Police arrested former University of Delaware student Luqmaan Khan after finding guns, body armor and a manifesto outlining plans to kill all, the New York Post reported. The FBI later uncovered more unregistered weapons.
Luqmaan Khan was arrested after New Castle County officers found him sitting in his pickup truck. (Photo: NCCP_DE/X)
A Pakistani-born former University of Delaware student was arrested with an arsenal of weapons, body armor and a handwritten manifesto outlining plans to kill all in a mass shooting on campus, the New York Post reported. Police say the discovery may have prevented a devastating attack.
Luqmaan Khan, 25, was arrested just before midnight on November 24 after New Castle County officers found him sitting in his pickup truck in a closed Wilmington park and became suspicious of his behaviour.
What they found in his vehicle, investigators said, was chilling — a .357 Glock pistol fitted with a conversion kit turning it into a semi-automatic rifle, multiple 27-round magazines, body armor plates and a notebook allegedly spelling out plans for a campus attack.
The notebook contained a map of the University of Delaware police headquarters marked with entry and exit points and repeated phrases such as kill all – martyrdom, according to ABC 6. Prosecutors described the writings as premeditated assault plans and warfare techniques.
According to the New York Post, Khan allegedly told investigators that dying as a martyr was one of the greatest things you can do. One campus police officer was named in the notes, though prosecutors said the motive remains unclear.
Khan, a US citizen who moved from Pakistan as a youth, had no prior criminal record, but neighbours told Spotlight Delaware he had recently become unusually standoffish.
The FBI later searched Khan’s Wilmington home and uncovered even more weapons — an AR-style rifle with a red-dot scope, a second Glock pistol equipped with an illegal machine-gun conversion device known as a switch, 11 extended magazines, hollow-point bullets and a tactical vest. None of the weapons were registered.
In the handwritten notebook, Khan discussed additional weapons and firearms, how they could be used in an attack, and how law enforcement detection could be avoided once an attack was carried out.
The notebook referenced a member of the University of Delaware’s Police Department by name, and included a layout of a building with entry and exit points under which the words “UD Police Station” were printed.
Federal prosecutors charged him with illegal possession of a machine gun, though authorities say further charges are possible as the investigation continues. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Officials emphasised that the foiling of the alleged attack came down to simple but vigilant police work.
“They just randomly drove up in Canby Park West,” Master Cpl. Richard Chambers said. “Rather than just shooing the person out, they did police work.”
“This case is a quintessential example of federal and state law enforcement collaborating to neutralize a grave threat to Delaware before the worst could come to pass. I want to thank our dedicated law enforcement partners at the FBI and the NCCPD for their exceptional work. As always, we are proud to work with them to keep Delaware safe,” said Acting US Attorney Murray.
NEVER-before-seen images of Jeffrey Epstein’s home located on his infamous private island have been released by US authorities.
Chilling photos show the paedophile financier‘s exclusive property in the US Virgin Islands – with one of the pictures showing a bizarre dental room with faces across the wall.
Chilling images showed the inside of the paedo’s home on his private islandCredit: House Oversight Committee
Bombshell images of the convicted sex offender‘s elusive Caribbean island were released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
Several chilling photos showed different rooms on Epstein’s Little Saint James island – one of which had a dentist’s chair and multiple chilling masks hung up on the walls.
Another showed a chalkboard with strange text written on it – including the words “power” and “deception”.
Others showed large rooms devoid of life, “no trespassing” signs on the island’s beach, and luxury swimming pools next to palm trees.
Creepy footage also showed a tour of the notorious island where the convicted sex trafficker lived.
Washington is still waiting for the Justice Department to hand over all of its files on the notorious case.
It comes after Donald Trump gave the Justice Department 30 days to make all “unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” public last month.
The US Senate unanimously approved the official release of the Epstein trove just hours after the House of Representatives did on November 18.
Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge in 2008 and served 13 months in jail.
In 2019, he was charged with sex trafficking of minors. Epstein pleaded not guilty to those charges.
The sex offender killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.
Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for him.
Sky Roberts, the brother of one of Epstein’s most prominent victims, Virginia Giuffre, previously called on US lawmakers to “stop talking and act”.
For years, victims of the disgraced financier and their families – as well as conspiracy theorists – have called for the release of the files about the investigations into his crimes.
Tens of thousands of pages of evidence from federal investigations into Epstein and Maxwell – known as the Epstein files – have been released to the public in stages over several years.
These documents, some released in redacted format, include Epstein’s flight logs, his contact book, email exchanges, court documents, and testimonies from victims and witnesses.
Names of many high-profile figures have appeared in them – but that does not mean they were aware of, or involved in Epstein’s crimes.
Earlier this year, a memo from the Justice Department and FBI said there was “no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions” or had a “client list”.
Epstein personally “harmed over one thousand victims,” the FBI and DOJ said.
But they added: “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties”.
Digital searches of Epstein’s electronic devices and physical searches of his various properties, which included a private Caribbean island, had yielded a “significant amount of material, including more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence,” the memo said.
The disgraced financier’s island was raided in 2019, with shocking images showing the FBI raiding the complex.
Since Trump signed the bill late on November 19, the deadline for the DOJ to release the files will either be December 19 or Christmas Eve.
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that the DOJ intended to abide by the deadline.
She earlier said that the Trump administration will make all of the eligible files on the convicted sex offender public for “maximum transparency”.
Following Trump’s latest move to release the files, Epstein’s victims have come forward to claim the convicted sex offender had a tiny and “extremely deformed” penis that looked like a lemon.
MEGHAN Markle’s father Thomas is fighting for his life after being rushed to hospital and now faces further surgery, a report claims.
Thomas Markle, 81, was taken to hospital on Tuesday after falling ill at his home in the Philippines.
Meghan Markle’s father Thomas has been rushed into intensive care after emergency surgeryCredit: Collect
It is understood he underwent surgery on Wednesday and was transferred to the intensive care unit, as reported by the Mail.
Doctors are now reportedly waiting to prepare him for another operation to remove a blood clot.
His son Thomas Jr. said: “I took dad to a hospital close to our home and they did various scans and the doctors said his life was in imminent danger.
“They raced us by ambulance, with the sirens going, to a much bigger hospital in the center of the city. My dad has undergone emergency surgery.
“I would ask everyone around the world to keep him in their thoughts.”
He added: “My only wish is that Meghan shows my father some compassion. He is literally fighting for his life.”
Meanwhile, daughter Samantha, 61, said: “He is a strong man, but he has been through so much. I am praying that he is strong enough to survive this.
“My father has been through two heart attacks, a stroke and an earthquake. I hope he can pull through this.”
Thomas has suffered with ill health, including a stroke, in recent years and had been living in Mexico for the past 10 years before relocating to the Philippines in January.
He has been estranged from Meghan since her wedding to Prince Harry.
Thomas suffered two heart attacks on the eve of the big day in 2018 and was unable to walk his daughter down the aisle.
It came after he had posed for paparazzi pictures ahead of the wedding.
Meghan then cut him off after he put the phone down during a heated row with Harry while recovering in hospital.
The duke told him he was in that position because he had not listened to their advice not to speak to the press – following the paparazzi scandal.
Thomas told The Sun On Sunday at the time: “I felt disrespected by them. I was recovering from a heart attack, lying in a bed, having a phone call, and the things were being said that hurt me.
“I felt like I was being blamed for my mistakes when I was in my hospital bed recovering from a heart attack.”
Concerns were also raised for 81-year-old Thomas just a few months ago when his daughter Samantha claimed he was stuck on the 19th floor of his Philippines flat after a deadly earthquake.
Meghan’s half-sister sparked alarm by posting online that their father was unable to walk and had been left stranded following the 6.9-magnitude quake.
Samantha Markle had written on X: “My father is stuck on the 19th floor of a building in the Philippines after a massive earthquake and he can’t walk and he is trapped.”
However, Thomas bizarrely later declared he was “fine” and urged people not to worry.
The pensioner’s latest health update comes as a new episode of Meghan’s Netflix Christmas special was released on Wednesday.
THE White House hit back at headlines claiming Donald Trump dozed off during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday as questions swirl about the president’s stamina.
The 79-year-old appeared to struggle to keep his eyes open during the two-hour televised conference.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt hit back at headlines claiming that Donald Trump was falling asleep in a cabinet meetingCredit: Getty
Trump closed his eyes for an extended period of time at nine points throughout the meeting, the Washington Post reported.
At one point, the president appeared to be nudged by Marco Rubio as the secretary of state spoke with the executive team.
The bizarre incident came amid a flurry of searing headlines from left-leaning outlets questioning Trump’s health and ability to serve his full term.
However, in a press conference on Wednesday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt set the record straight, saying Trump was “listening attentively and running the entire” meeting.
“In all of these historic meetings, the president and his incredible team highlight the exhaustive list of accomplishments they have delivered on behalf of the American people to Make America Great Again,” Leavitt said in a statement.
Trump’s apparent sleepiness comes the day after posted over 160 times on Truth Social between 7 pm and 11 pm, the Daily Beast reported.
Early in the meeting, Trump complained about the scrutiny he receives compared to his predecessor, Joe Biden, who he called “Sleepy Joe.”
At 79, Trump is the oldest person to assume the presidency.
Biden was the first octogenarian president and dropped out of the presidential election last year because of concerns about his mental acuity.
In Tuesday’s meeting, Trump blasted a New York Times article analyzing his aging and claiming he had a lighter public schedule.
“I’ll let you know when there’s something wrong. There will be someday,” Trump said.
“That’s going to happen to all of us. But right now I think I’m sharper than I was 25 years ago. But who the hell knows?”
HEALTH CONCERNS
The Times reported that Trump has trimmed his public appearances to between 12 pm and 5 pm, a change from his first term.
However, the White House said the Times only cited publicly available information, and insisted that Trump’s private log is filled with back-to-back meetings and calls.
His administration hit back at claims by providing the New York Post documents that they said prove Trump is working “up to 12 hour days.”
The president has also squashed concern by saying he got “all A’s” on his recent physical exam.
THE doctor who supplied Matthew Perry with dozens of vials of ketamine began crying after he turned to apologize to the actor’s family minutes before he was hauled away to serve 30 months in prison.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia was seen teary-eyed as he told Perry’s mother, Suzanne, and relatives, “I’m just so sorry.”
Disgraced doctor Salvador Plasencia arriving to a federal courthouse in Los Angeles for his sentencing hearing in connection with Matthew Perry’s deathCredit: AFP
He stood before the court and told Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett: “I never imagined I’d be standing before you. I spent so many years and came so far to help people, to take them away from pain.”
Placenscia, 43, explained that he will one day have to find a way to tell his own young son that he “couldn’t protect a mother’s son.”
He admitted that there was “no excuse,” adding that he failed Perry and his family.
He agreed to plead guilty in July to four counts of distribution of ketamine as part of a deal with prosecutors, who dropped five other counts.
Plasencia is the first of five defendants who are set to be sentenced in the coming weeks, although he did not deliver the fatal dose.
Minutes before his apology, the court heard from the grieving parents of Perry, 54, who died after being found face-down in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
The two-hour sentencing hearing saw the actor’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, decide to speak directly to Placenscia, explaining her son fought so hard to stay alive after suffering for years with addiction and even bounced back after serious medical issues.
She expressed the importance of the Hippocratic Oath doctors take and, through tears, told Placesncia, “This is my boy!”
Looking him directly in the eye and being comforted by her husband, Keith Morrison, she said, “I just wanted you to see the mother. This was a bad thing you did.”
She also scolded him for calling her son a “moron” in damning text messages read out in court, as he was seen looking solemn and sweating, repeatedly mopping his brow and face.
Perry’s sisters and stepmother also spoke in court about how loyal and connected the family is and how their lives will never be the same again.
Perry’s stepfather, Keith Morrison, also wrote a victim impact statement, although he never read it out in court.
He described the emotional toll the actor’s mother has continued to endure since her son’s death more than two years ago.
“Many people, mothers mostly, have told me over the years how things like that breaks you, makes you feel broken,” he wrote.
“And I didn’t quite get what that meant until I watched what this thing did to Matthew’s mother. Still does, two years on. It’s a deep well, can’t see the bottom yet.”
The star’s father, John Perry, was absent due to illness.
The Government recommended 36 months behind bars, while the probation service recommended 12 months, and Plasencia’s team asked for just one day.
His lawyers still tried to argue that he was initially trying to treat Perry, his first high-profile patient, for his depression.
But Judge Garnett told the defense, “I don’t buy that argument.”
She also pointed out how the doctor further encouraged Perry to take ketamine, with a text to his assistant that read, “I know you mentioned taking a break. I have been stocking up on the meanwhile. I am not sure when you guys plan to resume but in case its when im out of town this weekend I have left supplies with a nurse of mine …I can always let her know the plan.”
Judge Garnett disagreed that Plasencia was trying to help Perry and believed he was selling drugs for a profit, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello called him a “drug dealer in a white coat.”
“You and others helped Mr. Perry on the road to his death by continuing to feed his addiction,” Judge Garnett added.
Perry’s mother and stepmother also slammed Plasencia and the other defendants as “greedy jackals” who came out of the dark and fed on the vulnerability of their son.
“I believe the man you are going to sentence today is among the most culpable of all. His crime I find truly hard to understand,” the parents’ statement read.
“Sometimes it’s a little easier to understand when a person commits a terrible crime.
“Maybe in the heat of passion, or because that person makes one very bad decision.. or some drug dealer, bad to the bone, who takes the calculated risk of getting caught and spending many years in prison.
“But… a doctor? Who trades on respect, and trust? And not just one bad decision.. No one alive and in touch with the world at all could have been unaware of Matthew’s struggles.
“But this doctor conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly, sneaked through the night to meet his victim in secret.
“For what, a few thousand dollars? So he could feed on the vulnerability of our son…and crow, as he did so, with that revealing question: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay. Let’s find out.’”
Plasencia’s disgruntled mother, Luz, was an emotional wreck as she watched her son be escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs after learning his fate.
He will serve 30 months and be on supervised release for a further two years after his release.
The doctor was also ordered to pay a $5,600 fine and a $400 special assessment.
Outside the courthouse, Luz told reporters that she wants Perry’s family to know she’s “so sorry,” but defended her son, saying he has a “good heart.”
“I love him and to all the parents, no matter how old your children are, talk with them,” Luz said when asked if she had a message to her son.
Keith had little to say after the sentencing, but admitted, “It’s a tragic story. Sometimes people do bad things.”
Perry’s stepmom, Debbie, whose victim impact statement was on behalf of herself and the actor’s father, John, condemned Plasencia’s action, saying their son’s recovery counted on the defendant “saying no.”
“Your motives? I can’t imagine,” Debbie and John wrote.
“A doctor whose life is devoted to helping people? Whatever were you thinking? How long did you possibly see supplying Matthew countless doses without his death to eventually follow?
“Did you care? Did you think? How many more people have you harmed that we don’t know about?”
The parents lamented that Plasencia devastated the family and contributed to the loss of their only son.
‘DR. P’
After the hearing, Plasencia’s lawyers released a statement saying that their client, “accepts the Court’s sentence today with humility and deep remorse.”
They added that he had voluntarily given up his medical license, a fact that was repeatedly mentioned in court.
“He was a good doctor loved by those he treated. He is not a villain. He is someone who made serious mistakes in his treatment decisions involving the off-label use of ketamine — a drug commonly used for depression that does not have uniform standards,” they said.
“The mistakes he made over the 13 days during which he treated Mr. Perry will stay with him forever.”
Federal investigators said Plasencia and Mark Chavez – a former physician in San Diego, who is also scheduled to be sentenced on December 17 – coordinated with Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s personal live-in assistant, to distribute the drugs to the actor.
Martin Estrada, the US attorney for the Central District of California, said Perry fell back into addiction during the fall of 2023.
“These defendants took advantage to profit for themselves,” Estrada said at the time.
On September 30, 2023, Plasencia, who was known to Perry as “Dr. P,” and Chavez discussed purchasing ketamine so they could sell it to the actor, according to a federal indictment.
In a text message, prosecutors said Plasencia and Chavez discussed how much they were going to charge Perry, writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Let’s find out.”
THIS is the shocking moment Vladimir Putin’s “secret daughter” is blasted by a Ukrainian journalist on the streets of Paris – before being told: “Your dad killed my brother.”
The bombshell clip reportedly shows Elizaveta Krivonogikh – long suspected to be the Russian tyrant’s love child – being confronted over her alleged father’s bloody invasion.
This is the shocking moment Vladimir Putin’s alleged secret daughter is confronted by a Ukrainian journalistCredit: TCH
In the astonishing footage – posted by Ukrainian outlet TCH – the man behind the camera can be heard slamming the woman in a composed tone.
He blames her “dad” for killing his brother – as a result of the pariah’s war in Ukraine.
He is heard saying: “How do you even live in Europe? In this hateful, cursed Europe, this ‘Gay-rope’.
“Or what is it like with you people. Say something at least. Do you support his policies?”
Refusing to comment on the journalist’s claims, the woman simply tells him he doesn’t have permission to film.
Putin’s rumoured secret daughter Krivonogikh, 22, also known as Luiza Rozova and now Elizaveta Rudnova, lives in self-imposed exile in the French capital.
She is suspected to be the secret love-child of Putin and Svetlana Krivonogikh – a glamorous former cleaner turned multimillionaire.
Krivonogikh works at two anti-war art galleries in Paris according to Russian artist Nastya Rodionova – while also reportedly launching thinly veiled attacks on Putin.
In August, German outlet Bild, which claimed to have seen her private Telegram channel, reported that Luiza wrote about “the man who took millions of lives and destroyed mine”.
Krivonogikh grew up drenched in luxury – private jets, exclusive nightclubs, and designer wardrobes.
She would flaunt her life of privilege on Instagram while Russia grappled with poverty and pandemic chaos.
But in early 2022, just before Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine, she abruptly vanished from Russian social media.
Her alleged mum Svetlana, now in her 40s, went from scrubbing floors to owning a stake in sanctioned Rossiya Bank and a property empire worth over $100 million.
She also owns a raunchy St Petersburg nightclub, Leningrad Centre, known for its erotic shows.
The suspected daughter of the Russian despot re-emerged in Paris in 2022 under a new name – Elizaveta Rudnova – reportedly in a bid to sever ties with her past.
Ukrainian TV later claimed she was living in the French capital with a passport under the name Rudnova, allegedly ditching the patronymic Vladimirovna, which would confirm her father’s name as Vladimir.
Her new surname is a likely nod to the late Oleg Rudnov, one of Putin’s longtime cronies.
When independent outlet Proekt first exposed the story, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he’d “never heard anything” about Krivonogikh — an evasion that only intensified speculation.
Putin, who officially recognises only two daughters from his previous marriage, has never acknowledged Luiza — nor denied her.
Mad Vlad has two publicly known children, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova – both of which were born to the dictator’s ex-wife Lyudmila Aleksandrovna.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are investing in new terrestrial cable systems to relieve the strain on underwater cables in the Red Sea. This is part of a fundamental modernization strategy.
Ooredoo is a Qatar-based telecommunications giantImage: Lynn Bo Bo/EPA/picture alliance
Ooredoo, a Qatar-based communications company, plans to spend 500 million US dollars (430 million euros) on new terrestrial fiber optic cable systems in the coming years. The cables will stretch from the Arabian Peninsula to Europe. According to a report by the Qatari news agency QNA, they will start in Oman, run from there to Iraq and Turkey and finally to France.
Notwithstanding, according to press reports, Syria and Saudi Arabia are also in talks to build a similar system of data cables that would also run from the Arabian Peninsula — more precisely Saudi Arabia — to Europe.
Ayad Al-Ani, a Professor for Change Management and Consulting in Berlin, told DW that it was noteworthy that both Qatar and Saudi Arabia were attempting to establish a land connection.
“This implies that both Iraq and Syria are safe transit countries that can be invested in,” he said. “It will integrate the two countries more into the international data communication system, from which the local digital economy will benefit. This is likely to promote their economic development.”
