Ukrainian, but almost all of the boys speak Russian,” she reported.

She herself spoke Ukrainian both at home and at school. She said that occasionally, however, she spoke Surzhyk, a language that combines Russian and Ukrainian and is widespread in certain regions.

Many internally displaced people speak Russian

Ukraine’s State Language Protection Commissioner Olena Ivanovska attributed the decline in the use of Ukrainian among Kyiv’s students to the fact that there is a high number of internally displaced people from Ukraine’s eastern regions, which traditionally had the highest number of Russian speakers.

Oksana agreed with this assumption, citing one student from such a family, whom she said spoke “Ukrainian with me, and when her father picks her up, she immediately switches to Russian.”

Oleksiy Antypovych, a sociologist and the head of the Rating Group, a Ukrainian research institution, was not surprised by the fact that so many people appear to speak Russian in the Ukrainian capital.

“In Kyiv, about 50% speak Ukrainian, just under 20% speak Russian, and 30% speak both languages. In fact, twice as many people in Kyiv say they speak Russian than the Ukrainian average,” he told DW, citing a study his institution had conducted.

“At the start of the full-scale invasion, there was a massive mobilization of internal forces regarding our national symbols,” he explained. Since 2024, “Russian is present again on the streets, particularly in Kyiv, and it is no longer frowned upon to speak it.”

He pointed out, however, that the proportion of people speaking Ukrainian in daily life remained stable.

‘Patriotism alone is not enough’

Ivanovska believes that a great deal of work is still needed to create a Ukrainian-speaking environment outside the classroom.

“Patriotism alone is not enough. The will of the state and a consistent policy regarding the language that teachers and school administrators speak is required.”

This is why she thinks it is essential that “parliament passes the bill to ensure a Ukrainian-language environment in educational institutions.”

Registered in October 2024, the bill defines the term “Ukrainian-language learning environment.” It stipulates that the educational process includes not only lessons but also breaks, communication on the school grounds, and other educational activities. If it passes, the authorities will be obliged to develop a system for assessing children’s language skills. However, it does not foresee measures that would punish students or parents who communicate in Russian.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-russian-language-education-pop-culture-kyiv/a-74931328

They were abducted in Nigeria’s Borno state, which is at the heart of the jihadist unrest that started 16 years ago.

A group of of young women and girls abducted in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state on November 22 were freed late Saturday.

Their release comes amid a surge in abductions of young people across the country over the past two weeks.

“All 12 were released,” Abubakar Mazhinyi, president of the local Askira-Uba council, told the AFP news agency.

The Nigeria Army said “the rescued girls have been evacuated to a secure military facility where they are receiving comprehensive medical care, psychological support and debriefing. Upon completion of these processes, they will be formally reunited with their families.”

Last Saturday, 13 women and girls aged 16 to 23 were abducted near farms close to an area that has become a jihadist hideout.

The Army said Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province ISWAP was behind the abduction.

The gang freed one of them after she told them she was nursing a baby.

Tinubu declares security emergency

Borno state is at the center of Nigeria’s conflict with the jihadists, which started 16 years ago with Boko Haram.

Although the jihadist movement has lost momentum, Boko Haram and its rival, the breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue to pose a threat in the region.

The recent kidnapping is a harsh reminder of the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 girls in Chibok.

Elsewhere in the country, armed gangs seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in the central-western Niger delta state last week.

Although some managed to escape, more than 265 children and teachers are still in captivity. These abductions were claimed by local gangs rather than jihadists.

On Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu declared a security emergency, ordering mass recruitment of police and army personnel.

He gave the Department of State Services approval to deploy trained forest guards and recruit more staff to flush out armed groups hiding in forests.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-last-12-abducted-borno-schoolgirls-released/a-74955036

The US president’s warning is the latest in a string of escalatory measures against Venezuela, whose leftist President Maduro accuses the Trump administration of trying to depose him.

What did Trump say?

“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The US president did not elaborate.

But his message follows a warning by the US aviation regulator to major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela due to a “worsened security situation and heightened military activity in or around” the country.

How has Venezuela reacted to Trump’s warning?

Venezuela condemned Trump’s warning, calling it a “colonialist threat.”

“Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Trump administration escalates against Maduro’s Venezuela

Trump’s warning comes as his administration ups its pressure on Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, launching a major military deployment in the Caribbean using the world’s largest aircraft carrier.

Washington says the military activities are geared toward curbing drug trafficking. But Maduro insists the Trump administration is seeking regime change.

Since early September, US forces have struck over 20 Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean which Washington alleges were used for drug smuggling, without providing proof. Over 80 people were killed in the strikes.

On Thursday, Trump warned that operations to curb Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/trump-warns-against-flying-over-venezuelan-airspace/a-74950892

Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal

TOP diplomats from Kyiv are heading to the US to continue talks on a peace deal that could end Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine.

The delegation, which is being led by the country’s Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, hopes to hammer out the details of Donald Trump’s proposed peace draft.

Diplomats from Kyiv will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday.

They will hope to negotiate for a fair peace deal that does not lean heavily towards Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out”.

Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal – all while Zelensky finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation.

Sunday’s meeting will also notably be the first without Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday following a corruption row.

Yermak had been the leading negotiator – and enforcer – for Kyiv since the start of the war in 2022.

A political blowback from a $100 million energy sector corruption scandal has seen two ministers and, now, the president’s right-hand man, ousted.

The Geneva meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counteroffer to proposals laid out in Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan.

It heavily favoured Russia, prompting Zelensky to quickly engage with American negotiators.

Kyiv said it was seeking changes to the draft that was criticised for being in Moscow‘s favour for accepting a range of Russia‘s hardline demands.

European leaders, fearing for their own future amid Russian aggression, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.

Early this week, Umerov said the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva”.

It indicated that Ukraine was on common ground with the US about the revised, now 19-point peace plan with the US negotiators.

But it left the toughest issues for Trump and Zelensky to decide later.

The original Kremlin-backed plan ceded Crimea and the Donbas region to Moscow, as well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – with the US officially recognising them as part of the Russian territory.

While the 19-point plan scraps any limits on the size of Ukraine’s army, it does not address control of territory or whether Ukraine can join Nato – two of the biggest red lines for both sides.

Zelensky has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in a dramatic address last week that he would not betray the country.

But reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory taken by Moscow through force is likely to go ahead despite concern from Ukraine‘s allies in Europe.

A source told The Telegraph: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position.

“They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”

The Kremlin said it had received an updated strategy for ending the war. They gave no more details.

Meanwhile, thr Russian forces are making incremental gains on the front line as Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.

A Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings.

He also said the western part of Kyiv had lost power.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15568257/ukraine-officials-us-peace-talks-russia-drones

A Malaysian woman has been arrested for allegedly being involved in at least three scam cases involving the impersonation of government officials, police said on Sunday (Nov 30).

An employee at BullionStar alerted police to a woman loitering suspiciously outside its retail outlet at New Bridge Road on Nov 24 and the 73-year-old was arrested over suspected money mule activities.

Gold bars worth about S$200,000 (US$154,213) was seized from the suspect, along with S$200 in cash.

Police said that they had received reports of scammers purportedly posing as officials from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) between Oct 8 and Nov 24.

The victims were told that their bank accounts were linked to money laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised.

“They were instructed to surrender their money and valuables for the purpose of investigations. The victims complied and met unknown individuals at various locations across Singapore to hand over cash and gold bars,” police added.

“The victims later realised they had been scammed when they failed to receive the promised refunds, or when the purported officials became uncontactable.”

Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman had allegedly been facilitating the operations of a scam syndicate by collecting cash and gold bars from victims of government official impersonation scams across Singapore.

The valuables were then handed over to unknown individuals believed to be members of the syndicate.

Investigations against the woman are ongoing

Police said earlier this month that there has been an increasing trend of Malaysians travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting cash, gold and valuables from scam victims.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/malaysian-woman-arrested-scam-syndicate-government-officials-impersonation-gold-mas-5497831

Anger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday (Nov 30) as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.

Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said.

University student Miles Kwan, 24, was arrested on suspicion of trying to incite sedition in relation to the blaze in the Wang Fuk Court complex in the northern Tai Po district, the South China Morning Post reported. Hong Kong police did not respond on Sunday to a request for comment.

The online petition promoted by the group reached over 10,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon before it was closed.

A second petition with the same demands has been launched by a Tai Po resident who is now living overseas.

“Hongkongers demand the truth and justice,” wrote KY in the comment section of the new online petition.

The blaze that ripped through seven high-rise residential blocks near the border with mainland China has stunned Hong Kong and authorities have launched criminal and corruption investigations as anger and dismay grow.

The cause of the blaze, which killed 128 people and left 150 still missing, is still to be determined.

Authorities are on tenterhooks to avoid any broader public backlash after pro-democracy protests roiled the city in 2019, leading to a Beijing-imposed national security law.

China’s national security authorities on Saturday warned individuals against using the disaster to disrupt the city.

“We sternly warn the anti-China disruptors who attempt to ‘disrupt Hong Kong through disaster’. No matter what methods you use, you will certainly be held accountable and strictly punished under the Hong Kong national security law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.”

FIRE ALARMS NOT WORKING PROPERLY

Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.

Rescue operations at the site concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.

Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.

The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.

Donations have poured in from large and small companies as well as other groups to assist the victims.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/anger-hong-kong-tai-po-fire-beijing-warns-against-disruption-5497761

Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.

A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

“I’m very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we’re eager to serve our country and fellow citizens,” said a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer.

He told AFP he hoped the security force would be “independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives”.

“We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance,” said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP.

The lieutenant, who left Gaza with his family last year, said the training focused on the fallout of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war and the damage done to the Palestinian cause.

Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

“PROTECTING THE DREAM”

The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of “protecting the dream of creating” a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state.

A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training.

During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, the Palestinian movements – including the two main ones, Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah – agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers.

Egypt would train half of them, while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since the militant group seized power there in 2007.

Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian movements.

A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that the movement supported “the details regarding security and management of the Gaza Strip” agreed during the talks.

The subject was also addressed in US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which led to last month’s fragile Gaza ceasefire, and was later endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution.

EUROPE TOO

The plan notably authorises the creation of an international force that would be responsible for securing border areas and demilitarising Gaza.

The European Union (EU) also wants to train up to 3,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip under a scheme similar to one it already runs in the West Bank, an EU official told AFP.

The EU has financed a police training mission in the West Bank since 2006, with a budget of around €13 million (US$15 million).

But many details remain up in the air.

A Hamas official questioned to AFP the possibility of an agreement with Israel on the precise details of a police force in Gaza.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/egypt-trains-hundreds-palestinians-future-gaza-police-force-5497766

The measures, approved at a wildlife trade conference in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.

Governments at a wildlife trade conference have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays amid concerns that overfishing is driving some to the brink of extinction.

The measures, approved Friday (Nov 28) at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.

It would strengthen regulations for gulper sharks, smoothhound sharks and the tope shark, which means they can be traded, but there must be proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.

Governments also agreed to enact zero-annual export quotas for several species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, meaning the legal international trade will mostly be halted.

“This is a landmark victory, and it belongs to the Parties who championed these protections,” Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement.

“Countries across Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia came together in a powerful show of leadership and solidarity, passing every shark and ray proposal.”

Conservationists argued the measures were necessary to address overfishing of many species for fins and meat as well as oil and gills. They argue the billion dollar trade is unsustainable, noting that more than 37 per cent of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.

“For too long, sharks that have roamed our oceans for millions of years have been slaughtered for their fins and meat,” Barbara Slee, senior programme manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement.

“People may fear sharks, but the truth is we pose a far greater threat to them—with more than 100 million killed every year. These new protections will help shift that balance and recognise and honour these sharks as more than just fishery commodities.”

Some of the treaty’s greatest successes of late have been around sharks.

At the last conference in Panama in 2022, governments increased protections more than 90 shark species, including 54 species of requiem sharks, the bonnethead shark, three species of hammerhead shark and 37 species of guitarfish. Many had never before had trade protection.

The international wildlife trade treaty, which was adopted in 1975 in Washington, D.C., has been praised for helping stem the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horns as well as in whales and sea turtles.

But it has come under fire for its limitations, including its reliance on cash-strapped developing countries to combat illegal trade that’s become a lucrative US$10 billion-a-year business.