Alternative routes to bypass Red Sea challenges
According to QNA, Aziz Al Uthman Fakhroo, CEO of Ooredoo, suggested at a conference in Doha that the system would “strengthen the resilience of global networks, create alternative routes that bypass current challenges in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.”
From the perspective of network operators, both regions are currently sensitive. The Strait of Hormuz separates the Arabian Peninsula from Iran — meaning Iran is separated from countries that until recently were considered its rivals, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the recent past, there have been formidable clashes with Saudi Arabia in particular. Qatar meanwhile maintains good relations with Iran.
The situation in the Red Sea is more fragile. Every year, 22,000 ships pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. It’s also a main route in the digital network: There are currently 15 intercontinental undersea cables running through the area, and according to HGC Global Communications, 80% of data traffic between Asia, Africa and Europe runs through them.
The cables have repeatedly been the target of attacks — or might have been, because there is not always clear evidence of damage having been caused deliberately.
There were several outages in 2008 when, according to a study by the Henry Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, five cables were damaged in different incidents. Three of the cables connected Asia and Europe, and as a result 70% of Egypt’s internet connectivity was temporarily lost, while India experienced a 50% to 60% loss of bandwidth.
Houthi attacks on shipping routes and cable systems
In the recent war between Israel and the militant Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, the latter received support from the Houthi rebel group in Yemen. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the EU, the US and others.
Houthis attacked several ships in the Red Sea to disrupt international trade, and according to HGC, also damaged four cable systems in the spring of 2024, including one called Asia-Africa-Europe 1, which connects the three continents. A good quarter of data traffic was reportedly affected.
In a statement, HGC described how it was maintaining international communication by rerouting data traffic to Europe via mainland China, the US or undamaged cables in the Red Sea.
The idea is that the new systems will prevent such incidents. According to the QNA report, Aziz Al Uthman Fakhroo of Ooredoo said that “cross-border cooperation has become both an operational and strategic necessity, especially given that the Middle East is a global logistical and digital hub, with 30% of the world’s data and 90% of the data exchanged between Europe and Asia passing through it.”
Qatar expands telecommunications sector
Qatar is systematically expanding its telecommunications industry. Last fall, Qatar National Broadband Network (QNBN) and Gulf Bridge International (GBI) announced their intention to merge their telecommunications divisions. This merger has now been completed. QNBN specializes in fiber optic cables, while GBI focuses on underwater and terrestrial cables.
The Peninsula, an English-language daily in Qatar, reported that the “integration of QNBN and GBI brings together two highly complementary businesses to create a carrier-neutral digital and AI infrastructure leader, further connecting Qatar to the world.”
Ayad Al-Ani pointed out that the projects were not focused only on infrastructure but also on Qatari digital technology, such as data centers.
“The infrastructure alone is already considered a significant source of revenue today. But in conjunction with data and innovation centers, it provides the prerequisites for a successful digital economy,” he told DW.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked endangering troops by using the Signal messaging app to discuss a strike on Houthis in Yemen, sources say a Pentagon watchdog report finds.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put US troops at risk when he used the commerical messaging app Signal to discuss US strikes in Yemen, a Pentagon watchdog report foundImage: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo/picture alliance
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put American troops and mission at risk when he used the Signal mesaging app on his personal device to discuss planned strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, a report by the Pentagon’s watchdog has found.
That’s according to US media, including CNN and ABC, and news agencies. They cite sources familiar with the results of the investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general, which hasn’t yet been publicly released.
Hegseth didn’t violate rules on classification, the report found according to the sources, because as the head of the Pentagon, he has the authority to declassify information.
But the information shouldn’t have been discussed on the commercial app, the report said. That’s because the information was so sensitive that it could have endangered the lives of American troops and the mission itself if it was intercepted.
Hegseth declined to sit for an interview with the inspector general, sources said, citing the report. Instead, he provided written answers. He also only provided a small number of his Signal messages for review.
The meant the investigation had to rely on screenshots published by The Atlantic magazine, whose editor-in-chief was accidentally added to the Signal chat, according to sources.
The classified review was delivered on Tuesday evening to Congress.
A partially redacted version of the report is expected to be released publicly later this week, possibly on Thursday.
Trump stands by Hegseth
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the review affirms the Trump administration’s statements that “no classified information was leaked, and operational security was not compromised.”
“President Trump stands by Secretary Hegseth,” Leavitt said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Pentagon said the review exonerated Hegseth.
“This matter is resolved, and the case is closed,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN.
Hegseth used Signal to discuss Yemen strikes
Hegseth’s use of the commercial messaging app came to light when the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly added to a Signal chat by then-national security adviser Mike Waltz.
Signal is encrypted, but it isn’t authorized for carrying classified information and isn’t part of the Defense Department’s secure communications network.
The group chat included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubioand the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as well as others.
The officials discussed March 15 military operations against the Iran- backed Houthis in Yemen.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales takes part in a conversation, at the Reuters NEXT conference, in New York City, New York, U.S., December 3, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Wikipedia is working with Big Tech on deals similar to its arrangement with Google, the online encyclopedia’s co-founder, Jimmy Wales, said on Wednesday, in a bid to help the firm monetize AI companies’ heavy reliance on its content.
Speaking in an interview at the Reuters NEXT summit in New York, Wales said that tech companies’ usage of freely available Wikipedia knowledge to train their large language models results in cost surges that Wikipedia’s nonprofit operator must bear.
“The AI bots that are crawling Wikipedia are going across the entirety of the site … So we have to have more servers, we have to have more RAM and memory for caching that, and that costs us a disproportionate amount,” Wales said.
While the content of Wikipedia remains free for individuals under its license, the high-volume, automated access by for-profit entities is a different matter, Wales said. He noted that a deal has already been signed with Alphabet’s Google and that discussions with other firms are ongoing.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, struck a deal with Google in 2022 to have the tech giant pay for training access to Wikipedia content, which is a crucial part of data that companies like OpenAI and Meta Platforms use to train their AI models.
The foundation’s primary source of income is small donations from the public, which Wales said are not intended to underwrite the development of multibillion-dollar commercial AI products.
“Wikipedia is supported by volunteers. Those people are donating money to support Wikipedia, and not to subsidize OpenAI costing us a ton of money. That doesn’t feel fair,” said Wales.
The push for more licensing places the world’s largest repository of free knowledge in a potential standoff with the burgeoning AI industry. It raises fundamental questions about who should bear the cost for the vast datasets that fuel the AI revolution and whether for-profit companies have an obligation to compensate the public and nonprofit sources that help build their technology.
Asked if Wikipedia would take legal action against AI companies using its content without paying for training access, Wales said: “I don’t know. I feel like our ability of soft power to just shame them is probably pretty powerful.”
Wales said Wikipedia might also consider using technical measures such as Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control that let clients limit when and how AI bots scraping the internet can access their content. He acknowledged this could create a dilemma, given Wikipedia’s ideological commitment to open access to knowledge, but stressed that the financial burden must be addressed.
The Wikimedia Foundation has operated Wikipedia for over two decades as a nonprofit entity, relying on a global community of volunteer editors and public donations to provide free information.
Meghan Markle’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, was admitted into the intensive care unit after he underwent emergency surgery.
The “Suits” alum’s brother, Thomas Markle Jr., confirmed the patriarch was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery after becoming sick at his home in the Philippines on Tuesday, the Daily Mail reported.
Thomas, 81, will later undergo another procedure to remove a blood clot.
Meghan Markle’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, was taken to the hospital after falling ill. News Licensing / MEGA
“I took dad to a hospital close to our home and they did various scans and the doctors said his life was in imminent danger,” Thomas Jr., 59, told the outlet.
“They raced us by ambulance, with the sirens going, to a much bigger hospital in the centre of the city.”
Thomas’ 61-year-old daughter, Samantha, blamed his illness on the hardships her father has faced over the past few years.
“He is a strong man, but he has been through so much. I am praying that he is strong enough to survive this,” she told the Daily Mail.
“My father has been through two heart attacks, a stroke and an earthquake. I hope he can pull through this.”
Reps for Meghan, 44, weren’t immediately available to Page Six for comment.
Over the years, Thomas has battled a series of health issues and notably missed the actress’ wedding to Prince Harry after undergoing heart surgery in 2018.
He was hospitalized again in 2022 after suffering from a stroke while living in Tijuana, Mexico.
“I feel hugely grateful and know how lucky I am to be alive,” Thomas told the Daily Mail after he was discharged five days later.
Bethenny Frankel cried while discussing her lengthy divorce from her second husband, Jason Hoppy, in a new interview.
The “Real Housewives of New York City” alum got shockingly candid about the painful split on Wednesday’s episode of Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast, saying “nothing” — not even her rough childhood — could compare to the “torment” she experienced when leaving Hoppy.
“I have seen my mother slit her wrists. I have lived my whole life chasing her into bathrooms, trying to catch her throwing up. I’ve been around guns, the mafia, the race track. I’ve been through everything. I’ve seen her beaten within an inch of her life. I have seen everything. Nothing compares to what my divorce was for 10 years. Nothing,” Frankel, 55, stated.
The Skinnygirl founder noted that her mom’s lifelong struggles with bulimia and alcoholism were “child’s play” compared to the “trauma of someone wanting to torture you and telling you that they’re going to do it.”
Bethenny Frankel cried while discussing her lengthy divorce from her second husband, Jason Hoppy, in a new interview. Call Her Daddy/YouTube
Because she was the “more successful” of the two, Frankel felt the “optics” made her look like “the powerhouse tyrant” while Hoppy, 56, was branded “the victim.”
“It was so traumatic. It was 10 years of my life. I lost hair. I thought I would never survive it. I didn’t want to,” she confessed to Cooper as she got choked up. “I had to because of my daughter. I literally thought, ‘I’ll never be happy again.’”
Frankel and the pharmaceutical executive wed in March 2010. They welcomed daughter Bryn, 15, two months later. They announced their separation in December 2012, with Frankel filing for divorce the following month.
The split wasn’t finalized until January 2021.
“I treated it like a marathon, and I went one mile at a time, and I checked every box,” the former Bravolebrity said of the divorce process, alleging that “it was fraud, it was stealing, it was hacking, it was harassment, it was abuse, it was Googling me 60 times a day, it was staying in bed and staring into my face, it was calling me every bad character in the books.”
In January 2017, Hoppy was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment in the first degree, harassment in the second degree and stalking in the fourth degree after allegedly sending Frankel a series of abusive emails and then showing up at Bryn’s school to threaten his then-estranged wife, “I will destroy you.” (Hoppy denied the charges.)
Frankel told Cooper that her divorce was “the worst thing [she] could ever wish upon a person.”
She recalled spending “millions of dollars” in the split and claimed that “every single lawyer said they’ve never seen anything like it, ever. Like, it was insane.”
The businesswoman admitted that the “only thing that got [her] through” that time was the hope that she could one day “help people” experiencing similar distress.
She emphasized the importance of having a prenuptial agreement in place before marrying someone and “going with your gut” because “cracks become craters.”
Despite her feelings of despair and defeat during her separation, Frankel made it a point to “never talk bad” about Hoppy in front of Bryn, even though she believes the teen “energetically felt” the situation.
“Just because you’re not saying it in front of the child, it doesn’t mean they don’t feel,” she argued, adding, “It’s a long road. Your kids will become cognizant, and they will understand. You don’t have to say it to them. You don’t have to prove it to them.”
Chiefs president reveals his promise to Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift to never ‘monetize’ off their relationship
Kansas City Chiefs President Mark Donovan revealed he promised Travis Kelce not to profit off his romance with Taylor Swift.
“I told Travis, ‘Look, we are going to treat you and your relationship with the same respect that we treat any other player or coach’s relationship,’” the businessman shared on Monday’s episode of “Up & Adams.”
“It’s a relationship. We’re not going to monetize it, we’re not going to go out there and go crazy.”
Kansas City Chiefs President Mark Donovan revealed he promised Travis Kelce he would respect his relationship with Taylor Swift. Getty Images
Donovan explained that Swift is never shown on Arrowhead Stadium’s broadcast boards, unlike other news outlets that flash her on-camera.
“For a couple of years, all those shots you see in the stadium. He scores a touchdown. He makes a catch. It goes to Taylor,” he said.
“Especially the first year. We never showed Taylor on our big boards in our stadium, never. It was respectful. We’re not going to do that.”
Donovan emphasized that he’s not interested in “taking advantage of [Kelce and Swift’s] relationship.”
Mysterious Taylor Swift installation pops up on Sunset Boulevard
Swifties are making their way to a mysterious Taylor Swift-themed installation in Los Angeles.
The display at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Holloway Drive left fans speculating about what the “Life of a Showgirl” songstress could be teasing.
The setup features cutouts of the singer, including one showing Swift from behind in a “Fearless” dress while holding her guitar in front of a gold, glittery backdrop.
Another cutout captures her singing into the microphone during the Eras Tour while performing her hit 2024 track, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”
The pop-up, wrapped in a barricaded sidewalk perimeter, also includes promotional banners with the Disney+ logo and the titles of Swift’s upcoming docuseries and concert film.
Her releases — “End of an Era” and the “Final Show” — are both set to premiere on Disney+ on Dec. 12.
Sabrina Carpenter gushes over being the only featured artist on ‘bestie’ Taylor Swift’s ‘Life of a Showgirl’ album
Sabrina Carpenter is still in disbelief that she was chosen as the only featured artist on Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” album.
“Ten-year-old me, for so many reasons, could not believe it — to hear our voices together,” the singer told Variety Wednesday.
“We definitely realized it was special, but I would have never been like, ‘Hey, bestie, put me on a song,’” the “Espresso” hitmaker quipped.
“She was so gracious to think of me for a song that spoke to our life experiences in such a real, genuine way. It really sums up what so many young women in this industry go through.”
Carpenter is featured on the album’s title track, and the two Grammy winners definitely know a thing or two about the life of a superstar.
Fans watched their friendship bloom as the “Manchild” singer opened up for Swift on her record-breaking Eras Tour. Last month, the besties were also spotted having a glam girls’ night out at one of NYC’s trendiest spots, The Corner Store.
Taylor Swift’s top Spotify listeners received a very special message from the pop star this week.
Those who streamed her music the most this year were treated to a video when opening their 2025 Spotify Wrapped on Wednesday.
“Oh, hey! So if this is popping up on your phone, then chances are you listened to a lot of my music this year on Spotify. It’s Taylor, by the way,” Swift’s message began.
“Thank you for doing that. Thank you for all your support with ‘The Life of a Showgirl.'”
The singer teased there’s “a lot of reminiscing” on the way with her new docuseries, the “End of an Era,” and concert film, the “Final Show,” both premiering on Disney+ on Dec. 12.
Toward the end of her video, the “Fate of Ophelia” songstress wished her fans a “wonderful holiday season” and shared one final message of appreciation.
“I’m so grateful for you. Thank you for everything,” she concluded, blowing a kiss to the camera.
Last year, Swift was crowned Spotify’s “Global Top Artist” for the second year in a row, with 26.6 billion streams worldwide.
However, she was dethroned this year by Bad Bunny.
The Super Bowl 2026 performer reached 19.8 billion global streams and previously held the title for three consecutive years.
Travis Kelce gushes over ‘beautiful’ vacation with Taylor Swift in rare look inside romance
Travis Kelce gushed over his “beautiful” Italy vacation with his fiancée, Taylor Swift.
During the latest episode of the “New Heights” podcast, George Clooney asked the Kansas City Chiefs star about his 2024 trip to Lake Como.
“Me and Tay danced around Lake Como for a little while. I loved it out there,” Travis told the “Ocean’s Elven” actor, who owns a villa in the area.
“They love to point it out whenever you’re on the lake,” the tight end quipped.
Clooney, 64, joked that his home was “part of the tour.”
Travis Kelce insists he and Taylor Swift ‘never’ argue as he gets marriage advice from George Clooney
Travis Kelce’s latest podcast confession is “Sweeter Than Fiction.”
The athlete insisted he and fiancée Taylor Swift “never” argue as he chatted with George Clooney on Wednesday’s “New Heights” episode.
The Kansas City Chiefs player, 36, asked the actor, 64, whether he stood by his recent statement that he and wife Amal Clooney “have not got in a fight in 10 years.”
Clooney turned the question back on Kelce, asking, “I’m not lying. Shall we ask you the same?”
The tight end replied, “It’s only been two and a half years, and you’re right. I’ve never got in an argument. Never once.”
Sombr praises Taylor Swift’s engagement and calls the ‘Life of a Showgirl’ his album of the year
Sombr is in his Swiftie era.
In a recent interview with Vulture, the “Back to Friends” artist gushed over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement.
“Man, I’m just happy for them,” he said in a recent interview with Vulture.
“I grew up with Taylor Swift, and seeing one of my favorite artists from my childhood getting engaged is really cool to see. I just hope they invite me to the wedding.”
Sombr — born Shane Boose — also listed the “Opalite” songstress’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” as one of his favorites of the year, alongside Olivia Dean’s “Art of Loving,” and Ravyn Lenae’s “Love me Not.”
An employee checks a hepatitis B vaccine at SciVac’s laboratory in Rehovot. REUTERS/Baz Ratner Purchase Licensing Rights
An independent review released on Tuesday by vaccine experts of more than 400 studies and reports found that long-standing U.S. policy of giving the hepatitis B vaccine to newborns has cut infections in children by more than 95%.
The policy, adopted in 1991, will be discussed and voted on later this week by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisers hand-picked by U.S. health secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“After extensive review, we did not discover safety or effectiveness data that support delaying the choice parents have to vaccinate their newborns against hepatitis B,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota who helped found the Vaccine Integrity Project that released the review.
The Vaccine Integrity Project is an initiative dedicated to safeguarding vaccine use in the United States set up to counter controversial vaccine information and recommendations from the Trump administration that are lacking or contrary to scientific evidence.
The revamped CDC advisory panel, following Kennedy’s firing of all 17 previous expert members, in September decided to postpone a vote to delay the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.
Since then, U.S. President Donald Trump and other health officials have called for delaying the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine until as late as age 12, saying that the virus is largely sexually transmitted.
Osterholm said the evidence clearly supports keeping the current U.S. policy.
Hepatitis B is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis B virus. It primarily spreads through blood, semen, or certain other body fluids.
Infants infected with hepatitis B during their first year of life have a 90% chance of developing a chronic infection, increasing the risk of serious liver disease such as cirrhosis or cancer.
Global growth is holding up better than expected as an artificial intelligence investment boom helps offset some of the shock from U.S. tariff hikes, the OECD said on Tuesday, nudging up its outlook for some major economies.
The Paris-based organisation warned, however, that global growth was vulnerable to any new outbreak of trade tensions while investor optimism about AI could trigger a stock market correction if expectations are not met.
In its Economic Outlook, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast global growth would slow modestly from 3.2% in 2025 to 2.9% in 2026, leaving its forecasts untouched from its last estimates in September. It predicted a rebound to 3.1% in 2027.
OECD head Mathias Cormann said the trade shocks triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes had so far proved relatively mild, but added their costs were likely to rise.
“The full effects of those higher tariffs since the start of the year will become clearer as firms run down the inventories that they built up,” he told a press conference.
UPGRADED GROWTH FORECASTS FOR 2025, BUT RISKS REMAIN
The U.S. economy is forecast to grow 2% in 2025, revised up from 1.8% in September, before slowing to 1.7% in 2026 – up from 1.5% predicted in September.
AI investment, fiscal support and expected Federal Reserve rate cuts are helping offset the drag from tariffs on imported goods, reduced immigration and federal job cuts, the OECD said.
Chinese shipping containers sit at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, U.S., November 5, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake Purchase Licensing Rights
However, it warned that the Trump administration had put U.S. fiscal policy on an unsustainable trajectory with large budget deficits and rising debt that would require a “significant adjustment” in the coming years.
China’s growth is expected to hold steady at 5% in 2025, up from 4.9% in September, before slowing to 4.4% in 2026 – unchanged from September – as fiscal support fades and new U.S. tariffs on goods imported from China bite.