This year, conservationists said that governments had rejected efforts to weaken trade regulations for elephants and rhinos, though they did agree to relax regulations in the trade of saiga horn from Kazakhstan.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/sharks-rays-trade-ban-greater-protection-cites-conference-uzbekistan-5497426

Elizabeth Olsen is recounting a topsy-turvy upbringing in which twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were expected to champion her acting career.

The “WandaVision” star described her childhood as “pretty chaotic” in an interview with the Times published on Friday.

“I was the youngest of four and we were all born within five years,” Elizabeth, 36, told the outlet, recounting her upbringing in Los Angeles, during which she passed time on the sets of movies while Mary-Kate and Ashley, now 39, worked.

Elizabeth said she sometimes missed out on typical rituals of childhood.

“So now I think the idea of a calm bath and bedtime story routine is so tender and sweet because we didn’t have anything like that,” she explained.

“I love being the friend or aunt who gets to come round and help with bedtime.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the “Avengers” actress said the “Full House” alums were “forced to watch all my plays my whole life and go to my dance performances.”

When asked if her older sisters imparted any advice, Olsen replied, “No. We’re just a supportive family.”

She added, “It feels irrelevant to talk about it after 15 years of working.”

The actress was born to Jarnette and David Olsen, along with Mary-Kate and Ashley and their brother, James Trent.

Jarnett and Davis have since divorced, and David has welcomed two additional children with wife McKenzie Olsen.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/29/celebrity-news/elizabeth-olsen-says-sisters-mary-kate-and-ashley-were-forced-to-support-her/

Ed Sheeran had an hours-long conversation with pal Taylor Swift after her engagement to Travis Kelce — despite rumors that he and the “Blank Space” songstress are at odds.

“I’m not self-conscious about my relationship with her,” Sheeran told Access Hollywood during a new interview.

“We’ve been friends for very, very many years,” he added. “We’re super close and we see each other when we see each other, and when we see each other, we lock back into where we left off.”

Sheeran — who seemingly found out about Swift’s engagement along with the public, due to the fact that he limits cell phone and social media use — also addressed speculation that their friendship became “strained” after she dropped “The Life of a Showgirl” just weeks after he dropped his “Play” album.

“My way of viewing it is like, me and Taylor are mates and I will see her,” he told the outlet.

“And I saw her a week after that happened, so I did that interview and then I saw her and you talk in person,” he said.

He added that when he saw the “Cruel Summer” singer they “had like a four-hour catch-up and it’s life stuff rather than, like, I don’t know, you know what I mean?”

Acknowledging his lack of cell phone accessibility, Sheeran lamented how social media can affect human relationships.

“I kind of feel like being in touch with everyone, sort of you lose actual human connection,” he said.

Page Six has reached out to a rep for Swift.

News of Swift’s engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce broke in August, with the pair taking to Instagram to share the big news.

Before Sheeran performed at the SiriuxSM Small Stage Series concert in New York City days later, Andy Cohen asked how he found out about his longtime friend’s engagement.

“Instagram,” the “Shape of You” hitmaker replied.

“Instagram? Like everyone else? You didn’t even get a DM in advance?” a disbelieving Cohen asked, to which Sheeran simply said, “No.”

Sheeran, 34, subsequently released his eighth album on Sept. 12, with Swift on his heels with the massive rollout of “The Life of a Showgirl” on Oct. 3.

A music industry insider told the Daily Mail in October that the singer was “peeved” by Swift’s timing.

“Ed takes these things really seriously, and carefully plans his album releases,” the source told the outlet last month.

“He announced his album with four months’ notice, but then Taylor announced hers for just two weeks after.”

The insider claimed “it left his team scrabbling to get as much attention before hers dropped.”

“He was very much put out and understandably peeved,” they alleged. “It is not the first time that Taylor has done something like this. She’s got form.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/29/entertainment/ed-sheeran-had-long-talk-with-taylor-swift-after-travis-kelce-engagement/

A GUNMAN opened fire at a packed shopping centre on Black Friday injuring at least three people.

Shoppers were forced to scramble for safety and barricade themselves inside stores at the Westfield in California.

The Westfield Valley Fair shopping centre in Santa Clara turned into “complete chaos” as people fled to safety, shoppers said.

A 16-year-old girl, a man and a woman were injured at the scene.

They have since been rushed to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to officials.

The shooting began at 5.40pm on Friday, according to KRON4.

Authorities have described the ordeal as an “isolated incident”.

The San Jose Police Department Sergeant Jorge Garibay said: “This was not targeted at unsuspecting shoppers.”

“Something occurred between two individuals that prompted the shooting,” he said.

The San Jose Police Department added that there was no active threat to the public.

Officials believe the shooting occurred following an argument between the suspected gunman and the male victim.

The two female victims were unfortunately caught in the crossfire, KRON4 reported.

The shooter fled the scene.

Police are yet to release a description of the man.

It is not clear if the suspect has been taken into custody.

Fellow shoppers have posted videos of the terrifying moments to social media, as they hid inside stores.

Daniel Chen said he “just started sprinting” when he saw people running.

“There were crowds and swarms of people,” he said.

“I was terrified. We were freaking out. Everyone was just screaming.

“It was complete chaos — it was crazy. I was making sure that the three of us were together and that we weren’t leaving each other behind.”

He said his group made sure to follow the crowd, in order to “not go where the shooter was”.

“We were making sure we were following the crowd and making sure we could find an exit and get out,” he said.

Cops began evacuating the shopping centre an hour after the shooting.

The centre was previously scheduled to close at 10pm.

Shawn Kulasingham, 23, had been shopping with his family when he said they heard a loud pop, before a sea of humans began running in every direction.

“It was a stampede,” he told the LA Times.

“The building was almost shaking.”

Kulasingham grabbed his father and sister and sheltered in the nearest store – an Abercrombie & Fitch.

Amongst other shoppers, they hid behind clothing racks and cabinets.

“The fear was palpable,” Kulasingham said.

“This is a really difficult thing to happen during the holiday season.”

Kulasingham is a former congressional staffer, who was home visiting family for Thanksgiving.

Another shopper caught in the cross fire was ushered into a Bloomingdales store with 20 other people.

Bilal Zuberi and his wife said they “tried not to panic, because there were children sheltering with them”.

“There was general panic and an overhead announcement telling [stores] the doors were locked and they should remain in place,” he said.

“Officers are evacuating and clearing the mall to confirm there is no ongoing threat to public safety,” according to the police department.

Matt Mahan, the Mayor of San Jose, made a statement on Friday night.

“This is not the news I wanted to share with you this holiday weekend,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15566819/valley-fair-shooting-mall-san-jose-westfield-active/

TOP diplomats from Kyiv are heading to the US to continue talks on a peace deal that could end Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine.

The delegation, which is being led by the country’s Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, hopes to hammer out the details of Donald Trump’s proposed peace draft.

Diplomats from Kyiv will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday.

They will hope to negotiate for a fair peace deal that does not lean heavily towards Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out”.

Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal – all while Zelensky finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation.

Sunday’s meeting will also notably be the first without Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday following a corruption row.

Yermak had been the leading negotiator – and enforcer – for Kyiv since the start of the war in 2022.

A political blowback from a $100 million energy sector corruption scandal has seen two ministers and, now, the president’s right-hand man, ousted.

The Geneva meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counteroffer to proposals laid out in Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan.

It heavily favoured Russia, prompting Zelensky to quickly engage with American negotiators.

Kyiv said it was seeking changes to the draft that was criticised for being in Moscow‘s favour for accepting a range of Russia‘s hardline demands.

European leaders, fearing for their own future amid Russian aggression, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.

Early this week, Umerov said the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva”.

It indicated that Ukraine was on common ground with the US about the revised, now 19-point peace plan with the US negotiators.

But it left the toughest issues for Trump and Zelensky to decide later.

The original Kremlin-backed plan ceded Crimea and the Donbas region to Moscow, as well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – with the US officially recognising them as part of the Russian territory.

While the 19-point plan scraps any limits on the size of Ukraine’s army, it does not address control of territory or whether Ukraine can join Nato – two of the biggest red lines for both sides.

Zelensky has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in a dramatic address last week that he would not betray the country.

But reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory taken by Moscow through force is likely to go ahead despite concern from Ukraine‘s allies in Europe.

A source told The Telegraph: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position.

“They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”

The Kremlin said it had received an updated strategy for ending the war. They gave no more details.

Meanwhile, thr Russian forces are making incremental gains on the front line as Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.

A Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15568257/ukraine-officials-us-peace-talks-russia-drones/

The US president’s warning is the latest in a string of escalatory measures against Venezuela, whose leftist President Maduro accuses the Trump administration of trying to depose him.

What did Trump say?

“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The US president did not elaborate.

But his message follows a warning by the US aviation regulator to major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela due to a “worsened security situation and heightened military activity in or around” the country.

How has Venezuela reacted to Trump’s warning?

Venezuela condemned Trump’s warning, calling it a “colonialist threat.”

“Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Trump administration escalates against Maduro’s Venezuela

Trump’s warning comes as his administration ups its pressure on Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, launching a major military deployment in the Caribbean using the world’s largest aircraft carrier.

Washington says the military activities are geared toward curbing drug trafficking. But Maduro insists the Trump administration is seeking regime change.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/trump-warns-against-flying-over-venezuelan-airspace/a-74950892

They were abducted in Nigeria’s Borno state, which is at the heart of the jihadist unrest that started 16 years ago.

A group of of young women and girls abducted in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state on November 22 were freed late Saturday.

Their release comes amid a surge in abductions of young people across the country over the past two weeks.

“All 12 were released,” Abubakar Mazhinyi, president of the local Askira-Uba council, told the AFP news agency.

The Nigeria Army said “the rescued girls have been evacuated to a secure military facility where they are receiving comprehensive medical care, psychological support and debriefing. Upon completion of these processes, they will be formally reunited with their families.”

Last Saturday, 13 women and girls aged 16 to 23 were abducted near farms close to an area that has become a jihadist hideout.

The Army said Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province ISWAP was behind the abduction.

The gang freed one of them after she told them she was nursing a baby.

Tinubu declares security emergency

Borno state is at the center of Nigeria’s conflict with the jihadists, which started 16 years ago with Boko Haram.

Although the jihadist movement has lost momentum, Boko Haram and its rival, the breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue to pose a threat in the region.

The recent kidnapping is a harsh reminder of the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 girls in Chibok.

Elsewhere in the country, armed gangs seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in the central-western Niger delta state last week.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-last-12-abducted-borno-schoolgirls-released/a-74955036

Despite Russia’s war of aggression and ongoing Ukrainization, Russian is still often spoken in school playgrounds. Why? DW spoke with students, parents, teachers and experts.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians deliberately decided to refrain from using Russian in daily life and to speak only Ukrainian.

Over time, this initial emotional impulse seems to have subsided, and some Russian-speaking Ukrainians have reverted to their old ways. A significant proportion of young people in schools, and sometimes even teachers, continue to speak Russian to each other.

Nevertheless, the use of Ukrainian in schools continues to increase, according to a study conducted by the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine (SSEQU) and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Ukrainian Language in April and May 2025. About 48% of the students surveyed in Ukraine, a bilingual country, said that they communicated exclusively in Ukrainian with each other, an increase of 7 percentage points over the previous school year.

But the finding does not apply equally to all regions. In Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, there is a negative trend: The proportion of students who use only Ukrainian has fallen by 10 points to 17%.

Oksana, who did not want to give her real name, is a teacher at a school in Kyiv. “The children speak Ukrainian in class, but when the bell rings, they start speaking Russian among themselves,” she told DW.

“We even have a boy who wants to speak Russian in class. His family is Russian-speaking, and he has difficulty understanding Ukrainian.”

Iryna, a student at another school in Kyiv, had a similar story to tell. “Most of the girls in our class speak Ukrainian, but almost all of the boys speak Russian,” she reported.

She herself spoke Ukrainian both at home and at school. She said that occasionally, however, she spoke Surzhyk, a language that combines Russian and Ukrainian and is widespread in certain regions.