The euro zone’s 2025 growth forecast was revised up to 1.3% from 1.2%, supported by resilient labour markets and increased public spending in Germany. Growth is expected to moderate to 1.2% in 2026 – it was seen at 1% previously – as budget tightening in France and Italy weighs on the outlook.
Japan’s economy is projected to grow 1.3% in 2025, up from 1.1%, and buoyed by strong corporate earnings and investment, before slowing to 0.9% in 2026.
Officials in Minneapolis on Tuesday said they were not aware of imminent federal immigration raids targeting the area’s Somali community, which has come under blistering attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump in recent days.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, responding to a report in the New York Times that upward of 100 federal immigration agents were poised to descend on his city and neighboring St. Paul to target undocumented Somali residents, said regardless of whether raids were coming, the Somali community would be supported in every way possible by local authorities.
Frey, a Democrat, said local police would not work with federal agents on any immigration matters, and he strongly criticized Trump’s recent attacks on the Somali community, including on Tuesday when the president called them “garbage” and said “we don’t want them in our country.”
The president has increased his attacks on Somalis in the U.S. since last week’s shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, a shooting that killed on of the troops and for which an Afghan national has been charged.
“To villainize an entire group is ridiculous under any circumstances,” Frey said.
Anti-immigration rhetoric was a major part of Trump’s campaign and since taking office in January he has overseen an aggressive campaign by masked federal agents across the country that has instilled fear in immigrant communities and prompted protests and backlashes in the cities targeted.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not confirm raids were imminent in Minneapolis, but said agents were enforcing immigration laws across the country every day.
About 80,000 Somalis live in Minnesota, mostly in the Twin Cities metro region. Frey said the community had been an economic and cultural boon to the area and had been living in the U.S. for several decades. The vast majority of Somalis in the U.S., Frey said, are American citizens, and he said he’s convinced any immigration action would ensnare people in the country legally.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey speaks at a press conference to address reports of a planned federal operation targeting Somali immigrants, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Tim Evans Purchase Licensing Rights
LATEST ATTACKS
Trump last month said he was immediately terminating temporary deportation protections for Somalis living in Minnesota, saying “Somali gangs” were terrorizing the state, without offering evidence or details. Local officials said Trump’s portrayal is untrue. In all, 705 Somalis are in the country with TPS status, according to government records.
During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump ratcheted up his inflammatory rhetoric about Somalis, saying they had contributed nothing to the U.S.
“I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said. “Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the president was “absolutely right to highlight the problems caused by the radical Somali migrants that the Democrats let invade our country and steal from American taxpayers.”
Trump has long used incendiary rhetoric, as well as racist and sexist language, saying on several occasions that immigrants in the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Russia and the U.S. did not reach a compromise on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine after a five-hour Kremlin meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s top envoys, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Trump has repeatedly complained that ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two has been one of the elusive foreign policy aims of his presidency. The U.S. president has at times scolded both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Talks in Moscow between Putin and Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner went past midnight. Afterward, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said “Compromises have not yet been found.
“There is still a lot of work to be done,” Ushakov told reporters at a briefing in the Kremlin.
Putin reacted negatively to some U.S. proposals, Ushakov said. Witkoff went to the U.S. embassy in Moscow after the talks to brief the White House, Ushakov said.
Ushakov added that a meeting between Putin and Trump was not currently planned, though he said the talks were constructive and that there were huge opportunities for U.S.-Russian economic cooperation.
NO FURTHER AWAY FROM PEACE
Ushakov said Putin had sent a series of important signals and his greetings to Trump, but that the sides had agreed not to disclose details to the media.
He added that they had discussed the “territorial problem”, Kremlin shorthand for Russian claims to the whole of Donbas, though Ukraine controls at least 5,000 square km (1,900 square miles) of the area which Russia claims as its own. Almost all countries recognise Donbas as part of Ukraine.
“Some American draft proposals look more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed,” Ushakov said. “Some of the formulations that have been proposed to us are not suitable for us, that is – the work will continue.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev and foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov attend a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, December 2, 2025. Sputnik/Kristina Kormilitsyna/Pool via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
Witkoff, a billionaire U.S. real estate developer who has known Trump since the 1980s, and Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, began talks in the Kremlin after a stroll across Red Square past the mausoleum of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin to the towers of the Kremlin.
They talked with Putin, Ushakov and Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev, via interpreters.
“Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled. Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess,” Trump said on Tuesday in Washington, adding that there were casualties of 25,000 to 30,000 per month in the war.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
EUROPEAN POWERS WORRIED BY U.S. EFFORTS
A leaked set of 28 U.S. draft peace proposals, emerged in November, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who said it bowed to Moscow’s main demands.
European powers then came up with a counter-proposal, and at talks in Geneva, the U.S. and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
Zelenskiy, speaking in Dublin, said everything would depend on the talks in Moscow but that he was afraid the U.S. could lose interest in the peace process.
Presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla of Honduras’ Liberal Party (PLH) gestures during a press conference amid reports of a tied vote count, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Fredy Rodriguez Purchase Licensing Rights
Salvador Nasralla, of the centrist Liberal Party, on Tuesday took a razor-thin lead in Honduras’ presidential election over Nasry Asfura, the conservative candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, in a vote count plagued by delays and allegations of fraud.
The latest results released by the electoral authority around 6 p.m. (0100 GMT Wednesday) showed Nasralla on 40.13% and Asfura of the National Party on 39.71%, with around 68% of votes counted. The front runners were separated by just 9,129 votes. Asfura had previously been leading by around 500 votes when earlier results were released on Monday.
Rixi Moncada, of the ruling leftist LIBRE Party, was well behind in third place with 19.09%.
Earlier on Tuesday, Honduras’ electoral authority pleaded for calm as it scrambled to overcome a system failure that left about 20% of votes in the presidential election uncounted, as Trump alleged possible fraud and swore “there will be hell to pay” if results are altered.
On Monday the electoral body said Asfura and Nasralla were in a “technical tie” with each holding just under 40% of the vote and that votes would have to be counted by hand.
The initial rapid count system was beset by issues, the CNE electoral authority said in a statement on Tuesday. That had also resulted in problems with the web portal where results were meant to be updated in real time. The website was down much of Monday, causing tensions to rise in the tightly contested race, plagued by accusations of possible fraud before votes were even cast on Sunday.
As the count continues, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party was released from a U.S. prison on Monday, where he was serving a 45-year prison sentence for drug trafficking and firearms charges, a Federal Bureau of Prisons registry showed.
His release came after Trump urged Honduran voters to cast their ballots for the National Party candidate, Asfura, and said he would pardon Hernandez. A White House official confirmed on Tuesday that Trump had pardoned Hernandez.
Trump weighed in on Monday in a social media post in which he alleged, without evidence, that Honduras was “trying to change the results of their Presidential Election.”
“If they do there will be hell to pay! The people of Honduras voted in overwhelming numbers on November 30th,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
There was high voter turnout in Sunday’s election, which was peaceful across the country, according to the Organization of American States, which observed the vote. It said in a statement on Monday that it “was able to verify that the voting proceeded normally, except for isolated incidents in some municipalities of the country.”
But there are concerns that if the vote count drags on, the highly charged election environment could lead to protests and possible violence.
The electoral authority said it would now release information about the count directly to media and political parties to ensure the public was able to follow the results.
Former President Manuel Zelaya, who is also the husband of current President Xiomara Castro, lambasted Trump’s interference in the election, saying on X that it was an attempt to stop Moncada’s bid, and vowing the Honduran people would stand up for democracy. “We who fight for liberty are on our feet,” he wrote. “We are patriots and nobody yields.”
On Monday evening, Moncada said the elections were “still not lost” and alleged that the other parties had manipulated the process. She also denounced U.S. interference in the election.
Both Asfura and Nasralla have said they may resume diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which were severed in 2023. Such a move would mark the biggest diplomatic setback for China in the region for decades.
In Taipei on Wednesday, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters that the island would actively engage with whoever was elected.
US President Donald Trump has been ramping up pressure on Venezuela’s leader, President Nicolás Maduro.
The Trump administration has doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture, and its warships are within striking distance of Venezuela. Dozens of people have been killed in attacks on boats alleged to have been transporting drugs from the South American country.
Trump reportedly also gave Maduro an ultimatum to leave Venezuela, in a phone call the two men had on 21 November.
Who is Nicolás Maduro?
Nicolás Maduro rose to prominence under the leadership of left-wing President Hugo Chávez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, succeeded Chávez and has been president since 2013.
During the 26 years that Chávez and Maduro have been in power, their party has gained control of key institutions, including the National Assembly, much of the judiciary, and the electoral council.
In 2024, the electoral council declared Maduro the winner of the presidential election, even though voting tallies collected by the opposition suggested that their candidate, Edmundo González, had won by a landslide.
The US is one of many countries which declared the election illegitimate and recognised González as “president-elect”.
But with Maduro firmly in control of the military, the police and the legislature, he has remained in power and González has fled into exile for fear of arrest.
Why is Trump focusing on Venezuela?
Trump has made stopping immigration a priority during his second term in office and he blames Maduro for the arrival of a large number of Venezuelan migrants in the US.
Since 2013, close to eight million Venezuelans are estimated to have fled the economic crisis and political repression in Venezuela, which have both worsened under Maduro.
Most have fled to Latin American countries, but hundreds of thousands have gone to the US.
Without providing evidence, Trump has accused Maduro of “emptying his prisons and insane asylums” and “forcing” its inmates to migrate to the US.
Trump has also focused on fighting the influx of drugs – especially fentanyl and cocaine – into the US.
As part of his war on drugs, he has designated two Venezuelan criminal groups – Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles – as Foreign Terrorist Organisations and has alleged that the latter is led by Maduro himself.
Maduro has vehemently denied being a cartel leader and has accused the US of using its “war on drugs” as an excuse to try and depose him and get its hands on Venezuela’s vast reserves of oil.
Analysts have pointed out that the Cartel de los Soles is not a hierarchical group but an umbrella term. They say it is used to describe corrupt Venezuelan officials who have allowed cocaine to transit through the country.
Why has the US sent warships to the Caribbean?
The US has deployed 15,000 troops and a range of aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and amphibious assault ships to the Caribbean.
The stated aim of the deployment – the largest in the region since the US invaded Panama in 1989 – is to stop the flow of fentanyl and cocaine to the US.
Since early September, US forces have carried out more than 20 strikes in international waters on boats alleged to have been carrying drugs. More than 80 people have been killed in the strikes.
The Trump administration argues that it is involved in a non-international armed conflict with the alleged drug traffickers, whom it accuses of conducting irregular warfare against the US.
The US has also described those on board as “narco terrorists” but legal experts say the strikes are unlawful as that designation “did not transform them into lawful military targets”.
A former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court told the BBC that the US military campaign fell into the category of a planned, systematic attack against civilians during peacetime.
In response, the White House said that President Donald Trump acted in line with the laws of armed conflict to protect the US from cartels “trying to bring poison to our shores… destroying American lives”.
Is Venezuela flooding the US with drugs?
Counternarcotic experts have pointed out that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in global drug trafficking, and that it acts as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled on their way to their final destination.
Its neighbour, Colombia, is the world’s largest producer of cocaine but most of it is smuggled to the US by other routes, not via Venezuela.
According to a US Drug Enforcement report from 2020, almost three quarters of the cocaine reaching the US is estimated to be trafficked via the Pacific with just a small percentage coming via fast boats in the Caribbean.
Nevertheless, most of the strikes the US has carried out have been in the Caribbean, with just a few in the Pacific.
In September, Trump told US military leaders that the boats targeted “are stacked up with bags of white powder that’s mostly fentanyl and other drugs, too”.
However, fentanyl is produced mainly in Mexico and reaches the US almost exclusively via land through its southern border.
The UK government has criticised delays in aid being allowed into Gaza after a consignment of more than 1,100 tents it sent to the strip took more than a year to arrive.
The foreign secretary has also raised concerns that other UK-funded aid had been unable to reach residents, despite the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
Yvette Cooper said the situation in Gaza remains “dire” as the United Nations warned that 1.5 million people are in need of urgent shelter amid worsening rains and plummeting temperatures ahead of winter.
The Israeli government said it was upholding aid delivery agreements and had “facilitated the transfer of close to 250,000 tents and tarpaulins” to Gaza in recent months.
The UK-funded tents – each capable of housing a family of five – reached Gaza on Monday, with more expected to arrive this week.
Government sources said the tents will provide shelter to as many as 12,000 people over the winter months.
Cooper said the delay in getting aid into the strip could not be allowed to continue and that all crossings into the territory should be opened to allow unhindered humanitarian access.
She said: “The situation in Gaza remains dire, with worsening weather conditions compounding the critical issues caused by damaged infrastructure and over two years of conflict.
“Parents have been trying to shelter their children under broken roofs and open skies.
“These tents will provide a lifeline to thousands of people needing shelter, protecting them from the cold winds and relentless rain turning rubble into mud.”
About 1.9 million people in Gaza, nearly 90% of the population, have been displaced since the Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023, according to the UN.
Cooper said the arrival of the tents “represents months of ongoing work by the international community to push for greater aid access” and she had been frustrated to see “yet another consignment of aid stuck at the border” earlier this year.
“This cannot be allowed to continue,” she said.
“The arrival of these tents shows the scale of potential impact when our aid gets in, and we will continue to do all we can to urge unhindered humanitarian access, the opening of all the crossings, the implementation of the peace plan, and a path to peace.”
Unicef Special Representative to the State of Palestine Jonathan Veitch said more aid would still be needed.
“The situation in Gaza is devastating as cold, and heavy rains continue to affect families living in extremely difficult conditions,” he said.
“Even with the ceasefire, daily life remains incredibly challenging for children in the Gaza Strip.
“UK aid–supported tents have now entered Gaza and will provide urgently needed shelter to help families face the harsh winter. Much more is needed.”
In a statement, Cogat, the Israeli defence body which controls Gaza’s crossings, said: “Contrary to the claims, we emphasize that Israel is committed to and fully upholds its obligation to transfer humanitarian aid trucks in accordance with the agreement.
Sean Combs is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence
Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs have hit out at a new Netflix documentary produced by rapper 50 Cent, which they say is “a shameful hit piece” that “relied on stolen footage”.
The four-part documentary, titled Sean Combs: The Reckoning, was released on Tuesday and is billed as a “staggering examination” of the hip-hop mogul, who was convicted on prostitution-related charges earlier this year.
It includes what Netflix described as “explosive” footage of Combs filmed in the days before his arrest, including a phone conversation with his lawyers.
The director said she obtained the footage legally, but Combs’ spokesman said it was “fundamentally unfair, and illegal” to use his private footage.
‘Personal vendetta’
He also said it was “staggering” that Netflix had given creative control to 50 Cent, who he described as “a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta”.
“Netflix is plainly desperate to sensationalise every minute of Mr Combs’s life, without regard for truth, in order to capitalise on a never-ending media frenzy,” the statement said.
“If Netflix cared about truth or about Mr Combs’s legal rights, it would not be ripping private footage out of context – including conversations with his lawyers that were never intended for public viewing. No rights in that material were ever transferred to Netflix or any third party.”
The statement added: “For Netflix to give his life story to someone who has publicly attacked him for decades feels like an unnecessary and deeply personal affront. At minimum, he expected fairness from people he respected.”
The documentary opens with footage of Combs in a hotel room six days before arrest in September 2024, talking on the phone to attorney Marc Agnifilo and telling him he wants to “fight for my life”.
Pushing Agnifilo to have a more upfront media strategy to protest his innocence, Combs told him: “We have to find somebody that’ll work with us. It has to be somebody that has dealt in the dirtiest of dirtiest of dirty business of [the] media and propaganda.”
At another point, viewers see Combs talking to his son Justin on the phone five days before his arrest. “God told me to do nothing… [but] other people need to do something ’cause this is ridiculous,” he said in the clip.
Combs’ spokesman said the documentary contained footage that was “never authorised for release”.
“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. It is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work.”
Netflix has not responded to a request for a response but pointed US media to comments it has published from the documentary’s director Alexandria Stapleton.
“It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights,” she said. “We moved heaven and earth to keep the film-maker’s identity confidential.”
The documentary is executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, whose long-running feud with Combs stretches back two decades.
Jackson told ABC News’ Good Morning America on Monday: “If I didn’t say anything, you would interpret it as that hip-hop is fine with his behaviours. There’s no-one else being vocal.”
The documentary covers Combs’ career as one of the most powerful men in hip-hop, and includes allegations that he was involved in the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996.
It features tapes of a police interview in which former gang member Duane “Keffe D” Davis claims that Combs offered him $1m (£769,000) for a hit on Shakur.
Mr Davis is set to stand trial for Shakur’s murder in 2026. He now says his proffer agreement with police, under which he agreed to tell them what he knew but it couldn’t be used against him in court, was given under duress, according to Netflix.
The programme also includes Kirk Burrowes, who co-founded Bad Boy Entertainment with Combs, claiming that he believes Combs “had a lot to do with the death of Tupac”.
Combs has always denied any involvement in Shakur’s death.
The documentary also features further claims of violence and threats, many of which have previously been made public in dozens of lawsuits, including alleged abuse against former girlfriend Cassie, which ended in a settlement.
Foreign nationals from more than two dozen countries could be barred from entering the United States under an expanded travel ban being considered by President Trump.
The Trump administration is targeting at least 30 countries to include on an updated travel ban list – but could add more in the future, a source confirmed to The Post.
“We will be announcing the list soon,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.
Trump unveiled a 19 country travel ban list over the summer –which his administration is aiming to expand to some 30 countries. YURI GRIPAS/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem teased the “full travel ban” on Monday night, indicating on X that she proposed expanding the number of countries on the restricted list during a meeting with Trump.
Noem recommended including “every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies” on the list.
“Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom — not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS,” the DHS chief continued. “WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.”
The recommendation is part of the Trump administration’s massive crackdown on immigration following last week’s Thanksgiving eve attack on two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, DC.
The administration had previously announced that it would halt all asylum decisions and re-examine more than 720,000 green card holders from 19 “countries of concern” after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, allegedly killed Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically injured Andrew Wolfe, 24, near the White House.
The State Department has also paused visa issuance for individuals traveling on Afghan passports in response to the horrific attack.
Lakanwal, a former member of a CIA-backed Afghan military unit that fought the Taliban, entered the US legally in 2021 under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome program, which evacuated and resettled refugees after the botched US withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country.
The alleged gunman was granted asylum in April, which made him eligible for a green card after 12 months.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services has reportedly halted naturalization ceremonies for individuals from some of the 19 countries on the current travel ban list, which was unveiled by Trump over the summer.
At least some foreign nationals from Venezuela, Iran and Afghanistan had their US citizenship swearing-in ceremonies, initially scheduled to take place later this week, canceled in the wake of the National Guard shooting, according to ABC News.
“The Trump Administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right,” a DHS spokesperson told The Post. “We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake.
“The Trump Administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from Countries of Concern.”
In June, Trump signed the proclamation to “fully restrict and limit the entry of nationals” from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
The proclamation partially restricted foreign nationals from seven additional countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – from entering the US.
Trump issued the 19-nation travel ban order shortly after an antisemitic firebombing attack in Colorado, which was allegedly carried out by an Egyptian national in the US on an expired tourist visa.
At a White House Cabinet meeting Tuesday, the president took particular issue with immigrants from a nation already on the travel ban list: Somalia.
“Somalians ripped off [Minnesota] for billions of dollars,” Trump said, referring to the fraud scandals that have plagued the North Star State in recent years.
“They contribute nothing,” he said of Somali immigrants, adding, “I don’t want them in our country.”
Noem revealed during the meeting that at the president’s direction she looked into visa fraud in Minnesota and discovered, “50% of them are fraudulent.”
Mahavatar Narasimha Screened In Pakistan? Viral Video From Swaminarayan Temple In Karachi Sparks Buzz Online (Image Source – @rameet_raj/Instagram)
A video claiming that the Swaminarayan Mandir in Karachi hosted the “first-ever screening of India’s first Oscar-eligible animated film, Mahavatar Narasimha” is going viral on social media, sparking widespread curiosity and conversation online.
The clip has been reshared across multiple platforms by various users. However, it was originally posted on Instagram by a creator identified as Ramjeet Raj. Text on the video reads: “First time ever in Pakistan. Maha Avatar Narsimha at Swaminarayan Mandir Karachi.” The caption adds, “First time ever in Pakistan — witnessing the divine might of Maha Avtar Narsinha at Swaminarayan Mandir Karachi. A blessing to be a part of this moment.”
The footage shows the animated film playing on a large screen inside the temple, with a sizeable audience watching attentively and with enthusiasm. The clip has quickly gone viral, amassing over 6 lakh likes, more than 1,000 comments, and over 6 million views.
The video was also reshared on Times Now’s Instagram account with the caption: “Pakistan’s Karachi witnessed a historic moment as Swaminarayan Mandir hosted the first-ever screening of the Mahavatar Narasimha animated film, creating a rare cultural celebration for the community.”
The RELOS agreement sets the procedure for sending military formations, warships and military aircraft of Russia to India and vice versa, and the organisation of their mutual logistical support.
Vladimir Putin will pay a State visit to India from 4 to 5 December for 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, State Duma, on Tuesday ratified a key military pact with India ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to New Delhi on December 4-5.
The Reciprocal Exchange of Logistic Support (RELOS) signed on February 18, between the two governments was sent to Duma last week for ratification by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
“Our relations with India are strategic and comprehensive, and we value them. We understand that today’s ratification of the agreement is another step toward reciprocity and, of course, the development of our relations,” Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of State Duma, said at the plenary session of the house.
The RELOS agreement sets the procedure for sending military formations, warships and military aircraft of Russia to India and vice versa, and the organisation of their mutual logistical support.
The agreement will regulate not only the dispatch of troops and equipment but also their logistics.
The established procedure will be used during joint exercises, training, humanitarian aid, disaster relief efforts after natural and man-made disasters, and in other cases as agreed.
Concerns over Khan’s health intensified last month after his three sisters Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan said they were assaulted for asking to meet with him.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is alive but is being “mentally tortured”, his sister, Dr Uzma Khanum, said Tuesday evening after a 20-minute meeting with her brother in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Dr Khanum said, “Alhamdulillah, he is all right… but he was angry about being mentally tortured. He is locked in his cell all day… can only step out for short periods. And he can’t communicate with anyone.”
She also said her brother had blamed General Asim Munir – now the most powerful figure in Pakistan, after seizing control of the entire military and rewriting the Constitution to guarantee lifetime immunity for himself, the other service chiefs, and President Asif Ali Zardari – for his incarceration and condition.
The meeting followed rumours about the ex-Prime Minister’s health, particularly after his family were barred from meeting him for several weeks. It also followed protests by Imran Khan’s supporters – in Islamabad and Rawalpindi – that prompted officials to prohibit large gatherings.
That, though, did not prevent protests outside the Islamabad High Court.
Concerns over Khan’s condition intensified last month after his three sisters – Noreen Niazi, Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan – said they were assaulted for asking to meet with him.
Those concerns were amplified by his sons’ comments – that jail authorities were concealing “something irreversible” about their father’s condition. One of his sons, Kasim Khan, told Reuters there had been no direct or verifiable contact despite a court order for weekly meetings.
The family also flagged prison authorities refusing visits by Imran Khan’s personal doctor.
In fact, prior to today’s meeting, neither family nor members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had met Khan for over 25 days, leading to rumours he may have died and the authorities, aware his death will lead to protests by millions who see him as national hero, were trying to cover it up.
And pressure on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his government – who have so far demurred from showing proof of life – was ramped up Sunday by Senator Khurram Zeeshan from the PTI.
Imran Khan and General Asim Munir (L) (File photos).
Zeeshan claimed Khan was being kept in isolation as a tactic to pressure him into leaving Pakistan. Speaking to ANI from Pakistan, Zeeshan, claimed the Shehbaz Sharif government felt threatened by Imran Khan’s popularity, and that is why they do not show photos or videos.
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.
The YKJ-1000 is cement coated and is “dirt cheap” compared to other missilesCredit: scmp
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.
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.
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.
Vladimir Putin speaking in Moscow todayCredit: AFP
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.
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.”
Sabrina Carpenter is calling out the White House for using her musicCredit: Getty Images for MTV
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.
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.
Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev (gesturing in the jacket with Russia insignia) showed Kushner and Witkoff around part of central Moscow on the way to the KremlinImage: Yekaterina Shamarova/ZUMA/picture alliance
Rubio says progress made in talks with Russia
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Washington has made “some progress” in talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
Rubio told Fox News that talks have focused on identifying terms Kyiv could accept while securing its long-term security.
“What we have tried to do, and I think have made some progress, is figure out, what could the Ukrainians live with that gives them security guarantees for the future,” he said.
Rubio said the US hopes the agreement would allow Ukrainians “not just to rebuild their economy, but to prosper as a country.”
Kremlin says talks concluded, no compromise found
Hours-long talks between the Russian government and US envoy Steve Witkoff, along with President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, drew to a close, with no clear solutions to the conflict.
The Russian government said that no compromise had been reached on the critical issue of territory in Ukraine.
“So far we haven’t found a compromise, but some American solutions can be discussed,” top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists.
“There were some points we could agree on,” Ushakov added, but “the president did not hide our critical, even negative, stance on a number of proposals.”
But Ushakov praised the talks, adding that “the conversation was very useful and constructive,” however “a lot of work lies ahead both in Washington in Moscow.”
Zelenskyy says what matters is that ‘nothing is decided without Ukraine’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to social media soon after the US negotiators arrived in the Kremlin on Tuesday, saying Ukrainians need “clarity” in any potential peace accord, including guarantees that Russia would not launch “yet another invasion.”
“The United States says that a lot of blood has been shed and it’s enough. And we fully support them. But we must end this war in a way that prevents Russia from coming back a year later with a third invasion,” he said. “They did not achieve their goal of occupying our country. But I am not sure their objectives have changed.”
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. We stopped them. Europe helped, America helped. Russia failed to occupy Ukraine first and foremost because of the strength of the Ukrainian…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 2, 2025
The Ukrainian president said there would be no “simple solutions” to ending the war.
“What matters is that everything is fair and transparent. That there are no games played behind Ukraine’s back. That nothing is decided without Ukraine — about us, about our future,” he wrote.
Territories and frozen assets were among the most difficult questions, he said, as well as security guarantees.
“We could on strong security guarantees from the United States and Europe, and some other leaders,” he said.
There will be no simple solutions to ending this war. We understand what is happening. We understand who we are dealing with. The issue is not the difficulty of making decisions. I am capable of making them. What matters is that everything is fair and transparent. That there are…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 2, 2025
NATO official says Pokrovsk ‘95%’ in Russian hands
A NATO official briefing reporters in Brussels on condition of anonymity on Tuesday said that according to his information, Russia controlled “95%” of Pokrovsk.
This comes as Russia claims total control of the city while Ukraine says its forces are still fighting in the north.
The NATO representative said Ukraine was “conducting an orderly withdrawal” as Russian forces controlled “the vast majority of the city.”
In response to a question from DW’s Xenia Polska, he said it was important to note that taking Pokrovsk was something Russia had expected to achieve more than a year ago.
“It has spent a lot of Russian lives in the pursuit of this goal. It destroyed much of the city in the process, and it’s been very, very slow progress to get here,” he said. “But the during that timeframe, the Ukrainians have been able to take measures so that the fall of Pokrovsk will not have the same strategic impact that it would have had, had this occurred on the Russian timeline.”
He estimated, based on previous NATO estimates of Russia sustaining around 360,000 casualties a year, with so much of the fighting centered around Pokrovsk this year, that Russia would have lost “several hundred per day” in the area.
How Europeans have little say in US-run Ukraine peace talks
The EU and Britain are trying to protect Ukraine’s interests, and their own, as the US leads negotiations to end Moscow’s Ukraine war. But Washington has been keeping European allies at arm’s length.
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.
The YouTube app icon on a smartphone in this illustration taken on Oct 27, 2025. (File image: Reuters/Dado Ruvic)
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.
Two director’s chairs with the Netflix logo sit on a stage at a convention in Lucca, Italy, October 31, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco
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.
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.
The execution took place in a packed stadium surrounded by tens of thousands of people. (Reuters’ file image for representation)
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.
Fuselage sections of Airbus A320-family aircrafts are seen at the Airbus facility in Montoir-de-Bretagne near Saint-Nazaire, France, July 1, 2020. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe Purchase Licensing Rights
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.
A community member holds a sign against a plan of Talen Energy to rezone land from agricultural to industrial to build a data center, at the Montour County Planning Commission meeting in Danville, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah Beier Purchase Licensing Rights
The residents came in camouflage hats and red shirts signaling unity, more than 300 of them packing into a rural Pennsylvania planning commission meeting to protest a proposed data center they feared would carve up their farmland and upend the quiet rhythms of their valley.
Most were loyal supporters of President Donald Trump, who carried their home of Montour County by 20 percentage points in the 2024 election. But they bristled at Washington’s push to fast-track artificial intelligence infrastructure, which has driven data-center growth in rural areas around the U.S. where land is cheap.
On a recent November evening, residents in this county of 18,000 people stepped to the microphone, questioning Talen Energy (TLN.O), officials about how their planned data center might raise residents’ utility bills, reduce working farmland, and strain local water and natural resources.
“Say no to rezoning, so water keeps flowing and crops keep growing,” two women sang in a riff on Woody Guthrie’s folk song “This Land Is Your Land.”
Political leaders across the U.S. are urging a rapid expansion of data-center capacity and new power production to keep the country competitive in AI. Trump, a Republican, is promoting the build-out as an economic and national security priority and has directed his administration to bypass environmental rules and permitting that give local communities a voice. In Pennsylvania, Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and Republican Senator Dave McCormick are courting developers with incentives and infrastructure upgrades to attract investment in the fast-growing industry.
Some communities welcome the economic boost. But the backlash in Montour County, nestled in central Pennsylvania, reflects a growing coalition of farmers, environmentalists and homeowners who have united across partisan lines to resist data-center expansion.
A report by Data Center Watch earlier this year found that about $64 billion worth of data center projects have been blocked or delayed amid local pushback in states including Texas, Oregon and Tennessee. Critics in Pennsylvania worry that their region could turn into northern Virginia’s “data center alley,” with its vast, sprawling complexes.
If successful, the pushback threatens to slow efforts by the administration and the tech industry to build AI infrastructure fast enough to keep pace with global rivals.
Political strategists say anger over the projects also could add to the problems Republicans face as they grapple with affordability worries going into the 2026 midterm elections.
“It’s an issue that can be exploited by whoever’s out of power,” said Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The politics of AI infrastructure, he added, remain unsettled: “The industry’s still evolving, and politicians are figuring out where to stand. It’s like social media — everyone rushed in before understanding the consequences.”
PRESERVING CULTURE
Talen Energy is requesting to rezone roughly 1,300 acres in Montour County from agricultural to industrial use, the first step toward building a large data center that would include 12 to 15 buildings. The site would sit in the shadow of the company’s 1,528-megawatt natural-gas-fired power plant, tucked among farmland and dirt roads used heavily by the region’s Amish community.
Talen Energy has said the project would take 350 acres of farmland supporting soybeans, corn and livestock. Residents worry that losing this land would weaken the local farm economy, including a nearby plant that processes soybeans for regional food and feed.
Montour County Commissioner Rebecca Dressler, a Republican, said the concerns are rooted less in ideology than in preserving the region’s character. “Small-town character defines our community,” Dressler said. “People aren’t anti-development – they just want growth that fits who we are.”
At its recent November meeting, the county planning commission recommended against approving the rezoning by a 6-1 vote – a decision that drew thunderous applause. The issue now goes to Dressler and the other two county commissioners for a final decision in mid-December.
Rather than blaming Trump, residents are pointing their fingers at the billion-dollar companies behind the data-center boom – firms they say have the money to snap up farmland, reshape rural landscapes and leave locals to absorb the higher utility costs.
“I think it’s a society that has forgotten about the small person – the people who live here, the farmers who are struggling with the economy,” said Theresa McCollum, a 70-year-old Trump supporter.
In a place that prides itself on local control, the shift in power to Washington does not sit well.
“Stay out. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation without federal involvement,” said Craig High, 39, also a Trump supporter. “Both (political) parties are pushing data centers and giving regulatory relief — water permits, permitting, all of it.”
PENNSYLVANIA BOOM
Pennsylvania’s abundant, stable electricity has made it a hot spot for data centers, attracting tens of billions in investments from Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), Google, and Microsoft (MSFT.O), with Constellation Energy (CEG.O), even eying the old Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to power new server farms.
But residents fear they may end up paying for it.
Pennsylvania utilities project a sharp rise in electricity demand from data centers by the end of the decade – enough to power several million additional homes, according to data from PJM Interconnection, the region’s grid operator.
Electricity prices in Pennsylvania increased by about 15% in the past year – roughly double the national average, according to federal data.
That surge is already rippling through the regional grid. Capacity prices, which help determine what power plants are paid to ensure supply during peak demand, have spiked in recent auctions, and utilities have begun raising rates to cover growing infrastructure needs.
Analysts warn that customers’ bills could climb significantly in the years ahead.
For many families, the strain is already visible. Overdue utility balances have risen far faster than inflation since 2022, and Pennsylvania ranks among the states with the highest levels of household energy debt, according to the Century Foundation, a progressive research organization.
Those pocketbook pressures are starting to reshape politics in some parts of the United States. Earlier this year, Alicia Johnson became one of two Democrats elected to Georgia’s utility board since 2007 after her campaign highlighted frustration over rising power bills and unchecked growth of data centers. She said the issues in her campaign were a preview of what states like Pennsylvania may face in next year’s U.S. midterm elections.
Power prices have surged in Georgia in recent years, in large part because of massive cost overruns at the new Vogtle nuclear plant.
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.
U.S. Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley delivers remarks during the USSOCOM Change of Command Ceremony in Tampa, Florida, U.S. October 3, 2025. Airman 1st Class Monique Stober/U.S. Special Operations Command/Handout via REUTERS. Purchase Licensing Rights
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.
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.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is allegedly preparing to launch guerilla warfare against any invading force. AFP via Getty Images
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.
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.
Monday’s funeral for Riches brought out hundreds of mourners. Gregory P. Mango
“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.
From corporate executives to Wall Street analysts to Federal Reserve officials, references to the “K-shaped economy” are rapidly proliferating.
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%.
Elon Musk recently shared a touching personal connection to India during a podcast with Nikhil Kamath.
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.
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.
Honoring India’s Scientific Giant
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Tamil Nadu-born astrophysicist who fled to the US amid colonial hardships, won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking work on stellar evolution – the very “Chandrasekhar limit” that defines how massive stars collapse into black holes. Naming their son after him? It’s Musk’s ultimate salute to Indian intellect, echoing his frequent praise for the subcontinent’s talent. (Zilis and Musk share four children: twins Strider and Azure (2021), daughter Arcadia (2024), and son Seldon Lycurgus – with “Sekhar” as the middle name for one of the boys.)
Family, Future, and the ‘Roman Legion’ Dream
The podcast, already viral for Musk’s takes on AI, H-1B visas (“America has benefited immensely from talented Indians”), and Starlink’s India rollout, turned deeply personal on family matters. Joking about his sprawling brood (14 kids total), Musk quipped: “I’m like an army. I’m trying to get an entire Roman Legion.
“On adoption, he’s pragmatic yet open: “I definitely have my hands full right now. I’m not opposed to it, but I do want to be able to spend some time with my kids – beyond a certain number, it’s kind of impossible.” Musk champions the traditional “one child, one mother, one father” model as what “generally works for most,” but stresses independence: “My older kids are very independent – they’re in university.
Especially sons: after a certain age, they’re very independent. Most boys don’t spend a lot of time with their parents after 18.”
The Bigger Philosophy: Fighting Population Decline for Cosmic Consciousness
Musk’s core worry? Humanity’s shrinking numbers. “It’s a big problem. I don’t want humanity to disappear,” he warned, framing it as an existential threat. “If the trend continues, we disappear. Also, going back to my philosophy – we want to expand consciousness. Fewer humans means less consciousness.”
Pressed on whether more people equals more smarts, Musk drew a brilliant analogy: “Yes. Just as consciousness increases from a single-cell creature to a 30-trillion-cell creature, we’re more conscious than bacteria. A larger human population means more consciousness overall. We’re more likely to understand the universe’s nature with more people than with fewer.” On nature vs. nurture, he rejects the binary: “The kid is half you genetically, and growing up around you adds environmental learning. So, yes, children end up being part you from a hardware standpoint, and part you from a software standpoint.” He likens the brain to a “biological computer,” where genetics provide the “circuitry” and upbringing the “efficiency.”
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.
Khaleda Zia was admitted with a lung infection that later worsened. (File Photo)
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.”
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 is serving out a 50-month sentence after he was convicted of prostitution chargesCredit: Reuters
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.
RUSSIA has accused Europe of gearing up for “major war” after a top Nato chief claimed the defence pact could launch “pre-emptive strikes” on Vladimir Putin.
Moscow hit back at the suggestion, blaming the West for “moving towards escalation” – despite mad Vlad’s growing shadow war currently tearing through the continent.
Russia has warned Nato they are gearing up for ‘major war’Credit: Getty
It comes after Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of Nato‘s Military Committee, said the alliance could be forced to strike pre-emptively – a toughening of its current policy of waiting to react.
Putin has been terrorising Europe with a campaign of sabotage and airspace violations for years, and his shadow operation is only ramping up.
Various fires and explosions – including a blaze at an east London Ukrainian-owned warehouse – have been pinned on the tyrant.
Recent cases also include the severing of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea and a string of cyber-hack attacks across the continent.
The surge in these interferences is forcing Nato to reassess its traditional position of reactive military action, Dragone told the Financial Times.
In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the claims were seen by Moscow as “an extremely irresponsible step”.
The top Putin mouthpiece said the remarks indicated “the alliance’s readiness to continue moving towards escalation”.
She said: “We see in it a deliberate attempt to undermine efforts to overcome the Ukrainian crisis.
“The people making such statements should be aware of the risks and possible consequences, including for the alliance members themselves.”
Fellow Putin pawn Denis Gonchar, who serves as Russian ambassador to Belgium, said Nato was “intimidating its population with the Kremlin’s non-existent plans to attack the alliance countries”.
He accused the alliance of “preparing for a major war with Russia”.
The latest Russian threats come as peace talks to end the bloodshed in Ukraine continue between European and US officials.
On Monday Donald Trump said the negotiations were “going along well”.
Both sides on Sunday said the negotiations had been productive, and Marco Rubio said he was hopeful of further progress.
The Kremlin confirmed that the US president’s top envoy Steve Witkoff would be jetting to Moscow to meet mad Vlad on Tuesday in Washington‘s latest bid to end the war.
Speculating on Nato’s ability to hit Russia first, Dragone said: “We are studying everything […] On cyber, we are kind of reactive.
“Being more aggressive or being proactive instead of reactive is something that we are thinking about.”
Dragone added that revenge cyber attacks would be the simplest option, because many Nato member nations hold the capabilities to launch them.
Retaliation for physical sabotage or drone incursions would be more complex – but not out of the question.
The admiral said that a “pre-emptive strike” could, under certain circumstances, be classified as a defensive action – though it is “further away from our normal way of thinking and behaviour”.
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.
Off-duty paramedic Richard Recinos rushed to save 7-year-old Savannah from a burning house on ThanksgivingCredit: KTLA
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.
Mohammed Badaru Abubakar’s resignation comes as Nigeria scrambles to respond to a wave of mass kidnappings.
Nigeria’s defense minister has stepped down at a critical time for the country’s armed forces and their fight against insecurityImage: Sunday Alamba/AP Photo/picture alliance
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.