Many internally displaced people speak Russian

Ukraine’s State Language Protection Commissioner Olena Ivanovska attributed the decline in the use of Ukrainian among Kyiv’s students to the fact that there is a high number of internally displaced people from Ukraine’s eastern regions, which traditionally had the highest number of Russian speakers.

Oksana agreed with this assumption, citing one student from such a family, whom she said spoke “Ukrainian with me, and when her father picks her up, she immediately switches to Russian.”

Oleksiy Antypovych, a sociologist and the head of the Rating Group, a Ukrainian research institution, was not surprised by the fact that so many people appear to speak Russian in the Ukrainian capital.

“In Kyiv, about 50% speak Ukrainian, just under 20% speak Russian, and 30% speak both languages. In fact, twice as many people in Kyiv say they speak Russian than the Ukrainian average,” he told DW, citing a study his institution had conducted.

“At the start of the full-scale invasion, there was a massive mobilization of internal forces regarding our national symbols,” he explained. Since 2024, “Russian is present again on the streets, particularly in Kyiv, and it is no longer frowned upon to speak it.”

He pointed out, however, that the proportion of people speaking Ukrainian in daily life remained stable.

‘Patriotism alone is not enough’

Ivanovska believes that a great deal of work is still needed to create a Ukrainian-speaking environment outside the classroom.

“Patriotism alone is not enough. The will of the state and a consistent policy regarding the language that teachers and school administrators speak is required.”

This is why she thinks it is essential that “parliament passes the bill to ensure a Ukrainian-language environment in educational institutions.”

Registered in October 2024, the bill defines the term “Ukrainian-language learning environment.” It stipulates that the educational process includes not only lessons but also breaks, communication on the school grounds, and other educational activities. If it passes, the authorities will be obliged to develop a system for assessing children’s language skills. However, it does not foresee measures that would punish students or parents who communicate in Russian.

“We also need to make it clear to parents who speak Russian with their children at home that these will be at a significant disadvantage when they start school compared to others whose mother tongue is Ukrainian,” said Ivanovska.

Ivanovska said that laws alone were not enough and that high-quality Ukrainian-language content was also necessary.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-russian-language-education-pop-culture-kyiv/a-74931328

Peru will declare a state of emergency along its border with Chile, President José Jerí said on Friday, as migrants seek to cross into the country following a Chilean presidential frontrunner’s vow to expel undocumented migrants.
The state of emergency “will generate tranquility before the risk of migrants entering without authorization,” said Jerí on X.

At least 100 foreigners, mostly Venezuelans, are at the border seeking to cross into Peru, Peruvian police General Arturo Valverde told local television station Canal N on Friday. He said surveillance at the border has increased in anticipation of the declaration.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/perus-president-declare-border-state-emergency-prevent-entry-undocumented-2025-11-28/

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, a close ally who has headed Ukraine’s negotiation team at fraught U.S.-backed peace talks, quit on Friday, hours after anti-corruption agents searched his home.
A major probe into high-level graft, at a time when Ukraine is fighting against Russia for its very survival, has sparked public outrage and thrust its leadership into crisis as Washington steps up pressure on Kyiv to reach a settlement.

Yermak was leading Ukraine’s effort to push back against terms proposed by the U.S. that would satisfy many of Moscow’s territorial and security demands. Zelenskiy said he would consider a replacement on Saturday.
“Russia is eager for Ukraine to make mistakes. We won’t make any,” Zelenskiy said on Friday in a video address, calling for greater unity.
“Our work goes on. Our struggle goes on.”

KYIV’S MAIN POWER BROKER

Yermak has been a close friend of Zelenskiy’s since the president’s days as a TV comedian, and helped guide his successful outsider’s campaign for election in 2019.
Since then, the 54-year-old has positioned himself as a chief decision maker, attracting criticism both at home and abroad as an unelected adviser with outsized power.

Yermak had confirmed his apartment was being searched and said he was cooperating. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did not specify which investigation the searches were linked to.
The two agencies this month unveiled a sweeping probe into an alleged $100 million kickback scheme at the state atomic energy company allegedly involving former senior officials and an ex-business partner of Zelenskiy’s.

Yermak was not named as a suspect, but activists, opposition lawmakers and even some in Zelenskiy’s own Servant of the People party had called for his dismissal, saying his presence compromised Ukraine’s bargaining power.
Mykyta Poturayev, a lawmaker for the party who had called for an overhaul of both the presidential office and the government, said Yermak’s resignation came at a perilous moment but had been necessary.

Flights to the Philadelphia International Airport were briefly grounded on Friday due to a bomb threat that was resolved without incident, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and police.
The FAA issued a ground stop advisory for the airport shortly after 7 p.m. local time (0000 GMT), saying there was a bomb threat. About 30 minutes later, the FAA said the security incident was resolved, and normal operations had resumed.

The ground stoppage was due to a “situation requiring the assistance of the Philadelphia Police aboard a plane,” a police spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The plane has been cleared for takeoff, and the ground stoppage has been lifted, the spokesperson added.
There were reports of bomb threats at other U.S. airports earlier this month that were also cleared without incident.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/flights-philadelphia-international-grounded-due-bomb-threat-us-faa-says-2025-11-29/

Britain said on Friday it would temporarily stop imports of pork meat from parts of Spain after the country confirmed its first cases of African swine fever in just over three decades.
Britain is one of Spain’s main customers for pork, and the move comes as authorities in Madrid activated emergency measures in Catalonia, a region central to pig farming.

“Following an outbreak of African Swine Fever in Spain, all fresh pork and other affected products from Spain will be held at Border Control Posts until further notice,” Britain’s environment department (DEFRA) said in a statement.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and keep all measures under review,” it added.
Spain exported 37,600 metric tons of fresh and frozen pork to Britain so far in 2025, worth over 112 million euros ($129.93 million), up 17% in volume and 9.5% in value compared with all of 2024, according to data from the government-backed body the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.
The virus is a highly contagious disease that affects pigs and wild boar but poses no risk to humans. It has no vaccine or cure and often leads to mass culling when detected in farmed herds.
The disease has spread westwards in Europe in recent years, disrupting pork markets and prompting trade bans. Germany’s outbreak in 2020 led to sweeping restrictions from major buyers such as China, while Croatia has battled infections in recent months.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-hold-fresh-pork-other-affected-spanish-products-border-amid-african-swine-2025-11-28/

The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, killing one, will face first-degree murder charges for an attack that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to declare he would stop migrants from “Third World Countries.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News on Friday that other charges would be filed against 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who she said ambushed the soldiers from the West Virginia National Guard near the White House on Wednesday.

Formal charges were not immediately filed against Lakanwal, who had been in the U.S. since 2021 under a program of then-President Joe Biden’s administration to resettle Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war in their homeland. He was granted asylum under Trump.
In a call on Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday with U.S. military service members, Trump said the shootings were a “terrorist attack.”
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds on Thursday. Her National Guard colleague, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was in critical condition, Pirro said on Friday. The two were in Washington as part of Trump’s deployment of the military in recent months to help the police fight crime in the city.

TRUMP RATCHETS UP RHETORIC ON IMMIGRATION

Trump, whose dispatch of troops to Washington faces fierce legal challenges, took to social media late on Thursday to escalate his rhetoric on immigration. Since taking office this year, he has stepped up arrests of immigrants, including some in the U.S. legally, and cracked down on unlawful border crossings while stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of people.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” Trump said in his social media posts, referring to his predecessor in the White House.

Trump did not say which countries he considers “Third World,” nor what he meant by a permanent pause. It echoed the sweeping “Muslim ban” Trump tried to enact in his first term before it was diluted by successful legal challenges.
On Friday, Trump posted again on social media to say he was rescinding any document that Biden signed using an autopen, a tool that U.S. presidents, including Trump, have used for decades, often to answer mail or sign checks, or sometimes to meet authorization deadlines while traveling outside the capital.
After taking office in 2021, Biden reversed many of the restrictive immigration policies of Trump’s first term, saying they blocked people in need of humanitarian protection and were discriminatory.
Asked about Trump’s comment on “Third World” countries, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred Reuters to 19 countries listed in a June travel ban.

On Thursday, Homeland Security officials said Trump had ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under the Biden administration and permanent-residency green cards issued to citizens of the 19 countries, which include Afghanistan.
Jorge Loweree, the managing director of programs and strategy at the American Immigration Council, said the president does not have authority through executive action to make permanent changes to the immigration system, which is codified by Congress. He warned of chaos and disarray in the U.S. immigration system even if Trump is ultimately blocked by federal courts.

SHOOTING PROMPTS SWEEPING IMMIGRATION REVIEWS

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome. More than 70,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. under the program for those fearing reprisal by the Taliban forces, who seized control of Afghanistan after the U.S. military’s withdrawal. Officials said Lakanwal was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before coming to the U.S.
He was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a U.S. government file on him seen by Reuters.
Investigators said Lakanwal drove across the country from his home in the state of Washington and shot the two Guardsmen with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, before being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other troops.
Less than 24 hours after the shooting, Trump officials began ordering widespread reviews of immigration policies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday he would be proposing regulations to ensure that people he referred to as “illegal aliens” do not receive certain credits on income tax they have paid. The tax code is set by Congress, which already limits what kind of benefits, if any, non-citizens are eligible to seek.
Lakanwal lives in Washington state with his wife and five children, according to investigators. Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect’s family, Trump said: “We’re looking at the whole situation with family.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/national-guard-shooting-suspect-face-murder-charges-trump-freeze-third-world-2025-11-28/

The Trump administration is working toward cutting illegal migrants off from federal tax benefits and money transfer services, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday.

“At [President Trump’s] direction, we are working to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens and preserve them for U.S. citizens,” Bessent wrote on X.

As part of the effort, the Treasury Department will propose new regulations “clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal and other non-qualified aliens, covering the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the Saver’s Match Credit,” according to the the Trump administration official.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) ostensibly prohibits illegal immigrants from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits.

However, in a February executive order barring illegal immigrants from access to federally funded benefits, Trump argued that in the decades since PRWORA’s passage, “numerous administrations have acted to undermine the principles and limitations directed by the Congress.”

Treasury aims to classify federal tax benefits as “federal public benefits” within the meaning of PRWORA in its proposed rule.

The department noted last week that the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel “recently issued an opinion adopting this interpretation.”

Treasury’s final regulations are expected to apply beginning in tax year 2026.

In a separate social media post, Bessent warned that illegal migrants “use our financial institutions to move their illicitly obtained funds.”

Describing that practice as “exploitation,” the Treasury secretary vowed: “It will end.”

“[President Trump] is right — if you’re here illegally, there’s no place for you in our financial system,” Bessent wrote.

The post came on the same day the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Bureau issued an alert to money services businesses — such as check cashers, remittance processors and digital payment processors — asking them to be “vigilant in identifying suspicious financial activity involving illegal aliens who present significant threats to national security and public safety.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/11/28/us-news/treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-moves-to-cut-off-illegal-migrants-from-tax-benefits-and-cross-border-money-transfers/

A Marine Force Reconnaissance soldier who served eight tours in Afghanistan told The Post Friday that some locals who fought the Taliban were “disloyal” to the US forces they partnered with — and that it “happens a lot more than people suspect.”

Chad Robichaux, 50, in an exclusive interview noted that said he’s been sounding the alarm about the risk of Afghan evacuees ever since the Biden administration’s botched bugout from the Middle East nation in 2021 — and how the US faces an elevated threat of terrorism as a result of poor refugee vetting.

Issues related to the August 2021 withdrawal of US forces and refugees have resurfaced this week as an Afghan national is facing charges for shooting two National Guard members — and killing one of them — in Washington, DC, on Thanksgiving eve as part of a suspected terror attack.

The alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, served for at least a decade alongside US forces fighting the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS as part of an elite, CIA-backed paramilitary group known as the Kandahar Strike Force, according to US officials.

“When you talk about someone that’s, like, worked with the CIA or worked with special operations, just works through our troops,” Robichaux said, “you have to understand, like, when you go work in another country with local nationals, there’s an inherent risk to that. You have to depend on these people.”

“The vetting’s fast. You have to utilize local nationals. So there’s always gonna be a segment of the population that’s gonna be disloyal and … turn on you,” he added. “And it happens a lot more than people suspect.”

As a Marine in Afghanistan and later the leader of a “coalition effort” that evacuated locals from the nation amid the US pullout, Robichaux saw firsthand how quickly some of the US-backed Afghans were willing to sell them out — or “turn on” them and “shoot everybody in their team.”

“In my program, we had CIA-trained guys,” he recalled. “I slept on the side of mountains with this guy … and one other Afghan numerous times. I trusted him with my life. He turns on us, has a vehicle bomb driven into my house, has 12 of our teammates rolled up, captured and killed, and I got abducted by a foreign intelligence agency because of this guy.”

“Just because someone worked with the CIA or special operations unit doesn’t automatically mean they should be allowed to come to the United States,” he added. “The State Department still has to have their immigration process for that and do due diligence to vet them out.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Thursday that “the Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation.”

National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent posted on X Friday that Lakanwal “was only vetted to serve as a soldier to fight against the Taliban, AQ, & ISIS IN Afghanistan.”

“[H]e was NOT vetted for his suitability to come to America and live among us as a neighbor, integrate into our communities, or eventually become an American citizen,” Kent added.

A senior US official also said that while Lakanwal had been “vetted to fight” for the US from 2011 to 2021, the Biden administration solely used that vetting to allow the Afghan entry to the US — a “low standard [that] has never been used before.”

The only other intelligence-related checks on the shooter were done to screen for ties to terror groups before letting Lakanwal emigrate to Washington State, where he settled with his wife and five children in September 2021.

As many as 85,000 Afghans came into the country that year as part of “Operation Allies Welcome,” and of those, 10,000 who were part of the same CIA-backed “death squads” that Lakanwal fought with settled near Seattle.

Lakanwal applied for a special immigration visa but was never granted lawful permanent residence. He also applied for asylum in December 2024 and was granted it the following April by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is part of Department of Homeland Security.

The department’s Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has blamed the Biden administration’s “humanitarian parole” program for letting the Afghan evacuee remain in the US.

“Biden signed into law that parole program, and then entered into the 2023 Ahmed Court Settlement, which bound USCIS to adjudicate his asylum claim on an expedited basis,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

The Trump administration has since “stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols” any immigration requests “relating to Afghan nationals,” she added.

“The Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration, which failed to vet these applicants on a massive scale.”

At the time of the evacuation, US officials “did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees” from Afghanistan, according to a 2022 DHS Office of Inspector General’s report.

USCIS would have reviewed Lakanwal’s background, done biometric vetting and an in-person interview to assess potential risks and determine whether he was eligible for asylum, according to #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit group by American veterans helping resettle Afghan allies in the US.

The senior US official disputed this, saying that “none of the checks done on the shooter from 2011 to now checked his suitability to live here.”

“Prior to Biden it took 18 months or longer for someone to be granted a Special Immigrant Visa, including the applicant needing to flee to a third country so the US government could interview and vet them,” the official noted. “Biden threw all of this out and applied tactical war time vetting to people seeking entry into the homeland.”

Robichaux, who served as part of a Joint Special Operations Command task force in Afghanistan, claimed that the number of nationals “flown straight from Kabul to the United States” may have been as high as 100,000 — and that “they were let go into the American population” with “zero vetting.”

Source : https://nypost.com/2025/11/28/us-news/marine-vet-tells-the-post-why-some-afghans-turn-on-us-forces-they-fight-with-happens-a-lot-more-than-people-suspect/

A fast-rising parallel film industry in India is competing with Bollywood’s musicals and action-packed films and has taken the world by storm: It’s called Tollywood.

As Mumbai is to Hindi films — or Bollywood — the southern Indian city of Hyderabad is to movies made in Telugu, one of the country’s most widely spoken languages. Tollywood films like “RRR” and “Baahubali” have achieved international acclaim at the box office and on the awards stage.

What is Tollywood?

The Telugu-language film industry, widely known as Tollywood, is one of India’s many regional movie-producing centers. But it’s drawn national and global audiences with its high-adrenaline action movies, mythic storylines and grand visual style. It has carved out its own identity separate from Hindi-language Bollywood by leaning toward star-driven spectacle and large-scale epics.

Tollywood primarily operates out of Hyderabad, which is home to Ramoji Film City. The 1,666-acre (674-hectare) facility, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest film studio complex, houses massive film studio complexes, dozens of production houses, warehouses, movie sets and post-production facilities. The industry churns out around 300 films every year — fewer than Bollywood but still enough to make it one of India’s largest regional industries.

Tollywood’s growing exposure was in large part sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, as the rapid expansion of streaming services in India allowed regional films to find wider audiences. That expansion also coincided with Bollywood’s struggle to lure audiences back to theaters amid repetitive storylines and rehashes of hits from other languages.

What has also worked in favor of Tollywood is that it offers a rare balance of high-octane action films and nuanced movies charged with real human drama.

“Telugu people have a lot of interest in movies. The Telugu audience watch and accept all kind of movies. They are cinema lovers,” says filmmaker T.V. Ravi Narayan, who is working on a biopic based on an 18th-century social activist. “Because they are cinema lovers, be it ‘Baahubali,’ ‘Pushpa’ or ‘RRR,’ be it big budget or small budget, be it realistic or biopics or fantasy movies, the audiences accept it.”

What kind of films are made in Tollywood?

Tollywood is known for its high-energy storytelling, big action set pieces and grand spectacle that are heavy on visual effects. It often blends family drama, action and mythology into movies, increasingly marketed as “pan-India” releases and dubbed in multiple regional languages.

The films, like other big Indian productions, have crowd-pleasing visuals and feature viral songs and dances central to the narrative and usually presented as grand performance set pieces.

Many Tollywood films are also remade in Bollywood, which has become a proven formula to expand Telugu cinema across India. Dubbing — where actors record voice-overs in Hindi or a professional voice artist replaces the track — is also a standard and tested practice that has made Tollywood more accessible.

The industry does also produce smaller, low-budget films that tend to focus on stories rooted in Telugu culture. Most of them are set in rural landscapes and explore themes such as social issues, regional cultures and class inequality. Some of those films are sent straight to streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, where they enjoy a wide reach across India.

What is Tollywood fandom like?

Many Tollywood movie stars like Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun, Prabhas, Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. command a near-godlike following, with devoted fan bases that cut across generations. Their movie releases are often tied to regional religious festivals and are preceded by carefully marketed music launch events and dance performances that are a spectacle in itself. Tens of thousands of fans attend such events, as they did recently with the first look of S.S. Rajamouli’s “Varanasi.”

The industry has also led to a massive fan club culture, predominantly centered around male film stars. Some fans are so invested in their favorite stars that they often organize charitable drives and blood donation camps in their names. It is not unusual for fans to perform acts of literal worship, washing male stars’ cardboard cutouts or statues with milk — a ritual usually reserved for Hindu gods.

In theaters across Hyderabad, viewers will commonly dance, whistle and throw confetti in the air during releases of films. Outside, billboards of major stars are a frequent sight in the city.

Telugu cinema has also influenced regional politics as many actors have turned popular politicians. In 1983, superstar N.T. Rama Rao successfully defeated the Congress Party, led by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, within nine months of founding the regional Telugu Desam Party. After sweeping state elections, he became the chief minister.

What’s driving Tollywood’s recent success?

Tollywood’s rapid commercial success and audience acceptance over the past decade has reshaped the country’s entertainment landscape and pushed regional cinema further onto the world stage.

Much of its recent success has been credited to filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, who favors larger-than-life heroes and imaginative filmmaking. Rajamouli became an international name after “RRR,” or “Rise, Roar, Revolt,” his 2022 three-hour epic set in British India. The sprawling anti-colonial tale became one of India’s biggest hits, a global streaming phenomenon that won an Oscar for best original song. His two-part “Baahubali” series, released in 2015 and 2017, broke box-office records in India and a reedited version combining the two parts, “Baahubali: The Epic,” released in cinemas worldwide just last month.

“Varanasi,” his upcoming adventure film that blends time-travel and Hindu mythology, is expected to release in 2027.

“We set out to do something very big that we all are excited about, and we just hope and pray that audiences across the world you know, embrace it as well,” says S.S. Karthikeya, one of the producers of “Varanasi,” who is also Rajamouli’s son.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/tollywood-telegu-cinema-what-is-it-11f634610029566f9ca60071bf3430d5

An unmanned, oval-shaped craft from flying taxi maker EHang hovers, whirring noisily like a mini-helicopter over a riverside innovation zone on the outskirts of the southern Chinese business hub of Guangzhou, part of a trial of a mini-flying taxi that once might have been found only in sci-fi films.

In nearby Shenzhen, food-delivery drones already are part of daily life and a novelty attraction for tourists, even if such services cost more. In the waterfront park surrounded by high-rises, Polish tourist Karolina Trzciańska and her friends ordered bubble tea and lemon tea by phone, just to give it a try. Their drinks arrived via a drone buzzing through the drizzle about 30 minutes later.

“This is the first time I’m seeing something like this, so it was super fun to see the food being delivered by the drone,” she said.

Such businesses are growing quickly with support from the government, though the take off of the so-called “low-altitude economy” faces obstacles such as strict airspace controls and battery limitations.

Activities in airspace below 1,000 meters (about 3,280 feet) accounted for business turnover worth 506 billion yuan ($70 billion) in 2023, about 0.4% of China’s economy. By 2035, it’s expected to hit 3.5 trillion yuan (about $490 billion), said Zhang Xiaolan, a researcher at the State Information Center, a think tank affiliated with China’s main planning agency.

Flying cars are in the making

Guangdong province, home to drone giant DJI with an estimated 70% of the global commercial drone market, leads in development of the low-altitude economy, followed by wealthy eastern coastal provinces Jiangsu and Zhejiang, near Shanghai, according to a report by a research unit of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, and other institutions.

Other big players in Guangdong include EHang, logistics company SF Express’s drone arm Phoenix Wings, and automaker XPENG’s flying car unit ARIDGE.

In October, Guangdong announced it plans to speed up construction of flight service stations and platforms to facilitate airspace operations and will support locally issued discount vouchers for low-altitude tourism.

Its technology and financial hub Shenzhen has launched a 15-million-yuan ($2.1 million) award for companies that earn certifications required for passenger eVTOLs, short for “electric vertical take-off and landing” vehicles that lift off the ground like helicopters, among other incentives.

China’s Civil Aviation Administration has granted certificates allowing EHang to offer commercial passenger services with its pilotless eVTOL, a low-altitude aircraft that can reach speeds of 130 kph (81 mph) with a maximum range of 30 kilometers (19 miles).

EHang hasn’t launched commercial routes, but its vice president, He Tianxing, says it aims to start with aerial sightseeing services. The company has been building takeoff and landing sites in 20 Chinese cities over the past two years. He expects aircraft of various companies will be flying multiple routes, possibly after five years.

He envisions eventual citywide networks using the rooftops of malls, schools and parks as terminals.

“It can’t just be a research product, nor an engineer’s toy,” he said.

Accidents, battery limitations and airspace controls

The biggest challenge for developing eVTOL aircraft is maintaining longer flights and overcoming battery capacity limitations, said Guo Liming, co-founder of Shenzhen-based Skyevtol, whose single-seat manned eVTOL aircraft, priced at around $100,000, can only fly 20 to 30 minutes before it must be charged.

It also has not all been smooth skies.

In September, two XPENG’s eVTOL aircraft collided after a rehearsal for an exhibition and one of them caught fire while landing. The company said no one was hurt, but another expo canceled flying demonstrations a week later.

Undeterred, XPENG has continued to showcase its flying cars, including a six-wheeled ground vehicle with a detachable eVTOL aircraft. Having invested over $600 million, the company said it has more than 7,000 global orders for its “Land Aircraft Carrier” and has begun preparing for mass production.

A trial run of sightseeing flights in Dunhuang, a key ancient Silk Road destination famous for its Buddhist caves and dunes, is planned for next July.

It’s unclear how quickly such aircraft might begin carrying paid passengers regularly. Some companies elsewhere have burned through their funding before reaching the commercial launch stage. In Germany, air taxi makers Lilium and Volocopter filed for bankruptcy, though the latter was later bought by Diamond Aircraft Group, a subsidiary of a Chinese firm.

After years of commercialization, drone applications are not that widespread in China.