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 word refers to online content purposefully intended to provoke an angry reactionImage: Tetra Images/Bildagentur-online/picture alliance
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.
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.
UK MP and former minister Tulip Siddiq is the niece of Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina [FILE: Jan 15, 2013]Image: Mikhail Metzel/AP Photo/picture allianceA court in Bangladesh convicted in absentia on Monday British lawmaker and former minister Tulip Siddiq in a corruption case alongside her aunt, the country’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
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.
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.
Newborn chicks in European and North American poultry farms are arriving amid a wave of a deadly disease that’s spread by migrating and other wild birdsImage: Michael Probst/AP/picture alliance
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.
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during travel to Washington, DC, from Palm Beach International Airport, Florida, US on Nov 30, 2025. (File photo: Reuters/Anna Rose Layden)
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.
FILE PHOTO: Then Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger delivers a speech at the COMPUTEX forum in Taipei, Taiwan June 4, 2024. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo
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.
Waves of rain have caused deadly flooding in southern Thailand.
A drone view shows a flooded resort following deadly flooding in Hat Yai district, Songkhla province, Thailand, Nov 30, 2025. (Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)
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.
A man walks through water after a nearby bridge collapsed following deadly flash floods caused by heavy rains in Padang, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, November 30, 2025. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan Purchase Licensing Rights
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.
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’s President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during the Global Fund’s Eighth Replenishment Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Sandton on November 21, 2025, ahead of the G20 leaders’ Summit. HENRY NICHOLLS/Pool via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
“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.
A general view shows the Novorossiysk Fuel Oil Terminal (NMT) in the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, Russia May 30, 2018. REUTERS/Natalya Chumakova/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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.
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.
A coronal mass ejection can be several times larger than Earth
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.
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.
‘My Partner Is Half-Indian, One Of My Son’s Middle Name Is Sekhar,’ Reveals Elon Musk On Nikhil Kamath’s Podcast | Video |
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
Zilis’ professional connection to Musk began in 2017, when she joined Neuralink, Musk’s neurotechnology venture, as part of its leadership team. She currently serves as the company’s Director of Operations and Special Projects. Academically, she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Philosophy from Yale University, reflecting a multidisciplinary background that has shaped her work in the tech and AI sectors.
Musk Has 4 Kids With Zilis
Musk and Zilis share four children: the twins Strider and Azure, their daughter Arcadia and their son Seldon Lycurgus. Musk’s remarks on the podcast offered a rare glimpse into their family life, which he generally keeps out of the public spotlight.
During the broader discussion with Kamath, Musk also commented on the contributions of Indian talent to the United States. He observed that America has long benefited majorly from skilled Indian immigrants, particularly in technology and scientific fields. However, he expressed concern that this dynamic may be shifting.
Pakistan’s decision to halt trade with Afghanistan, which defence minister Khwaja Asif said was “a blessing in disguise”, is backfiring. This is why the ban is hitting Pakistan’s own economy hard while the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is finding alternative routes and partners like India.
Hundreds of trucks loaded with goods are reportedly stranded in a long queue at north western Pakistan’s Torkham border with Afghanistan. (Image for representation: Reuters)
Pakistan’s DG ISPR, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry’s statement warning Afghanistan—”blood and business cannot go together”—now seems to have backfired and is hurting Islamabad itself. With bilateral relations between the two neighbours sinking to their lowest point, following the brief border clash and the mass expulsion of Afghan nationals during harsh winter months, the trade war between Pakistan and Afghanistan has erupted, and its effects are falling disproportionately on Pakistan.
Since the closure of border trade points on October 11, Afghanistan has quickly adapted by redirecting commerce through Iran, India, and the Central Asian republics. Pakistan, however, has taken a severe hit. The halt in cross-border trade is dealing a heavy blow to Pakistan’s already fragile economy. It is undermining its trade, manufacturing, and export sectors, according to several reports, including one in Dawn, the Karachi-based English daily.
Pakistan’s Pathan-dominated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa erupted in outrage over the trade closure, with manufacturers and traders demanding the immediate lifting of the ban.
Just last week, a group of Pakistani businessmen rushed to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, pleading with him to intervene and help restore trade with Afghanistan. They said they had already lost trillions of rupees because of the 45-day closure of the Durand Line crossings, reported the Kabul-based Ariana News Network.
A Pakistan-based journalist, writing for Japan’s Nikkei Asia, reported that Pakistan’s trade war with Afghanistan has now “boomeranged” back onto its own economy.
The standoff hasn’t just frozen two-way trade. It has triggered shortages, price spikes, and production disruptions for Pakistani industries across major ones that depend on Afghanistan for both imports and exports. Not just on the ground, even online, social media is flooded with debates and verbal spats among citizens, civil society members, and other stakeholders. Some Afghans are sharing videos of Pakistani mandis, showing piles of produce lying unsold with no buyers in sight.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said that the United Nations has urged Islamabad to reconsider its decision to close trade routes with Afghanistan, reported Tolo News. Dar added that he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir.
Notably, Afghanistan ranks among the world’s poorest countries, with a projected GDP per capita of just $434, which is lower than many African nations such as Burundi and Somalia. According to the United Nations Development Programme’s 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, more than 64% of Afghanistan’s population lives in poverty.
Afghanistan’s economy is in shambles, but the Taliban regime is attempting to rebuild it by diversifying trade. This effort was evident in two back-to-back Afghan delegations that visited India recently, including Afghanistan’s Minister of Industry and Commerce, Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi. The Taliban regime is also working to open trade channels with Turkey.
Pakistan’s economy has also been affected by the suspension of cross-border trade with Afghanistan, enough to send shockwaves across sectors.
PAK CEMENT MANUFACTURING WORST HIT; FOLLOWED BY MEDICINES: REPORT
Following the prolonged border shutdown, the cement industry in Pakistan is among the worst hit. With Afghan coal imports and cement exports coming to a complete halt, Pakistani manufacturers are forced to switch to far costlier coal from South Africa, Indonesia, and Mozambique, Dawn reported.
The price of local coal has shot up from PKR 30,000–32,000 to PKR 42,000–45,000 per tonne, while Afghan coal, which was once available at PKR 30,000–38,00, has disappeared from the market altogether.
The fallout hasn’t stopped at coal or cement. The ripple effects of the trade war are now being faced across multiple sectors across Pakistan.
With the shutdown in place for 48 days now, exports of medicines and agricultural goods have virtually collapsed too. Industries that once depended on Afghan trade now face a bleak future, reported Profit by Pakistan Today.
Take pharmaceuticals. Pakistani firms used to export roughly US$187 million worth of medicines annually to Afghanistan. Now, with border routes blocked, many consignments are stuck in factories. Some drugs can’t even be rerouted to local markets because they aren’t registered for sale domestically. The producers are now left with unsold stock and growing losses.
FRUITS, VEGGIES DESTROYED IN PAK; TRADERS, WORKERS STARE AT BLEAK FUTURE
Perishable fruits and vegetables, which were once among Pakistan’s most vital exports to Afghanistan, have also been hit hard. The trade freeze has brought most export flows to a halt. Shipments are stuck or even destroyed. As a result, prices of imported fruits have doubled in Pakistan, forcing consumers to pay much more while many exporters have written off entire consignments.
On the revenue side, the impact is no less grim. With export volumes plummeting, tax-collection from transit duties and customs has dropped sharply, depriving Pakistan of valuable foreign reserves when the economy can least afford it.
For many small-time traders and transport workers, this is more than numbers on a page. Entire chains of businesses, once humming with cross-border trade, are now paralysed. Small traders who used to make ends meet are staring at bankruptcy; transporters face mounting debt, and labourers fear widespread joblessness, reported Dawn.
AFGHAN-PAK RELATIONS NOSEDIVED; TALIBAN WANS TRADERS TO SKIP PAK
Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have nosedived since the high after the Taliban’s 2021 takeover. Pakistani airstrikes against “TTP hideouts inside Afghan territory”, and both sides accusing the other of sheltering terrorists, have made relations hostile with minimal trust between both parties. Peace talks collapsed, mistrust deepened, and the relationship steadily slid into open hostility.
The fallout has been severe. Violence has escalated with casualties on both sides, repeated border closures have choked off billions in cross-border trade, “terrorist attacks inside Pakistan” have surged, according to New Delhi-based think tank, ORF.
Squeezed by Pakistani restrictions and wary of depending on a single neighbour, the Taliban have begun pivoting away from Islamabad. Kabul is actively courting India for investments and market access, opening up alternative trade corridors through Iran and Central Asia, and even exporting goods to Russia.
Earlier in November, Afghanistan’s Deputy PM for Economic Affairs, Mullah Ghani Baradar, told the traders to “Immediately seek alternative routes to Pakistan”. He warned that “after this announcement, if any trader exports or imports via Pakistan, the Islamic Emirate will not cooperate when problems arise”.
PATHANS TURN UP HEAT ON PAK GOVT OVER AFGHAN TRADE CLOSURE
Manufacturers and traders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), who share an ethnic affinity with most of the Afghans, are among the worst affected. They have demanded the government to reopen the Pakistan-Afghanistan trade routes without delay.
At a jirga (tribal council) at Bacha Khan Markaz in KP, businessmen, transporters, and chamber representatives demanded that the federal government of Shehbaz Sharif reopen the crossings immediately, citing massive losses to local businesses. Leaders of the Pashtun party, the ANP, slammed the government for double standards that it once “allowed trade with India” despite strained relations. But in the case of Afghanistan, it has blocked them. They called for dialogue, protection of Pakhtun economic rights, and restoration of cross-border commerce, reported Dawn on November 27.
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.
Soldiers move toward the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters in Dhaka on February 25, 2009. (File Photo: Reuters)
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
Alongside the mutiny accusations, Bangladesh on Sunday renewed its expectation that India extradite Hasina “at the earliest”. Foreign Affairs Advisor Mohammad Touhid Hossain told diplomatic reporters in Dhaka that the issue should not define relations with New Delhi but said repatriation remained a priority.
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.
U.S. President Donald Trump, next to first lady Melania Trump, waves as they return from Florida at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 30, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle GordonCredit: Reuters
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.
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.
Bailey Turner, 23, has broken his silence in the first public family outing since his dad Travis Turner was hit with several child pornography charges.Credit: Facebook
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.
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.
Taylor Swift has some lavish bachelorette party plans, The U.S. Sun can exclusively revealCredit: Getty
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.
TOP diplomats from Kyiv are heading to the US to continue talks on a peace deal that could end Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine.
The delegation, which is being led by the country’s Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, hopes to hammer out the details of Donald Trump’s proposed peace draft.
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze after a Russian strike hit the central market in Kramatorsk, Donetsk regionCredit: Getty
Diplomats from Kyiv will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday.
They will hope to negotiate for a fair peace deal that does not lean heavily towards Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out”.
Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal – all while Zelensky finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation.
Sunday’s meeting will also notably be the first without Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday following a corruption row.
Yermak had been the leading negotiator – and enforcer – for Kyiv since the start of the war in 2022.
A political blowback from a $100 million energy sector corruption scandal has seen two ministers and, now, the president’s right-hand man, ousted.
The Geneva meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counteroffer to proposals laid out in Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan.
It heavily favoured Russia, prompting Zelensky to quickly engage with American negotiators.
Kyiv said it was seeking changes to the draft that was criticised for being in Moscow‘s favour for accepting a range of Russia‘s hardline demands.
European leaders, fearing for their own future amid Russian aggression, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.
Early this week, Umerov said the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva”.
It indicated that Ukraine was on common ground with the US about the revised, now 19-point peace plan with the US negotiators.
But it left the toughest issues for Trump and Zelensky to decide later.
The original Kremlin-backed plan ceded Crimea and the Donbas region to Moscow, as well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – with the US officially recognising them as part of the Russian territory.
While the 19-point plan scraps any limits on the size of Ukraine’s army, it does not address control of territory or whether Ukraine can join Nato – two of the biggest red lines for both sides.
Zelensky has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in a dramatic address last week that he would not betray the country.
But reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory taken by Moscow through force is likely to go ahead despite concern from Ukraine‘s allies in Europe.
A source told The Telegraph: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position.
“They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”
The Kremlin said it had received an updated strategy for ending the war. They gave no more details.
Meanwhile, thr Russian forces are making incremental gains on the front line as Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.
A Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings.
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.
Ukraine has also received IRIS-T air defense systems produced by German manufacturer DiehlImage: Christoph Schmidt/dpa/picture alliance
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.
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.
At the start of the meeting with the Ukrainian delegation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) emphasized that Ukraine should remain sovereignImage: Chandan Khanna/AFP
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.”
Rubio calls talks ‘productive’ but says ‘more work to be done’
Following a meeting in Florida, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that talks with Ukrainian officials were “productive,” though more work is required to broker a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.
He reiterated comments made at the beginning of the talks, which lasted more than four hours, saying that the discussions were not just focused on a ceasefire, but also on long-term prosperity for Ukraine.
“I think we built on that today, but there’s more work to be done,” Rubio said.
“There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week, when Mr. Witkoff travels to Moscow, although we’ve also been in touch in varying degrees with the Russian side, but we have a pretty good understanding of their views as well,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s security council secretary Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv’s delegation, hailed the negotiations in Florida as “productive and successful.”
Wadephul ‘cautiously optimistic’ of a ceasefire
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has said he sees the ongoing peace efforts in Ukraine’s war with quiet confidence.
Speaking on the ARD program Bericht aus Berlin, Wadephul said he believes the negotiations for a ceasefire are entering a “decisive week.”
“I am cautiously optimistic that there is now a real chance of a ceasefire and that negotiations can take place on an equal footing,” he said.
However, the foreign minister went on to say that although Ukraine was willing to end the war, Russia was not willing to negotiate.
“The situation is such that Ukraine is constantly saying that it is prepared to accept a ceasefire and prepared to
negotiate,” he said. “The only one missing is (Russian President) Vladimir Putin. He continues to shoot and bomb.”
Zelenskyy shares calls with EU and NATO chiefs
While the Ukrainian delegation is meeting with US officials in Florida, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared on social media that he held phone calls with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO.
I spoke with Mark Rutte @SecGenNATO, and we will continue our conversation in the coming days. These are important days, and much can change. We are coordinating closely, and in our efforts – and in the efforts of all our partners – it is our joint measures and shared positions…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 30, 2025
Zelenskyy said both calls centered on an allignment of thoughts on the current Russian invasion of Ukraine and the continued support of European allies for his country.
Referring to von der Leyen, he added: “It also matters that Ursula is paying close attention to the need to strengthen our resilience amid Russia’s constant strikes on our infrastructure and the energy sector.”
I spoke with the President of the European Commission, Ursula @vonderleyen. We maintain full coordination with the European Commission, and I’m grateful for the support. We discussed the diplomatic situation, and we have a shared understanding of the key issues. It also matters…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 30, 2025
Geneva talks offered revision to Trump’s plan
Following the news of Donald Trump’s 28-point plan, European leaders held a meeting in Geneva on November 23, revising the plan down to 19 points.
Some of the key changes reported included dropping the previous cap on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Additionally, a proposal for a blanket amnesty for wartime acts, which could have shielded war crimes from prosecution, was removed.
However, the most sensitive issues — territorial settlement, Ukraine’s possible membership in NATO and foreign troop presence — were left unresolved. Those were reportedly to be deferred for decision at the level of heads of state (i.e. between the presidents).
What was included in Trump’s 28-point plan?
As the talks continue in Florida, the delegations are discussing parts of plans that were previously put forward.
One of those plans is the 28-point plan proposed by the team of US President Donald Trump, which, among other things, controversially included Ukraine conceding territories, such as Crimea and the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (the Donbas), even those parts still under Ukrainian control.
Meanwhile, some areas of Donetsk were planned to become demilitarized buffer zone under Russian control.
The plan would also entail freezing the frontlines in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which would effectively leave Russia in control of the occupied areas for the time being.
Ukraine would be prohibited from joining NATO and the alliance would agree never to admit Ukraine, while Kyiv’s armed forces would be limited to a maximum of 600,000 personnel.
In exchange for these concessions, Ukraine and its allies would receive “security guarantees,” though no details were provided regarding what these guarantees would entail.
The plan also included an economic reconstruction scheme: some frozen Russian assets would be used to rebuild Ukraine. Russia might gradually be reintegrated into the global economy, which could include potential sanctions relief, economic cooperation, and a return to forums like the G8.
Kyiv and its European allies criticized that plan for being too weighted toward Russian demands.
Dignitas founder chose to end his life shortly before his 93rd birthday, the association said. Ludwig A. Minelli’s effort was crucial to the decriminalization of assisted suicide services in Germany in 2020.
Ludwig A. Minelli founded the association in 1998Image: Stefan Boness/IPON/picture alliance
The founder of Swiss right-to-die group Dignitas has died through assisted death, the association said Saturday.
Ludwig A. Minelli was a pioneer in the field of assisted death, having led efforts to decriminalize it in Germany in 2020.
Minelli died November 29, 2025, shortly before his 93rd birthday.
He founded the association “Dignitas – To live with dignity – To die with dignity” in 1998 and faced numerous legal challenges. He made several successful appeals to the Swiss Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Minelli began his career as a journalist with a Swiss newspaper in 1956 and was the first correspondent for the German news magazine Der Spiegel in Switzerland between 1964 and 1974.
He later studied law and went on to make a lasting impact on Swiss legislation. Dignitas noted a 2011 ECHR ruling that recognized the right of a person capable of judgment to decide the manner and timing of their own end of life.
The organization described Minelli as a “tenacious and unflinching warrior” when it came to defending people’s autonomy to make fundamental decisions about their lives.
What to know about assisted death in Germany
Dignitas said Minelli’s work was crucial to the decriminalization of assisted suicide services in Germany.
In 2020, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled that individuals have a constitutional right to a self-determined death.
In a recent interview with German outlet FOCUS Online, Dr. Martin Goßmann, head of the medical team at the German Assisted Dying Association, said third parties can offer assistance such as medical or legal advice, but the patient must carry out the act of ingesting the life-ending drug.
Euthanasia, where another person actively helps someone die at their request, remains punishable by law in Germany.
Police in California have said four people were killed in a possible targeted shooting Saturday evening. The incident took place during a children’s birthday party.
Police say the shooting was likely targetedImage: Ethan Swope/AP Photo/picture alliance
Police in the California city of Stockton have said that four people were killed Saturday evening and another 10 injured during a shooting at a family gathering.
What do we know so far?
The shooting occurred at a children’s birthday party according to Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee, who said that he was in contact with authorities and would be “pushing for answers.”
Police say dispatchers received reports of a shooting in Stockton, which is located about an hour and a half east of San Francisco, around 6:00 p.m. local time (0200 GMT).
Authorities say they have little information at the moment and have released no details about the shooter.
***INFORMATIONAL UPDATE***
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Shortly before 6:00 p.m., our dispatch center received reports of a shooting that occurred near the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in Stockton. We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck… pic.twitter.com/aqMWRWnsRa
— San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office (@SJSheriff) November 30, 2025
On Saturday, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office posted to X: “We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck by gunfire, and four victims have been confirmed deceased.”
President Petr Pavel has rejected a controversial candidate for the post of environment minister. Filip Turek of the Motorists party faces numerous allegations over racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook posts.
Filip Turek has faced media scrutiny over allegedly racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook postsImage: Deml Ondrej/CTK/dpa/picture alliance
Election-winner Andrej Babis went to Prague Castle on Wednesday to present President Petr Pavel with his list of cabinet nominees.
They included Filip Turek, the candidate for the post of Czech environment minister put forward by the conservative, euroskeptic Motorists for Themselves party, one of Babis’ two coalition allies.
Turek, an ex-racing driver, has faced intense media scrutiny over allegedly racist, sexist and homophobic Facebook posts, several Hitler salutes, and an incident involving a Saudi diplomat and a spent ammunition cartridge.
The Motorists originally put him forward for the post of foreign minister, and party leader Petr Macinka as environment minister. However, a last-minute change on Wednesday morning saw the names reversed.