Even though the country leads in drone technology and manufacturing, policy constraints including limited airspace access, may mean overseas markets are more promising, said Frank Zhou, managing director at GBA Low Altitude Technology Co., which provides technological software to clients.

“Perhaps for some Southeast Asian countries, if I introduce these applications to them, their demand could explode,” he said.

Less than one-third of China’s low-altitude airspace was accessible for general aviation use in 2023 and there were problems with uneven distribution and a lack of internet connectivity, Zhang, the State Information Center researcher, said in a report. The number of registered general aviation aerodromes in China, excluding private airports, was just about a tenth of those in the U.S., she said.

Officials are easing their grip, but there’s turbulence ahead

Chinese policymakers are gradually working to close the gap. The military generally commands use of most Chinese airspace but has pledged to simplify approval procedures and shorten review times in Shenzhen and five other provinces.

Proposed revisions of the civil aviation law include a chapter on development and promotion of civilian activities, addressing low-altitude airspace allocation and supervision.

It’s still early days, said Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/china-flying-cars-drones-evtol-airspace-72e7eb6883bd0b865a05cbb041d505fb

The US State Department has ordered an immediate halt to visa issuance for travellers using Afghan passports, citing urgent national security concerns. The directive, issued late Friday, came alongside a separate internal order instructing USCIS officers to pause all asylum decisions nationwide.

The Biden-era visa and asylum framework underwent a sudden and sweeping shift on Friday after the State Department announced an immediate halt to visa issuance for individuals travelling on Afghan passports. The terse statement, released late in the evening, said the move was necessary to “protect US national security and public safety” and would remain in force pending further review. Officials did not specify what intelligence triggered the order but confirmed it applied across all overseas posts.

The directive came just hours after CBS News reported that US Citizenship and Immigration Services had been instructed internally to pause all asylum decisions. According to the network, officers were told the freeze was effective immediately and would continue “until further guidance is issued”. Three senior officials familiar with the matter told CBS the instruction followed high-level discussions within the Trump administration after two National Guard soldiers were critically wounded in a shooting near the White House earlier this week.

Deepak’s detailed account on X directly contradicted the statement released by the Pakistan High Commission in London, which claimed the Indian side had withdrawn

The highly anticipated debate at the Oxford Union on the motion, “The House Believes That India’s Response to Pakistan is a Populist Strategy Sold as Security Policy”, ended in public recrimination, with Indian speaker J Sai Deepak strongly alleging an organisational failure and a deliberate Pakistani gambit to avoid confrontation. His detailed account on X directly contradicted the statement released by the Pakistan High Commission in London, which claimed the Indian side had withdrawn.

Deepak revealed that the entire event was fraught with instability, beginning with the involvement of Pakistani nationals in key positions, specifically naming Moosa Harraj as the Oxford Union President (allegedly the son of Pakistan’s Minister of Defence Production) and Raza Nazar as the Treasurer. He noted that the original high-profile Indian speakers—”former COAS Shri Naravane and Dr Swamy”—pulled out due to unavoidable commitments just two days before the debate, forcing a scramble for replacements.

Despite the short notice, Deepak, who was prepared to argue the case for India, managed to secure the participation of Manu Khajuria and Pt Satish K Sharma from within the UK. The final collapse occurred mere hours before the debate was scheduled for November 27. Deepak states he received a call at 3:13 PM informing him that the Pakistani delegation, which included Hina Rabbani Khar and Khawaja Muhammad Asif, had not yet landed in London, prompting the Indian team to abandon the journey to Oxford.

The situation turned farcical when Deepak claimed to have received confirmation that the Pakistani delegation had, in fact, landed and was staying at a hotel in Oxford. This led him to issue a blistering attack on the Pakistani side for “deserting the battlefield even before the battle begins”, suggesting they lacked the courage to face a live debate. He further criticised the Oxford Union leadership for allowing the institution to be “dragged in muck” and become a mouthpiece for the Pakistan High Commission.

Shiv Sena (UBT) lawmaker Priyanka Chaturvedi also took a dig at the Pakistani side.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/j-sai-deepak-calls-out-pakistani-gambit-as-oxford-union-debate-descends-into-farce-9738003.html 

Dr Salman Ahmed specifically labelled Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former President Asif Ali Zardari as nothing more than ‘puppets of Asim Munir’

The deepening political crisis in Pakistan was starkly articulated by Dr Salman Ahmed, a close confidante and key associate of incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an exclusive interview with CNN-News18. Dr Ahmed launched a blistering attack on the country’s military establishment, particularly Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, the Army Chief and newly appointed Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), accusing him of orchestrating a total systemic takeover and deliberately subjecting Khan to torture.

Dr Ahmed asserted that Pakistan is currently operating under “Asim Law”, where the Army Chief’s authority overrides constitutional and judicial frameworks. “Parliament, judiciary, police, and government, all are controlled by Asim Munir,” Dr Ahmed claimed, arguing that the country’s core democratic institutions have been thoroughly compromised. He specifically labelled Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former President Asif Ali Zardari as nothing more than “puppets of Asim Munir”, holding nominal power while the military exercises ultimate command.

The focus of Dr Ahmed’s attack was the prolonged detention and treatment of Imran Khan in Adiala Jail. He alleged that “Asim Munir is testing the waters by torturing Imran Khan” and has been doing so “from day one in jail”. He maintained that Khan’s continued incarceration is solely a reflection of the Army Chief’s deep-seated fear of Imran Khan’s “unmatched popularity”, despite the severe state crackdown on his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Highlighting the inhumane conditions of the imprisonment, Dr Ahmed stressed that while Khan is a “political detainee”, he is “not given the rights of a prisoner, forget about a former Prime Minister’s right”. This aligns with repeated allegations from PTI leaders that Khan is being kept in solitary confinement and denied access to family, lawyers, and doctors, in violation of prison manuals and court orders—a persistent issue that fuels nationwide rumours about his health and safety.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/asim-law-prevails-imran-khans-aide-alleges-torture-total-military-control-in-pakistan-exclusive-9738233.html

THE moment a brave soldier took down a suspected shooter who killed a National Guardsman and hurt another has been captured on pulse-pounding video.

Afghanistan native native Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is accused of attacking newly sworn-in guardsmen Andrew Wolfe, 24, and Sarah Backstrom, 20, on Wednesday.

In a video obtained by the Wall Street Journal, the suspect, who has been charged with first-degree murder, can be seen darting around a street corner in Washington DC as he allegedly carries out the shooting.

A National Guardsman could be seen running for cover and yelling moments before firing shots.

The clip captures fallen Guard members lying on the ground after they were struck with bullets.

Prosecutors say Lakanwal fired shots at point-blank range at 2:30 pm and hit the two guardsmen before he was taken down by gunfire.

The attack has been described as “targeted” and an “ambush,” and officials say that Lakanwal could be hit with terrorism charges.

Backstrom succumbed to her wounds on Friday, and Wolfe is still in the hospital fighting for his life.

Lakanwal was also shot, but he’s expected to recover from his injuries.

The incident has sparked a fiery immigration debate, as officials say Lakanwal came to the US through Operation Allies Welcome in 2021.

The initiative, which was started under President Joe Biden’s administration, was meant to harbor Afghans who worked with US forces after America’s messy exit from the country.

Lakanwal is one of approximately 76,000 people who have come to the US through the program.

SUSPECT’S HISTORY

Lakanwal was living in Washington state, about an hour and a half north of Seattle, with his wife and five children when he allegedly carried out the attack, his former landlord told the Associated Press.

He had briefly worked as an independent contractor with Amazon Flex, which allows people to deliver packages using their own car, the outlet reported.

However, the immigrant had been struggling to find work in recent months, Mohammad Sherzad, a neighbor of Lakanwal, said.

Sherzad described his neighbor as polite and quiet, and said that he spoke very little English.

They attended the same mosque, and some of his children attended the same church as some of Lakanwal’s children.

About two weeks before the attack, Sherzad said the suspect “disappeared.”

“He was so quiet and the kids were so polite, they were so playful. But we didn’t see anything bad about him. He was looking OK,” Sherzad said.

President Donald Trump has called for a thorough investigation of every Afghan who has come to America, as he feared they weren’t properly vetted.

In a searing statement, Trump called the attacker an “animal” and described the shooting as a “monstrous, ambush-style attack.”

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that Lakanwal had a “relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces” but said they are still investigating the details.

“We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well, to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America,” he said in a press conference on Thursday.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15563960/dc-shooter-national-guard-video-moment-soldier-ambush/

Biden’s presidency has been rocked by claims that his autopen signature was mechanically stamped on nearly every official document he signed in office

DONALD Trump has said he is overturning all the documents and executive orders signed by Joe Biden with an autopen.

Trump also threatened to charge the former president with perjury after alleging his staffers were using the tool to sign decisions on his behalf.

It comes just weeks after Republican lawmakers cast doubt on all of Biden’s actions in office, saying all the executive orders signed via Biden’s autopen are “void”.

Trump today wrote on Truth Social: “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect.

“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States.”

The president also said that he has now overturned all the executive orders under the Biden administration and “anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden.”

“Because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally. Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury,” Trump added.

Biden’s presidency has been rocked by claims that his autopen signature was mechanically stamped on nearly every official document he signed in office.

Questions swirl over whether Biden’s use of the device was mere convenience — or a sign that he was a figurehead president whose staffers wielded real power.

Last month, the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee unveiled their long-promised report on Biden’s use of the autopen during his presidency.

The report – based on more than a dozen interviews with Biden aides – shows that – delivered a blistering critique of his time in office and made sweeping accusations about the workings of his White House.

It claimed that Biden may not have known what was being signed in his name as president amid his alleged cognitive decline.

It also claimed that the former president’s mental state declined to a degree that allowed his aides to enact policies without his knowledge.

The investigation alleged the committee had found “a cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline” and “no record demonstrating President Biden himself made all of the executive decisions that were attributed to him”.

Biden has publicly disputed that, saying he made all decisions as president and calling Republicans who have suggested otherwise “liars”.

He has strenuously denied that he was unaware of his administration’s actions, calling such claims ridiculous and false.

“The inner-most circle, or cocoon, of the White House senior staff organised one of the largest scandals in American history, hiding a cognitively failing president and refusing any means of confirmation of such demise,” the Republican report said.

While the report claims that record-keeping policies in the Biden White House were so lax that the chain of custody for a given decision is difficult or impossible to establish, Republicans did not offer any concrete instances of the chain of command being violated or a policy being enacted without Biden’s knowledge.

Previously, another report claimed that Biden’s name was signed using an autopen on nearly every executive order and official document during his four-year tenure.

The findings prompted Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey to demand a Justice Department investigation, warning that Biden’s cognitive decline may have allowed unelected staff to push through radical policies without his knowledge.

“If true, these executive orders, pardons, and all other actions are unconstitutional and legally void,” Bailey declared.

One of the autopen-signed orders included Biden’s August 2022 directive safeguarding abortion access in emergencies, while another was a December 2024 order closing federal offices to honour late ex-US President Jimmy Carter.

The Oversight Project said it gathered “every document we could find with Biden’s signature over the course of his presidency” and found that all but one — his July 2024 letter dropping out of the presidential race — used the identical autopen signature.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15565820/trump-terminates-biden-executive-orders/

DONALD Trump is set to hand occupied Ukrainian territories over to Vladimir Putin to secure a deal to end the war, it is reported.

The US is expected to recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories.

It is understood that the US President sent Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the offer to the Russian tyrant in Moscow.

Reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory is likely to go ahead despite concern from Ukraine‘s allies in Europe.

A source told The Telegraph: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position.

“They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”

The Kremlin said it had received an updated strategy for ending the war.

It comes as one of Putin’s closest allies – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – travelled to Russia for talks on energy and the war in Ukraine.

Putin greeted Orban in Moscow on Friday on a rare visit by an EU and Nato leader.

Orban said he would still be happy for Budapest to host a Russia-US summit with President Donald Trump.

During the meeting, Russia confirmed it would deliver the agreed crude and gas supplies to Hungary according to the existing contract, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

His trip to Moscow is the second since last year.

The meeting comes as Ukraine’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak announced his resignation following an anti-corruption raid on his home.

It threatens to destabilise Zelensky’s leadership just as peace talks approach a crucial stage.