Pavel rejects Turek for cabinet post
But even this was not enough to satisfy the president. “The president’s position is that he doesn’t think Mr. Turek should be in the cabinet,” Andrej Babis told reporters after his latest meeting with Pavel.
“I’ll now go back to speak to the Motorists party and we’ll decide how to proceed,” said Babis, adding that President Pavel would speak to all ministerial candidates over the next two weeks.
A flurry of snowflakes fell on the bank of microphones in the courtyard of Prague Castle as Babis explained what would happen in the month leading up to Christmas — by which time he hopes to be named prime minister — but festive cheer is in short supply.
Allegations of racism, sexism and homophobia
Turek’s difficulties began when the Czech daily newspaper Denik N published a series of screenshots it said were deleted posts and comments harvested from his Facebook account.
In 2010, when a group of neo-Nazi sympathizers were given long prison sentences for an arson attack on a house inhabited by a Roma family — that resulted in a two-year-old girl being seriously burned — Turek allegedly wrote there should have been “extenuating circumstances” for the sentence, as the family was Roma.
In 2015, claimed Denik N, Turek appears to have used a racist slur when referring to US President Barack Obama and later allegedly referred to a majority-African American area of Los Angeles as “Planet of the Apes.”
A few years later, when the Munich City Council requested permission to illuminate the Allianz Arena football stadium in rainbow colors during the Euro 2020 championship in show of LGBTQ+ support, Turek allegedly shared a post on the story with the comment “it seems the last proud German died in 1945.”
The list went on.
Turek denies he is Nazi sympathizer
Denik N claimed there were numerous posts by Turek in which he referred to himself as “Vudce” (Czech for “Führer”) as well as “Duce,” and his Prague apartment as the “Eagle’s Nest” — a reference to Hitler’s mountain retreat in Bavaria.
Turek categorically denies accusations he is a racist or a Nazi sympathizer.
Originally describing the Denik N story as a hit job by hostile media, he later denied writing some of the deleted comments outright and demanded proof. Other posts he described as simply his brand of “black humor.” Some, he said, were the result of lending someone his phone in a bar.
Turek similarly dismissed several photos of him performing the Nazi salute as a joke, and not meant seriously.
Will Turek reconsider his nomination?
Most, however, agree that Turek, who boasts a collection of luxury cars and has a seemingly visceral aversion to the European Green Deal, is hardly a good fit for environment minister.
“Above all, Filip Turek himself would not enjoy being at the environment ministry,” said Jindrich Sidlo, a Czech journalist and political commentator.
“It’s not what he dreamed of — travelling the world, feeling that he belongs to high society and taking part in shaping history,” Sidlo told DW. “I wouldn’t be surprised if ultimately he reconsiders his nomination.”
Turek’s links to scandals mount up
President Pavel has previously made it known that Filip Turek’s comments were the main stumbling block to his appointment.
However, Turek has also admitted placing a spent rifle cartridge and a drawing of a gallows on the roof of a car belonging to an employee of the Saudi embassy following an altercation. He claimed the man had been harassing his girlfriend.
Some journalists, meanwhile, spotted that the notes Babis was carrying on Wednesday suggested the president also had problems with Turek admitting to speeding on a Czech motorway at 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour), allegedly failing to declare €3 million ($3.47 million) in property, and claims he had built a garage without the proper planning permission.
President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One en-route to Washington, DC on Nov 30, 2025. (Photo: Getty Images via AFP/Pete Marovich)
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday (Nov 30) his administration intends to maintain a pause on asylum decisions for “a long time” after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members near the White House, killing one of them.
When asked to specify how long it would last, Trump said he had “no time limit” in mind for the measure, which the Department of Homeland Security says is linked to a list of 19 countries already facing US travel restrictions.
“We don’t want those people,” Trump continued. “You know why we don’t want them? Because many have been no good, and they shouldn’t be in our country.”
The Trump administration issued the pause in the aftermath of the shooting in Washington on Nov 26, which left 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom dead and another guardsman critically wounded.
A 29-year-old Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the incident.
Lakanwal had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Lakanwal had been granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, but officials have blamed what they called lax vetting by the government of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden for his admission to US soil during the Afghan airlift.
Trump wrote after the shooting he planned to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover”.
FILE PHOTO: A drone view of a pump jack and drilling rig south of Midland, Texas, U.S. June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Eli Hartman/File Photo
Oil prices rose as much as 1.5 per cent on Monday after OPEC+ members reaffirmed a plan to pause production increases in the first quarter of next year and the prospect of U.S. action against oil producer Venezuela unsettled the market.
Brent crude futures later pared gains to sit up 0.98 per cent, or $62.99, a barrel by 0052 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $59.12, up 57 cents, or 0.99 per cent.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies initially agreed on the pause in early November, slowing a push to regain market share amid fear of a supply glut.
After a meeting on Sunday, OPEC+ said it “reaffirmed the importance of adopting a cautious approach and retaining full flexibility to continue pausing or reverse the additional voluntary production adjustments”.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Vivek Dhar said the Sunday outcome widely expected considering the earlier decision.
“Market worries of a growing glut in global oil markets has likely played a role in the OPEC+ decision,” Dhar wrote in client note.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to close Venezuelan airspace created fresh uncertainty in the oil market given the South American nation is a major oil producer.
In a client note, ING analysts wrote that “adding support to the market is increasing supply risks for Venezuelan crude oil after President Trump said he’s considering closing the airspace over the nation”.
Trump on Sunday said he had spoken with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro but did not give details, nor did he expand on his airspace comments or whether they signalled military strikes against the nation.
“Don’t read anything into it,” Trump said.
In Europe, increasing uncertainty around a Russia-Ukraine peace deal reversed bearish sentiment of the past two weeks, when a peace deal looked closer and raised the prospect of large volumes of currently sanctioned Russian oil flooding the market.
Ukraine’s military via social media on Saturday said it had hit a Russian oil refinery, as well as the Beriev military aviation plant in Rostov region.
Japanese real estate developers are wading further into a tricky Indian market and more of their peers are expected to get their feet wet, drawn by rising rents in a rapidly growing economy as well as low construction costs.
First case in point is Mitsui Fudosan, Japan’s biggest property developer, which forayed into India in 2020, partnering with local developer RMZ Real Estate to build an office complex in Bengaluru.
Mitsui Fudosan could embark on fresh investment of 30-35 billion yen ($190-$225 million) or more in projects with either RMZ or other developers, said two sources with knowledge of the plans.
Last month, members of Mitsui Fudosan’s management team were in Mumbai and the region around the capital New Delhi looking at opportunities, they added, declining to be identified as the information was private.
Mitsui Fudosan declined to comment. RMZ declined to comment on the potential new investment.
RMZ Real Estate CEO Avnish Singh did say, however, that Japanese developers are kicking into higher gear now that trust with local partners has been established.
“The floodgates can open and have opened,” he said.
Sumitomo Realty and Development, Japan’s No.3 developer which describes Mumbai as its second engine of growth after Tokyo, has committed $6.5 billion across five projects in the city, including two sites added this year.
It is also scouting for land around a soon-to-be operational Navi Mumbai city airport for new investment, said a senior industry source familiar with its strategy. The source declined to be named because the information was confidential.
Sumitomo Realty did not respond to a request for comment.
SLEEVES ROLLED UP
Japanese companies are far from the only overseas investors keen on Indian property. U.S. investment firm Blackstone, for example, is India’s biggest commercial landlord, and roughly half of its $50 billion in Indian assets are in real estate.
Like Blackstone, most foreign players purchase existing assets given India’s notorious reputation for construction delays that can leave prospective tenants and buyers high and dry. Although reforms in recent years have improved construction timelines and created a new framework to resolve disputes, acquiring land can be very slow, involving much red tape.
“Japanese investors are one of the few willing to take development risk. They like to roll up their sleeves,” said Singh.
Despite red-tape headaches, the returns can be worthwhile.
“Expected returns in the Japanese market are maybe around 2-4 per cent. In India, you can easily expect 6-7 per cent,” said Seiji Ota, a partner at Deloitte India who focuses on Japanese investments in the country.
Ota and Singh said a number of other Japanese developers want to make their first foray into India and are assessing opportunities to develop office, retail and hotel projects.
Japanese companies and funds have boosted investment in overseas real estate by a fifth this year, according to a survey by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Research Institute conducted in September.
While the U.S. and Australia remain long-favoured markets, interest in India notably spiked, with 41 per cent of those surveyed intending to invest, up 6 per centage points from a year earlier.
LOW COSTS AND CLIMBING RENTS
One key draw for Japanese developers is India’s low labour costs. Hiring an electrician or a plumber, for example, costs just $2 an hour.
Constructing premium office buildings of up to 20 floors costs more than $8,000 per square metre in New York, around $5,300 in London and $4,000 in Tokyo, but is just $656 in Mumbai, data from real estate consultancy Turner & Townsend shows.
Just as importantly, rents for premium office space have surged in India on the back of economic growth that has averaged 8 per cent over the past three fiscal years.
Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex – its central business district – led growth in commercial rents for the Asia Pacific region in the third quarter with a jump of 14.2 per cent, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm.
That was followed by Tokyo’s central five wards which rose 10.2 per cent, while India’s national capital region and Seoul’s central business district both climbed over 9 per cent.
Japanese firms’ preference for designing a building from scratch allows them to bring in technology not used in India.
Sumitomo Realty’s first project in Bandra Kurla Complex is using a steel structure that enables very wide floor plates and thus pillar-less offices – something that Indian developers cannot do yet, said the source familiar with its strategy.
In a village outside Botswana ’s capital, Keorapetse Koko sat on an aging couch in her sparsely furnished home, stunned that a career — and an entire nation’s economy — built on diamonds had fallen so far, so fast.
For 17 years, she had earned a living cutting and polishing the gems that helped transform Botswana from one of the world’s poorest nations into one of Africa’s success stories. Diamonds were discovered in 1967, a year after independence, an abrupt change of fortune for the landlocked country.
Botswana became the world’s top diamond producer by value, and second-largest by volume after Russia. Diamonds are woven into the national identity, with local Olympic champion runner Letsile Tebogo heading a De Beers campaign celebrating how the industry funds schools and stadiums.
The stones that Koko and thousands of others dug and polished over the decades have funded Botswana’s health, education, infrastructure and more. The country risked the “resource curse” of building its economy on a single natural asset — and unlike many African nations, it was a success.
But Koko lost her job a year ago, joining many others left adrift as Africa’s trade in natural diamonds buckles under growing pressure from cheaper lab-grown diamonds mass-produced mainly in China and India.
“I have debts and I don’t know how I am going to pay them,” said the mother of two, who had survived on about $300 a month and relied on her employer for medical insurance. It had been a decent situation for a semi-skilled worker in a country where the average monthly salary is about $500. “Every month they call me asking for money. But where do I get it?”
‘Diamonds built our country’
Botswana, which has unearthed some of the world’s biggest stones, has prided itself on prudently managing its natural wealth, avoiding the corruption and fighting that have plagued many African peers. Its marketing message has been simple: Its stones are conflict-free and help fund development.
“Diamonds built our country,” said Joseph Tsimako, president of the Botswana Mine Workers Union, which represents about 10,000 workers in the nation of 2.5 million people. “Now, as the world changes, we must find a way to make sure they don’t destroy the lives of the people who helped build it.”
He warned that new U.S. tariffs under the Trump administration could worsen Botswana’s downturn, triggering staffing freezes, unpaid leave and more layoffs. The U.S. has imposed a 15% tariff on diamonds that are mined, cut and polished there.
Diamond exports, roughly 80% of Botswana’s foreign earnings and a third of government revenue, have tumbled.
Debswana, the largest local diamond producer and a joint venture between the government and mining giant De Beers, saw revenues halve last year. It has paused operations at some mines as Botswana and Angola enter talks to take over controlling stakes in De Beers’ diamond mining unit.
In September, Botswana’s national statistics agency reported a 43% drop in diamond output in the second quarter, the steepest fall in the country’s modern mining history. The World Bank expects the economy to shrink 3% this year, the second consecutive contraction.
Hong Kong on Saturday mourned the 128 people known to have died in a huge fire at a high-rise apartment complex, a toll that is likely to rise with 150 still missing days after the disaster.
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site in the district of Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.
Police revised down the number of people unaccounted for to 150 from 200, after some relatives managed to reconnect with loved ones they initially reported as missing.
Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Mainland China on Saturday ordered a nationwide investigation of fire risks at high-rise buildings, especially residential blocks undergoing renovation.
Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body, the ICAC, said it had arrested three more people. Aged between 52 and 68, they were in charge of the contractor of the renovation project at the complex.
SEARCH FOR BODIES CONTINUES
Authorities have said the fire alarms at the Wang Fuk Court estate, home to over 4,600 people, had not been working properly.
Hong Kong leader John Lee, other officials and civil servants, all dressed in black, stood in silence for three minutes early on Saturday outside the central government offices, where flags were lowered to half-staff.
Condolence books have been set up at 18 points around the former British colony for the public to pay their respects.
“Our most heartfelt thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones and with those that are now living with shock and uncertainty,” Britain’s King Charles said in a statement about the “appalling tragedy”.
At Wang Fuk Court, police officers wearing white overalls, helmets and oxygen masks clambered into the buildings over mounds of fallen bamboo scaffolding and around large puddles created after firefighters doused the buildings for days to try to reduce the temperatures inside.
Search operations could take three to four weeks to complete, said Hong Kong’s Home Secretary, Alice Mak. The two blocks searched on Saturday were the least damaged, police said.
Families and mourners gathered nearby and left hundreds of bouquets of flowers. Some faced the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.
Christy Tang, 67, was searching for her friend, a retiree who enjoyed singing and sports. “We checked the photos of dead bodies trying to identify her but to no avail,” she said.
Domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines were also caught up in the tragedy. Hong Kong has around 368,000 such workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers, often in cramped spaces.
[1/12]A girl places flowers at a makeshift memorial near Wang Fuk Court housing estate to pay tribute to victims of the deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China, China November 29, 2025. REUTERS/Lam Yik Purchase Licensing RightsIndonesia said seven of its citizens died in the incident. The Philippines said one of its nationals was critically injured, another confirmed missing, while 28 were thought to be residents of the area but their whereabouts were unknown.
An injured worker from the Philippines, Rhodora Alcaraz, 28, cradled her employers’ three-month-old baby in a wet blanket while trapped in a smoke-filled room for several hours before being rescued by firefighters, her sister Raychelle Loreto said.
“I’m feeling very weak. I can’t breathe,” she mumbled through sobs in a panicked audio message sent to her sister via Facebook as the situation escalated.
DEADLIEST BLAZE SINCE 1948
The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze. It has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.
Residents of Wang Fuk Court were told by authorities last year they faced “relatively low fire risks” after complaining about fire hazards posed by the renovation, the city’s Labour Department said.
The residents raised concerns in September 2024, including about the potential flammability of the protective green mesh contractors used to cover the bamboo scaffolding, a department spokesperson said.
Hong Kong’s anti-graft body said it had arrested 11 people in connection with the investigation, including three previously questioned by police.
The trio were two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for over a year. They were suspected of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows, police said previously.
Prestige did not answer calls for comment.
Hong Kong’s Buildings Department suspended all work on 28 projects managed by Prestige in the city on Saturday because of safety concerns, and ordered contractors to halt work at two other sites.
Russia’s Ambassador to Moldova Oleg Ozerov walks by a drone after Chisinau’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Ozerov to show him a Russian drone that fell in Moldova, in Chisinau, Moldova, November 26, 2025, in this screengrab from video. Moldovan Ministry Of Foreign Affairs/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
Moldovan authorities said on Saturday that Russian drones had entered the country’s airspace, posing a threat to aviation, in the third such incident in nine days.
President Maia Sandu, who wants to bring Moldova into the European Union by 2030, has denounced Russia’s war in Ukraine and accused Moscow of attempting to destabilise the ex-Soviet state, which lies between Ukraine and EU member Romania.
The latest incident coincided with a large Russian attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian targets, killing three people and wounding nearly 30. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched around 36 missiles and nearly 600 drones.
Moldova’s interior ministry said it had identified two drones as Russian and that they had flown over Moldovan territory, prompting the closure of its airspace.
They later flew into Ukrainian territory, it added.
“In the course of this incident, which posed a serious threat to flight safety, Moldova’s airspace was closed for an hour and 10 minutes from 22.43 to 23.53 (2043 to 2153 GMT) on the orders of the civil aviation authority,” it said.
Sandu, writing on the X media platform, said: “On their way to kill civilians, Russian drones again violated Moldovan airspace, forcing its temporary closure. We condemn these attacks and stand with Ukraine.”
Moldova, which complained of a similar intrusion on November 20 and again earlier this week, described the latest incident as intimidation in the context of the conflict in Ukraine and denounced “illegal and dangerous actions posing a threat to civil flights and peoples’ lives”.
Russia’s Ambassador to Moldova, Oleg Ozerov, has been repeatedly summoned to its foreign ministry over the incidents.
Ozerov suggested the incidents were aimed at worsening already poor relations between Moscow and Chisinau.
The sun sets over Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from the border with Gaza in southern Israel, April 1, 2024. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Purchase Licensing Rights
The number of people confirmed killed in Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip has passed the 70,000 mark, the enclave’s health ministry said on Saturday.
A total of 301 people have been added to the toll since Thursday, taking it to 70,100, the ministry added. Two died in recent Israeli strikes, the rest were identified from remains buried for some time in the rubble, according to the statement.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has questioned the accuracy of the figures from Gaza, though it has not published its own estimate.
BODIES IDENTIFIED IN RUBBLE
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – triggered by the deadly October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel – has left much of the strip in ruins, making it difficult to gather accurate information on casualties.
In the first months of the war, officials counted bodies that arrived in hospitals and registered names and identity numbers.
In the later stages, Gaza health authorities said they held off including thousands of reported deaths in the official tally until forensic, medical and legal checks could be made.
Since a fragile ceasefire took hold on October 10, the reported death toll has kept climbing steadily as authorities there take advantage of the relative calm to search for bodies in the wreckage.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seized 251 hostages in their attack on southern Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has shattered whole families.
Moaz Mghari said he had lost 62 relatives, including his parents and four siblings, in a series of Israeli airstrikes that destroyed two residential buildings near the entrance to Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip.
He told Reuters he had been at a nearby clothing shop when he heard the sound of explosions and the sky turned dark with dust. He rushed home to find his family’s building turned to rubble.
“Then I began to realize what happened, I lost everything, I lost everyone,” Mghari, said.
Israel’s military has denied targeting civilians since the conflict started more than two years ago.
The measures, approved at a wildlife trade conference in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.
A whale shark off the coast of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, Feb 8, 2025. Governments agreed to ban the international commercial trade in whale sharks, among other species. (AP Photo/Flora Tomlinson-Pilley)
Governments at a wildlife trade conference have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays amid concerns that overfishing is driving some to the brink of extinction.
The measures, approved Friday (Nov 28) at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.
It would strengthen regulations for gulper sharks, smoothhound sharks and the tope shark, which means they can be traded, but there must be proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.
Governments also agreed to enact zero-annual export quotas for several species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, meaning the legal international trade will mostly be halted.
“This is a landmark victory, and it belongs to the Parties who championed these protections,” Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement.
“Countries across Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia came together in a powerful show of leadership and solidarity, passing every shark and ray proposal.”
Conservationists argued the measures were necessary to address overfishing of many species for fins and meat as well as oil and gills. They argue the billion dollar trade is unsustainable, noting that more than 37 per cent of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.
“For too long, sharks that have roamed our oceans for millions of years have been slaughtered for their fins and meat,” Barbara Slee, senior programme manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement.
“People may fear sharks, but the truth is we pose a far greater threat to them—with more than 100 million killed every year. These new protections will help shift that balance and recognise and honour these sharks as more than just fishery commodities.”
Some of the treaty’s greatest successes of late have been around sharks.
At the last conference in Panama in 2022, governments increased protections more than 90 shark species, including 54 species of requiem sharks, the bonnethead shark, three species of hammerhead shark and 37 species of guitarfish. Many had never before had trade protection.
The international wildlife trade treaty, which was adopted in 1975 in Washington, D.C., has been praised for helping stem the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horns as well as in whales and sea turtles.
But it has come under fire for its limitations, including its reliance on cash-strapped developing countries to combat illegal trade that’s become a lucrative US$10 billion-a-year business.
This year, conservationists said that governments had rejected efforts to weaken trade regulations for elephants and rhinos, though they did agree to relax regulations in the trade of saiga horn from Kazakhstan.
Palestinians walk next to damaged buildings in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip on Nov 29, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Abd Elhkeem Khaled)
Gaza: Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.
A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
“I’m very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we’re eager to serve our country and fellow citizens,” said a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer.
He told AFP he hoped the security force would be “independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives”.
“We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance,” said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP.
The lieutenant, who left Gaza with his family last year, said the training focused on the fallout of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war and the damage done to the Palestinian cause.
Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
“PROTECTING THE DREAM”
The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of “protecting the dream of creating” a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state.
A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training.
During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, the Palestinian movements – including the two main ones, Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah – agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers.
Egypt would train half of them, while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since the militant group seized power there in 2007.
Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian movements.
Firefighters walk through charred bamboo scaffolding as they exit a fire-damaged residential block at Wang Fuk Court housing complex, following a deadly fire on Wednesday, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, Nov 29, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu)
HONG KONG: Anger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday (Nov 30) as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.
Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said.
University student Miles Kwan, 24, was arrested on suspicion of trying to incite sedition in relation to the blaze in the Wang Fuk Court complex in the northern Tai Po district, the South China Morning Post reported. Hong Kong police did not respond on Sunday to a request for comment.
The online petition promoted by the group reached over 10,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon before it was closed.
A second petition with the same demands has been launched by a Tai Po resident who is now living overseas.
“Hongkongers demand the truth and justice,” wrote KY in the comment section of the new online petition.
The blaze that ripped through seven high-rise residential blocks near the border with mainland China has stunned Hong Kong and authorities have launched criminal and corruption investigations as anger and dismay grow.
The cause of the blaze, which killed 128 people and left 150 still missing, is still to be determined.
Authorities are on tenterhooks to avoid any broader public backlash after pro-democracy protests roiled the city in 2019, leading to a Beijing-imposed national security law.
China’s national security authorities on Saturday warned individuals against using the disaster to disrupt the city.
“We sternly warn the anti-China disruptors who attempt to ‘disrupt Hong Kong through disaster’. No matter what methods you use, you will certainly be held accountable and strictly punished under the Hong Kong national security law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.”
FIRE ALARMS NOT WORKING PROPERLY
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.
Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Donations have poured in from large and small companies as well as other groups to assist the victims.
Authorities have said the fire alarms at the Wang Fuk Court estate, home to over 4,600 people, had not been working properly.
Photo of gold bars and cash recovered by police from the 73-year-old Malaysian suspect. (Image: Singapore Police Force)
SINGAPORE: A Malaysian woman has been arrested for allegedly being involved in at least three scam cases involving the impersonation of government officials, police said on Sunday (Nov 30).
An employee at BullionStar alerted police to a woman loitering suspiciously outside its retail outlet at New Bridge Road on Nov 24 and the 73-year-old was arrested over suspected money mule activities.
Gold bars worth about S$200,000 (US$154,213) was seized from the suspect, along with S$200 in cash.
Police said that they had received reports of scammers purportedly posing as officials from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) between Oct 8 and Nov 24.
The victims were told that their bank accounts were linked to money laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised.
“They were instructed to surrender their money and valuables for the purpose of investigations. The victims complied and met unknown individuals at various locations across Singapore to hand over cash and gold bars,” police added.
“The victims later realised they had been scammed when they failed to receive the promised refunds, or when the purported officials became uncontactable.”
Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman had allegedly been facilitating the operations of a scam syndicate by collecting cash and gold bars from victims of government official impersonation scams across Singapore.
The valuables were then handed over to unknown individuals believed to be members of the syndicate.
Investigations against the woman are ongoing
Police said earlier this month that there has been an increasing trend of Malaysians travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting cash, gold and valuables from scam victims.
They urged members of the public not to transfer or hand over money and valuables to unknown people whose identities have not been verified or leave them somewhere for collection.
Despite Russia’s war of aggression and ongoing Ukrainization, Russian is still often spoken in school playgrounds. Why? DW spoke with students, parents, teachers and experts.
Some students speak Ukrainian in class and Russian in the breaksImage: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo/picture alliance
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians deliberately decided to refrain from using Russian in daily life and to speak only Ukrainian.
Over time, this initial emotional impulse seems to have subsided, and some Russian-speaking Ukrainians have reverted to their old ways. A significant proportion of young people in schools, and sometimes even teachers, continue to speak Russian to each other.
Nevertheless, the use of Ukrainian in schools continues to increase, according to a study conducted by the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine (SSEQU) and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Ukrainian Language in April and May 2025. About 48% of the students surveyed in Ukraine, a bilingual country, said that they communicated exclusively in Ukrainian with each other, an increase of 7 percentage points over the previous school year.
But the finding does not apply equally to all regions. In Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, there is a negative trend: The proportion of students who use only Ukrainian has fallen by 10 points to 17%.
Oksana, who did not want to give her real name, is a teacher at a school in Kyiv. “The children speak Ukrainian in class, but when the bell rings, they start speaking Russian among themselves,” she told DW.
“We even have a boy who wants to speak Russian in class. His family is Russian-speaking, and he has difficulty understanding Ukrainian.”
Iryna, a student at another school in Kyiv, had a similar story to tell. “Most of the girls in our class speak Ukrainian, but almost all of the boys speak Russian,” she reported.
She herself spoke Ukrainian both at home and at school. She said that occasionally, however, she spoke Surzhyk, a language that combines Russian and Ukrainian and is widespread in certain regions.
Many internally displaced people speak Russian
Ukraine’s State Language Protection Commissioner Olena Ivanovska attributed the decline in the use of Ukrainian among Kyiv’s students to the fact that there is a high number of internally displaced people from Ukraine’s eastern regions, which traditionally had the highest number of Russian speakers.
Oksana agreed with this assumption, citing one student from such a family, whom she said spoke “Ukrainian with me, and when her father picks her up, she immediately switches to Russian.”
Oleksiy Antypovych, a sociologist and the head of the Rating Group, a Ukrainian research institution, was not surprised by the fact that so many people appear to speak Russian in the Ukrainian capital.
“In Kyiv, about 50% speak Ukrainian, just under 20% speak Russian, and 30% speak both languages. In fact, twice as many people in Kyiv say they speak Russian than the Ukrainian average,” he told DW, citing a study his institution had conducted.
“At the start of the full-scale invasion, there was a massive mobilization of internal forces regarding our national symbols,” he explained. Since 2024, “Russian is present again on the streets, particularly in Kyiv, and it is no longer frowned upon to speak it.”
He pointed out, however, that the proportion of people speaking Ukrainian in daily life remained stable.
‘Patriotism alone is not enough’
Ivanovska believes that a great deal of work is still needed to create a Ukrainian-speaking environment outside the classroom.
“Patriotism alone is not enough. The will of the state and a consistent policy regarding the language that teachers and school administrators speak is required.”
This is why she thinks it is essential that “parliament passes the bill to ensure a Ukrainian-language environment in educational institutions.”
Registered in October 2024, the bill defines the term “Ukrainian-language learning environment.” It stipulates that the educational process includes not only lessons but also breaks, communication on the school grounds, and other educational activities. If it passes, the authorities will be obliged to develop a system for assessing children’s language skills. However, it does not foresee measures that would punish students or parents who communicate in Russian.
They were abducted in Nigeria’s Borno state, which is at the heart of the jihadist unrest that started 16 years ago.
The Nigerian Army said it “has successfully rescued 12 teenage girls abducted by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists”Image: Sunday Alamba/AP Photo/picture alliance
A group of of young women and girls abducted in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state on November 22 were freed late Saturday.
Their release comes amid a surge in abductions of young people across the country over the past two weeks.
“All 12 were released,” Abubakar Mazhinyi, president of the local Askira-Uba council, told the AFP news agency.
The Nigeria Army said “the rescued girls have been evacuated to a secure military facility where they are receiving comprehensive medical care, psychological support and debriefing. Upon completion of these processes, they will be formally reunited with their families.”
Last Saturday, 13 women and girls aged 16 to 23 were abducted near farms close to an area that has become a jihadist hideout.
The Army said Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province ISWAP was behind the abduction.
The gang freed one of them after she told them she was nursing a baby.
Tinubu declares security emergency
Borno state is at the center of Nigeria’s conflict with the jihadists, which started 16 years ago with Boko Haram.
Although the jihadist movement has lost momentum, Boko Haram and its rival, the breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue to pose a threat in the region.
The recent kidnapping is a harsh reminder of the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 girls in Chibok.
Elsewhere in the country, armed gangs seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in the central-western Niger delta state last week.
Although some managed to escape, more than 265 children and teachers are still in captivity. These abductions were claimed by local gangs rather than jihadists.
On Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu declared a security emergency, ordering mass recruitment of police and army personnel.
He gave the Department of State Services approval to deploy trained forest guards and recruit more staff to flush out armed groups hiding in forests.
The US president’s warning is the latest in a string of escalatory measures against Venezuela, whose leftist President Maduro accuses the Trump administration of trying to depose him.
The Trump administration has launched a major military deployment in the Caribbean [FILE: November 13, 2025]Image: Mc2 Daniel Ruiz/U.S. Navy/Planet Pix/ZUMA/picture allianceUS President Donald Trump on Saturday warned against flying over Venezuela, in a brief social media message that signaled the latest escalation against the Latin American country.
What did Trump say?
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The US president did not elaborate.
But his message follows a warning by the US aviation regulator to major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela due to a “worsened security situation and heightened military activity in or around” the country.
How has Venezuela reacted to Trump’s warning?
Venezuela condemned Trump’s warning, calling it a “colonialist threat.”
“Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Trump administration escalates against Maduro’s Venezuela
Trump’s warning comes as his administration ups its pressure on Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, launching a major military deployment in the Caribbean using the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
Washington says the military activities are geared toward curbing drug trafficking. But Maduro insists the Trump administration is seeking regime change.
Since early September, US forces have struck over 20 Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean which Washington alleges were used for drug smuggling, without providing proof. Over 80 people were killed in the strikes.
On Thursday, Trump warned that operations to curb Venezuelan drug trafficking “by land” would begin “very soon.”
Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal
TOP diplomats from Kyiv are heading to the US to continue talks on a peace deal that could end Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine.
The delegation, which is being led by the country’s Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, hopes to hammer out the details of Donald Trump’s proposed peace draft.
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze after a Russian strike hit the central market in Kramatorsk, Donetsk regionCredit: Getty
Diplomats from Kyiv will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday.
They will hope to negotiate for a fair peace deal that does not lean heavily towards Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out”.
Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal – all while Zelensky finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation.
Sunday’s meeting will also notably be the first without Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday following a corruption row.
Yermak had been the leading negotiator – and enforcer – for Kyiv since the start of the war in 2022.
A political blowback from a $100 million energy sector corruption scandal has seen two ministers and, now, the president’s right-hand man, ousted.
The Geneva meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counteroffer to proposals laid out in Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan.
It heavily favoured Russia, prompting Zelensky to quickly engage with American negotiators.
Kyiv said it was seeking changes to the draft that was criticised for being in Moscow‘s favour for accepting a range of Russia‘s hardline demands.
European leaders, fearing for their own future amid Russian aggression, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.
Early this week, Umerov said the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva”.
It indicated that Ukraine was on common ground with the US about the revised, now 19-point peace plan with the US negotiators.
But it left the toughest issues for Trump and Zelensky to decide later.
The original Kremlin-backed plan ceded Crimea and the Donbas region to Moscow, as well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – with the US officially recognising them as part of the Russian territory.
While the 19-point plan scraps any limits on the size of Ukraine’s army, it does not address control of territory or whether Ukraine can join Nato – two of the biggest red lines for both sides.
Zelensky has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in a dramatic address last week that he would not betray the country.
But reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory taken by Moscow through force is likely to go ahead despite concern from Ukraine‘s allies in Europe.
A source told The Telegraph: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position.
“They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”
The Kremlin said it had received an updated strategy for ending the war. They gave no more details.
Meanwhile, thr Russian forces are making incremental gains on the front line as Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.
A Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings.
He also said the western part of Kyiv had lost power.
Photo of gold bars and cash recovered by police from the 73-year-old Malaysian suspect. (Image: Singapore Police Force)
A Malaysian woman has been arrested for allegedly being involved in at least three scam cases involving the impersonation of government officials, police said on Sunday (Nov 30).
An employee at BullionStar alerted police to a woman loitering suspiciously outside its retail outlet at New Bridge Road on Nov 24 and the 73-year-old was arrested over suspected money mule activities.
Gold bars worth about S$200,000 (US$154,213) was seized from the suspect, along with S$200 in cash.
Police said that they had received reports of scammers purportedly posing as officials from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) between Oct 8 and Nov 24.
The victims were told that their bank accounts were linked to money laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised.
“They were instructed to surrender their money and valuables for the purpose of investigations. The victims complied and met unknown individuals at various locations across Singapore to hand over cash and gold bars,” police added.
“The victims later realised they had been scammed when they failed to receive the promised refunds, or when the purported officials became uncontactable.”
Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman had allegedly been facilitating the operations of a scam syndicate by collecting cash and gold bars from victims of government official impersonation scams across Singapore.
The valuables were then handed over to unknown individuals believed to be members of the syndicate.
Investigations against the woman are ongoing
Police said earlier this month that there has been an increasing trend of Malaysians travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting cash, gold and valuables from scam victims.
Firefighters walk through charred bamboo scaffolding as they exit a fire-damaged residential block at Wang Fuk Court housing complex, following a deadly fire on Wednesday, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, Nov 29, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu)
Anger over a deadly blaze at a Hong Kong high-rise apartment complex simmered on Sunday (Nov 30) as Beijing warned against attempts to use the disaster to disrupt the city, while people across the financial hub continued to mourn for the more than 128 victims.
Police on Saturday detained one person who was part of a group that launched a petition demanding government accountability, an independent probe into possible corruption, proper resettlement for residents, and a review of construction oversight, two sources familiar with the matter said.
University student Miles Kwan, 24, was arrested on suspicion of trying to incite sedition in relation to the blaze in the Wang Fuk Court complex in the northern Tai Po district, the South China Morning Post reported. Hong Kong police did not respond on Sunday to a request for comment.
The online petition promoted by the group reached over 10,000 signatures by Saturday afternoon before it was closed.
A second petition with the same demands has been launched by a Tai Po resident who is now living overseas.
“Hongkongers demand the truth and justice,” wrote KY in the comment section of the new online petition.
The blaze that ripped through seven high-rise residential blocks near the border with mainland China has stunned Hong Kong and authorities have launched criminal and corruption investigations as anger and dismay grow.
The cause of the blaze, which killed 128 people and left 150 still missing, is still to be determined.
Authorities are on tenterhooks to avoid any broader public backlash after pro-democracy protests roiled the city in 2019, leading to a Beijing-imposed national security law.
China’s national security authorities on Saturday warned individuals against using the disaster to disrupt the city.
“We sternly warn the anti-China disruptors who attempt to ‘disrupt Hong Kong through disaster’. No matter what methods you use, you will certainly be held accountable and strictly punished under the Hong Kong national security law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.”
FIRE ALARMS NOT WORKING PROPERLY
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.
Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex that were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Donations have poured in from large and small companies as well as other groups to assist the victims.
Palestinians walk next to damaged buildings in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip on Nov 29, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Abd Elhkeem Khaled)
Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, a Palestinian official told AFP.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August.
A first group of more than 500 officers were trained in Cairo in March and since September the two-month courses have resumed to welcome hundreds more people, the Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said all members of the force will be from the Gaza Strip and paid by the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
“I’m very happy with the training. We want a permanent end to war and aggression, and we’re eager to serve our country and fellow citizens,” said a 26-year-old Palestinian police officer.
He told AFP he hoped the security force would be “independent, loyal only to Palestine and not subject to external alliances or objectives”.
“We received outstanding operational training, with modern equipment for border surveillance,” said a Palestinian lieutenant who also requested anonymity for security reasons, as did everyone interviewed by AFP.
The lieutenant, who left Gaza with his family last year, said the training focused on the fallout of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war and the damage done to the Palestinian cause.
Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,100 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
“PROTECTING THE DREAM”
The training also highlighted the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and stressed the importance of “protecting the dream of creating” a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state.
A senior security official from the Palestinian Authority confirmed that its president Mahmud Abbas had instructed Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh to coordinate with Egypt on the training.
During talks sponsored by Egypt late last year, the Palestinian movements – including the two main ones, Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah – agreed to a force of around 10,000 police officers.
Egypt would train half of them, while the other 5,000 would come from the police force in Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since the militant group seized power there in 2007.
Under the agreement, the security force would be supervised by a committee of technocrats approved by the Palestinian movements.
A senior Hamas official confirmed to AFP that the movement supported “the details regarding security and management of the Gaza Strip” agreed during the talks.
The subject was also addressed in US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which led to last month’s fragile Gaza ceasefire, and was later endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution.
EUROPE TOO
The plan notably authorises the creation of an international force that would be responsible for securing border areas and demilitarising Gaza.
The European Union (EU) also wants to train up to 3,000 Palestinian police officers in the Gaza Strip under a scheme similar to one it already runs in the West Bank, an EU official told AFP.
The EU has financed a police training mission in the West Bank since 2006, with a budget of around €13 million (US$15 million).
But many details remain up in the air.
A Hamas official questioned to AFP the possibility of an agreement with Israel on the precise details of a police force in Gaza.
The measures, approved at a wildlife trade conference in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.
A whale shark off the coast of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, Feb 8, 2025. Governments agreed to ban the international commercial trade in whale sharks, among other species. (AP Photo/Flora Tomlinson-Pilley)
Governments at a wildlife trade conference have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays amid concerns that overfishing is driving some to the brink of extinction.
The measures, approved Friday (Nov 28) at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, ban the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks.
It would strengthen regulations for gulper sharks, smoothhound sharks and the tope shark, which means they can be traded, but there must be proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.
Governments also agreed to enact zero-annual export quotas for several species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, meaning the legal international trade will mostly be halted.
“This is a landmark victory, and it belongs to the Parties who championed these protections,” Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement.
“Countries across Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia came together in a powerful show of leadership and solidarity, passing every shark and ray proposal.”
Conservationists argued the measures were necessary to address overfishing of many species for fins and meat as well as oil and gills. They argue the billion dollar trade is unsustainable, noting that more than 37 per cent of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.
“For too long, sharks that have roamed our oceans for millions of years have been slaughtered for their fins and meat,” Barbara Slee, senior programme manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement.
“People may fear sharks, but the truth is we pose a far greater threat to them—with more than 100 million killed every year. These new protections will help shift that balance and recognise and honour these sharks as more than just fishery commodities.”
Some of the treaty’s greatest successes of late have been around sharks.
At the last conference in Panama in 2022, governments increased protections more than 90 shark species, including 54 species of requiem sharks, the bonnethead shark, three species of hammerhead shark and 37 species of guitarfish. Many had never before had trade protection.
The international wildlife trade treaty, which was adopted in 1975 in Washington, D.C., has been praised for helping stem the illegal and unsustainable trade in ivory and rhino horns as well as in whales and sea turtles.
But it has come under fire for its limitations, including its reliance on cash-strapped developing countries to combat illegal trade that’s become a lucrative US$10 billion-a-year business.
This year, conservationists said that governments had rejected efforts to weaken trade regulations for elephants and rhinos, though they did agree to relax regulations in the trade of saiga horn from Kazakhstan.
Elizabeth Olsen is recounting a topsy-turvy upbringing in which twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were expected to champion her acting career.