Zelensky appointed Yermak to lead peace deal discussions in the coming days, however, it is unclear who will replace him at the negotiating table.

The latest version was drawn up after emergency talks between Ukrainian and American officials in Geneva, Switzerland, last weekend.

An initial 28-point peace plan included America’s “de facto” recognition of Crimea and the two eastern Donbas regions.

It also contained “de facto” recognition of Russian-held land in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

However, Ukrainian and US officials have now negotiated a new 19-point-plan.

It is said to be less favourable to Moscow‘s demands.

Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s chief of staff, previously said: “Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory.

“As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory.

“The constitution prohibits this. Nobody can do that unless they want to go against the Ukrainian constitution and the Ukrainian people.”

It is unclear how the latest proposal will deal with the most contentious issues, such as any territorial concessions.

The Ukrainian president has not indicated when he will travel to either Washington or Florida to meet the US leader.

However, Washington’s offer to recognise Russian territory has caused consternation amongst its European allies.

After a meeting of the coalition of the willing on Wednesday, its leaders said: “They are clear on the principle that borders must not be changed by force.

“This remains one of the fundamental principles for preserving stability and peace in Europe and beyond.”

A European counter-proposal to the original 28-point plan made no recommendation to recognise Russian control over Ukrainian territory.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/15564094/trump-occupied-ukraine-russia-gift-putin/

Siemens, BASF and VW have poured billions into AI to expand virtual factories, robot fleets and smart data centers. Catching up with the US and China will be a brutal feat, with thousands of jobs on the line.

Germany has been warned for years that it risks becoming an “industrial museum” unless it embraces radical modernization — and that includes artificial intelligence (AI).

Productivity in Europe’s biggest economy has barely grown for 15 years, export share in automobiles and machinery is shrinking and Germany’s energy costs are among the highest in the G7 group of wealthy nations. Together, this has created a toxic mix that is steadily eroding the country’s global competitiveness.

Policymakers and business leaders believe a narrow window exists to reverse the slide by fully embracing AI in factories and supply chains, helping the country to play catch-up with the world’s two biggest players, the United States and China.

Speaking at the inauguration of Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, Jupiter, in September, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz noted that the two global powers are in a “neck‑and‑neck race to compete for future market share in an AI‑supported global economy.”

“We in Germany and we in Europe have every opportunity to catch up and then keep pace,” he told attendees of the launch ceremony in the town of Juelich in western Germany.

The US and China have pushed ahead with AI models such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, advanced chips and industrial-scale stress tests of data centers. Their early tests prove their systems can handle AI workloads at business-critical scale without downtime.

Never-ending AI pilot projects

Germany’s industrial giants, meanwhile, have been accused of being trapped in so-called pilot purgatory, experimenting with AI but hesitant to fully roll out ambitious projects.

Bosch, for instance, launched generative AI pilots in its factories in late 2023 to optimize production scheduling and monitoring. Volkswagen, in collaboration with Siemens, has tested AI‑driven digital-twin factories — virtual replicas of production lines that allow engineers to simulate, predict and improve performance.

While these projects have been praised as innovative, until recently, they were still confined to limited trials rather than full or partial rollout, often due to legal and safety concerns.

“Many [German] firms still lack clear AI strategies and change-management capacity,” AI expert and author Thomas Ramge told DW. “So pilots don’t scale into core operations.”

Once the Germany’s industrial leaders can prove AI’s economic benefits, Ramge added, the country’s deep manufacturing know‑how and network of small and medium‑sized suppliers that feed into major supply chains will help German firms to play catch‑up.

Germany’s Economy Ministry forecasts that AI could deliver at least one extra percentage point of annual real GDP growth from 2026 onward.

Germany hampered by talent, chip shortages

As well as competing globally for the best tech talent and the high-end chips needed to power AI, German firms remain risk-averse amid high up-front costs and a corporate culture that still prizes caution over disruption.

They must also grapple with regulatory uncertainty, especially with regard to the European Union’s AI Act, which critics say is overly complex, vague in its definitions and has strict compliance rules on applications deemed high-risk. The European Commission has proposed delaying the act’s full rollout until August 2027.

Despite the many hurdles, Germany’s AI adoption is accelerating rapidly. According to a survey published in May by the ifo Institute in Munich, 41% of companies now use AI in their business processes — a 27% jump from the previous year. Nearly one in five firms plan to adopt it soon.

Germany’s industrial leaders are clearly setting the pace, with more than half already deploying AI. Yet the survey also highlights lingering concerns. Many smaller firms and sectors — including retail, hospitality and construction — remain hesitant, with some saying AI is not even on their agenda.

Beyond uneven adoption, the survey reveals a looming labor market challenge. More than a quarter of German firms expect AI to result in cut jobs over the next five years, while only a small minority foresee new positions opening up.

Alexandre Mendonca, an affiliate fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, thinks this is ironic due to labor shortages sparked by the global AI boom.

“German firms are having a hard time finding specialists to work with this type of technology — it’s actually one of the highest rates in the EU,” Mendonca told DW. “Adoption is not enough — capacity to use AI is crucial.”

Germany’s growing AI successes

Germany may be cautious in fully rolling out industrial-grade AI, but one of its business giants is already shaping the global infrastructure behind the current AI boom.

Siemens is a key part of Europe’s “Data Center Four” — also made up of France’s Legrand, Schneider Electric and ABB from Switzerland — which provide the automation systems, power grids, and cooling technologies that keep hyperscale AI facilities running reliably. These are the only four European firms that can match Silicon Valley for size.

Germany’s automotive sector is also rolling out AI at scale, with more than 70% of carmakers and parts suppliers already using it in production, according to the ifo survey.

Yet, as Ramge cautions, these deployments are critical but may not be enough to tackle the many headwinds facing the auto industry, including volatile electric-vehicle (EV) demand, soaring energy costs and fierce competition from China.

“AI will be a necessary condition for [auto industry] survival — through software-defined vehicles, smarter production and better supply-chain management — but it won’t be sufficient on its own,” Ramge told DW. “Strategy, cost structures and industrial policy all have to move in parallel with AI deployment.”

Germany has also chalked up AI successes beyond industry. SAP has embedded generative AI into its enterprise software, which is used worldwide, via a co-pilot named Joule, while insurance company Allianz is deploying AI for risk modeling and fraud detection globally.

The faster German companies adopt AI, the bigger the gains are expected to be, helping to fix some of the country’s biggest issues.

A 2023 report by business consultancy McKinsey predicted that annual productivity growth could be lifted by up to 1.5% over the next decade, while annual GDP could rise by up to €450 billion ($520 billion) and German factories could use up a quarter less electricity.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-industrial-titans-embrace-the-ai-age/a-74876661

Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the duration and intensity of the season, leading to heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.

Days of devastating flooding across Southeast Asia have killed more than 300 people in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, authorities said on Friday (Nov 28).

Heavy monsoon season rains paired with a tropical storm system inundated areas across the three countries, stranding residents on rooftops and cutting off entire communities.

Authorities in Indonesia were struggling to reach the worst-affected areas on Sumatra island, while authorities at a southern Thailand hospital brought in refrigerated trucks to store bodies after the morgue exceeded capacity.

In Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, 53-year-old Misniati described a terrifying battle against rising floodwaters to reach her husband at home.

She said that, returning from early morning prayers at a mosque, “I noticed the street was flooded.”

“I tried to run back to my house to tell my husband, and the water was already reaching my waist,” she told AFP, adding that it was up to her chest by the time she reached home.

“We didn’t sleep at all last night, we just monitored the water,” said Misniati, who only uses one name.

Officials on Sumatra said flooding and landslides this week had killed at least 174 people, with nearly 80 more missing.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto said the toll could grow as rescuers reach isolated areas.

“There are locations that still cannot be reached … where it is indicated that there may be human victims in those areas that are unreachable,” Suharyanto said.

North Sumatra police spokesman Ferry Walintukan said authorities were focused on “evacuation and providing assistance”, although access to some areas and communication was still cut.

“Hopefully, the weather will clear up so we can move the helicopter to the (worst-hit) locations,” he said.

In Aceh province in Sumatra’s north, receding water left behind cars buried in mud almost up to their windows. An AFP journalist saw a truck carrying timber abandoned in the mud, with no sign of the driver.

More rain is forecast for much of Sumatra island, although the intensity was expected to ease, officials said.

“NOTHING I CAN DO”

Among the hardest-hit areas in the region is southern Thailand, where residents of Hat Yai were left clinging to rooftops awaiting rescue by boat.

At least 145 people have been killed across Thailand’s south, government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat said on Friday, as receding floodwaters allowed a clearer picture of the disaster.

Most occurred in Songkhla province, where authorities at the Songklanagarind Hospital said they had no more room for bodies and were relying on refrigerated trucks.

“The morgue has exceeded its capacity, so we need more,” Charn, a morgue official who only gave his first name, told AFP.

There has been growing public criticism of the flooding response and two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures.

Hat Yai residents described floodwaters rising rapidly.

“The water rose to the ceiling of the second floor,” said Kamban Wongpanya, 67, who had to be rescued by boat.

Shop owner Rachane Remsringam said his general goods store Madam Yong was looted and vandalised by flood victims.

“Many kitchen products and food items were stolen, including sugar and milk,” he told AFP, saying that the damage amounted to several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

AFP footage showed the shop littered with rubbish and empty shelves.

Two people were killed in Malaysia by flooding caused by heavy rain that left stretches of northern Perlis state under water.

“EXTREME WEATHER”

The annual monsoon season, typically between June and September, often brings heavy rains, triggering landslides and flash floods.

A tropical storm has exacerbated conditions, and the tolls in Indonesia and Thailand rank among the highest in flooding events in those countries in recent years.

Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the duration and intensity of the season, leading to heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/death-toll-in-southeast-asia-floods-tops-300-5496506

The simulation was part of the five-day Exercise Highcrest, which concluded on Friday (Nov 28).

More than 240 personnel from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), Home Team and other agencies took part in an interagency exercise at sea to take down a “hijacked vessel” planning to conduct a terrorist attack on Singapore.

The simulation was part of the five-day Exercise Highcrest, which concluded on Friday (Nov 28), and also included scenarios such as fighting a fire at sea and evacuating casualties.

The annual maritime security exercise aims to strengthen inter-agency coordination, involving personnel from the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Police Coast Guard, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Singapore Customs and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

TAKING DOWN A TERROR THREAT

In the simulation on Friday off the coast of Changi Naval base, a merchant vessel called Constancy was detected after deviating from normal commercial shipping routes and was assessed to pose a potential threat.

A warning shot was fired from the nearby RSN vessel RSS Justice, where media were present to observe the exercise. The shot served to deter the potentially “hijacked vessel” from advancing.

Following that, two Police Coast Guard craft encircled the rogue vessel, blocking its path toward mainland Singapore.

Special Operations Task Force (SOTF) personnel then arrived – by sea aboard two combatant craft medium motor vessels, and by air on two H225M helicopters operated by the Republic of Singapore Air Force.

The operators on motor vessels mounted a ladder on the side of the ship to climb on board.

The other SOTF personnel roped down from one of the helicopters, which hovered above the hijacked ship.

Together, they began to neutralise the threat and take down the “terrorists”. An MPA patrol craft circled the area to secure the perimeter and prevent commercial vessels from approaching.

Then, red smoke began to emanate from the vessel, simulating a fire on the ship.

Two SCDF vessels approached the ship, and one doused the “fire” with a water cannon.

The other vessel evacuated a casualty using the height rescue method, the first time it has been featured at Exercise Highcrest.

The casualty is evacuated from the bridge of the hijacked ship and onto the deck of the SCDF rescue vessel, shared Senior Lieutenant Colonel (SLTC) Jackson Pang, the director of the National Maritime Ops Group at the Singapore Maritime Crisis Centre.

“This is in itself very challenging, given the differences in height between the two vessels,” he said.

“Exercising this component gives us confidence that our maritime security agencies are able to conduct the entire range of operations, from interception of the vessel to evacuation of casualties.”

SEA LINES CRUCIAL TO PROSPERITY: SHANMUGAM

Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam and Minister for Defence Chan Chun Sing were also on board the RSS Justice to observe the conduct of Exercise Highcrest.