The “WandaVision” star described her childhood as “pretty chaotic” in an interview with the Times published on Friday.
“I was the youngest of four and we were all born within five years,” Elizabeth, 36, told the outlet, recounting her upbringing in Los Angeles, during which she passed time on the sets of movies while Mary-Kate and Ashley, now 39, worked.
Elizabeth Olsen said her upbringing with Mary-Kate and Ashley was “pretty chaotic” in a new interview. Getty Images for InStyle
Elizabeth said she sometimes missed out on typical rituals of childhood.
“So now I think the idea of a calm bath and bedtime story routine is so tender and sweet because we didn’t have anything like that,” she explained.
“I love being the friend or aunt who gets to come round and help with bedtime.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the “Avengers” actress said the “Full House” alums were “forced to watch all my plays my whole life and go to my dance performances.”
When asked if her older sisters imparted any advice, Olsen replied, “No. We’re just a supportive family.”
She added, “It feels irrelevant to talk about it after 15 years of working.”
The actress was born to Jarnette and David Olsen, along with Mary-Kate and Ashley and their brother, James Trent.
Jarnett and Davis have since divorced, and David has welcomed two additional children with wife McKenzie Olsen.
Ed Sheeran had an hours-long conversation with pal Taylor Swift after her engagement to Travis Kelce — despite rumors that he and the “Blank Space” songstress are at odds.
“I’m not self-conscious about my relationship with her,” Sheeran told Access Hollywood during a new interview.
“We’ve been friends for very, very many years,” he added. “We’re super close and we see each other when we see each other, and when we see each other, we lock back into where we left off.”
Sheeran — who seemingly found out about Swift’s engagement along with the public, due to the fact that he limits cell phone and social media use — also addressed speculation that their friendship became “strained” after she dropped “The Life of a Showgirl” just weeks after he dropped his “Play” album.
Ed Sheeran said he had a four-hour conversation with Taylor Swift following her engagement to Travis Kelce. Getty Images for The Recording Academy
“My way of viewing it is like, me and Taylor are mates and I will see her,” he told the outlet.
“And I saw her a week after that happened, so I did that interview and then I saw her and you talk in person,” he said.
He added that when he saw the “Cruel Summer” singer they “had like a four-hour catch-up and it’s life stuff rather than, like, I don’t know, you know what I mean?”
Acknowledging his lack of cell phone accessibility, Sheeran lamented how social media can affect human relationships.
“I kind of feel like being in touch with everyone, sort of you lose actual human connection,” he said.
Page Six has reached out to a rep for Swift.
News of Swift’s engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce broke in August, with the pair taking to Instagram to share the big news.
Before Sheeran performed at the SiriuxSM Small Stage Series concert in New York City days later, Andy Cohen asked how he found out about his longtime friend’s engagement.
“Instagram,” the “Shape of You” hitmaker replied.
“Instagram? Like everyone else? You didn’t even get a DM in advance?” a disbelieving Cohen asked, to which Sheeran simply said, “No.”
Sheeran, 34, subsequently released his eighth album on Sept. 12, with Swift on his heels with the massive rollout of “The Life of a Showgirl” on Oct. 3.
A music industry insider told the Daily Mail in October that the singer was “peeved” by Swift’s timing.
“Ed takes these things really seriously, and carefully plans his album releases,” the source told the outlet last month.
“He announced his album with four months’ notice, but then Taylor announced hers for just two weeks after.”
The insider claimed “it left his team scrabbling to get as much attention before hers dropped.”
“He was very much put out and understandably peeved,” they alleged. “It is not the first time that Taylor has done something like this. She’s got form.”
TOP diplomats from Kyiv are heading to the US to continue talks on a peace deal that could end Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine.
The delegation, which is being led by the country’s Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, hopes to hammer out the details of Donald Trump’s proposed peace draft.
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze after a Russian strike hit the central market in Kramatorsk, Donetsk regionCredit: Getty
Diplomats from Kyiv will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday.
They will hope to negotiate for a fair peace deal that does not lean heavily towards Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out”.
Kyiv is facing significant pressure from Washington to agree to the terms of a peace deal – all while Zelensky finds himself in the most difficult political and military situation.
Sunday’s meeting will also notably be the first without Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who resigned on Friday following a corruption row.
Yermak had been the leading negotiator – and enforcer – for Kyiv since the start of the war in 2022.
A political blowback from a $100 million energy sector corruption scandal has seen two ministers and, now, the president’s right-hand man, ousted.
The Geneva meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counteroffer to proposals laid out in Trump’s initial 28-point peace plan.
It heavily favoured Russia, prompting Zelensky to quickly engage with American negotiators.
Kyiv said it was seeking changes to the draft that was criticised for being in Moscow‘s favour for accepting a range of Russia‘s hardline demands.
European leaders, fearing for their own future amid Russian aggression, scrambled to steer the negotiations toward accommodating their concerns.
Early this week, Umerov said the US and Ukraine had reached a “common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva”.
It indicated that Ukraine was on common ground with the US about the revised, now 19-point peace plan with the US negotiators.
But it left the toughest issues for Trump and Zelensky to decide later.
The original Kremlin-backed plan ceded Crimea and the Donbas region to Moscow, as well as parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – with the US officially recognising them as part of the Russian territory.
While the 19-point plan scraps any limits on the size of Ukraine’s army, it does not address control of territory or whether Ukraine can join Nato – two of the biggest red lines for both sides.
Zelensky has said Ukraine is in one of the most difficult moments in its history, but promised his people in a dramatic address last week that he would not betray the country.
But reports suggest that the plan to recognise territory taken by Moscow through force is likely to go ahead despite concern from Ukraine‘s allies in Europe.
A source told The Telegraph: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position.
“They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”
The Kremlin said it had received an updated strategy for ending the war. They gave no more details.
Meanwhile, thr Russian forces are making incremental gains on the front line as Ukrainian cities suffer hours of blackouts every day due to a rolling bombardment of its power grid.
A Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 29 people were wounded in Kyiv, noting that falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hit residential buildings.
The US president’s warning is the latest in a string of escalatory measures against Venezuela, whose leftist President Maduro accuses the Trump administration of trying to depose him.
The Trump administration has launched a major military deployment in the Caribbean [FILE: November 13, 2025]Image: Mc2 Daniel Ruiz/U.S. Navy/Planet Pix/ZUMA/picture allianceUS President Donald Trump on Saturday warned against flying over Venezuela, in a brief social media message that signaled the latest escalation against the Latin American country.
What did Trump say?
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The US president did not elaborate.
But his message follows a warning by the US aviation regulator to major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela due to a “worsened security situation and heightened military activity in or around” the country.
How has Venezuela reacted to Trump’s warning?
Venezuela condemned Trump’s warning, calling it a “colonialist threat.”
“Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Trump administration escalates against Maduro’s Venezuela
Trump’s warning comes as his administration ups its pressure on Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, launching a major military deployment in the Caribbean using the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
Washington says the military activities are geared toward curbing drug trafficking. But Maduro insists the Trump administration is seeking regime change.
They were abducted in Nigeria’s Borno state, which is at the heart of the jihadist unrest that started 16 years ago.
The Nigerian Army said it “has successfully rescued 12 teenage girls abducted by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists”Image: Sunday Alamba/AP Photo/picture alliance
A group of of young women and girls abducted in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state on November 22 were freed late Saturday.
Their release comes amid a surge in abductions of young people across the country over the past two weeks.
“All 12 were released,” Abubakar Mazhinyi, president of the local Askira-Uba council, told the AFP news agency.
The Nigeria Army said “the rescued girls have been evacuated to a secure military facility where they are receiving comprehensive medical care, psychological support and debriefing. Upon completion of these processes, they will be formally reunited with their families.”
Last Saturday, 13 women and girls aged 16 to 23 were abducted near farms close to an area that has become a jihadist hideout.
The Army said Boko Haram/Islamic State West Africa Province ISWAP was behind the abduction.
The gang freed one of them after she told them she was nursing a baby.
Tinubu declares security emergency
Borno state is at the center of Nigeria’s conflict with the jihadists, which started 16 years ago with Boko Haram.
Although the jihadist movement has lost momentum, Boko Haram and its rival, the breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue to pose a threat in the region.
The recent kidnapping is a harsh reminder of the 2014 abduction of nearly 300 girls in Chibok.
Elsewhere in the country, armed gangs seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in the central-western Niger delta state last week.
Despite Russia’s war of aggression and ongoing Ukrainization, Russian is still often spoken in school playgrounds. Why? DW spoke with students, parents, teachers and experts.
Some students speak Ukrainian in class and Russian in the breaksImage: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo/picture alliance
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians deliberately decided to refrain from using Russian in daily life and to speak only Ukrainian.
Over time, this initial emotional impulse seems to have subsided, and some Russian-speaking Ukrainians have reverted to their old ways. A significant proportion of young people in schools, and sometimes even teachers, continue to speak Russian to each other.
Nevertheless, the use of Ukrainian in schools continues to increase, according to a study conducted by the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine (SSEQU) and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Ukrainian Language in April and May 2025. About 48% of the students surveyed in Ukraine, a bilingual country, said that they communicated exclusively in Ukrainian with each other, an increase of 7 percentage points over the previous school year.
But the finding does not apply equally to all regions. In Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, there is a negative trend: The proportion of students who use only Ukrainian has fallen by 10 points to 17%.
Oksana, who did not want to give her real name, is a teacher at a school in Kyiv. “The children speak Ukrainian in class, but when the bell rings, they start speaking Russian among themselves,” she told DW.
“We even have a boy who wants to speak Russian in class. His family is Russian-speaking, and he has difficulty understanding Ukrainian.”
Iryna, a student at another school in Kyiv, had a similar story to tell. “Most of the girls in our class speak Ukrainian, but almost all of the boys speak Russian,” she reported.
She herself spoke Ukrainian both at home and at school. She said that occasionally, however, she spoke Surzhyk, a language that combines Russian and Ukrainian and is widespread in certain regions.
Many internally displaced people speak Russian
Ukraine’s State Language Protection Commissioner Olena Ivanovska attributed the decline in the use of Ukrainian among Kyiv’s students to the fact that there is a high number of internally displaced people from Ukraine’s eastern regions, which traditionally had the highest number of Russian speakers.
Oksana agreed with this assumption, citing one student from such a family, whom she said spoke “Ukrainian with me, and when her father picks her up, she immediately switches to Russian.”
Oleksiy Antypovych, a sociologist and the head of the Rating Group, a Ukrainian research institution, was not surprised by the fact that so many people appear to speak Russian in the Ukrainian capital.
“In Kyiv, about 50% speak Ukrainian, just under 20% speak Russian, and 30% speak both languages. In fact, twice as many people in Kyiv say they speak Russian than the Ukrainian average,” he told DW, citing a study his institution had conducted.
“At the start of the full-scale invasion, there was a massive mobilization of internal forces regarding our national symbols,” he explained. Since 2024, “Russian is present again on the streets, particularly in Kyiv, and it is no longer frowned upon to speak it.”
He pointed out, however, that the proportion of people speaking Ukrainian in daily life remained stable.
‘Patriotism alone is not enough’
Ivanovska believes that a great deal of work is still needed to create a Ukrainian-speaking environment outside the classroom.
“Patriotism alone is not enough. The will of the state and a consistent policy regarding the language that teachers and school administrators speak is required.”
This is why she thinks it is essential that “parliament passes the bill to ensure a Ukrainian-language environment in educational institutions.”
Registered in October 2024, the bill defines the term “Ukrainian-language learning environment.” It stipulates that the educational process includes not only lessons but also breaks, communication on the school grounds, and other educational activities. If it passes, the authorities will be obliged to develop a system for assessing children’s language skills. However, it does not foresee measures that would punish students or parents who communicate in Russian.
“We also need to make it clear to parents who speak Russian with their children at home that these will be at a significant disadvantage when they start school compared to others whose mother tongue is Ukrainian,” said Ivanovska.
Ivanovska said that laws alone were not enough and that high-quality Ukrainian-language content was also necessary.
Venezuelan migrants seeking to leave Chile amid anti-immigrant rhetoric from far-right Chilean presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast return to Arica from the Chacalluta Border Complex after failing to cross into Peru, where President Jose Jeri plans to declare a state of emergency and deploy troops at border crossings, in Arica, Chile, November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Alexander Infante Purchase Licensing Rights
Peru will declare a state of emergency along its border with Chile, President José Jerí said on Friday, as migrants seek to cross into the country following a Chilean presidential frontrunner’s vow to expel undocumented migrants.
The state of emergency “will generate tranquility before the risk of migrants entering without authorization,” said Jerí on X.
At least 100 foreigners, mostly Venezuelans, are at the border seeking to cross into Peru, Peruvian police General Arturo Valverde told local television station Canal N on Friday. He said surveillance at the border has increased in anticipation of the declaration.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, a close ally who has headed Ukraine’s negotiation team at fraught U.S.-backed peace talks, quit on Friday, hours after anti-corruption agents searched his home.
A major probe into high-level graft, at a time when Ukraine is fighting against Russia for its very survival, has sparked public outrage and thrust its leadership into crisis as Washington steps up pressure on Kyiv to reach a settlement.
Yermak was leading Ukraine’s effort to push back against terms proposed by the U.S. that would satisfy many of Moscow’s territorial and security demands. Zelenskiy said he would consider a replacement on Saturday.
“Russia is eager for Ukraine to make mistakes. We won’t make any,” Zelenskiy said on Friday in a video address, calling for greater unity.
“Our work goes on. Our struggle goes on.”
KYIV’S MAIN POWER BROKER
Yermak has been a close friend of Zelenskiy’s since the president’s days as a TV comedian, and helped guide his successful outsider’s campaign for election in 2019.
Since then, the 54-year-old has positioned himself as a chief decision maker, attracting criticism both at home and abroad as an unelected adviser with outsized power.
Yermak had confirmed his apartment was being searched and said he was cooperating. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did not specify which investigation the searches were linked to.
The two agencies this month unveiled a sweeping probe into an alleged $100 million kickback scheme at the state atomic energy company allegedly involving former senior officials and an ex-business partner of Zelenskiy’s.
Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak looks on, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 22, 2024. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Yermak was not named as a suspect, but activists, opposition lawmakers and even some in Zelenskiy’s own Servant of the People party had called for his dismissal, saying his presence compromised Ukraine’s bargaining power.
Mykyta Poturayev, a lawmaker for the party who had called for an overhaul of both the presidential office and the government, said Yermak’s resignation came at a perilous moment but had been necessary.
“The potential dangers of Andriy Yermak remaining in his position outweighed these risks,” he said.
TOUGH PEACE TALKS AHEAD WITH U.S.
The U.S. push for a settlement comes as Russia grinds forward on several parts of the sprawling front line, where it has mostly advanced painfully slowly and at great cost in lives since sending its troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Moscow says its troops are close to capturing the eastern city of Pokrovsk, which would be their biggest prize in nearly two years.
A general view of Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 17, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Brenner Purchase Licensing Rights
Flights to the Philadelphia International Airport were briefly grounded on Friday due to a bomb threat that was resolved without incident, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and police.
The FAA issued a ground stop advisory for the airport shortly after 7 p.m. local time (0000 GMT), saying there was a bomb threat. About 30 minutes later, the FAA said the security incident was resolved, and normal operations had resumed.
The ground stoppage was due to a “situation requiring the assistance of the Philadelphia Police aboard a plane,” a police spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The plane has been cleared for takeoff, and the ground stoppage has been lifted, the spokesperson added.
There were reports of bomb threats at other U.S. airports earlier this month that were also cleared without incident.
Pieces of porks are seen at a market stall in Madrid, Spain, June 17, 2024. REUTERS/Juan Medina Purchase Licensing Rights
Britain said on Friday it would temporarily stop imports of pork meat from parts of Spain after the country confirmed its first cases of African swine fever in just over three decades.
Britain is one of Spain’s main customers for pork, and the move comes as authorities in Madrid activated emergency measures in Catalonia, a region central to pig farming.
“Following an outbreak of African Swine Fever in Spain, all fresh pork and other affected products from Spain will be held at Border Control Posts until further notice,” Britain’s environment department (DEFRA) said in a statement.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and keep all measures under review,” it added.
Spain exported 37,600 metric tons of fresh and frozen pork to Britain so far in 2025, worth over 112 million euros ($129.93 million), up 17% in volume and 9.5% in value compared with all of 2024, according to data from the government-backed body the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.
The virus is a highly contagious disease that affects pigs and wild boar but poses no risk to humans. It has no vaccine or cure and often leads to mass culling when detected in farmed herds.
The disease has spread westwards in Europe in recent years, disrupting pork markets and prompting trade bans. Germany’s outbreak in 2020 led to sweeping restrictions from major buyers such as China, while Croatia has battled infections in recent months.
The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, killing one, will face first-degree murder charges for an attack that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to declare he would stop migrants from “Third World Countries.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News on Friday that other charges would be filed against 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who she said ambushed the soldiers from the West Virginia National Guard near the White House on Wednesday.
Formal charges were not immediately filed against Lakanwal, who had been in the U.S. since 2021 under a program of then-President Joe Biden’s administration to resettle Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war in their homeland. He was granted asylum under Trump.
In a call on Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday with U.S. military service members, Trump said the shootings were a “terrorist attack.”
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds on Thursday. Her National Guard colleague, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was in critical condition, Pirro said on Friday. The two were in Washington as part of Trump’s deployment of the military in recent months to help the police fight crime in the city.
On Friday morning, following the national holiday, notably fewer National Guard members were seen patrolling the capital.
TRUMP RATCHETS UP RHETORIC ON IMMIGRATION
Trump, whose dispatch of troops to Washington faces fierce legal challenges, took to social media late on Thursday to escalate his rhetoric on immigration. Since taking office this year, he has stepped up arrests of immigrants, including some in the U.S. legally, and cracked down on unlawful border crossings while stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of people.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” Trump said in his social media posts, referring to his predecessor in the White House.
Trump did not say which countries he considers “Third World,” nor what he meant by a permanent pause. It echoed the sweeping “Muslim ban” Trump tried to enact in his first term before it was diluted by successful legal challenges.
On Friday, Trump posted again on social media to say he was rescinding any document that Biden signed using an autopen, a tool that U.S. presidents, including Trump, have used for decades, often to answer mail or sign checks, or sometimes to meet authorization deadlines while traveling outside the capital.
After taking office in 2021, Biden reversed many of the restrictive immigration policies of Trump’s first term, saying they blocked people in need of humanitarian protection and were discriminatory.
Asked about Trump’s comment on “Third World” countries, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred Reuters to 19 countries listed in a June travel ban.
Members of the National Guard walk near a makeshift memorial set up after two National Guard members were shot in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 28, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard Purchase Licensing Rights
On Thursday, Homeland Security officials said Trump had ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under the Biden administration and permanent-residency green cards issued to citizens of the 19 countries, which include Afghanistan.
Jorge Loweree, the managing director of programs and strategy at the American Immigration Council, said the president does not have authority through executive action to make permanent changes to the immigration system, which is codified by Congress. He warned of chaos and disarray in the U.S. immigration system even if Trump is ultimately blocked by federal courts.
SHOOTING PROMPTS SWEEPING IMMIGRATION REVIEWS
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome. More than 70,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. under the program for those fearing reprisal by the Taliban forces, who seized control of Afghanistan after the U.S. military’s withdrawal. Officials said Lakanwal was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before coming to the U.S.
He was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a U.S. government file on him seen by Reuters.
Investigators said Lakanwal drove across the country from his home in the state of Washington and shot the two Guardsmen with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, before being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other troops.
Less than 24 hours after the shooting, Trump officials began ordering widespread reviews of immigration policies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday he would be proposing regulations to ensure that people he referred to as “illegal aliens” do not receive certain credits on income tax they have paid. The tax code is set by Congress, which already limits what kind of benefits, if any, non-citizens are eligible to seek.
Lakanwal lives in Washington state with his wife and five children, according to investigators. Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect’s family, Trump said: “We’re looking at the whole situation with family.”