Speaking to the media after the live demonstration, Mr Shanmugam said that the waterways and sea lines around Singapore are critical to its prosperity, with maritime trade making up about 7 per cent of the nation’s GDP.

“One of the ways in which we can be attacked is through attack on ships in our waterways, or an attack from the sea on to Singapore itself,” he said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/counter-terrorism-exercise-highcrest-k-shanmugam-maritime-security-5495326

Kim Kardashian revealed her latest brain scan show she has “low activity.”

In her visit to Dr. Daniel Amen — who previously scanned Khloé Kardashian and Kendall Jenner’s brains in 2022 — the doctor brought some “holes” in her brain scan to her attention, which indicated “low activity.”

“The front part of your brain is less active than it should be,” the doctor explained on Thursday’s episode of “The Kardashians.”

“With your frontal lobes, as they work now, it would be harder to manage stress and that’s not good for you, especially as you’re studying and you’re getting ready to take the boards,” Amen continued.

“That just can’t be,” Kim, 45, replied. “It just can’t — not accepting.”

He later informed the “All’s Fair” star that the “chronic stress” could be tied to her studying for the California Bar exam.

“I got to get on a plan to really figure this out because I have some s–t to do this summer,” she said in the episode.

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Kim ultimately did not pass the test this year despite her strenuous cramming.

Reality fans may recall that Kim tearfully told her sister Kourtney Kardashian that doctors found a “little” brain aneurysm during her MRI scan in the Season 7 premiere, which aired in October.

At the time, the SKIMS founder cried, wondering “why the f–k” it was happening. Her doctors eventually informed her that aneurysms can be caused by “stress.”

The business mogul speculated that the stress was likely brought on by her contentious divorce from Kanye West, with whom she shares kids North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6,

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/28/entertainment/kim-kardashians-brain-scan-shows-low-activity-after-aneurysm/

It was one of the big set-pieces in Washington in 2019.

All eyes were on Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was testifying to a House committee about his former boss.

A Democratic member of the committee, Stacey Plaskett, was preparing to question Cohen and was seen on camera texting someone on her phone.

This week, the public found out the identity of the other person in that exchange – convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

According to emails made public by his estate under a subpoena, he was encouraging her to ask about a Trump Organization employee. After Ms Plaskett did so, Epstein texted her back: “Good Work”.

In hindsight, this incident has struck a chord with many, who say it highlights the extent of his influence on America’s elite.

Plaskett has denied she was seeking Epstein’s advice, saying she was texting with many people that day, including Epstein, who was one of her constituents. She says as a former lawyer, she had learned to seek information from all sources – even people she didn’t like.

“I am disgusted by Epstein’s deviant behavior. I strongly support his victims and admire their courage. I have long believed and supported that the entire Epstein files be released,” she said in a statement, sent to the BBC.

She says their exchange occurred before his arrest for sexual trafficking. But it was well after his conviction for soliciting prostitution in 2008.

His private island in the US territory had also been mentioned in a damning investigation by the Miami Herald just a year before as being one of the places he sexually abused several underage girls.

Just six months after her exchange with Epstein, the disgraced financier would be dead in his prison cell – a result of suicide, according to a medical examiner. His death, and the conspiracies that swirled around it, would trigger a reckoning that has caused ripple effects in Washington and Wall Street, and has taken down some of his former friends.

Their exchange was just one of many in the latest trove of over 20,000 pages of personal documents, which revealed Epstein’s ability to maintain elite social circles even after his criminal conviction and the Herald expose.

How and why these relationships survived while other friends cut him off tells us as much about the dynamics of social circles at the very top of US society as they do about Epstein’s influence.

“He was a diabolical monster, but at the same time he was brilliant in a sense that he was able to maintain this incredible network of some of the world’s most powerful individuals,” said Barry Levine, author of The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

“He had a certain charisma attached to himself that put him in a position where people turned to him.”

‘He would use information that he gained’

Epstein considered himself a “people collector” who made connections for transactional purposes, Mr Levine said.

“He would use information that he gained… with the intention at the end of the day that he was going to bank either favours from them, finances from them, or in a darker sense, I think, blackmail from some of these individuals.”

The relationship between Epstein and Labour’s Lord Peter Mandelson has come under particular scrutiny in the UK, with Lord Mandelson ultimately being sacked in September from his role as the UK’s ambassador to the US.

Documents released by Congress show he maintained contact with the paedophile until late 2016, which was before the Herald expose but after his conviction.

In one email from November 2015, Epstein tells him after his birthday: “63 years old. You made it.”

Lord Mandelson replies less than 90 minutes later, saying: “Just. I have decided to extend my life by spending more of it in the US.”

He has strenuously denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, any wrongdoing, and has expressed regret over their continued communications with him.

Epstein’s eclectic circle of scholars, entrepreneurs and politicians

The documents released by Epstein’s estate reveal his eclectic social circle of distinguished scholars, business titans and politicians.

Mr Levine said it’s not a stretch that some more casual acquaintances of Epstein may not have known about his abuse, or were impressed enough by his influential connections to look past it.

“People forget things,” he said. “His credentials among power brokers were extremely high, and I think a lot of individuals probably just dismissed the conviction against him.”

Others may have been simply dazzled by his wealth, journalists and those who knew him have suggested.

“A jail sentence doesn’t matter anymore,” David Patrick Columbia, the founder of New York Social Diary, told The Daily Beast in 2011, after Epstein’s first conviction. “The only thing that gets you shunned in New York society is poverty.”

A former US treasury secretary turned Harvard University president, Larry Summers asked Epstein for romantic advice, including an exchange in November 2018 – the same month the Herald investigation was published – where he seemed to forward an email from a woman to Epstein to ask about how he should respond.

Epstein replied: “She’s already beginning to sound needy 🙂 nice.”

Summers’ interactions with his former confidant came back to haunt him last week, leading him to announce he was stepping back from public commitments and stopping teaching at Harvard.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognise the pain they have caused,” Summers said.

Epstein also reportedly used his money skills to help famed linguist Noam Chomsky, with whom he exchanged several messages over the years and invited to stay at his homes.

The flattery went both ways. In an undated letter of support included in the trove of emails, Chomsky raved about Epstein, saying the two had held “many long and often in-depth discussions”.

The 96-year-old previously told the Wall Street Journal that Epstein had helped him move money between his accounts without “one penny from Epstein”.

“I knew him and we met occasionally,” he said.

In the same article, he said: “What was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to US laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.”

He did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Chomsky was one of Epstein’s famous financial clients, many of whom Epstein helped to save billions of dollars, Mr Levine said.

He was able to do so because he “understood tax code and finances to some degree better than maybe the most highly paid people on Wall Street”, Mr Levine said.

The ones who cut ties

Throughout the 23,000 pages of Epstein’s documents, one man’s name appears more than perhaps any other.

Trump did not send or receive any of the messages included in the thousands of documents, having cut off ties with Epstein.

In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy”. Epstein would later remark: “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.”

But the relationship would eventually sour. According to Trump, they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. By 2008, Trump was saying that he had not been “a fan of his”.

Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking. The White House has also said Trump kicked Epstein out of his club “decades ago for being a creep to his female employees”.

Mr Levine said there were many people whose messages with Epstein after his convictions will leave them embarrassed, though that does not suggest they participated in any of his crimes.

“Each and every one of course regrets the day they communicated with Jeffrey Epstein or spent time with him,” he said. “It is one of the most unbelievable stories of our time – power, privilege, predation.”

But there was at least one person who said he understood immediately that Epstein was “gross”.

Howard Lutnick, the president’s commerce secretary, was a next-door neighbour of Epstein’s for 10 years. He told the New York Post’s podcast that his first encounter with Epstein was his last.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7v6xl4me8o

 

A golden hare that sparked a treasure hunt has sold at auction for a hammer price of £82,550.

In 1979, artist Kit Williams buried the handcrafted 18-carat gold jewel, then worth about £5,000, in Ampthill Park, Bedfordshire, with TV presenter Bamber Gascoigne as the sole witness.

Mr Williams created Masquerade, a book filled with cryptic riddles pointing to the hare’s location, which attracted treasure hunters from around the globe before it was finally unearthed in 1982.

The hare was auctioned by Sotheby’s, having previously been sold by the same auction house in 1988.

It had been buried in Ampthill Park inside a terracotta casket and sealed with wax to evade metal detectors.

Members of the public would call and write letters to Mr Williams for advice on finding the treasure.

The artist toured America and appeared on talk shows after the art book containing clues had sold out within two days.

One transatlantic airline sold tickets for ’10-day Masquerade Treasure Tours’ where travellers were given shovels and maps of Britain.

It was uncovered by a man named Dugald Thompson under the fake name Ken Thomas.

The elusive treasure hunter insisted on covering his face with a scarf and would only be interviewed from behind a screen.

It later sparked controversy when a newspaper uncovered a link between Mr Thomas and Mr Williams’ ex-girlfriend, who had remembered visiting Ampthill years before.

The golden hare, given the name Jack, is set with a ruby eye and a body design that includes flowhead motifs, each set with turquoise.

It previously sold for £31,900 in an 1988 auction and has remained with the same family ever since.

Mr Williams said: “The current owners have been good and generous guardians of the Masquerade Jewel, agreeing to put it on public exhibition at the V&A Museum and at the Sydney Opera House.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87ld115ndvo

The bird flu virus that has been spreading among wild birds, poultry and mammals could lead to a pandemic worse than COVID-19 if it mutates to transmit between humans, the head of France’s Institut Pasteur respiratory infections centre said.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has led to the culling of hundreds of millions of birds in the past few years, disrupting food supplies and driving up prices, though human infections remain rare.

“What we fear is the virus adapting to mammals, and particularly to humans, becoming capable of human-to-human transmission, and that virus would be a pandemic virus,” Marie-Anne Rameix-Welti, medical director at the Institut Pasteur’s respiratory infections centre, told Reuters.
The Institut Pasteur was among the first European labs to develop and share COVID-19 detection tests, making protocols available to the World Health Organization and labs worldwide.

NO ANTIBODIES AGAINST H5 BIRD FLU

People have antibodies against common H1 and H3 seasonal flu, but none against the H5 bird flu affecting birds and mammals, like they had none against COVID-19, she said.

And unlike COVID-19, which mainly affects vulnerable people, flu viruses can also kill healthy individuals, including children, Rameix-Welti said.
“A bird flu pandemic would probably be quite severe, potentially even more severe than the pandemic we experienced,” she said in her Paris laboratory.
There have been many cases of people infected by H5 bird flu viruses in the past, including the H5N1 currently circulating among poultry and dairy cows in the U.S., but these were often in close contact with infected animals. A first ever human case of H5N5 appeared in the U.S. state of Washington this month. The man, who had underlying conditions, died last week.
In its latest report on bird flu, the WHO said there had been nearly 1,000 outbreaks in humans between 2003 and 2025 – mainly in Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam, of which 48% had died.

HUMAN PANDEMIC RISK STILL LOW

However, the risk of a human pandemic developing remains low, Gregorio Torres, head of the Science Department at the World Organisation for Animal Health, told Reuters.
“We need to be prepared to respond early enough. But for the time being, you can happily walk in the forest, eat chicken and eggs and enjoy your life. The pandemic risk is a possibility. But in terms of probability, it’s still very low,” he said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/bird-flu-poses-risk-pandemic-worse-than-covid-frances-institut-pasteur-says-2025-11-27/

Imran Khan, who is the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has been in jail since August 2023 in multiple cases.

Noreen Niazi, one of the three sisters of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, has expressed anguish over the uncertainty looming about her brother’s condition in prison.

Imran Khan, who is the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has been in jail since August 2023 in multiple cases.

Speaking to ANI, Noreen Niazi alleged that authorities in Pakistan are not allowing her and others to meet him for over four weeks. She also claimed that they have been deliberately holding up information about his brother’s condition in jail.

“We don’t know anything. They are not telling us anything, nor are they letting anybody meet him. His party’s people went there because they had a meeting scheduled, but they were not allowed inside. We have not been allowed to meet him for the last four weeks…” she said.

On a question about her last meeting with her brother, Niazi recalled the time when Imran Khan was kept in isolation for nearly three weeks last year, with no electricity and was not allowed to read books.

She claimed that authorities violated the prison manual, which states that isolation should not last more than four days.

“He is going through a tough time alone. He is in isolation. As per the jail manual, one can’t be placed in isolation for more than four days. But he was put in isolation for three weeks last year as well, during which electricity was switched off during summer, and he wasn’t even allowed to read books. The same has been done now. No one knows what’s happening inside the jail. This is the pinnacle of oppression,” Niazi told ANI.

She also criticised the Pakistan government, claiming police in the country have been given a free hand to deal with those supporting Imran Khan. Niazi alleged that police have been allowed to “beat up” people, including children, women, and the elderly, without the fear of facing any consequences.

“The police have been ordered to stop us and, I believe, also permitted to do to us whatever they want. This has never happened in Pakistan before. No one has ever disrespected women like this, nor has anyone been oppressed this way. This is the first time in Pakistan that these people have been allowed to beat up people like there won’t be any consequences, without considering if it’s a child, an elderly person, or a woman in front of them. The world is aware of what’s happening in Pakistan,” she was quoted as saying by ANI.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/imran-khan-s-sister-voices-alarm-over-brothers-condition-in-jail-not-telling-us-anything-101764294582758.html

Imran Khan’s son Kasim Khan accuses Pakistan’s government of holding the former prime minister in secretive solitary confinement, denying family access and proof of life, and urges global pressure to end what he calls inhumane, politically-driven isolation.

Kasim Khan, the younger son of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, has issued a stark public appeal accusing the government of keeping his father in complete isolation and blocking all family access. In a strongly worded post on X, he said the family had no proof of life and warned that authorities would be held responsible for the former leader’s safety.

Kasim, who has largely lived outside Pakistan and stays away from front-line politics, said Imran Khan has spent 845 days under arrest and has now been confined to a death-row cell for six weeks. “My father has been under arrest for 845 days,” he wrote. “For the past six weeks, he has been kept in solitary confinement in a death cell with zero transparency.”

Imran Khan, the former cricket star turned politician, has been jailed on multiple convictions that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party calls politically motivated. His sons, Kasim and Sulaiman, were raised in the UK with their mother, Jemima Goldsmith, and rarely comment publicly on Pakistani politics. The Pakistan government has imposed an undeclared ban on family meetings for over a month.

Kasim said even basic rights had been denied despite court orders. “His sisters have been denied every visit There have been no phone calls, no meetings and no proof of life,” he posted. “Me and my brother have had no contact with our father.”

Calling the information blackout deliberate, Kasim accused the Pakistani state of hiding his father’s condition. “This absolute blackout is not a security protocol. It is a deliberate attempt to hide his condition and prevent our family from knowing whether he is safe.”

He warned that the “Pakistani government and its handlers will be held fully accountable — legally, morally and internationally — for my father’s safety and for every consequence of this inhumane isolation.”

In his appeal, Kasim urged global institutions to intervene. “I call on the international community, global human rights organisations and every democratic voice to intervene urgently. Demand proof of life, enforce court ordered access, end this inhumane isolation and call for the release of Pakistan’s most popular political leader who is being held solely for political reasons.”

PTI DEMANDS PROOF OF LIFE

Despite the government’s reassurances, PTI has demanded an official response and immediate family access. The party says the uncertainty has fuelled wild rumours online, including claims that Imran Khan has been killed inside the prison — rumours the administration says are entirely false.

Tension escalated outside Adiala Jail on Wednesday after Imran’s three sisters and PTI workers staged a sit-in demanding to see him. Thousands of supporters later joined the protest amid accusations that police had assaulted the sisters and party members during a previous demonstration.

The protest ended only after jail officials assured Aleema Khan that a meeting would be arranged. The sisters are expected to be allowed access later today and again on Tuesday, according to ARY News.

Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, known for holding death-row inmates and dangerous criminals, has long carried a fearsome reputation. Imran’s supporters say that only fuels concerns over his safety.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/imran-khans-son-alleges-death-cell-isolation-demands-proof-of-life-glbs-2827223-2025-11-28

US federal agencies, including the ICE, are detaining individuals during Green Card interviews at USCIS offices in San Diego. Attorneys said individuals, including spouses of US citizens, with visa overstays but no criminal history, are being taken into custody.

US federal agencies are detaining people, including spouses of American citizens, during routine Green Card interviews at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices in San Diego, according to media reports in the US. An attorney claimed that his client was detained and handcuffed when he appeared for the Green Card interview.

Immigration attorney Saman Nasseri said the federal agencies have begun arresting visa overstays during their interviews. Some couples and their lawyers told The New York Times they had followed the required steps to secure permanent residency.

“ICE and USCIS have started implementing a policy where ICE is now making arrests at USCIS offices during the green card interviews on anyone who is a visa overstay, so if they’re out of status, ICE is making that arrest at the interviews,” Saman Nasseri was quoted as saying by CBS8.

Nasseri stated that five of his clients were taken into custody during Green Card interviews just last week. He said that his clients have no criminal history or arrests.

“None of my clients have any arrests or criminal history that are in this situation. These are just cases where they entered legally, they overstayed their visa. All of my cases right now are people that have been married to US citizens, so these are spouses of US citizens that are going through the normal process, the normal channels, and they’re being taken into custody,” Nasseri added.

Another attorney, Habib Hasbini, also confirmed similar experiences with his clients.

“The first one was November 12, the eve of the memo that came down from ICE. After that, I had four to follow through, but I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls from people who were arrested from the same facility,” Hasbini told CBS8.

Attorney Habib Hasbini observed that, so far, these detentions seem to be confined to the USCIS office in San Diego.

Hasbini recommended that those with scheduled GreenCard interviews should still attend, while remaining cautious and prepared for potential detentions.

He suggests making family and work arrangements in case of detention, noting that not attending an interview can result in case denial for abandonment. Additionally, because individuals are out of status, they may still face arrest by ICE regardless, CBS8 reported.

MEXICAN NATIONAL DETAINED, HANDCUFFED DURING GREEN CARD INTERVIEW: US ATTORNEY

Immigration attorney Tessa Cabrera told ABC 10 that her client, a Mexican national residing in the US since 2002, was handcuffed and taken into custody during his GreenCard interview.

The man’s US citizen daughter had applied for him to get permanent residency, according to the ABC10 report.

“The officer said, I’ll be right back and stepped out. And then, two ICE officers walked in. They asked him what his name was and then put him in handcuffs,” Cabrera said.

The client was taken to the basement of the federal building and was detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, according to Cabrera.

She said that ICE officers gave her a “Warrant for Arrest” issued by the Department of Homeland Security.

The warrant states they have probable cause based on statements made to the immigration officer or evidence that the person lacks immigration status or is removable under immigration law, according to the report.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/us-federal-agencies-uscis-ice-detaining-foreigners-during-green-card-interviews-attorney-generals-immigration-san-diego-2827139-2025-11-27

Taylor Swift and Hugh Jackman allegedly witnessed Ryan Reynolds berate Justin Baldoni for “fat shaming” Blake Lively, according to newly unsealed court docs in Lively and Baldoni’s ongoing court battle.

Baldoni went to Lively and Reynolds’ New York City apartment on April 25, 2023, per the docs obtained by People. Once there, the Canadian actor allegedly “unloaded” on Baldoni, telling him that it was “horrible” to ask about a woman’s weight.

Reynolds, 49, and Lively, 38, allegedly accused the “Jane the Virgin” alum of “fat shaming” Lively, and Baldoni, 41, was “completely embarrassed” and apologized while shedding tears.

Swift, 35, and Jackman, 57, were in the apartment during the incident, according to the docs.

The allegation comes from a timeline of events sent from Wayfarer Studios co-founder Jamey Heath’s team to Baldoni’s publicist over email in July 2024, People reports.

Reps for Swift and Jackman did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

TMZ previously reported that Swift went to Lively’s apartment at the time the actress told her to, allegedly not knowing that anyone — including Baldoni — would be there.

An insider told the outlet that Swift believed Lively manipulated the timing of the meeting with Baldoni so that Swift would arrive before he left, and that the singer didn’t say anything to Baldoni except that she was excited to see “It Ends With Us.”

Baldoni claimed in his now-dismissed $400 million countersuit against his co-star and Reynolds that Lively weaponized her friendship with Swift. He also alleged that text messages were released with Lively referring to Reynolds and Swift as her “dragons.”

“The message could not have been clearer,” the lawsuit read. “Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively’s ‘dragons,’ two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”

Baldoni also claimed in his complaint that when he was invited to Lively and Reynolds’ New York penthouse, a “famously close” friend was also present.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2025/11/27/celebrity-news/taylor-swift-hugh-jackman-witnessed-ryan-reynolds-confront-justin-baldoni-about-fat-shaming-blake-lively-report/

Celebrities gathered together with their loved ones for Thanksgiving 2025.

Whether volunteering with their community, cooking delicious dishes at home or hosting a fun Friendsgiving dinner, stars like Jennifer Garner, Hailey Bieber, Sydney Sweeney and more appeared to be in the best of spirits on Thursday.

See how more famous faces celebrated the holiday below.

Jennifer Garner

The actress spent part of her holiday volunteering in downtown Los Angeles. She was photographed serving hot meals to the homeless community, smiling big as she handled the food with black gloves.

Garner, who was dressed casually in jeans and a striped T-shirt, shared that she was thankful for everyone in her presence, according to an eyewitness.

The actress is, of course, no stranger to helping out her community. Last year, she was also spotted volunteering in LA with ex-husband Ben Affleck by her side.

Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner

Pope Leo XIV has warned that the world should not give into “a heightened level of conflict on the global level”, at the start of his foreign trip in Turkey.

“The future of humanity is at stake, said the Pope, urging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to act as a source of stability because of the need to promote dialogue and stability.

The Pope will mark a historic Christian anniversary during his visit to Turkey, before heading to Lebanon days after Israeli airstrikes on its capital, Beirut.

The visits had been planned by late Pope Francis, but their main theme of building bridges was embraced by Pope Leo from the moment he stepped on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica after his election in May.

Leo warned that today’s wars were like a “third world war fought piecemeal”, repeating a phrase that his predecessor had himself used several times, referring to conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Myanmar and elsewhere.

Since he became pontiff six months ago, he has conveyed a sense of being extremely measured, even cautious. But on this trip, his powers of diplomacy will be closely scrutinised.

A key moment of the trip will take place in the Turkish town of Iznik, the site of the ancient city of Nicaea. Pope Leo and leaders of other Christian traditions will gather to mark the anniversary of an ancient council that took place there 1,700 years ago. In 325 AD, among other key decisions, more than 200 bishops at the council affirmed the belief that Jesus was the son of God, eventually leading to what is known as the Nicene Creed.

Eastern and Western branches of Christianity later dramatically split, but during this trip there will be messages of togetherness and healing divisions.

In Turkey the Pope will also visit the Blue Mosque, as both his immediate predecessors Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI had done. He will have meetings with other religious leaders in a gesture of inter-religious dialogue before flying on to the second leg of the trip.

The Vatican says plans for the Pope’s visit to Lebanon have not changed following the Israeli airstrikes on Beirut earlier in the week.

He will meet more faith leaders and hear from young people in Lebanon, his visit giving a boost in particular to the estimated third of the country that is Christian.

On the final day of the trip, Pope Leo will celebrate Mass at the Beirut waterfront at the site of the 2020 port explosion, praying for the more than 200 people who were killed and 7,000 others injured.

Over recent months, though he has spoken out on some issues dear to him such as the dignity of migrants, he has certainly not been as overtly political as his predecessor could be.

He has walked such a fine line that in some cases both progressives and traditionalists within the Catholic Church have made the case that he supports their school of thought.

It was for similar reasons that cardinals of different persuasions were thought to have coalesced around him at conclave.

Pope Francis was seen as a visionary but one who was not overly worried about creating consensus, leaving behind a somewhat divided Church. Pope Leo has so far operated very differently, gently holding on to some of the progressive ideals of his predecessor while paying heed to the views of traditionalists.

He has repeatedly called for an end to war, but in a different way to Pope Francis, who memorably made daily calls to the Holy Family Church in Gaza to offer his support.

In meetings on this trip – with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Lebanese civic leaders – Pope Leo may be drawn to comment on his views on conflict in the region.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5g3076lqzo